Korean Job Discussion Forums

[htrain]

How long do you think the jobs are going to last here? Some people say hurry up and get in now while you can, others say forever. I personally think that we've got maybe 5 years of good job opportunity here before Vietnam, China, and (MAYBE) Russia start to up the stakes and offer better stuff. What do you think?

If someone else posted this question before and you wanna flame me for it, please refrain. Updated viewpoints, new ideas, and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Russian doesn't need us and Vietnam can't afford us. China will be a huge, growing market, however.

I'm confident we still have at least a decade here, perhaps longer with the new stress on interactive iBT.

[Mosley]

When a school does hire a Western teacher in Vietnam, they pay a damned good buck to get him/her there. Plenty of jobs in China, but 90% of them pay crap.

[Juregen]

There are of course many important forces we need to take into account

1. Worldwide shortage of teachers
Because a. Rising demand and b. Dropping supplies

2. Increasing economic welfare in non-english speaking countries, but most economic activity still depending on English.

To me its obvious that non-native speaking english teachers will have to be hired eventually, if just to curb costs. The current hegemony of native speakers can not be sustained.

[Julius]

[htrain]

Here's the thing about China. Yes, it's illegal to teach when you don't have a proper visa, but no one cares. No one enforces anything.

I was working in Guangzhou. Here is the secret if anyone ever wants to work in China: Get a business visa. I paid like $250 for it, I'm American though... Aussies can get it for like $50. Then I just taught 5 part time jobs. It kinda sucked sometimes jumping from place to place, but they pay $20-30/hour US and it's easy to find. It's not on par with Korea yet, but the cost of living is cheap.

My friend said he was just in Vietnam and was immediately approached and asked if he was there to teach. The guy told him he can get him all the work he can handle at $20US/hour. I think the market in Vietnam IS growing.

I started watching the Shanghai jobs two years ago and they were around 10,000 rmb (US 1350 give or take) and now I've seen up to 18,000rmb... US 2400. A lot of things about China suck, I came here for a reason... but I think there are gonna be more profitable places than Korea to teach in the fairly near future.

A lot of Chinese people are becoming rich, and most of them only have one kid. Guess what, they want you to teach him/her and they love bragging about their overpriced English tutor at c0cktail parties with other snobs.

[MarionG]

The biggest problem with China is that a salary on which you can live quite well, translates into way less than $1000 US, so that savings opportunities are next to nil.

China is unlikely to decide that English teachers are worth 5 times what a local teacher earns, and local teachers would be incensed by this (can you blame them) so it may be a while before China is really in the running.

[jinju]

[htrain]

[htrain]

[Corky]

I don't think we have to worry about the Mormons taking our jobs from us.

Five years ago, people predicted the-end-of-whatever-they-think-is-going-to end-here in five years due to China's growing economy.

Five years before that, they did the same thing for other reasons.

Five years before that, they said the whole thing would only last ten years.

I'm pretty sure that five years from now people will ask the same question.

The wonderful thing about this job is that if it ever gets to the point where they don't pay you enough money, there's always someone somewhere else that will. However, we'll have to wait another five years to find out.

[Julius]

I doubt an army of mormons are about to fill the entire esl market.

As for boosting the Korean economy...re-unification is about the only thing to spur it into a new growth phase now I think

[jaderedux2]

Actually I am thinking about teaching in China. The food costs are lower. The school would give me a 2 bedroom apartment and pay utilities. Air con is included in the apartment. Computer with Internet is included. There is school cafeteria with discounted meals. Free Chinese Lessons. More vacation.

Yes I will be making about 2/3 of what I make here but without the higher expenses of living in Seoul. They organize trips to different tourist places for discounted prices and I would be teaching in a relatively smallish town only about 1.5 million. Liberal Arts University.

I am seriously considering it especially after this last crap they pulled with all the freaking verifications.

Jade

[fromtheuk]

If the farce of asking GEPIK teachers to prove they have degrees is anything to go by, it seems the Korean education system would have to make well-organized plans for esl jobs to dry up in Korea. I don't think they are capable of that right now.

The only thing that could cause the Koreans to end the esl industry would be if some of the fraudster/criminal teachers here kept making headlines for all the wrong reaons or if Koreans could find their own English speaking teachers, as authentic-sounding as native speakers.

I may well be wrong, but I think this job will be available for the rest of my working life, not that I'm counting on it mind you.

[htrain]

A.) The food prices in China are cheap because the quality is awful and there is no nutrition. Even Chinese people hate their own rice. Watch out, that two bedroom apartment will likely be shite.

B.) I think that the English teacher demand will keep up here because they think this will help spur the new development... and it will take a while to figure out that it's not really doing much .. then someone will put a new spin on it or a new learning methodology that will get tried. Maybe?

I have yet to find a place (besides Saudi Arabia ... yuck) where I can make as much as here.