Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Butterfly]

I've done it all now. Ten years in TEFL, different countries, nice experiences, beautiful women, interesting people. New jobs easily found, in fact new countries easily found. It's a nice job though it is hard work always generating new ideas, and keeping oneself top of the game and from burning out.

But on days like today, I realize its all bollocks. A lot of people here at Dave's complain about the Korean hogwon owner, but unversally I complain about the owners of schools in this industry. They are fuggin sharks, the lot of them.

I saw an ad for a DOS recently in the UK Times Ed, it seems, as in the USA the universities are cutting through the middle man and opening their own english language centers on campus, realizing of course, how much money can be made (they would contest this of course and claim they want to provide an extra service for their students) by advertising language courses through their usual marketing channels and hiring teachers to teach the courses for fugg-all pay. They of course, also don't have to pay the agency fees that independant schools have to pay. The ad was for the Director of Studies of a new English center at London Institute. 26,000 pounds p.a. Twenty six thousand pounds for a stressful, responsible job running a school that will make oodles of cash, barrow loads of it. In central London, one would struggle to live in a bedsit on that money. This industry really pisses me off.

I took both my Certificate and later, my Diploma and I know lots of others who have taken or are taking their MATESOL. For what? The same money as someone who has no teaching qualifications. There are teachers I know who have never been able to afford to get married and do the mortgage, settling, pipe and slippers stuff. They know they made a wrong decision somewhere along the line since they are intelligent people, but they are now at the mercy of a greedy, unaccountable industry, constantly looking for new markets of people to rip-off having burned and exploited the last one. This industry does not care about either the teachers or the students, and the big companies; are every bit as dodgy as the small ones as one can see from reading this board.

I'm okay, I made some investments, I save money in Korea, I'm going to be okay but I've been very lucky at certain junctures and was able to pull in cash from sources outside this pisspot industry. I can make money here and there. I do a lot of privates which pay well (funny how you CAN make money working for yourself). But believe me people I've seen others who have had their lives ruined by this industry for having the blind faith that somewhere along the line they'd be able to make some money working at their stupid private schools, and for naively thinking their bosses gave a damn about them.

So, young people, come to Korea and enjoy, work hard in everything you do especially your teaching. Then do a spell in China maybe, or Japan, Mexico. Maybe just go teach in Czech Republic or something and enjoy the skiing. But GET OUT of this industry while you are still young enough to do something else, do not waste your life hoping for a break in EFL/ESL ~ there aren't any, unless you work for yourself.

[Skarp]

I second a lot of what you've just said.

Thing is - the same can be said for a lot of industries. They are about making money - nothing more than that....

In TEFL - you don't make much money. It's especially bad in the UK which is where I am moving to Korea from. I too have my diploma and have worked in some OK schools here....but the industry is dying on its feet. University language centres are stealing the students and ripping them off. The schools can manufacture instant teachers for the Summer glut and just shut down for 3-4 months off season.

Yes - it's not any kind of career path worth considering seriously - but seriously what is? TEFL is an open door even the weakest candidate can open somehow - and many discover an enjoyable way to make a living of sorts. Better than the alternative anyway.


There are no jobs for life anymore. I wonder if there ever was? Well maybe shuffling paper in a civil service office - but I'm not built for that.


Skarp

[Psy]

First of all, realize not all EFL/ESL teachers are involved or teach in hagwons. Many begin their careers this way and now a decent amount of them work for universities, the media, and even the government.

As teachers, we are respected and have a part in molding the future of the students that we teach. However, I know that most people in this field did not become teachers because they love teaching or to become rich. We all know this is not the field to enter to make loads of money. I assume that most, like me, became EFL/ESL teachers because of the variety of cultures we are able to experience. (I would have probably been a High School Math teacher if I didn't) I also experienced the worst of the worst DoS, but that does not discourage me.

An MA in TEOSL is actually very useful. University requirements to teach ESL in the United States include at least an MA TOESL. (along with state certification, college supervised teaching, etc) If you plan on working in hagwons your whole life, then you can throw that MA in the trash. My belief is that more education never hurts (only helps).

