Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yo!Chingo]

I'm quite white and I get stared at constantly in and around Seoul. I thought that I'd get used to it, but after a year it still makes me uncomfortable and squeamish. If I was black there is no way in HELL i'd come here to teach unless I was making mega bucks ,and I was exceptionally thick skinned.
Many times I've mentioned Africa in my classes in some context and the automatic responses are dirty comments or the making of apelike gestures. That's highly offensive to me and it's not even directed at me. My advice would be to find a more progressive country like Japan to teach in. Good luck to you!

[Julius]

GEPIK hire black teachers. The racist element will be quickly crushed if you have a good co-teacher. Definitely the better teaching option for you..

[i_teach_esl]

big friggin deal. perhaps koreans will discriminate to your face, as opposed to the states where they do it behind your back... we still know they're doing it. no difference. once again, being black doesnt stop us from doing a got-dammed thing. jaundice, my advice is keep applying, there is a job out there waiting for you.

[i_teach_esl]

*sigh* im sorry, Yo!Chingo, but this is really making me mad. my apologies, my anger is not directed right at you and i dont mean to target you. but good lord, white esl teachers have to deal with stares for a year? so what? you cant know what its like to have delt with stares and comments your whole life, and to continue to deal with it for the rest of your life. having it done behind your back, to your face with backhanded comments, by your boss, by your school mates, by your so called friends who swear they dont see color, having it done in political policy creating obstacles to obtaining unity or financial independence, it is just as bad, worse even, as someone calling you monkey to your face.

personally, i am forgiving of foreigners who descrimnate, b/c i am a guest in their country, and perhaps they've had little to no exposure to black culture. i am not tolerant of it here in the states, b/c this is my home and i should be able to do whatever the fvck i want.

everybody who reads this, please for the love of god, STOP ADVISING PEOPLE OF COLOR TO NOT GO TO KOREA. we KNOW our color is perceived as a strike against us, ok? we KNOW it already. we learned it back home a long, long time ago.

[dulouz]

I_teach_ESL,

Why are you knocking yourself out to get here? Don't obsess over this palce. If you want to teach ESL, join the Peace Corps, get a master degree while you serve and then work for the State Department with your hiring preference.

[i_teach_esl]

i only meant to express that i think white people shouldnt advise people of color to not come to korea. helpful advice is one thing, "So&so, there is a lot of discrimination here," i appreciate, but saying "dont come to korea" or "go to japan, they're more tolerant there" or "yeah, black people couldnt handle this, b/c im white and i cant handle it sometimes," i am saddened, angry even, that you dont find that a little insulting.

forgive if i come off as obsessive. but if i want to come to korea and go the hagwon route, then i can try if i want to. b/c im black, i should have to join the peace corps, get my masters, and find a place that maybe tolerates black people a little more? do you hear yourself, dulouz?

edited for spelling

[dulouz]

ESL is largely a bad career choice. Its unprofessional employment. I can say that because there are plenty of threads that refer to these jobs as McJobs. They are. These people are not real teachers. We don't assign grades, nor make real curricula, nor participate in the students' longitudinal growth. We make the cash registers go ka-ching and then leave town before the parents can really figure out what has gone on. Long term involvement here is not a good idea. There a few people here that have legitimate careers but most of us do not. The public school teachers have more comfortable accomodations but still they are in a postion not knowing if they are having any real effect in learning. Life here is an opiate.

These jobs for many of us here are easy to get but many times I wish they were not so. Its the same stuff every year and there is no growth. I would not give advice to anyone that I would not give to myself and as we speak I'm waiting form peace corps app to get approved. I have 10 years of fed gov't employment and that all applies to the 20 year state dept retirement. If you are young and have a degree, I'd recommend the military as an officer. Thats not bad but its still pretty dull. If you like languages, they always need more language workers.

I think you just need a job right now and that plane ticket and $500 a week plus housing looks really really good. Yea well, I can pee most of that money away quickly and the apt is really really small. It aint that great.

[Jaundice]

I taught English in Quebec for a year. It was in an incredibly remote area, where one other person was also a visible minority. This other person happened to be one of my students, and had been adopted into the town as a baby. As a result, the only thing that we had in common was a similar skin tone.

Therefore, I really felt like the only minority in town. For the first two months I was totally choked up about being treated differently. However, having spoken to my Mom on the phone one night I decided to take a completely different spin on the situation.

The pointing, the stares, the kids in the mall who would stop and point to me, the cars on the street that would stop and the occupants would stare, suddenly became comical to me. In fact, in one of my grade three classes, all the students would call me by the little black kid's name who is on that kids cartoon, Caillou. (I've blocked it!) I spent my entire time there attempting to tell them how inappropriate it was that they called me that.

