Korean Job Discussion Forums

[greyhound]

This academy is in Ulsan, an hour away from the airport in Daegu? is it? Where Airasia fly from.

There are 4 classes per day, each 1.5 hours long so it looks like it will be 6 hours a day teaching with a 1 hour lunch break. I'm sure the school could stretch to paying 3m won instead of 2.6. it's not that much more to pay. 2.1m won as an average salary sucks! Teachers have student loans and stuff to pay off. Why should they work for such low pay? I don't know how they get enough teachers to cover the country's needs at that rate. Well the UAE is £2100 a month which is cr+p pay too for the UAE. It should be £3000 or at least £2500 a month to wet my appetite. I'm sticking with Korea at the moment just incase I can get 3m won. Surely 3m won must be standard for a head of department role.

[denverdeath]

Again, I don't know much about AirAsia. Never used them. Lived in Daegu eons ago, but used KAL to get there and get out of there. Ulsan's closer to Busan, but not much farther from Daegu.

Now, you're getting closer to what you want to know. 4 classes equalling 120 teaching hrs is ok for 2.3...esp in Ulsan. Not saying Ulsan is bad; just saying getting a starting position in Korea when you're a bit older with no in-country experience that pays anything higher than 2.5 (esp outside of seoul and/or not at a uni/college) might be hard to get. Head of department role actually means little here, as I kind of already mentioned. To automatically expect an extra 700,000 may be a bit futile. I hope you can prove me wrong, but I guarantee you that they won't pay you 3.0, unless you are putting in more teaching or administrative time or doing some sort of other special classes that are bringing loads of students into the place.

[greyhound]

There's not so many posters on this forum is there? Wonder where they all are. They said I can get an increase in salary in they make me head teacherso it's going to be more than 2.3m anyway even if it isn't 3m. I think it must be Busan then where Airasia fly from. I just posted my documents off to Korea. £63 flippin quid with Parcel Force Global Express guaranteed 2 day delivery!
Unreal! The other option said delivery from 5 days so I wasn't having that as it needs to get there next week. My job starts mid July so about a month to go. I hope there's a nice indian in Ulsan. I seen some in seoul on Tripadvisor. I can't wait to get out there now and start teaching. I wonder who I'll fly with. I go from Birmingham so it could be Lufthansa or KLM.

[xCustomx]

I just came back here to check out the ESL scene since I'll be visiting Korea for 6 weeks. I thought I would chime in.
I made 2.3 million back in 2008 after 2 years of teaching experience and a TEFL certificate. It's pathetic that salaries haven't risen much in 8 years. My advice to those without much experience who want to make more: Get an after school job teaching at an elementary school from 1-5. Those used to pay about 1.5 milion. Then work 2-3 hours of part time gigs to supplement your income and you should easily make over 3 million a month.

[PRagic]

Wages haven't been keeping pace, that's for sure. My first university gig in 1999 paid 2.5 and included housing near campus. 12 hour sched and fully paid summer and winter breaks. Nobody cared if you worked on the outside, and with an F5, things were cranking back then. Always made more on the outside than I did at the university, in fact.

[JohnML]

It's pretty bad all over the world as a teacher at any sort of level (generally). It especially f*cked because it keeps genuinely good candidates and the most talented individuals from considering it a serious career choice due to the huge dip in earnings. Even if it seems selfish, a lot of people could not justify a 2-5 times salary decrease (quite a normal figure), to work teaching - even if they loved it.

I personally couldn't justify it because of my lifestyle but even going beyond that for my future kids and on my partner (who already earns a lot). Back home they're getting teachers who have never taught the subject/have no relevant experience to teach it. Seriously bad idea but what ya gonna do if the gov doesn't' want to fork out. The syllabus for my subject in the UK is seriously outdated and horrible and in a lot of circumstances being taught by people who have no outside knowledge to correct it/give real world experience to alongside lessons.

Okay rant over.

[PRagic]

Agreed. Yeah, even back when I was teaching English, I viewed ESL as an industry rather than as merely a teaching track profession. I tried to dip into anything generating an income stream, including writing, recording, tutering, radio, PR work, editing, test material writing...anything and everything. I was always busy.

