Korean Job Discussion Forums

[asmith]

A guy named Brian in jeollanam-do gives SMOE hell in today's Korean Herald.

I don't have a link. I just have a subscription to the paper.

He basically tells SMOE how naughty they were to strand 100 foreigners.

I agree.

[CentralCali]

Link.

[Smee]

There are two important issues here I think, if you don't mind me taking the floor.

1) Yeah, SMOE was naughty. They screwed up, then they kind of blamed foreign teachers themselves for being unreliable. (Though as I mention in this post, the reporter for that article is notoriously bad, and could have made the quotations up himself.) So far as I know we've heard nothing from SMOE---except from that unnamed spokeswoman---and this is a nasty blow to their reputation. It's disrespectful to the teachers they put out, and it's a sad indictment of our standing as "teachers."

Then again, a lot of newcomers don't do their homework, and will probably have no idea about this when they sign their contracts next summer.

2) But, it's also an important lesson for teachers that the market probably won't be in our favor. With the bad economy back home, Korea is getting more and more applicants---even in spite of the bad reputation, which many people might not even know about---and employers can afford to be choosy. Then again, do schools even know "quality" and will they be willing to pay for it?

But it's an important reminder that job markets are often unfriendly. People are often let go, bosses often change their minds, contracts are often not renewed. People come on here and cry foul, but to whom can they cry? Who's listening?

I do think SMOE should be held accountable, but the only way that'd happen is if teachers demand an explanation. If a school pulls something fishy, or illegal, there is little recourse.

From what I can tell, this only made the paper twice: the half-assed Korea Times article, and this opinion piece. Not in the Korean papers, and if it weren't for this site, the news wouldn't have gotten out at all.

Anyway, my fuller thoughts on today's Herald piece are here: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2009/09/in-herald-writing-about-smoe-firings.html

[Captain Corea]

I actually missed the news.

What was the original piece?

edit: nm, I can see it in your link. Thanks man.

[asmith]

[flarestar]

I think anyone that has reading comprehension can tell just how biased the Korea times article was. Some newspaper agency.

[ardis]

[bassexpander]

Good job.

This news has certainly been around the different job boards for ESL teachers worldwide. I know teachers in Japan are talking about it.

Korea's ESL reputation took a HUGE hit as a result of this.

[asmith]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I am stunned, stunned. I never thought I would see the day when the Korea Herald ran a story that wasn't about how Korea exported more turnips to Iceland than Japan did last year. My respect level for the Herald has gone up for running this, just as my respect for the Times has plummeted in light of the fact that they continue to publish Schertzer's shock-talk rants. Excellent article, Brian. It establishes the argument cleanly without sounding whiny.

It is probably true that in the short run there will be enough of a supply of teachers to enable the industry here to abuse people. But in the long run, as China modernizes and becomes more prosperous, there will be fierce competition from there and Vietnam for teachers. The fact that a government agency and not a fly-by-night chain or hogwan hired people and then broke their contracts before the positions even started is the sort of thing that will stain ESL here for years.

I'll go all philosophical here, but in the end, despite whatever the world economy is or whatever factor we might bring up, you get what you pay for. If you treat workers badly, you will get bad workers.

Ken:>

[gaffe]

English in the public schools there will long continue to suck. The admin deserves it. Screw them. The parents should care. I know they want to micromanage everything at the hogwans where their little snowflakes attend. Do they care about the public schools?

[ardis]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

[bassexpander]

I'm looking at the positive side of this.

SMOE has managed to ruin the reputation of Korea as a destination for serious educators/certified teachers. The story has made it to forums as far as the NEA (National Education Association) website in the USA, as well as others.

Thanks to this, I feel my teaching experience, degrees, and TESOL certification will be more than enough to guarentee me a job here for quite a while.

I no longer harbor any fears of the hiring pool becoming saturated with more "real" teachers. That's become a non-issue, as the Korean Public School system's reputation/reliability is now in the crapper. From now on, they'll have to contend with recent college grads who don't know any better, backpackers who will use them and run, and economic refugees who have no teaching skills.

[steveinincheon]

The problem is that as long as the economy is bad back home it will not be a teacher's market as in the past. Also, in a few months this will be old news and newbs applying for public school jobs will most likely not have access to this story. As it stands now this forum and a couple of obscure articles in the English language press are the only sources of publicity for the SMOE decision. However, in a few months this discussion will be buried deep in the forums and those first timers applying for public school jobs won't likely dig that deep. Unless...

we can create a sticky in the job related forum to warn potential teachers of previous problems with the SMOE. Of course this is an oligarchical rather than a democratically run site, so it is probably unlikely that such a sticky will ever be created. So we the users of ESL Cafe should make an effort to bump the SMOE threads during the months when mass hiring takes place so at least applicants realize that there is an inherent risk to working at a public school.

I guess this whole SMOE issue hits home hard with me, because after graduation I placed all my eggs in the teaching in Korea basket and thus chose a public school job because I thought that my salary would be guaranteed and not dependent on a boom and bust cycle. At the very least future applicants to SMOE and EPIK should no that they are no safer applying there than they are to any run of the mill Hagwon.