Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fosterman]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3325192/The-slavery-of-teaching-English.html

[Skipperoo]

Terribly written article.

[edwardcatflap]

Yes I remember when that article first came out about 9 years ago. The guy was working at the bottom end of the profession and thought he was worthy of 'better' things. hence the references to writing film scripts and the article itself. Jobs at the bottom end of TEFL attract people with no ambition or people with ambition in other areas, in the same way bottom end jobs in all fields do. People in that position often tend to denigrate their jobs as a way of spurring them on to fulfil their more 'worthwhile' pretensions. People who have ambitions in TEFL, meanwhile find out where the better places to find employment are, work towards that end and move on. I worked in Italy for a while (on about double what he was making) and there were plenty of schools like the ones he described, it's true, though as he put it 'working flat-out for a variety of employers and private pupils' should have earned someone a lot more than 1,000 quid even at that time. I also met Tim Parks once and he talked with a fair degree of affection about his time in the job.

His snide comment about TEFL courses also reveals a lot about his personality. Sebastian Cresswell-Turner with a degreee from Oxford and, no doubt a friend of Daddy's on the staff at the Telegraph to get his article printed, obviously thought it was his God-given right to get on any course he wanted automatically without the poor sods who had to teach him checking him out first.

[PatrickGHBusan]

OP you do realize that this "article" dates back to 2004 right? Also did you even bother to read it before you quoted parts of it? It is so badly written that it makes you wonder how the author even finished a University Degree, much less get to TEACH English at all.

[cj1976]

Some TEFL slaves have been so thoroughly
defeated that they don't even realise what has
happened to them.

To be honest, I felt that way after my first few dong - chims too..

[Dodge7]

a lot of what he wrote is true.

[Died By Bear]

The first time I stepped foot in Korea (1994), There were backpackers everywhere. The bulk of them were from Australia, US, and Canada but there were plenty from the UK as well. They quickly gained themselves a nasty reputation with the majority of adult students. They would usually go through recruiters that knew they could get away with putting them to work at companies, etc.

Back then the industry was not as well regulated. And while the article this guy wrote has a lot of truth to it (for some unlucky people), the great majority of us were treated well and paid well. I was making 2.6 back then for teaching outside of Seoul. Everyone I worked with was happy and satisfied with their job. It was an hour to Seoul on the bus, but everything else was kosher. Of course, right down the street there was a school that had runners every other month.

There were periodic busts every now and then, but the window of opportunity was not yet closed. These 'travelers' were making a LOT of money in the Chogno area and if you were willing to make the trip to the outskirts of Seoul to teach, you could command more money.

The strategy most of them had was to teach for six to eight months, save as much coin as possible and travel for a year. Some of them moved to Korea from Japan (they had started using Japan as a base from which to make money and travel in the 80's).

They had a bad reputation for smelling bad, wearing the same crappy clothes every day for a week, and a lot of them lived in dorm style motels - the Inn Dae-Won, and others like it. They rarely ever finished a contract, always took the entire months salary up front from private students, and sometimes took off owing their students lessons.

A common practice back then was (especially cheap ass Canadians!) to sell a newcomer teacher your private lessons. The cost would be exactly what they should make off of all their privates for one month. So newcomer hippy would have to shell out 1.5 million won for private lessons that the previous guy may or may not have ripped off. It was funny to watch.

[rollo]

Yeah the backpackers usually with forged degrees were a real problem. The new regulations for the e-2 visa helped to clean up the teacher pool. Probably the best thing that has happened to the tefl industry in Korea. People complain about the regs but all and all they have beena positive thing for NETS.
Most lifers are not in the bottom part of the industry. Many are not in the TEFl industry at all. The few that remain in the lower echelons are for the most part pretty miserable creatures.
Most short timers never meet the longtimers who are married, own property work for government agencies do corporate training, own hagwons or other businesses. So i understand that newbie or people only in Korea for a year or two think that 'stinky Mcdrunko" the fat slob who has taught at the "Hines Ward, Disney Magic Kingdom Ding a ling"Hakwon the past 15 years is typical of the "lifer

[joelove]

Slavery eh? I guess using that word got more people to read it.