Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mishlert]

[lawyertood]

Just a thought

[Sage Monkey]

[lastat06513]

I hear alot of pros and cons on the matter, so I want to thank you all and keep them coming, I want to hear about your opinion on the matter.

But, I just want to throw this out there; Just because a person is doing a background check, does that mean they have the necessary qualifications to go and find out themselves? Who is going to assure these people are also qualified to conduct background checks?


And I think that in order to do a certain background check (at least in the US) the person has to sign a release form, since universities won't release any information on any past students without written authorization.

I feel that if the gov't requires all of the teachers to have some kind of educational background, that would insure some kind of quality control. A BED or a CELTA would be a good start in the matter.

But my main point in all my posts this past week is this;
- ESL is a business-oriented industry for the local folks.
- ESL is a way for them to make easy money.
- If ESL was in anyway educational-oriented, they would require strict requirements to beome a teacher (we are nothing but performers here or anywhere else)
- ESL is a way for people to learn something and see a person face to face when they would have no normal chance to do that.

I am happy to see alot of dedicated people out there, but remember, a job's a job. If a monkey can do the same as a qualified person, but all I have to do is give them bananas, who do you think I am going to hire?


If Koreans respected teachers the way they did before, we wouldn't have all these problems.

Can we all just get along

BTW~ True, the department did check up the website where the shamster supposedly published his papers. But the real scoop was that he pissed off a guy who started working there and he blew the whistle on the guy.

And about the playboy, I heard he was done in by a Korean guy who got pissed because he was going after the same girl as the playboy.

[Blind Willie]

[Homer]

Sorry shakuhachi but my degree was in Education. My masters however was in Political Science.

Does that disqualify me from commenting?

I think the question about degree checks is not about campaigning for only English majors. This will eventually happen all by itself as the ESL market evolves.

It is about agreeing on a basic minimum standard and enforcing this standard.

[Manner of Speaking]

I think it's a GREAT idea. I had a close friend who had her own hakwon...some illegal duped her with a forged diploma, and she unknowingly sent it in to Immigration. Two months later they arrived on her doorstep and arrested the guy. They WERE going to fine her 10 million won because he was working for her illegally, but she convinced them she was lied to. She almost lost her business and her life's savings, which she'd invested to start up the hakwon.

If you're completely honest about your degree and credentials, you've got nothing to worry about. If someone forges his degree and credentials, he not only deserves to be reported to Immigration, but he also deserves to have his arrest record sent to the university whose diploma they forged. For possible civil action.

Mr. Manske's business is a great idea because it will protect business owners against getting screwed over by self-serving illegals. I wish Phillip Manske the very best of luck on his new enterprise. I wish I had thought of it first.

[chronicpride]

I still wish that there was much more of a collective creative and entrepeneurial spirit behind the issues that plague the industry everyday, year in and year out. The gazillion threads of being screwed by recruiters and schools. But, yet, we have to channel our energy at the technicalities of a byproduct of the larger, more pressing issue.

The underlying motivator behind this lesser issue other than a hypothesized mathematical calculation about salary dilution, which I have never seen any tangible proof of occuring, is that forming a teacher-supported social cause against the corruptness of the schools and recruiters has no profit potential for the supporters. It would have to be volunteer-based. Just like EFL-Law used to be. Therefore, this degree verification business would not be in existence, were it not for the $ attached to it.

I find it truly depressing that the board has given up on putting heads together to address the heart of what causes this. Recruiters forging fake degrees. The whole concept of a 3 minute phone interview, a photo once-over, and prepaid airfare. No mention of tougher restrictions on who can open up an english institute. No mention of criminal record checks of teachers who have real degrees.

All I have to say, is that if you want to spend time brainstorming about a twig of the overall plague tree of ESL in Korea, then don't ever let me hear you gripe. About directors. About recruiters. About not getting paid. About getting screwed on vacation or severence. About your apartment sucking. About your crappy books that you have to teach with. And whatever else has been griped about and regurgitated for the past XYZ years on this board.

As an ex-recruiter who used to verify degrees (but gave up after realizing that it takes on avg 2-3 weeks to get back the earliest responses, meanwhile the teacher has taken a job offered from another recruiter), and check references, I found far less bogus degrees, than teachers who lost their last jobs due to questionable or criminal activity, including suspected molestation issues. I soon gave up the degree verifying and focused on checking references. It wasn't pretty. I pretty much gave up recruiting, after I called a teacher association in england to check up on one applicant, and they said that he is banned from teaching in England, due to sexual abuse charges. 2 weeks later, he emailed me and said that he found a job in Changwon through some other recruiter. Or the guy, who worked in Korea, and checked him out with his past employer and 2 of his ex-foreign teacher co-workers, and they all said that he beats kids. A recruiter got him a job working in Gwangju, last I heard.

But, the good thing, is that those putrid assholes had degrees (or at least ones given to them by their recruiter), and that's all that matters.

I support the initiative of verifying, due to the fact that there is some initiative going on. But I'm truly sickened at the fact that people are supporting this simply because of the profit potential of the business and regulation of things for their own greater good. And that there is no talk of expanding beyond that to deal with the real issues.

[Cymro]

It's just business.

How about next time your hagwon is hiring, mention that there are so many dodgy degrees around, but they can be checked out for a large fee (show them the site). Then you say all it takes is a phone call and offer to do it yourself for a not-so-large fee. You'd pretty much have the last word on who to and who not to hire. Looks like fun to work with : "Real". Don't fancy spending the next few months in the same office : "Fake".

Hmm, I think I said too much! I'm not at all endorsing nor encouraging such action and, of course, would never do anything like that myself.

[The Great Toad]

Hmm I do not only think it is a good idea, I also think very small children should smosh pizza pies(Korean ones with corn and peas) into the faces of the false teachers right before they are sent home on the plane. They should show it on TV every night and Koreans would love it then when you gave a bad grade to a student they would say,

You're not a good teacher,
I bet you are fake,
I gonna laugh when pizza
get smoshed in you're face."