Korean Job Discussion Forums

[earthquakez]

I see here on the cafe there's an ad from Daegu University wanting an Instructor who will teach Tourism and Hotel Management.

In other Asian countries the university would require past or current employment experience in, guess what, Tourism and Hotel Management. Specifically teaching students in those courses, esp students who do not have English as their first language.

But Daegu University does not even specify that. Instead it's made clear that anybody without an MA will not be considered. So you can teach those courses in other Asian institutes (I knew people who specialised in that kind of English teaching, they don't have MAs but that never stopped them) but in Korea you are not good enough.

The email address has 'patrick' in it. If he's here on the cafe maybe he can tell us why an MA is so important but not real life teaching experience in those two areas. I'm interested because the more I live here, the odder the attitudes of Korean employers seem.

[bobbybigfoot]

Maybe they want an MA and experience. That makes more sense.

[earthquakez]

Yes maybe. But I'm surprised they don't mention that. BTW I've never worked/taught in that area but I do know people who have made careers out of that in other Asian countries and I can honestly say an MA would make not one jot of difference to their success.

On a similar theme, craigslist has a job that was advertised before but obviously they don't have suitable applicants. An airline company wants somebody to teach there but as the job is through a recruiter I have no idea what company that is.

They insist on a 'face interview' but wouldn't they be better off going on somebody's cv and recent photo? I honestly have never met any foreign English teacher in Korea who is qualified to teach at an airline company. They'd be best served recruiting from outside Korea but the Korean obsession with appearance makes them blind to this fact.

[oldtactics]

Are you sure that they're not hiring an English teacher to work in the Tourism department? My uni has English teachers in multiple departments.

[Junior]

[bobbybigfoot]

[happiness]

I thought so too, but I saw an ad today for some uni that would take a BA with 3 years teaching experience (on a uni level, but Im sure that could be changed)

[earthquakez]

[earthquakez]

[Adios_Corea]

[Kurtz]

^

What's decent pay? I met a real go-getter of a bloke recently. He's up in Seoul, been here 10 years, on an F-visa and his uni job was paying 2.1 million. He was highly qualified too; pathetic money!

A mate out in the sticks armed only with an online TEFL is also at a uni, and is on the same money. This is a 2nd rate uni at best.

Is it fair to say uni gigs aren't all they are made out to be? especially if they shove some kind of camp in the middle of your tasty break meaning you can only get out of Korea in 2 week blocks.

[Skyblue]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Some unis are worse than hagwons... I'd rather spend more time with students that I can actually work with as opposed to overgrown 12 year olds who ignore everything I say and try to charm me with their 'cute' behaviors in order to get a good mark.

[gay in korea]

I would suspect that the MA qualification is in there since it assumes those with an MA (not in TESOL) have some form of intelligence that goes beyond the easy as pie BAs that everyone and anyone can get. The idea being that if you have that MA you are probably intelligent enough to take the established curriculum and figure out how to teach it. This would be especially true of someone with an MA and X years teaching experience.

Now if I may disparage the MA in TESOL one more time, if you want to talk about why Unis don't get the best candidates, it's when they insist on the MA in TESOL rather than looking at someone who has X years of teaching experience and an MA from a reasonably high ranked university. As long as the course isn't english writing/grammar intensive, it's been my experience/assessment that many people with MAs in Tesol aren't the best teachers, are a bit awkward and lack the 'professional' presence that other MA holders have.

And with that slap across the face done, I will say this, with the changing nature of the industry a growing number of those seeking or acquiring MA in TESOL in recent years tend to be less 'awkward' and a better level of teacher.

[Junior]