Korean Job Discussion Forums

[World Traveler]

Why ESL in Korea will never return to being an employee's market ever again:

The low birthrate

South Korea has the lowest birthrate in the entire world. It is significantly lower than China's. What does this mean for you (aside from the declining usefulness of the Korean language)? Besides there being less public school students and hagwon students, there will also be less university students. The birthrate has been dropping for a long time (meaning the birthrate 20 years ago was lower than the birthrate 25 years ago, etc., etc.). The 조선 일보 recently reported a decline in university enrollment in Korea, with the expectation this would only continue (and to a greater degree) in the future.

Acceptance of longer working hours

The more hours you work (most often for no increase in pay) the less jobs there are to go around. In the olden days, when foreigners were scarce in Korea, 학원 owners would have to entice the Westerners to come with promises of low working hours. Now, with a flooded market, people are willing to work longer and longer hours for the 2.1 million, which in turn floods the market (affects the supply side) even more.

An overall improvement in English among (some) Koreans

This matters in many more ways than you would suspect. We�ve all heard about how Korean teachers in public schools have gotten to such a high level of English that the native Western English teachers are no longer needed. This cost us waygooks a couple thousand jobs. It�s not just in the public school market that is being impacted by this, though; it is having a huge impact on the market as a whole. With each passing year, there are more and more Koreans who have at one point in their life spent time living overseas. What does this mean? It means they are now able to speak English coherently enough to trick other Koreans (who can�t speak English hardly at all) into thinking they are Western born 교포s. This is happening on a very wide scale and is having BIG impact on the privates market and hagwon market. Hagwon bosses (with or without the knowledge of the native Korean teacher) tell the students and parents this teacher is a native speaker. The Korean citizen teachers who can speak English well enough (though with inaccurate pronunciation and incorrect grammar) to form complete sentences, and thus teach in 100% English are the �native� English teachers, while those who teach the English classes in 95%+ Korean are the kids� �Korean� teachers. The reason I know this is happening is because I have so many Korean friends working in the English teaching industry. One girl I knew was telling me a story about how she had to tell the middle school aged students at the hagwon she taught she was a Westerner who didn�t know any Korean. The kids called her a *beep* to her face a laughed at her and she said she had to pretend she didn't understand and smile and act like nothing happened and then would go home and cry everyday. Pretty messed up on the part of the students, and the girl who was telling me this wanted sympathy from me. I told her she was dishonest for posing as a native speaker. I told this to other Koreans I know too and they often rationalize what they are doing (lying by telling a fake story about their background to the students) by saying it would be too expensive for the boss to hire a real native English teacher because the boss would have to pay for a plane ticket, etc. WTFs up with that? >_<

Perception of the job market back home

What matters not is the actual state of the job market, but the perception of how bad it is.

People believe kooky things (such as Alex Jones conspiracy theories). Is it inconceivable they could have a less than 100% accurate grasp of the state of the job market?

Now, is there some correlation between how bad the Western economy is, and how people perceive it to be? Of course. Is there also divergence? Yes.

Renewal rates for E2s are higher than in the past. Why? Because people are afraid to go home. They heard the economy is terrible and there are no jobs to be found in their home countries. Is this true? No. But (some) people believe it.

Increased awareness of Korea and ESL in general

This is by far the biggest factor changing the market. By far. People who get into emerging markets do the best. Think of dotcoms in their early stages. People in that market were making a fortune. But now look at how far wages in ESL have dropped in South America, Europe, and elsewhere around the globe. The decrease has been going on for a long time, long before 2008.

Technological advancements

Rosetta Stone matters. So does the ability to hire a Filipino speaker over Skype. I was just having coffee today and I was surprised to see the placemat was an advertisement for Rosetta Stone.

Of the kids I tutored for 50,000 an hour, two of them mentioned to me about having a Filipino skype teacher. I wondered to myself why the parents of these kids were paying so much to me, when they could get a teacher for so much cheaper. Shortly thereafter, I was dropped, and I eventually lost all my other students too. A year ago I was making big money in the privates market, but not anymore. It sucks to lose thousands of dollars.

Speaking of Filipinos, they are coming to Korea in increasingly greater numbers. They are willing to work for cheap. Why? The money they earn in Korea goes a long way in the Philippines. Stuff is so cheap there. Also, they grew up poor (for the most part), so the money they can earn in Korea, even at a rate much lower than a United Statesian, is good money for them.

Two years ago, posts like this were common (and they are still today):

[misher]

