Korean Job Discussion Forums

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

ANYBODY have a legitimate salary scale for teachers, college instructors, and university professors working in Korea?

VanIslander

kangnamdragon · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Location: Kangnam, Seoul, Korea

Foreigners cannot be on the salary scale. We are exceptions.

VanIslander · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:59 pm Post subject:

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

VanIslander wrote,
"If you mean something explicit and guarranteed simply by the Western notion of seniority (to reward those who don't bail), where you work longer at a company so automatically deserve to be paid more than the guy next to you who has less experience but is doing the same job, or better(???)."

Seniority is not important in Korea? Age probably does not matter in Korea too, right?

kangnamdragon wrote,
"Foreigners cannot be on the salary scale. We are exceptions."

However, in most developed countries (e.g., OECD countries) foreigners are placed on a salary scale. The scale is usually the same as (or samilar to) the resident (native) in that position.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

We are ignorant of what is legal, fair, and expected.
Or, do you want to know?

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

VanIslander · Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:23 pm Post subject:

Gord knows.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Ghosts....

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Instructor (Salaries in US dollars)
Step 1: $38,623
Step 2: $40,233
Step 3: $41,909
Assistant Professor
Step 4: $43,656
5: $45,474
6: $47,369
7: $49,343
Associate Professor
8: $51,399
9: $53,540
10: $55,771
11: $58,095
12: $60,516
Professor
13: $63,038
14: $65,664
15: $68,400
16: $71,250
17: $74,219
18: $77,312
19: $80,553
20: $85,088
http://www.fascc.org/appendixa.shtml

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

Does that mean you won't be providing us with an apples to apples comparison chart?

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

I teach at a college, not an academy or hagwon.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Real Reality:

What is your point? What are you trying to say in this thread?

That we are underpaid? Overpaid?

Where is ESL on your table?

You are pushing for something, but I really can't figure out what it is. Are you trying to stir the masses? Form a rebellion? Incite us to action for the 'cause'?

I am not trying to belittle your research and efforts, but I think you believe that we are not in Korea, and doing a job that is remotely similar the jobs posted on your table.

Some are doing that kind of work (real 'academic' work in curriculum development, or other research/grading at a University level), but most aren't. Even University positions in Korea are often a joke, with no more 'work' than in a hagwon may have one do.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, but those exceptions often lie within the individual. How motivated they are and how much work they want to do plays heavily in these positions. Each University also has different requirements, but it's all pretty standard fare, and not exactly challenging. EDIT: I did teach at a University for 3 years, and saw a more professional setting, but not always a more professional foreign staff. Most of them didn't work any harder or in any more an intellectual capacity than hagwon teachers. Classes mostly consisted of reading dialouges from the book, explaining a few things to the 80+ sleepy-headed students, making exams and grading. Not exactly the Everest of intellectual pursuit.

Hagwon teachers are A) making more in Korea than they would in Canada, at least at a base salary, and B) are far more easily employable in the ESL field in Korea.

If you have all the credentials to get a professor position in the west, then go and do it...get the big money and also the big work.

We are tools here, not really enlighteners. We tend to re-enforce learned ideas and fix errors, but rarely do we actually get to 'turn the lights on', as it were.

Fire away.... Laughing

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

It's the whole apples/oranges thing. The head chef at an Earl's restaurant makes far more than the fry-guy at McDonald's, but they are both technically cooking food.

To stay on the apples/apples model, it would be wise to post up comparisons of what people get paid at language acadamies in western countries. At least then it's on the job.[/quote]

Ummm does McDonalds actually qualify as food?

True though: a Professor of Anthropology has little or no bearing on what an English teacher in Korea makes or should make.