Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jleblanc]

I'm curious if these changes he wants to make in testing will actually happen, and if they do, will parents even listen. Thoughts?

"We all know that stereotype that Asians study a lot and Korea is no exception. Yet it seems like the Korean drive to succeed is taking a toll on wallets, as it has been revealed that the nation has spent over $18 trillion won ($18 billion USD) on private education in 2013. According to Education Minister Hwang Woo Yea, Korean parents need to spend less on sending their kids to private tutoring, particularly for English.

According to the minister and his supporters, the reliance on private education is a problem because it creates an unfair playing field for non-wealthy families who can't afford the extra help. He believes that the issue lies with the English portion of college exams, as the subject is graded very harshly. English is, in fact, considered to be one of the most competitive subjects. Students and their parents believe that a less-than-amazing score for English means they have no chance in any elite university or any big, international company.

Korea thus goes crazy over studying English. Some estimate that an average student spends 20,000 hours (833 days) learning English from elementary school through college. A third of the $18 billion USD spent on private education in 2013 was spent on English alone.

The reform Minister Hwang proposes will make the grading for English less harsh, giving students a chance to score higher rather than resorting to private lessons. The Education Ministry has assured the public on the 26th that the reform is not yet set in stone, and that if any changes are made, they will be put into effect in three years, giving students time to adjust and prepare.

Oppositions against the reform state that it might not even make that much of a difference, considering that universities can always find ways to make the English portion of the college exams harder. This might also come as bad news for the private tutors themselves, as the private education business is lucrative for both Korean and non-Korean tutors alike."

[Chaparrastique]

[happiness]

Yeah, I think the big money being spent is for the IPSI Hagwon. Elementary school kids expense may be big, but I think its half necessity/half getting the kids out of the house, being honestly the kids have nowhere to go and they dont have a lot of pocket money to do things with. I think the Kindie/Elementary thing will last.

The Less-than-stellar scores? Make it easier. Oh, our poor students, those nasty hard scores. #thisagain

[EZE]

Spending on English education is causing a major issue with household debt in Korea, and I can see the government's point of view in being concerned about it. When government officials say they're concerned about non-wealthy families not being able to compete with wealthy families, I think it's just a smokescreen for the real reason they're worried: household debt.

In my opinion, the only way Korean parents will spend less on education, including English education, is if they're totally unable to finance it. But if that happened, maybe supply and demand market forces would cause prices to drop, keeping enrollment at a fairly high level. Maybe some hagwons would go bust and maybe our salaries would drop, but there's no way families are going to sit around and let kids from poorer families compete with their sons and daughters, and I can't say I blame them. They're parents and they have to do what's in the best interest of their children, not some other guy's children on the other side of the tracks or river.

[nicwr2002]

So, the answer is to make the tests easier?? How is that a good idea? English isn't going to get easier.

[jleblanc]

[kingplaya4]

I get a small percentage of tuition from each class I have that is over-enrolled. This was quite lucrative (compared to your average hagwon salary, nothing to get rich on), especially during the first year of the economic crisis, things have been slowing down though, especially during the last two years. Math seems to be the new craze now, I've had several students inform me that they're dropping out because their mom wants to send them to some math academy which has six hour a day classes. I don't flatter myself, but they seemed sad, probably because they were about to attend math boot camp

[T-dot]

The new rules don't even allow test scores on HS transcripts, so tests like TOEFL, TOEIC etc.. are slowly becoming useless for students.

Universities have eliminated a bulk of their early English admissions in favour of GPA and korean essays.

So, yeah. English education is slowing dying here.

[Stan Rogers]

Koreans often like to move the goal posts around and call it innovation. But at the end of the day, moving the goal posts around does not make a better player.

[aq8knyus]

The problem is the complete lack of jobs for uni graduates.

Recent graduates are getting qualifications in Korean history and hanja just to keep up.

Advanced English proficiency will always be valuable in a society as competitive as Korea.

[sundizz]

I actually think that as long as a Korean can get a decent enough score on TOEIC and/or other similar tests actual English language proficiency doesn't help THAT much with getting a high paying job out here.

My Korean gf speaks English, Korean and Japanese with native level fluency. Not test level fluency, but native as in doesn't watch movies with subtitles, makes jokes with slang, etc (she went to high school in America, junior high in Japan).

The jobs that she can get considering she didn't study law, medicine, etc aren't anything that amazing in terms of salary, responsibility, etc.

After finishing her uni here (Korean uni, program in English) she started a job at a high end retail store. She moved on up (in less than a year) to being a store manager at the flagship store and was making about $3.5 mill a month + commissions. In Korea of course that's a pretty awesome salary. However, her language ability had almost nothing to do with that. It's just that she's a hard worker and usually retail people are bums etc.

She quit/had to move to take care of her mother and she looked for other work after some time and there really isn't anything that she could of done where she would of made much money. She ended up taking some job at an English newspaper startup for $2 mill a month.

She's interviewing to get back into retail now.

Point of the story: It seems much better for a Korean to spend a lot of time developing actual skills (like math, science, etc). Just learning how to speak English is pretty pointless in terms of job prospects in the future. It is surprising to me how short-sighted parents are regarding this undeniable truth. It's not like many Koreans are going to leave Korea and go to another country to live and work.

Maybe I'm way off on this....but I honestly don't get the craze. I've learned more Korean in 3 months studying hard than most Koreans have learned English in 12 years.

[aq8knyus]

[SeoulNate]

[So Sincere]

What if they made learning Korean easier...? #halfbakedidea