Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Axl Rose]

This is not intended as a slam on folks with M.A.s - that's just STUPID!

However, I do wanna make the point that having an MA - any old MA - is not deserving of a higher salary.

I'm on 2m right now. No problem - it's my first teaching job. I know someone who started on 2.4. No experience - they have an MA in something about literature. Knowing Milton in and out doesn't mean you know how to teach ESL to middle school kids if you ask me, but those are the salary levels.

I've been here nearly a year. I've settled in well, everyone likes me, I've learnt quite a lot of Korean, etc etc.

This person with an MA in WHAT EVER......

(a) is unpopular at school with students and co-teachers (a former co-teacher of theirs told me);

(b) smokes in full view of the students;

(c) never eats lunch with the Korean teachers...always sat in a corner alone with sandwiches...doesn't like Korean food. It's only soup for God's sake, what's your problem? Ah yes....has an MA but lives on a diet of burger and fries and coke! Nice.

(d) has learnt not one lick of Korean. Can't even read! In my opinion, if you've been here over 4 months and can't even read students' names, that's just PATHETIC! Still does the whole 'hands' thing when buying things and speaks in her difficult, highly regionalized English.

(e) has major chip on shoulder about the U.S. and England - a lefty of course.

(f) openly doesn't like Korea.

Now, I ain't saying just because person X has an MA they should do the opposite to (a)-(f), but I don't reckon people with non-directly relevant (ie. Education, TESOL) M.A.s with no experience should automatically get higher salaries. Especially if they're like the person I described. Take your hipster clothes and take a hike buddy.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

MA in something like literature ... use to know Milton inside and out ... doesn't especially like eating with KTs ... likes to slam the US and England ... almost sounds like me! (I do like my students and Korean food, and get along well with everyone, however).

You're right, though, over here an MA in any old subject is considered better than any TEFL training, and that's just plain stupid. But I'm not complaining.

[rothkowitz]

TEFL training is stoopid...I know,I paid for a CELTA

MA...should reflect you can use English.Can't say I'm using it here....its more for myself.

Korean teachers just tell me to do what I can in the time that I have.Why should I argue with that?

[ilovebdt]

[Zark]

Well . . . I have an M.Ed. and:

1. I was popular at my school

2. Don't smoke

3. Don't live on a diet of burger and fries

4. Can easily read Korean - can speak some

5. Love my home country - and would be considered a "righty" (I think)

6. Don't hate Korea


I think you are right - those people with MA's - they scuk!


M.Ed.'s rule!

[Axl Rose]

[tomato]

I have wondered about the Korean custom of calling a white-collar worker "선생님," whether the person really is a teacher or not.
Presumably, this is to imply that the person is so smart that he or she may as well be a teacher.
Does this imply that being highly educated automatically qualifies a person as a teacher?

Admittedly, that equation is present to some extent in our own culture.
You have probably heard this cheer at athletic events:

Firecracker, firecracker, boom boom boom!
The boys got the muscles!
The teachers got the brains!
The girls got the sexy legs and we won the game!

[Hater Depot]

I would just like to take this opportunity to offer some advice for future degree forgers -- Northwestern University does not actually offer an MA in 'English Writing'.

[PRagic]

Get your own MA and stop complaining. We are in education, and in education, the currency is formal degrees. Why is this surprising. I've met pleanty of BA holders with all kinds of certificates that couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag. Individual cases don't prove the rule. We all have suffered through courses taught by Ph.D.s, but that doesn't mean that no Ph.D.s can teach.

I could have taught ESL out of high school. Sure, a certificate course may have helped, but I could have done it none-the-less. Why make the BA mandatory? I took AP English! Why should only you BA holders get all the jobs?

Get over it.

[ilovebdt]

[crazylemongirl]

The OP is very bitter. Must because of all the sour grapes he's eaten.

Seriously guy might be a bad teacher, but he's obviously negotiated his way to a better contract. Good for him. Shame he doesn't have the goods to back up what he's negotiated, but that's a matter for his employer decided whether he's worth the money he's paying him or not.

[gypsyfish]

[Axl Rose]

[Kyrei]

[crazylemongirl]