Korean Job Discussion Forums

[waterbaby]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/australian-teachers-high-and-dry-in-japan/2007/10/26/1192941340599.html

I wonder what effect (if any) this will have on the teaching scene in Korea. Will Korea be flooded by ex-Nova teachers from Japan?

Does anyone know anyone affected by this in Japan?

[eamo]

I'd dare say quite a lot will come to Korea. The other Japanese ESL employers can't absorb 5000 teachers all at once.

I'll be taking any opportunity to make those teachers eat crow if I see them working here in Korea. When I worked in Japan they would never get sick of telling me that korea was a third-world country with an unstable economy and that I shouldn't ever go back there. Ha!

[waterbaby]

LOL Eamo.

I don't think it will effect teachers currently working in Korea (unless they're looking for a new job) but more so those that are in their home countries and looking for work in Korea - they could be looking at a lot of competition, especially if there are people on the ground in Korea looking for a job.

[VanIslander]

Will Koreans want to hire (a) Korean-experienced ESLers; (b) newbie ESLers; or (c) Japanese-experienced ESLers?

I suspect that they will be on the bottom of the food chain from a Korean perspective?

Five years in Japan, talking about the Japanese... nothing about that appeals to the Koreans

[Jeff's Cigarettes]

[Hollywoodaction]

I would think that other schools will open up and the existing ones will expand...but that could take up to 6 months, even a year. So, yeah, I think that many of the newly out of work teachers in Japan will end up in Korea within the next few weeks ready to take any of the reported 12000 jobs that nobody wants. Unfortunately, in their haste to find a job, some of them will be setting themselves up to get screwed over once again.

[bassexpander]

Correct me if i'm wrong (I've never taught in Japan) but I heard most teachers have their own housing. Maybe they could turn a fair number of these students into privates, which are legal in Japan, until they find other work?

Japan has a large ESL industry, and its not like these students will disappear. They'll be picked-up somewhere, somehow. And teachers will still be needed for them.

Most teachers love Japan, and I'm sure many will try to stay around any way they can. Some might think it's time to give Korea a try, but they probably have to be here, in many cases, to pick up a job that's not hagwon hell.

Think of that.... Japan teacher who has experience thrown into Korean hagwon. Not sure how that one would work? Maybe we'd have a lot of runners after 6 months due to culture shock and having to endure the inefficiency and stupidity of the average Korean hagwon owner.

I think we need that KennyKimchi guy to comment. He lived and worked there.

[lastat06513]

Wow.....
I think this might (and I use the word "might" very loosely) have a small impact on the ESL industry in Korea, as Korean ESL "experts" took their queues from their counterparts in Japan.
Seeing one of the biggest franchise schools (one with a solid financial reputation- contrary to what most people think) go belly up might be a sign that the institutionized language learning industry might be in peril. At least in Japan and to a small extent Korea (China, where ESL is just starting to gain popularity, is a different story all together).

I would say that the best type of employers to start thinking about, even for newly arriving foreign ESLers, would be the public school sector, especially programs like EPIK, GEPIK, JETT, Westgate, etc. because although these programs have their quirks (as in the private sector), they seem to be alittle more stable than the conventional language institute.

Another thing to think about is that maybe ESL teaching is not as much of an instant money maker as it used to be.
Still, there is money to be made in the industry, but the chances of finding a reputable employer is slim while the chances of getting cheated might be greater.

The best job I worked at was in business for 40 years prior to closing its doors in 2004 due to the change to how the tourguide license exam was conducted. When I got hired, I was promised that I would be working for a school with a rock-solid reputation (and it did, because I got a job at a college based on my experience working for this institute)- however, after 2 and half years of working there, they said they had to close its doors because financial problems....and it took me a year before I landed what would be my last job in Korea.

This is a prime example of how shaky the ESL industry truly is; yet, it can be a worthy career.

I think the best thing people should do, if they intend on staying in the industry (though many people don't) would be to attain a masters degree or even a PhD. Korea is a cool place to further a person's education by taking online courses or even some MA-TESOL courses held at some Korean universities that are sponsored by some western universities...
Even if a person does continue being an ESL teacher, they should use their time to improve their employment prospects so they can be more marketable once they go home, which is what most people will intend on doing anyway once they are done with Korea.....right?

People should think more about what they will do later instead of just living in "the now"....

As for many Japan ESLers coming to Korea, I think alot of them would contemplate the move, yet I agree that alot of them would either try their damnest to stay in Japan or to go home........I have a friend who had lived in Japan for about 14 years and she asked me about China of all places .....I hooked her up with a recruiter I know in Guangzhou and now she is working at a uni making 8000rmb a month for 18 hours a week.......talk about somebody who owes me

[Hollywoodaction]

[Ilsanman]

They believe that because it does really belong to Japan.

[pest2]

I would bet alot of them would go to Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, etc... More than or at least the same as the numbers coming to Korea.

People dont live in Japan to save money. The expats there have chosen quality of life over pay. Korea is pay over quality of life. Seems like they'd be more inclined to go to some place more like Japan...

[jdog2050]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Are all 5,000 of them foreign teachers?

[lastat06513]

[Natalia]