Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Martin_Brez]

Hi,

Long time listener, first time caller.

I'm looking at coming over to Korea from Nottingham, England in the summer. I've done a 120 Hour Advanced TEFL course and a weekend one but I've never taught in a classroom before. I've done coaching, mentoring in previous jobs and I've spent one summer as a camp counselor in the USA.

A lot of recruiters and schools I have spoken to so far have picked up on my accent straightaway. I do not speak with any regional accent (there are loads in England) and it is quite neutral. One Canadian recruiter offended me when speaking to me as he advised me that my accent is horrible and it would be difficult for me to find a job out there. As Korean school's seem to primarily want children to speak American English, why are the recruiters/schools making such a big deal out of my English accent?

I'm a native ENGLISH speaker from ENGLAND, got a university degree and have done some TEFL courses. Heck, I might even take elocution lessons so it sounds like I speak the Queen's. Or should I put on a fake American accent the next time I speak to a school (I mean no offence to any Americans)?

I'm having bit of a rant but this seems to be the best place to do so!!! I'm not going to give up but I'm sick of people making a big deal about how I speak.

Positive from a negative, had an interview with Wonderland and they had already filled the position so no loss there!

Sorry for ranting, happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts!

Brez

[Skipperoo]

[Martin_Brez]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice on this. It is helpful.

I'm not going to give up on this as I like proving people wrong!

Brez

[comm]

[young_clinton]

[alistaircandlin]

Your recruiter is full of s?*t, mate. He's clearly a complete tosser. Just keep plugging away. There are plenty of recruiters.

There are a fair amount of British people teaching in Seoul and in Korea. There's a higher percentage of North Americans for sure, but increasingly it's no big deal. I think it's due to the fact that historically the UK does not have much connection with Korea, whereas the U.S. does. I might be mistaken, but I feel that recently it's become a bit fashionable for some Koreans to go for a British accent. It's kind of a niche market though, admittedly.

For a lot of the kids you'll be teaching it would make no difference anyway - they'll be getting to grips with basic sentence structures and doing simple communicative activties. The focus on pronuciation is more about practising the difference between R and L sounds, that sort of thing, that Korean students struggle with.

I don't agree that Korean public schools mostly want American English - they mostly want teachers who can deliver decent lessons, fit in with their colleagues and manage the classroom well. If you can do that, or convince your recruiter that you can do that, they will not care if you are from Mars or Miami.

Some Hagwons do specifiy American teachers. but you might be able to convince them. I once had a recruiter ask me to pretend to be American when I spoke to the boss of the recruitment company, but I refused, and like a previous poster recommended, made sure I spoke clearly and didn't drop my consonants. I did get the job.

I think that, to generalise, Americans do speak more clearly than we do - even without having a regional accent many of us Brits have this kind of lazy speech - I know I do it - like saying "I aven't go' any," instead of "I haven't got any." I think that kind of thing might put recruiters off, but some of them might just be insecure little sycophants, like the guy I referred to above. He turned out to be this complete tool, who lost his job, but the recruitment company themselves were fine.

Edit. P.S. After my rant, I remembered that I should have wished you luck. So: good luck with finding a job.

[luckylady]

there is definitely a need for IELTS testers/testing so you might look into that

as an american, I always chuckle when hearing about the preference for our accent over the brits since most (if not all) americans envy the british accent as well as drool over guys with it

[Blanca]

I'm from near Nottingham myself Brez, Grantham in fact, and I'd say I have a fairly neutral accent compared to the usual you get in G-town. I'm about to start my second month at a hagwon, I had no issues with accent or anything so it's probably just a case of keeping looking. Try and speak clearly when you have phone interviews and stuff, and just keep trying different recruiters. They're ten a penny, you'll find a good one eventually.

[alistaircandlin]

lol. luckylady - I guess when you are drooling you are thinking of guys like Hugh Grant. who speak with received pronunciation, but only about 3 or 4% of Brits actually talk like that. With most of us, from darkest Lancashire, like me, or the wrong side of Liverpool, the reality is sadly different.

Not too disillusion you though: you never know, Prince Harry will be looking to get hitched soon. You might get lucky!

[Squire]

I worried about this before coming too, but often receive compliments on being easy to understand nowadays. The key is to slow down when speaking with Koreans, and be mindful of which important words should be stressed in other to be heard and understood. By slowing down you'll enunciate automatically. When I arrived I made a conscious effort to soften my speaking to lose my Geordie accent somewhat, and soon it became second nature when talking to Koreans. Very occasionally I'll pronounce an 'r' at the end of a word, but not to the degree of a North American. I pronounce it as somebody with a posh Scottish accent might do, which I think is slightly less harsh than NA teachers pronounce it

Don't forget, practically no native English speakers pronounce everything phonetically anyway. We often drop t's and don't pronounce r's. North Americans often pronounce 'a' sounds as 'e' (hat, bat, bag), or 'o' sounds as 'a' (box, knock)

I understand Koreans are generally more keen to speak English the American English way, but they're also likely to encounter European, Chinese, Indian and Australasian English accents too. Throughout their education your kids will have other English teachers with different accents, and the variety will be good for them

If you really want to just pronounce your r's during your Skype interviews and you should have no problems

[alistaircandlin]

[tiger fancini]

It won't be too difficult to find a job. Just speak slowly and clearly, and if they are still not interested in you then it's THEIR loss. There are plenty of better places to work that will either ignore or embrace your British accent.

[edwardcatflap]

[pegasus64128]

[overq64]

Some of this is recruiters trying to make you nervous so you'll take one of their crappier offers...

Some of this is that more US TV/films are shown so more kids are familiar with that.

More of the Koreans who have studied abroad went to the US or Canada.

Americans tend to use less 'connected speech' and are more willing to slow things down and break their sentences into single words. This makes it easier at first but does not do students any favours in the long run.

Just my POV.