When you find that job, working 20-30 hours a week, hardly any weekends, waking up at 12 in the afternoon to teach your night classes all while making more money than the average native college graduate who works 80 hours a week (including weekends) in a large corporation, please tell me you've found you're break.

[FierceInvalid]

I hear what you're saying. I sometimes worry about inadvertently becoming a lifer, simply because I can't think of anything else to do. I refuse to be a paper-pusher in any sector of the corporate world, to the point where I'd happily give up the possibility of a family to keep from doing it. Not sure where that leaves me. At least I've got a bit of time.

[waggo]

Dont take advice from obvious losers with no imagination.

Stay in the industry and make a change to it yourself.

I hate posts by people who know everything

[Butterfly]

[Gladiator]

While I agree with Butterfly there are actually some individuals, believe it or not, who live for TEFL and find continuous, endless contentment from it day in or day out. The contentment's either emotional (they're in a country they love, they're going native, married to a local), financial and occasionally professional. Yeah life Teflers have never made serious bread from their work apart from a few who took stupendously lucrative Saudi/Aerospace contracts back in the halcian days, but contented these few seem.

For me TEFL was never a life career option but a stepping stone onto other banks of opportunity. I too couldn't stay in it because the capitalism behind it's so dishonest and, if not harnessed properly, impacts very negatively on a teacher's work. I can't name my previous employer but it's enough to say they regard themselves as the Real Madrid of EFL. After two years of 6 hour back-to-back slot shifts (two YL classes followed by two adult) I found myself so exhausted and my thought process so impaired that I just couldn't deliver minimum standard CELTA work anymore so I quit. Organisational greed makes you compromise your professionalism.

Also, I think Seoul is one of the scariest places to work in "Factory English" mode. The defeaning, fume-belching concrete beast chews up and spits out EFL teachers without mercy more than any place I know.

[waggo]

What your post is saying ,butterfly...is that you tried...you gave it a go...but you feel that you failed.
Im sure any newbies that log on here will have enough intelligence to make their own career decisions.They dont need the neg neg neg ramblings of an "old" pro like yourself.
Try something else and stop posting.

[Corporal]

You jump first Butterfly...I'm right behind ya...

[canuckistan]

Two people working and saving here for five years could come out of it with $200,000. Buy an apt building back home. Buy a business. There is no need to suffer. With money you have all the choices in the world. But not if you drink it away each weekend.

[William Beckerson]

[Sweet Zombie Jesus]

Good point canuckistan. From what I've researched, if you don't love TEFL, it's at least good for buliding up at least some savings for other things. Unless you are think this is your life's calling, it's often just a means to another means to an end. Unless you waste all your earnings drinking and partying...

[TheUrbanMyth]

[TECO]

No guarantees anymore.

Even with the jobs people back 'home' are working.

[Paji eh Wong]

I think TECO got it right.

It's a good post, but I think people who stay at home go through the same things. I know a few people at home who have been stuck on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder and have put off getting married until they pay off student loans. I also think that it's getting harder and harder to pay the bills. I was reading that between 1990 and 2000, the average family of 4.6 had to work 4 more hours per week to make ends meet. I think that means that most people at home aren't getting any richer, either.

Did you ever read 'High Fidelity'? The John Cusack character from the book (I know, it's backwards, can't remember his name) is thinking back about his life, and he's thinking that he doesn't have a lot of things/relationships/community connections to stop him from floating off into space when he gets old.

What sometimes gets me down about the EFL lifestyle is that I'm not making or creating a lot of these things/relationships/connections that people rely on as they get older. My social network needs to be rebuilt after 6 months. I don't plan on staying in Korea forever, so the Koreans I meet, while nice, won't be in my life in a couple of years. This is in opposition to my parents who worked the same jobs and lived in the same town for 25 years. They are definately not going to float off into space. Corny as it sounds, I think those things are more valuable than money ect. Presupposing you aren't starving to death, of course.

Gotta go, the internet cafe gnomes are angry.

Hope you feel better.

(edited once for off topic BS)