Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

Jajdude, I'm sorry your director wasn't as persistent as mine. I recently got hired as teacher of the 3-4-year-old class.

The customers at my school went up in arms not because of my gender, but because of my age. The director asked the customers to give us until the middle of November, when they will arrange a parents' visiting day.

On Monday, 3 of the 4 mommies showed up, the fourth being too busy because she is the director of the school. All three were pleased. One of them promised to bring in some business through word-of-mouth advertising. We are very hopeful, because she has already brought in a few customers for the 5-year-old class.

[desultude]

I wonder about the idea of sexual discrimination. While this would certainly be the case in the States, it is not so clear here. For example, in the States, you cannot advertise for a male or female specifically. I see that here all of the time.

As in the States and elsewhere, these ideas take time to develop, and even then they are controversial. Here the idea of discrimination is certainly nascent.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I think it's also fueled by the fact that 75% of foreign teachers are male, and many jobs involve working with little kids, a traditionally female occupation here in Korea.

It can work the opposite way in the west. My friend is a school teaching assistant. He has a lot of advantages. He's a big guy, and some females are afraid to work with certain troubled kids or have trouble moving around heavier handicapped kids. He currently has a really cushy job working mostly with a very smart and very physically disabled teenage boy. The boy's family is Muslim. They wouldn't be too pleased with a woman helping him use the toilet. I don't know if they were able to insist on a male (it would be reasonable in this case), but the fact that my friend is one of a very small pool of male TAs in his district I'm sure helped him land the job. He also had a job where he was assigned to a sometimes wildly out of control boy that most women would be fearful of but was no intimidation to my friend.

I think that on the whole we are better off than we think, and I hate working with little Korean children so I guess it's not an issue to me, though it would be nice if Korean employers were at least more upfront about things like this.

[keithinkorea]

It is pretty shocking the way that some schools 'profile' what sort of teacher they'll hire. And getting fired for being male is a terrible story, better luck next time op.

As an experienced teacher with over three years experience, I'm positive that I've not been considered for loads of jobs as I'm male and British. I've actually had recruiters tell me this.

I'm sure a north American blonde airhead girl fresh out of university has probably a 100 times easier time in securing a reasonable job offer. Not saying that all recent graduates, north Americans or women are airheads but this bias is a fact. Every instance I've personally heard about from people regarding 'midnight runs' has always had a girl or girls as the runner(s).

I've completed three contracts, I've had about 2 sick days in my entire time in Korea, I'm a diligent and conscientous teacher,I even speak 'proper' English rather than that muddled noise that some Americans speak I have a pretty neutral accent and many Koreans have actually told me how much they prefer my accent to a NA one.

Discrimination sucks. I've seen a few jobs saying they prefer male teachers, I wonder how girls feel about that.

[EFLtrainer]

[VC]