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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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 Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 4:40 am Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| lowpo wrote: |
| kabrams wrote: |
You should uncover why you want to leave in the first place, and what you'd like to do in your career/how you'd like to use Korea for your career. Do some backwards planning.
Where do you want to be in 5 years? Does Korea fit into that? If so, how? If you can make it work (realistically) and have an end-goal in mind, I absolutely say going to Korea is a good idea. |
If you decide to teach ESL in a different country, you really need to be smart with your money! I started teaching in China at 41 and come to Korea at 43.
The previous posters are right that Korea is a little unstable in the public school sector. I have been noticing mainly in the small to medium size Hogwan market that they are hiring more older teachers.
In China you will have to work harder that in Korea. In China you also have the opporunity to start your own business or switch from ESL to a regular comany job. |
Really? Wouldn't the opposite be true? |
Well that would depend on your negotiating skills. I will say though that if you (not you personally, "you" in the generic sense) have any, then yes the opposite would generally be true. For example when I worked in Korea I was expected to be there from 8-4 or 9-5 or whatever the hours were (although I would usually quietly leave for lunch and no one either noticed or cared enough to say anything.) In China I can leave (and do my shopping or go to the gym) when I don't have classes, so long as I am back in time when I do.
And as opposed to the 22-30 classes a week in Korea I have no more than 18 here. Admittedly the salary is still lower than what I made in Korea but the much cheaper cost of living here makes up for that a lot. And the Chinese (at least in my experience) tend to be somewhat friendlier and less formal than the Koreans. But the rest of lowpo's post is pretty much correct.
OP " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" (or a half-dozen in a foreign country). If there is any chance of upwards mobility in your company I'd certainly stick with it if I were you. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 3:37 am Post subject: |
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The job market in Korea has not been as good as it has in the past and the exchange rate right now is a bit bad. The government has eliminated many of the public school positions which were quite good (I worked at an elementary school for a year).
One of the things you really have to watch out for here in Korea is shady recruiters. The first recruiter I used lied through their teeth and my employer was a witch. Despite that bad experience I did stay and made a life here now 11 1/2 years later.
You really have to look at what you have in the US versus what type of situation you would be in here in Korea. If you were going to come here I would do plenty of research have several job offers and talk to people who have worked at the places you are applying to.
Last year I was interviewed for an article in a magazine and they asked me questions about living here. One of the quotes they used was "Working in Korea is not for the faint of heart". So true..... |
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isitts
Joined: 25 Dec 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 5:37 am Post subject: |
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| Milwaukiedave wrote: |
| The government has eliminated many of the public school positions which were quite good (I worked at an elementary school for a year). |
| Milwaukiedave wrote: |
| ... I did stay and made a life here now 11 1/2 years later. |
What?  So public schools were good, just not for more than a year? You've certainly been here long enough to see them when they were good.
And you've managed to make a life here for 11+ years primarily without public schools...and yet you're telling the OP to steer clear of Korea due to PS cuts. Not that I don't agree with that opinion. It just sounds funny. |
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denverdeath
Joined: 21 May 2005
Location: Boo-sahn
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 6:15 am Post subject: |
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| isitts wrote: |
| Milwaukiedave wrote: |
| The government has eliminated many of the public school positions which were quite good (I worked at an elementary school for a year). |
| Milwaukiedave wrote: |
| ... I did stay and made a life here now 11 1/2 years later. |
What? So public schools were good, just not for more than a year? You've certainly been here long enough to see them when they were good.
And you've managed to make a life here for 11+ years primarily without public schools...and yet you're telling the OP to steer clear of Korea due to PS cuts. Not that I don't agree with that opinion. It just sounds funny. |
I don't think he's necessarily telling the OP to steer clear of Korea. What he said about the public schools IS true. HS's gone. MS's going, if not gone. And, ES's now starting to go. Pretty sure the starting level salary is back to where it was in 2000 or so, too, isn't it? The OP can still make it in Korea, although competition is much higher, and pay is stagnant, if not decreasing...as we all know. I did a year at a public middle school as well. Doesn't mean I know all, or think it was all THAT, even if I've been here since '97. Things HAVE changed, and someone in their 30s should be aware that it will not be as easy now as it was in the mid-90's or 2005. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 6:21 am Post subject: |
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| isitts wrote: |
| What? So public schools were good, just not for more than a year? |
Ten years ago in Korea it was easy to go from doing a year in an elementary school to being a professor at a university with only an unrelated BA. (Incidentally, those initial public school positions were much easier to get, too.) Those days have passed and are never going back. Westerners were rare in the emerging market simply because no one had ever heard of it. |
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denverdeath
Joined: 21 May 2005
Location: Boo-sahn
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 6:27 am Post subject: |
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To the Op.
If your "professional" degree is actually a "real" one, which is recognized, then it can open a few doors for you. Even with it though, it's more difficult in Korea these days.
For what you can bank at the end of the month? SK is still better than China, from what I know/heard. You still have to be careful with your cash here though. It's SO easy to blow 200-300+ dollars if you want to take a weekend trip which includes some drinking.
Heard not so long ago most (at a college anyway) lived like kings in China, with wonderfully large living spaces, housekeepers, and what not. Not sure if that's even close to reality these days or not. You still have to deal with the pollution there...worse that a lot of places here...here IS pretty awful, esp if you're a smalltown boy or girl. |
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hubbahubba
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:46 am Post subject: |
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| Love how the most used adjective about working in Korea in the past is "easy". Quite telling as to why folks see the "good times" leaving. Just an observation. As you were, rant on about the good old days... |
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