Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Francis-Pax]

I was at the ASIAN ELT JOURNAL conference this weekend in Busan. It was a small but good conference.

One of the sessions was about EFL Law in Korea. It was basically an open discussion about living and working in Korea. Interestingly, a recruiter (who happens to be a foreigner) stated that he has found it very difficult to get new teachers to come to Korea. He placed a lot of emphasis on saying there was a genuine teacher shortage. Many people think that it just isn't worth the low wages or possible risks (bad hogwon, etc.).

He also said that he has been able to negotiate higher salaries to attract more teachers. There was some discussion about more people choosing China, Japan, and Taiwan as a destination of choice for English teaching.

If this is true, what do you think...

(I have my own opinion about his, but I want to open this up for an interesting discussion.)

[jlb]

I can speak as someone who is currently looking for a job (coming back for round 2 in Korea). I expected wages to be similar-ish to 2004 when I left (2 mill) but I have been getting more offers in the range of 2.2-2.4. Some places in fact seem quite desperate and are offering 1 mill settlement bonuses and stuff like that. I have the feeling that it's a teacher's market right now.

[alffy]

[mack the knife]

[mindmetoo]

Maybe Korea has cooked its own goose. People google, find a bunch of bad things about rip offs, poor treatment, etc. But I'd attribute most of it to the improve North American economy. Canada has full employment. If you want a job, there's a job for you.

[crazylemongirl]

I don't think Koreans actually want us to stay. I had a friend up and leave Korea over a matter of 300k. The school tried to renege on paying her visa run, so she left to go to Taiwan. She was a good teacher and very popular with her students. However when re-signing time came the school said 'oh we're not going to give you any raise, and are taking the money from the visa run.' So the ended up having to not only pay for her airfare out of here, plus the new teachers' airfare into Korea but then had to pay recuirter to find them a teacher as they haven't been able to find one themselves.

That and the idiots running the education office who are insisting on that 2 week rule on vacations. I think a lot of teachers here for more than a year would forefit a bit of extra cash if we got more some decent vacation. For anyone who lives away from a major hub airport the prospect of flying across time zones, changing planes and then turning around a few days later just isn't worth the million or so they'll have to drop in order to go home to be jet lagged.

[jinju]

No teachers coming? Fine by me. So many of thee hagwons deserve to go out of business. I hope they do. They certainly brough it on themselves. Now they are having trouble finding teachers. Awesome. Hogwons are the pits. Some are good but so many are run by absolute scum. Too bad for them they will never realize that their treatment of foreigners has come back to bit them in the ass.

[cubanlord]

[Hater Depot]

If there is a shortage it's because many schools put little effort into improving their retention rate. My school, for example, lost 5 teachers over the last year because they couldn't be arsed to make more than a token effort at convincing them to stay.

[crazylemongirl]

[some waygug-in]

Only speaking for myself here, but I would be more than willing to work for less if there were some improvement in working conditions.

If the school actually provided the resources for the books they used,

if the school would allow some autonomy over lesson content etc.

if the school wouldn't schedule back to back classes where teachers have no clue what the lesson is for the day, much less have time to prepare anything for it.

If the schools actually honored the contracts, with things like sick days,
vacation days etc.

More money is nice on paper, and nicer in the bank, but just because a contract says more money doesn't mean shyte. Who knows if they will even pay you regularly? That is more important than anything.

[jinju]

The only reason schools can do what they do is because the E2 visa is such a bad visa. Korea can be a great place to work..as long as the power is in your hands and not in the schools. But with the E2, you are at the mercy of your employer, who can cheat you, rip you off, mistreat you and still prevent you from getting another job. The E2 is a crap visa. Maybe it wouldnt be so bad but the school owners in this country are a dispicable bunch. Once you get a better visa, Korea kicks butt. I wouldnt ever want to go back to Canada and work there. Taxes are high and wages are low compared to Korea.

[cubanlord]

[chiaa]

I think the cost of living in Korea has gone up dramtically in the past five years.

[harryh]