You're doing a job that doesn't take a lot of skill to do

You can blame it on the Koreans or lax hiring standards but the fact of the matter is, ESL in the States or Canada, or EFL in other areas of the world has never really had a particularly high barrier to entry. The way I see it, unless you're in a profession that requires a complex skill-set that takes years of mastery and governed by a regulatory body, you shouldn't be surprised that ESL teaching wages are going down. Even with the diploma mill/pay for the degree ubiquitous MA TESOLs that are becoming more common place aren't changing things but merely requiring more paper for what joe blow did (and probably did well even with the "qualifications") in 1992 with only a BA in basket weaving. In the pockets of the world where salaries were artificially high, they are now being brought down to earth by the competitive market for labour. EFL salaries in South Korea are now about on par with what they would be if you were doing the same thing at home. So welcome to the real world. $19-$22/hour excluding prep without significant wage increases year to year. This is one of the reasons why I got out of ESL/EFL in the first place. Didn't mind doing it, but the writing was on the wall and I didn't want to be 48 years olf facing age discrimination, fighting it out for extra part time gigs and making pretty much teh same salary as I did 10 years earlier. I know some here will chime in and say "speak for yourself" but what I have to say is that the newbies getting into it now are going to face challenges that the 40/50 somethings lucked out on. You came to the right place and the right time. If I was 26 years old thinking about doing an MA in TESOL, I'd think twice. Because the money and success (job satisfaction/good work life balance etc) that the old-timers made/had, while not 100% impossible to get, is going to be increasingly hard to achieve as you get older. It could be said that this is true for all jobs/careers everywhere, even back home but I see ESL/EFL as one of the most vulnerable.

[Grim Ja]

Although I am no longer in Korea, I have talked with many of my friends who are still in the game and they say that the money is still there for the taking. Parents who expect the best for themselves and their kids are still willing to pay for it. I have heard that the private schools are in decline because students attend more personalized tutoring lessons with fewer classmates and a more flexible schedule.

[War Eagle]

They took our jobs!!

[Squire]

Great post. What advice would you give to someone trying to make it as an ESL teacher in Korea? Someone who is married here and has little choice other than staying

[ttompatz]

At the time of the World Cup (2002) there were about 6000 E2s working in Korea.
At its peak (2010ish) there were about 30,000 E2s working in Korea.
That number has since dropped off to about 22,000.

The market is flooded by applicants from the States who are burdened by debt, young and willing to travel or older and desperate to find work after being displaced in the States and have heard that ESL in Korea is a way out of their debt crises.

10 years ago I was hard pressed to find an American's job application.
Today I get about 150 people per week (from the States) asking about working in Korea or jobs in ESL and the GPOE probably fields about 10 applications per day (year round) from Americans.

While the job market (for EFL teachers) may seem to be in decline it is overall actually quite stable with the number of jobs still at a fairly high level (4 times higher than in 2002).

Is it an employer's market = yes.
Is it a dying market = no.
Is it a maturing market = yes. I think it will shrink slightly but will hold at about the 20,000 E2s level in the longer run (next decade or so).
Like Japan the craze has slowed, the market has stabilized (in terms of overall job numbers) and will sustain itself at close to present levels.

For those who want the wild and wooly days of the last decade in Korean EFL they should look to China. It is very much like post IMF Korea and is a place where those with a sense of adventure and the wherewithal to "go get it" can do very well.

.

[creeper1]

This thread is way, way off. Hey world traveler that YOUR narrative.

The narrative I hear about Korea is that nothing has changed.

Tons of money to be made and great jobs remain.

Just because you struggle doesn't mean anyone else does.

I think the majority of people won't recognise your description of Korea.

(They'll be too busy making bank doing privates

)

[Dodge7]

I have long blamed social media like Facebook. Idiots posting pictures of getting wasted in bars with Korean chicks all around them and pics of temples and mountains and writng an 안녕! (btw, no one cares you can speak a little Korean so just stop) makes them think that they are cultured now and "cool". But they look like tools.

[World Traveler]

[happiness]

13 years here. I think the money is still there, but I think ESLers have to do a bit of networking and improving their image, to distinguish themselves, a bit of branding. Press some flesh, so to say.

EVen when this generation is grown and have kids, theyll still want foreigners to teach their kids, they know very well how our co-teachers may or may not have be as effective.

[War Eagle]

Everyone will have different opinions on this matter from what they have "heard" from others or what they have experienced. But, it's all speculation unless you start to examine raw statistics like ttompatz posted.

Personally, 5 years ago I got a job in Gangnam teaching 3 hours a day in under 24 hours. 3-4 years ago I constantly landed part-time, after part-time jobs that paid well. 1-2 years ago it seemed I couldn't find decent part-times/privates to save my life. I hated that time in Korea.

This year, I honestly turn down 3-4 jobs a week because I can't possibly work anymore and still have a social life. I get calls for part-time and hagwons alike. Some of these are my go-to guys and some are those who have found my resume posted on "that other site" that I haven't topped in almost 6 months.

Everyone will tell you a different story. For some it's bad, for others it's: money, money, money. MONEY!!

[mayorhaggar]

The job market sucks badly in the US, and the cost of living keeps going up while you're supposed to feel lucky to get a $12 an hour job. Good luck renting a decent apartment, having a car, getting a date, raising a family on that kind of salary, and good luck finding any kind of job security. I'm going to stay here in SK until it gets better. If you don't like Korea then there's nothing stopping you from leaving, I'm doing better than I was in the US. I don't see doing ESL here as a long-term career either but in the short term I'm not going to force myself to be miserable like a lot of people on this site or others.

I think the market being more competitive has just as much to do with the US economy (and maybe the stuttery UK's) as it does with factors in Korea. In any case I found it pretty straightforward to get a job with EPIK.

It wouldn't surprise me though if they strongly curtailed programs like EPIK, they've already curtailed SMOE and GEPIK positions.

[World Traveler]

[Otherside]

[World Traveler]