Korean Job Discussion Forums

[earthquakez]

precious time.

I've scored a job in China, will be going there in April. No, I'm not going to tell you where and which recruiter because I've already posted a good link twice and if you google you will find plenty of English jobs in China.

I and my friends found the Chinese recruiters far more reliable than the lying, baiting and switching low lives that make up a lot of the Korean recruiter population.

I will make more money in China than I made at the last job in Korea. Minimum of 2 months' paid vacation each year. Utilites, cable tv and internet will be free along with the 2 bedroom accommodation. I am not going to Shanghai or Beiijing but I am going to a big city and the cost of living is very low.

Yes, I'm a very experienced teacher but even for newbs the jobs are out there. I'm a veteran of Japan, Taiwan and Korea teaching jobs as well as in the UK and western countries and I know when a job market is down the dumper. Many of you don't realise it's happening in Korea right now.

Appalling exchange rate, same old rotten little one room 'apartment's - do newbs undertand why Korea offers so called 'free apartments'? It's because most of them are cramped, horrible little places with paper thin walls and plumbing problems. MOST of the housing you get as part of your job is not free - it's taken into account with your salary.

When I saw the utter arrogance of many recruiters kick in around 3 yrs ago I understood that it was the beginning of the end of in Korea. I would really hate to be starting trying to find work in Korea. The recruiters are even worse now from what I am hearing.

Now you have to have all your expensive documents - and many good teachers are finding that paying a lot of money for apostilled documents won't even get them an email from a recruiter let alone a phone call. This is happening both outside and in Korea.

Korea is becoming Japan - and unlike Japan you don't own your own visa which is usually increased to 3 yrs after the first year. Korea is ignoring good teachers and encouraging the inexperienced so wages and conditions can be driven down even more all while the demands for expensive documents etc is being ratcheted up.

I've always thought Korean recruiters are mostly poisonous in their influence and they are worse now. STOP encouraging them. Don't get sucked in by craigslist where they are pretending they are offering jobs but really many of those English teaching jobs are recycled and are not different from the ones other recruiters are 'offering'.

Do the net research on China before so many go there and it becomes the flooded, mostly garbage market that Japan and Korea are.

Just Say 'No' to Korean Recruiters and Korean English Teaching 'Jobs'.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[World Traveler]

The Urban Myth, it's only a matter of time before EPIK cuts their pay scales like GEPIK did. What will you do then? Heck, maybe public school jobs will be cut/phased out completely. Or maybe you will be replaced by someone younger, prettier, and cheaper than you. (Maybe you will be replaced by a female.) To claim (with certainty) the job market in Korea is not going downhill is pretty ridiculous on your part.

[LHolter]

Man, that seemed really doom and gloom. I'm in contact with a few different teachers in hogwans who love their jobs. I don't think it's all bad and I think touting China as better is misleading. I initially looked into China, but you can't get a legal working visa there until you are at least 24. In some rural areas, this is not the case, but rural areas also pay far less than Korea or Japan. Plus it's about 50/50 whether or not the school will provide any accommodation. If they do not, they usually provide a living stipend that is only enough to rent a room, not a full apartment. And barely any Chinese jobs cover airfare upfront. It is usually reimbursed (partially) at the end of the contract.
So yes, teaching in China has its benefits, but also its drawbacks, much like teaching in Japan or Korea.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[World Traveler]

[World Traveler]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[nicwr2002]

Stop the doom and gloom. China is dirty with the littering worse than Korea. Let's not mention the air pollution. Then one might say, "Well, I'm not living in Beijing, so the air is cleaner." According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, industrial pollution has made cancer China�s leading cause of death.
Every year, ambient air pollution alone killed hundreds of thousands of citizens.
500 million people in China are without safe and clean drinking water.
Only 1% of the country�s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union, because all the China's major cities are constantly covered in a "toxic gray shroud". Before and during the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing was "frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics."

Let's not forget, China is a communist country where people aren't free to express themselves. It's not all blue skies in China, there are some drawbacks.

[World Traveler]

Check this out:

http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/rankings_by_country.jsp

Compared to the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, or the UK, South Korea has horrible pollution. Absolutely awful.

But...it is not as bad as the pollution in China.

[Fox]

[KiwiRob]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[World Traveler]

Bakersfield is the absolute worst in the U.S. in terms of air pollution. Yet Seoul's air is worse. (And if I am not mistaken there are cities in Korea with significantly worse air than Seoul. Daegu maybe?) Pretty much every Korean city is way worse than the typical American city in terms of air pollution. Not relevant to anyone's life? Are you sure about that?

[cam83]