Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Weigookin74]

US finally recovering? Maybe less teachers coming over soon? http://news.yahoo.com/come-jobs-finally-165847618.html

[World Traveler]

The U.S. economy could recover (in fact it already has) yet the Korea ESL continue to decline (which is what has already happened and will continue to happen).

[mr_thehorse]

[Weigookin74]

Well, China's the plan B. I'm actually in a decent spot for the time being as I'm in a higher salary range and am going to get piled on with lots of overtime this year. (Past years go either no or very low overtime.) Also, the exchange rate is doing really well for Canadians these days. Assuming I get renewed this spring, I might have a perfect storm in my favor to finally be out of debt in a year's time or so.

That said, China will be the next Korea. Not so sure I would have loved to be here in the 90's, but wished I had of had another 2 or 3 years in the 2000's decade to have experienced things the way were back then in the transitional decade. Shame I got here and two years later the global market crashed and within a few months the market started flooding and has never been the same since. (I got here at the end of the curve, but still early enough to have plunked into a decent setup and to have hung on for dear life.)

So, China maybe if I don't go back home or if Korea doesn't crash more. If I were a newbie, I'd choose China over Korea or just do Korea for a year and then move on to China. Ideally, I'd like to stick around for a couple of more years, at least, before making the hop. But, we'll see.

[Yaya]

Given that even hakwon jobs are hard to come by lately, China is the winner hands down. It doesn't have to be Beijing or Shanghai, a mid-size Chinese city is HUGE by international standards.

If you wanna hang with Koreans, Changchun has a lot of them.

[Died By Bear]

You can thank the internet for the waves of liberal arts majors coming over to teach. Facebook...gets a special mention as well.

There's always going to be plenty of young fresh blood ready and willing to be screwed by the hagwon association, and a better economy in the states (and even in Canada) won't change that one tiny bit. The economy was fine when I left the states in 95, and there were plenty of people teaching in Korea. The major difference was the demand for teachers was much higher, and there weren't people from Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Nigeria and Chad passing themselves off as American or Canadian teachers. There were fewer teachers, and we were spoiled.

Those were the days my friends
We'd thought they'd never end

cue the music

[World Traveler]

It's sad to think about how far the market has deteriorated.

I have a small home school. I need a foreign teacher who speaks English.
1. Location - Near Nowon Station Exit -6 (Line -7)
2. Schedule :Tuesday- Wednesday and Friday 4:00 to 8:00 ( 3 days a week)
3. Level :elementary and middle school( only help them with checking their listening answer sheets,
testing their Vocabularies and correcting their english sentences)
4. It's a part time job - 10,000 Won for an hour
5. Start date: ASAP
6. Foreigners ( female )
Please send me resume and photo.

[aq8knyus]

[World Traveler]

Will the parents/students know the foreign teacher is a non-native English speaker/will the boss tell them that? I doubt it. (Which hurts the market for real native speakers.)

[Yaya]

[World Traveler]

Yeah, going rates are falling for everyone- native and non-native, legal and illegal.

[Chaparrastique]

[World Traveler]

It's already gotten a bit worse for F visa holders from what I've heard...but they haven't been hit as hard as everyone else...at least not yet...

[Weigookin74]

Well, I still don't think demand is different from a few years ago. It just hasn't risen any more. But, there are a flood of new teachers over here since 2009. I rememebr before that, there were still shady hakwons, Russians passing themselves off as English speakers, etc. Gyopos couldn't get hired or anyone looking Asian for that matter because folks wouldn't believe they weren't Korean and parents wouldn't send their kids to the hakwon in question. They faced a lot of discrimination. Nowadays, they seem to fare much better.

My position and getting in at the right time sheilds me as I said before. No doubt Facebook has had some effect. But from what I recall folks saying in 2009 was that recruiters hit the university campuses in 2009 and 2010 with the slogan: "Escape the recession." Also, I recall recruiters were emailing schools, contacting principals in GEPIK, and local education offices around the same time telling them they had young blond hair blue eyed females. Well, autumn 2009 and spring 2010, you had lots of senior teachers on here complaining about it at the time. They were dropped even if they taught for years for such crimes as being over 40, bald, fat, black, South African, etc. Even when some schools or teachers wanted to keep their teachers, the local ed office tried to push them out say they wanted "new faces".

In late 2010 and early 2011, it caught on in a more subdued way out here in the provinces where folks started getting dropped and non renewed. It was far less severe and a bit more professional than simply replacing an old teacher with a young blond one. Before this time, the desperation factor definately made Koreans hire whoever they could get regarless of accent or appearance. Still limping on and made sure I was on my game. I'll find out in a month whether I'm renewed for another year. But, if Korea gives me the shaft China it is. If I can hang on for a while yet, Korea it is for the time being. (Better than average position.) We'll see.

[nicwr2002]

If they never change the focus away from test prep then it won't get any better. If they were to focus on speaking and writing more, then it could possibly get a little better. I don't think parents are too concerned if the foreign teacher is white or not as long as their child can pass the test.