Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sid]

One of the speakers at KOTESOL gave a potted history of English teaching in Korea. Quite an interesting speech as it happens but I thought he was way out in his estimation of who made up the current 10,000 or so E2 visa holders (see title). I can just about believe that 50% of them are from Canada but 40% from the States? I don't think they'd even be the second biggest group: perhaps the old-timers have failed to notice the vast amounts of Kiwis arriving on these shores in the last three years or so?

Anyway what do you reckon the proportion of N American teachers to those from NZ/Australia/UK/Eire/S Africa is? And how quickly is it changing?

I'd go 55% (Canada 40%, US 15%) vs 45% (NZ 25%, Oz and UK 5-10% each).

[Ya-ta Boy]

My guess is that you are about right.

[sadsac]

I still think that the majority of teachers are from North America. I think about 30% are other nationalities.

[itaewonguy]

you reckon there are more KIWIS than americans here???
haahaha NOWAY!!

IM sure every canuk and his dog are coming over due to no jobs in canada. but remember one thing...
KIWIS and AUSSIES and not really preferred here.. so recruiters dont go for them... Canadians have always been coming here.. they never had so good 2 million won!!! I remember back in 96 when the pay was 1.2 and it seemed everyone was canadian or American..
so what if KIWIS are coming over now.. canadians have been swarming and milking this country for 15 years.. KIWI and Aussie teachers have just started coming from about 98 - 99 maybe more from 2000

but still.. canadians and Americans are the ones who out number the rest.
you probably just meet many kiwis at the bars.. cuz they love to drink!

[ryleeys]

I hereby request that we divide Canadians and Americans into seperate groups...

[dutchman]

[Yesterday]

[crazylemongirl]

yeah there seems to be an aweful lot of kiwis here, although maybe it's just that kiwis tend to hang out in bars a lot. Although I am offically canadian for the purposes of gaining employment here in korea.

[bdbarnett1]

[keithinkorea]

So many Canadians are here because there are few jobs in Canada at the moment. A lot of them here are also working illegally on a tourist visa. I've met a lot more Canadians than Americans here, maybe as much as 50% more.

More British and Irish seem to be arriving in Korea all the time. It's nice to see that they'll be learning 'proper English' rather than the odd North American version. Not bashing American English but I did hear that strange American women (the insider trader) on the food channel saying that you have to dig 'real deeply' when planting 'tomaedo' plants!

If that's what North American English teachers are teaching the kids it is no wonder that so many Koreans who have spent years studying the language use it so poorly.

[Thunndarr]

Right...It's a good thing people from the UK use perfect English 24/7, otherwise certain people like the poster above me would make themselves sound like gigantic hypocrites.

[PEIGUY]

I always use the 'English' spellings rather than the "American''. eg. Colour rather than Color, or Labour rather than Labor. I was just taught that way and i don't want to revert back to using spelling that to me, doesn't look right. But that is just me.. I have used it in my 4 years of university and have never had it marked wrong by any professor so either they missed it (unlikely) or were too drunk to notice it(possible, but still unlikely). and oh its spelled Separate not Seperate, always remember after the Sep its A Rat. I rem reading that when i was a kid, goes to show that reading is good for you! hooked on phonics works for me!

[VanIslander]

Maybe it's just my region but I have yet to meet someone from New Zealand; it's mostly been fellow Canadians, with several Australians, Brits and only a couple of Americans in the mix. Are there regional differences? It'd be interesting to talk to a high-volume recruiter about the urban-rural demographics of those they place.

If the distribution pattern is uniform, then, from my limited experience, there's no way I believe that Canadians make up less than 50% of ESL teachers when they comprise the vast majority I meet.

BTW, most of the foreigners I meet are Europeans, here to work with a ship at the huge shipyards. It makes for nice conversations devoid of teacher-talk. What is the ratio of ESLers to non-ESL foreigners in Korea?

[kangnamdragon]

A Korean told me Sunday that blonde haired people are from Canada and brown haired are from America.

[Kristsoy]

well its a two way street here...canadian are tired of being mistaken for americans too