So I started making a difference. I would walk out to the street, and inititiate conversations with the people in those cars. I allowed the students to ask me questions about why the bottoms of my feet, and my hands were light. I entertained it all, because I truly believed that I was a sort of martyr. If I am their first experience with a black person, then it sure as hell was going to be a positive one. I left that town knowing more about myself and earning a crap load of friends from the community.

I don't fear being different. What I fear is the lack of opportunity to display how positive being different can be. Giving up isn't an option to me. I mean, I have two degrees, and experience. I could get a job in Canada if I wanted it. But, Canada is not going to offer me the ability to learn about myself in the same ways, and about Korean culture is it?

Friends and family think that I am a glutton for punishment. I think I seek adventures. Sometimes adventures are scary. I want the ability to jump right in. My beef is that I'm not getting that opportunity because of my skin colour.

[guangho]

My advice to the OP is to really think about WHY you would like to come to SK- i.e., how does it fit in with your long-term goals? Even past the race thing, living in Korea ain't that great. You're living in a fishbowl, treated (at best) as a curiosity and not as an actual human being. Your acquiantances (not friends) will largely be either expats or Koreans mooching English lessons or looking at you as their exotic foreign friend to show off- like a new pet. The foreigners stick together out of desperation and need and there is very little reason for them to stick together EXCEPT for their foreigness and isolation. Imagine if you were in Noplacetogo, Wisconsin and there was one other Jamaican there. You might become friends ONLY because it's just you two- not a healthy basis for a relationship. Now imagine that the only other Jamaican in question was an alcoholic forty-five year old running from his native land to avoid credit card and child support payments. I have just described a hefty chunk of the Korean EFL community. (Except that they are not Jamaicans of course.) There are some terrific people here but I honestly believe that many people who teach EFL in South Korea do so because they have no other options.

My advice to palefaces is to quit whining. I had food thrown at me in the U.S. when they called me a foreigner and a dirty Jew. They set dogs on me every frigging day in high school. Get over it. Maybe being in the minority will teach some empathy for when (if) you go home.

My advice to anyone who has spent more than two years in hakwons is to immediately sober up and get qualified or get out of EFL entirely. Hakwons may be a great starting point and good for experience but a career it ain't.

[Jaundice]

guangho

Actually, it's part of my short term goals. It's like traveling, and living for awhile before I settle down. Two year isn't in my vocabulary for staying in Korea. One year however, I look forward to it. You had some great insight. Thanks.

Seriously...I hadn't given that much thought into the picture situation. The one I've been using was taken in a formal setting. A simple head shot, I was wearing a fancy dress, with an unobtrusive corsage. Now, I'm thinking lol...perhaps I should go and have another taken. Hmph...grad photo? photo in a military uniform better? More formal perhaps? I have those!

Lol...perhaps there should be a sticky where people can post their photos, and have them aprooved for forwarding to Korea lol. Sorry, couldn't resist.

[ChopChaeJoe]

What dulouz said is word.

Still, if a brother wants to come here, then the brother should come here and somebody help a brother out.

[i_teach_esl]

i think a photo of yourself in business attire is best, from shoulders up, or full body. wear a skirt or pant suit, in black, blue, or brown. no heeled flip flop deals (hmmm, not sure how popular those are outside of my state of california ), no baby doll sleeves exposing your shoulder (i vote with keeping the suit jacket on), show no tattoos, and no piercing other than ears. plain background, if you can. if you take it at home, maybe tack a bedsheet to the wall first. These are my suggestions b/c i've read a few posts directors who hire solely on photo.

those who are in korea, did your photo look formal?

edited b/c i had to correct some embarrassing spelling mistakes...

[Atassi]

[Dan The Chainsawman]

Either way if you want to come on over then just do it. Don't let anyone stop you from doing what you want to do. Korea is changing, slowly yes, but it is still changing and I have seen black teachers before. Just becareful you leave yourself an out option. Don't get trapped in the country due to lack of funds.

[T-dot]

Best bet would be to fly over and look in person. I know its a big gamble, but if you really want to be here; this is the best option. This goes for any teacher that isnt caucasian. Hagwons are on the bottom of the Korean education totem pole, they are a business first and an educational facility second. So, these same hagwon bosses might hire you because you're already in the ROK and saves them airfare and the hassle or worry that a teacher may not show up.

Your best bet would be through a "real" school, then probably an adult haggie rather than a kiddie one.