Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Underwaterbob]

2014 marks my ten year anniversary teaching English in Korea. In that time, public school jobs have gotten better, but mostly due to better contracts and more awareness on their part. Public school contracts used to be weirder affairs of one month of work, 3 hours a week for 1'000'000 won. Hagwon jobs have remained the same. Almost entirely identical; however, while wages have mostly stayed the same they may have actually gone down relative to foreign currencies that performed better.

When I came here, $1CAD was 860 won. Now it's ... holy crap, 960. That's the best it's been in years. At one point it was around 1200 won to the dollar. I take it back, maybe things are getting better. Or it's just Canada's economy going down the crapper again.

[lowpo]

I have seen more parents moving away from hogwans to find private tutors for their kids. Also, more parents in Korea are sending their kids overseas to study English in an English speaking country or for a few months in the Philippines. My school has been sending about 20 students to the Philippines to study English during the winter vacation for the past 4 years.
More parents want their kids to learn Chinese and English at the same time now. Plus, the public schools are now hiring more Chinese teachers for their after school programs. I meet a Chinese teacher yesterday what was hiring through a program like EPIK.

[kingplaya4]

Most of us will be gone, the birthrate and less interest in English will do it. I imagine they'll have to start raising salaries at some point but it'll be a pittance and if we're really good maybe we'll get a sniff of a real vacation.

[aq8knyus]

Where Japan goes Korea follows.

The market will go the way of Japan and the jobs on offer to newly arrived teachers will be a shadow of what they are today.

Though unlike Japan, Korea will not have the hordes of cultural fetishists willing to take the not so stellar opportunities.

Korea will eventually have to start opening up its borders to compensate for the low birthrate and drop in labour force. That will bring more people from places like India and the Philippines where English is more widely spoken.

As a result I can see all but a flagship JET-esque government programme being left for new arrivals.

Despite what World Traveller would have us believe, I also think there will be an increase in the numbers of Korean proficient foreigners. Korean, like any other langauge, can with a moderate amount of effort be learned to a high proficiency over a 10 year period.

For those who have advanced degrees, language skills, a decent visa and experience/contacts Korea will still be a pretty good deal. New arrivals on the other hand will find it a lot harder.

[nate1983]

[Weigookin74]

But, Japan's economy has been in the dump for 20 years. Many Japanese have to become frugal to save money. English is an expensive luxury for many. If Korea's economy becomes weak like Japan's, we will surely follow it. Korea's economic weaknesses has been due to the global economy going down. If it recovers, then Korea's should recover (unless the government here regulates it to death with red tape and too many rulese). Japan has a self imposed sickness. Let's hope Korea doesn't follow in the same steps. If Japan started booming tomorrow, there would be a partial recovery in the ESL market there. But as someone said, there are Japanphiles who would go there no matter what which lets Japan recruit people more cheaply. Korea would not have that option to the same degree.

[Rockhard]

Well, if the past is any guide than Korea's ESL market will continue to shrink. E2 visa numbers peaked in 2010 and have been declining ever since. They've dropped from over 23,000 in 2010 to 19,843 as of December. And after the cuts that just happened this month the number will drop even more. For every year before 2010 people were entering a growing labor market, now they are entering a shrinking one. People coming from abroad are now competing with those who want to renew and those who are residents. It's not the same market anymore. People who are here and are established will continue to have an upper hand. It's not easy for noobs to break in anymore.

[World Traveler]

[Mint]

[Okie from Muskogee]

[wanderkind]

[le-paul]

[Brooks]

If Korea follows Japan, this is what would happen: you wil remember working hard, making good money. Then you lose your job but get a new one that pays less.
Then the limited contract runs out. You are forced to work part-time at two or more jobs.
At that point you might be glad to work six days a week in Tokyo with a brutal commute, where you get the bonuses but must teach twice a week at the satellite campus in Saitama. Get used to applying to jobs where you get rejected while younger people who know no Japanese keep arriving.
Eikaiwa chains like Aeon recruit from Vancouver, California and Australia.

High school teaching sounds good except that most places do not advertise so it comes down to who you know. Junior colleges have mostly closed as young women prefer going to universities.
Many universities have to deal with enrolments going down, and getting more foreign students to attend is proving to be challenging.

Even getting a part-time job at a university is tough due to the massive competition. You get your articles published only to learn that you have to have at least three with a focus on research, and no, that one published in a Taiwanese university journal is no good, since it wasn`t published in Japan. And that other one, well that isn't research since you wrote that as a high school teacher.

Finally you have the three research based articles that were peer reviewed only to be put on the waiting list at Nihon University in case some foreign teacher quits in early August.

So of course China looks good as a place to escape to.

[World Traveler]

[jazzmaster]

Once a path has become well worn the rewards to be gained diminish. However, the risks also diminish. South Korea has become a well worn path which has led to more people coming here to teach English. In the TESOL market fortune favours the brave, and the brave are going to China. Less competition for jobs, rising wages, abundant privates, are offset by internet restictions, heavy pollution, and other problems.

If I were younger and single, I would make the move to China. I think we are going to be in for a rough future in Korea.