Korean Job Discussion Forums

[danielESL]

Hello
Have any of you taught in the College English Program at SNU? I have been offered a position there beginning March 1 and I have to make up my mind soon. I am especially curious to learn what kind of professional support and development they offer their teachers, what kind of materials/resources they have available, the energy and enthusiam of the student-body, and what kind of freedom teachers have in the classroom, or put another way, whether or not teachers have to teach a prescribed curriculum.

I understand that this is a top university in Korea; however, I want to find out if this is also a top PROGRAM before making a commitment. They people I have spoken with over the phone seem very professional and dedicated, but I would really like to hear some first-hand accounts from those of you out there who have some to share. I would be quiting a very decent job in the states if I accept this position... hence my hesitance to jump at what is probably an excellent opportunity.

Thank you very much.

[PRagic]

The fact that they are looking to hire you out of the U.S. when there are a ton of (over) qualified people already here in Korea should tell you something. They have gutted the program and substantially cut salaries and benefits, so none of the foreign teachers there are going to renew, and none of the highly qualified people already in Korea want the job. It is no longer one of the best places to work, pure and simple. The general concencus is that they want to bring in people from outside, some even without university teaching experience, so that they have more pliable foreign work force. The people there now that I know are cool, but, then again, all of them are leaving!

The program USED to be the fantastic, but it has gone way down hill. I don't work there, but quite a few of my best friends do, and I've been in Korea quite a while. I'm at a top university, and we all hang out. To address your points:

1) Professional support and development? None. I had a friend there who could not get support to attend international conferences. In fact, he was told NOT to go! Can you imagine telling a faculty member to NOT go to a seminar and give a paper? Your opinion will be listed to and summarily ignored. Welcome to SNU!

2) Materials and resources: Think they have decent resources in the way of movies and ESL teaching materials and the like. Most people I know there are highly experienced, and say that a) the system to use the resources is not very affable, and 2) they have their own personal resources, so they don't really need them.

3) Energy and enthusiasm of students: I've heard good things about the students. Enthusiastic? Hmmm. They only have to take one semester of English to graduate. Some students take the advanced classes, but most expect high grades or they drop. ALL of the teachers I've known from SNU have complained about the set-up of the program. Guess they had some consultants come in from Hawaii, but the department pretty much blew off everything suggested. My friends there are all professional with TESL backgrounds. Their biggest problem is that the program is run by Korean professors from the English department that have no background in teaching ESL. There is a lot of ego, too, on the part of management, and no presense of any international employee management experience.

4) Freedom in the classroom: The college English classes are all taught from a prescribed book or two. Grading scales are actaully dictated by the program (e.g. X percentage of students can get As and Bs, but X percent MUST be given Cs or below. Freedom? Hmmm. No.

My friends' BIGGEST complaint has to do with the remuneration package. The department no hires people on at 2.5, plus a housing allowance (although the university housing costs more than the allowance!), and there are no pay increases over the 3 year term limit. This was supposedly done to bring the basic, freshman English teachers in line with the teachers of basic math and Korean language, other mandatory classes. HOWEVER, the English teachers are still expected to teach and develop advanced classes on a variety of subjects. Pay for some there has been cut from 5000-12,000 per year! NO foreigner teachers that I know of there are renewing given the new, and substantially worse, contract terms. You should also know that the department was taken to the labour board twice, and lost, over issues related to post-employment severance issues. If you do take the job, at least you'll not have to deal with those issues.

How do I know this? Because I asked a lot of people a lot of questions and heard nothing positive at all. I was thinking of giving it a go, too, but no way. There are other universities that pay better and are much nicer places to be. I'll be at one of them next semester. Still, you might want to take the job just to get your feet wet. Get the SNU name on your resume, then dump it as soon as you can get a better deal! Hope this helped.