Korean Job Discussion Forums

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

I was reading the Korean Times the other day when I came across an article that gave me pause for thought. The gist of the article was that some Filipinas who are married to Korean men have been able to get a teaching visa and are now teaching English in 14 elementary schools. Their pay? 1.4 million won/month. If this article is also in Korean newspapers, I wonder how many hakwon bosses are thinking "1.4 million won eh? Why keep my foreigner for 2.2?"

Apparently they are very popular teachers both with the students and parents, so so much for the myth of mommies preferring white teachers.

Could we be on the way out? Certainly both hakwon and public school officials will want to save money and this seems like an easy way to do it. All it would take is a change in Korean Immigration law to allow residents of the Philippines in (married or not) to teach English.
The next few years will be interesting, methinks.

Yo!Chingo · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: Seoul Korea

I'm married to a filipino but his family immigrated to the US when he was very young. Trust me when I say that a Philippine born filipino will never replace a native born English speaker. Their English is not very good or even understandable alot of the time.
Your jobs are very safe unless parents want to pay for broken English being spoken to their kids.

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

The same sort of thing is goin on in Taiwan now.

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

You could have a planeload of Zambians here working for 100.000 a month if you wanted, and they'd all speak better english than most eslers over here.

I reckon the english market here will be gone in 10 years and we'll all be in China.

Privateer · Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Location: Easy Street.

We're not here for our ability as native speakers. We're here because of Korea's obsession with America.

poet13 · Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 5:31 pm Post subject:

Yo!Chingo.... Do you really think it's fair to generalize across an entire people like that?
"Trust me when I say that a Philippine born filipino will never replace a native born English speaker. Their English is not very good or even understandable alot of the time.
Your jobs are very safe unless parents want to pay for broken English being spoken to their kids."

I live in the Philippines, and I know many people whose english is superior to most of the people I knew back in the US.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

I agree with the above post. I have met many Phillipinos who spoke flawless English.

Koreans tend to have a bit of a racist attitude towards "the brown people" and as such they will continue to hire blonde, blue-eyed North Americans.............even if they are only semi-litterate. Rolling Eyes

Lemonade · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: South Korea

Lemonade · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: South Korea

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

I get tired of this "blond hair = stupid". One other reason Americans are wanted is culture and that being the culture of success. Its not all about skin color. Money talks, BS walks. Philippinos can speak very good English but lack literary skills. Can you name one great Philippino author? I can name one, Michelle Malkin, but after that the list gets light. The PI is also a poor, broken and miserable place. Who do you want influencing and giving advice to your children? Would you rather have a Zambian influence or a Swiss-American influence for your child?

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

We are safe until the filipinos start producing blonde haired and blue eyed citizens. Photos will always take precidence (sp?) over resumes in Korea.

kimchikowboy · Joined: 24 Jan 2003

Japan has begun hiring Indian teachers for its JET program, paying similar wages as those to Westerners. China is importing Indian and Filipino teachers. Indian teachers are also beginning to move into Southeast Asian countries.
This week I've been doing a survey of hogwon owners for a paper I'm working on, and one of the questions is if they are willing to hire Indian or Filipino teachers. Most seem amenable, though they are concerned about speaking ability of teachers from those countries. It is more likely that hiring teachers from these countries would be done in rural schools, where it is hard to place foreign teachers. That is what the JET program is doing now, so it is possible that EPIK might follow, especially given the plan to place foreigners in all of the schools in the near future.

poet13 · Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:27 pm Post subject:

So dulouz, are you saying that any swiss-american is a better role model than any zambian?

ok, lets see....."is the ruling of Justice A S Aguiar of the Mumbai High Court setting free two Swiss pedophiles, Wilhelm (61) and Lily Marty (58)..." from boloji.com ....dont want them babysitting for me....
and... "In 2002, the Government signed a mutual legal assistance treaty in criminal matters with the Philippines that allows Philippine victims of Swiss pedophiles ..." US dept of state.
lets move on to drugs... "Once filled with hundreds of heroin addicts, Bern's Kochar Park has been cleaned up since Switzerland began its heroin prescription program.", "They are among the 30,000 or so heroin addicts in Switzerland." uh, assuming that those people are swiss, that would mean that 1 in 250 persons (men, women and children) in swisterland are heroin addicts... from sptimes.com....dont want them babysitting for me either.....
hmm, what else.... ah, heres a juicy bit..."The scandal arising from the abortive attempt of the Union Bank of Switzerland to shred documents relating to Swiss-Nazi financial arrangements has led to a year-long series of revelations, conferences, threatened sanctions, international recriminations and a number of books, including Nazi Gold by Tom Bower and Hitler's Secret Partners by Isabel Vincent." from wsws.org.

sure, you can take any nation, any culture, any peoples, and find scumbags, so like, Yo!CHingo, you are wrong to generalize across any entire population...

Philippinos lack literary skills? another generalization across an entire population.... umm, and Heidi (Spyri) is fine literature?

I would argue that while the PI is poor, very poor, it is not at all a miserable place. Is it broken? In some ways, yes. corruption is rampant. child abuse is rampant also. I live there, but I dont worry about filipinos harming my child, I worry about the freaky foreigners who go there for the chance to boink a child. The biggest offenders? After several years there, IMO, American, German, Swiss, and Australian. How white can you get?

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

On a different note, I think that English speakers from different countries could very well make a big impact on the ESL scene, but mostly in rural areas or the not so wealthy areas. I think that in wealthy areas, they will continue to hire native speakers from English countries because these people often want to send their children to those countries.

However, if Koreans get on this big dream of wanting to move to the Philippines or India, we might all be a lot of trouble. Laughing