The long and short of it was that I wound up making and banking some pretty good coin, even while in grad school. Also didn't suck that my wife always worked and did quite well to boot.

I still think people with the right creeds can make a go of it in ESL. However, looking long term, it wasn't for me. My end game has always been to make more for doing less as I get older. Didn't see that being a possibility in that industry.

[greyhound]

You mean you're not an EFL teacher anymore?
What do you do in Korea now then to make more money?

[PRagic]

I've been quite forward about this. ESL paid the bills and then some for a while as I went through grad school. Finished my PhD in 2005 in the US and have been working as a tenure track professor in Korea ever since. Now I do nothing even remotely connected to ESL.

I've also been open about the respect I have for professional ESL teachers. I worked at institutes, lower tiered universities, and big ones, so I've seen my fair share of both posers and professionals. I've therefore seen the difference between well trained and experienced teachers and those just spinning their wheels and collection a paycheck.

Personally, I knew that for me, ESL was merely a means to an end, and I eventually hit my level of incompetence. Yes, I could do the job, but nowhere near as well as my properly trained colleagues. This is why I generally implore those seeking to make teaching ESL a career to take related degrees and certs, and to then target jobs that respect proper teachers.

[greyhound]

What for? It's Korea man not Saudi Arabia. All you need for Korea is any old degree and a CELTA. That's it. You don't need related degrees for Korea like you do for Saudi. The pay doesn't make it worthwhile having related degrees. Most of teaching in Korea is elementary kids anyway. I don't know about university teaching. Woosong uni were going to hire me yonks ago but they hired within Korea in the end. They didn't require masters for their jobs.

Anyway, you haven't answered the question which is what do you do now in Korea to make more money?

[PRagic]

Yes, I did answer the question.

Whether you're teaching kids, university students, or corporate, qualifications (related degrees and certs) enable you to be a better teacher. They also enable you to work in multiple different markets.

Not every job in Korea has low qualification thresholds. Sure, some places will employ anyone with a pulse and a Bachelor's degree, but those are precisely the jobs that I suggested well trained and experienced career teachers avoid.

If you're just looking to teach for a year or two to pay down debt and get some overseas experience, if you don't even know if teaching is for you, and if you don't have a related degree, take what you can get. Or if you just want to collect a paycheck, sure, take what you can get. You don't need related degrees or certs, so, as you imply, why bother.

[isitts]

[greyhound]

Why on earth does having a related degree make you a better teacher? it's the CELTA which teaches you how to teach English not an English degree. An English degree is all about reading books and writing essays about them. I had a friend who did an English degree and he was always reading a book. Most jobs is Korea are the same. The ads all state the same or similar work. Elementary is what most jobs are. You only need a CELTA to teach elementary. You don't even need a degree. Why need a degree to teach English anyway? It's just for the visa. It doesn't fit any other purpose.

The exception is when teaching at university where you need an MA TESOL.

So you are a prof. What do you teach then if it isn't ESL?

[greyhound]

[quote="isitts"]

[PRagic]

A degree in English isn't necessarily a related degree. Never said that. A related degree would be in TESOL or AL. And I said that having a related degree ENABLES one to be a better teacher. It provides access to knowledge and tools, and may include supervised student teaching. Those without the related degrees are reinventing the wheel, often enough with less than stellar results.

One buddy, and long-term ESLer who has taught in multiple countries, summed it up nicely when he heard a teacher complaining that nobody took them seriously even though they had 10 years of 'experience'. Nope, because the affronted had absolutely no background in teaching, or even teaching English for that matter, he basically had one year of scraped together, OJT experience and then nine other years teaching the same stuff incorrectly.

Simply having a degree in anything, however, doesn't make one a better teacher in-and-of iteself. But they CAN help and that's why better jobs insist that people have them. CELTA/DELTA are great certs to have, or at least that's what my colleagues in ESL tell me. At the very least, having related degrees, particularly the MA, and certs is evidence that you're serious about teaching English, and not just someone looking to collect a paycheck while boring the living crap out of students.

It's an anonymous board, so I don't mention my dicipline or employer publicly. Not really relevant, anyway.