Korean Job Discussion Forums

[-666-]

Korean teachers get 12+paid weeks of vacation a year.
Foreign teachers get 2 weeks

Korean teachers get annual pay raises
Foreign teachers dont get annual pay raises

Korean teachers can leave the school early without any hassle
Foreign teachers must acquire 3 signatures

Korean teachers get sent on paid courses to improve their credentials.
Foreign teachers dont

The Korean government wants foreign teachers to act and behave like Korean teachers without any of the benefits.

The forcing of schools to adopt EPIK guidelines for their teachers which will drive many people away. Epik guidelines will reduce teachers holidays to 2 weeks, reduce pay, and increase hours.

Not a wise move.

Why do Koreans continually try to force foreign teachers to accept less pay, longer hours and less holidays?

A friend of mine has been working at a high school here in Korea for the last 5 months of a six month contract. Renewal time is up and her only request is that she gets August off so she can return to Canada to visit her family. Unreasonable? Not really. Their response was that they must follow government policy and that she could only get a maximum of 2 weeks. Well they have been screwing around for a while over this and now she has accepted a contract at a university where she will get 8 weeks vacation, work less hours and get paid more money.

Now the high school has offered to let her have the month of August off but she will take the uni position.

If they had thought about this rationally, considered what an excellent teacher she is, how well liked by the staff and students and the fact that she is in a small town in the middle of nowhere. If they had offered her the concession right away she would have happily signed the contract. Now she will leave in a month, they will have to find another teacher, pay another recruiter fee, pay air fare and roll the dice.

Hiring teachers in Korea seems to be a bit of a crapshoot. Sometimes you luck out and roll 7/11 and get a good teacher. Sometimes you make the hard point but alot fo the time you crap out!

You would think they would learn after a while but it seems like they dont!

[J.B. Clamence]

The term "teacher" is pretty ambiguous and can refer to many different kinds of positions, so trying to compare two different types of positions simply because they may both be referred to as "teachers" is a bit misleading. The fact is that a lot of foreign teachers don't get the same benefits their Korean colleagues get because they're not really doing the same job, nor do they often have the same qualifications.

Cue Real Reality in 5.. 4.. 3..

[chronicpride]

[-666-]

Yes I was referring to public school positions.

I know the hogwan situation is much much worse. I was just wondering why the government is trying to drag the public school jobs down to the same level as a hogwan.

To me it would make sense to try to make your staff happy. Giving a couple weeks of holidays more makes sense.

Considering the costs involved to hire an new teacher/unknown quantity.
Airfare, recruiter fee all for someone you dont know how qualified they are(sure they have a degree but how good of a teacher are they?), how well they work, how committed they are(or whether they should be)

It seems to me that anyone with good business sense would make some kind of attempt to hold on to good staff instead of letting them go and getting in someone who may or may not do a good job.

[JacktheCat]

[Homer]

Another note: Korean teachers do not get free housing (unless they live at home and this is not always the case). They are also citizens of the country as opposed to guest workers and wether you like it or not, that has implications as far as working conditions are concerned.

Also, Foreign teachers can get raises. It is all about negociating upon contract reniewal or going somewhere else (other school).

Foreign Public school teachers do have vacation but not as much as Korean teachers. Why?

Because they do not have Korean teaching accreditation (a Korean teaching permit) and hence are not considered on the same level as Korean teachers with a teaching liscence.

Also, Korean public school teachers (there are four in my wife's family) have to deal with a whole list of things Foreign teachers do not.

They have to:

Deal with the parents (this eats up heaps of time)
Do more grading.
They do not have 12 weeks off by the way. Thats on paper. In reality they work during those weeks as their students have vacation homework and other such things.

Finally, much like accredited teachers back home, korean public school teachers deserve their vacation time.

As for foreign teachers working in public schools, they are not accredited teachers and are more along the lines of instructors. If they wish to have the same deal as Korean teachers, they would need to get a Korean teaching liscence.

[Real Reality]

International Comparisons Of Expenditure On Education
Korea stands out as having a long scale reaching a much higher level than that of other countries. The starting salary for primary teachers in Korea is $24,140, marginally behind that for Australia at $25,775. Australia ranks 3rd in the starting salary offered to teachers but Australian teachers reach a relatively modest maximum of $36,175 (ranked 12th) quite early in their careers. Korean teachers, on the other hand, reach $39,921 after 15 years and $66,269 at the top of their scale.
http://www.austcolled.com.au/pubs.php?id=538

In Germany, Ireland, South Korea, and Switzerland, among others, teachers earn at least twice the GDP per capita.
http://www.veaweteach.org/articles_archives_detail.asp?ContentID=324

Foreigners Experience Difficulties in Living in Korea
Overall living conditions, including education, housing, medical care, transportation, immigration, and access to the Internet are pointed to as inconveniences.... "Even though Korea has achieved some degree of globalization in going abroad, it has still a long way to go for globalization in embracing foreigners inward," said foreigners residing in Korea. An official in the International Cooperation Division of Seoul City admitted, "The same complaints regarding visas, transportation, education, and environment are raised every year without being solved, due to the lack of cooperation from government agencies involved and their passive attitudes."
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2004070522448

For Housing Rentals, Foreigners Easy Victims
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200308/kt2003082818233111970.htm

Monthly Rise in Seoul Apartments Price Equals Worker's Salary
A monthly rise in the value of an apartment unit in Seoul is equal to the monthly income of an average urban worker. The monthly average increase in value is a bit smaller than the average monthly income of 3.13 million won for an urban worker in the first quarter of the year and larger than 3 million won in the last quarter of last year.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200407/kt2004071817420911890.htm

[-666-]

Homer much of what you say is true.

In the GEPIK program there are many certified and qualified teachers. They may not have the Korean certificate but they have graduated from accredited universities in Canada, USA, England and other countries. From my understanding of Korean universities getting your degree is quite easy. If you get in you are pretty much gauranteed to graduate.

True Korean teachers deal more with the parents but that is due more to the fact that most parents are unable to carry on a conversation with a native speaker.

Experienced Korean teachers are also paid much better than their foreign counterparts.

The grading bit. Considering there are no tests for my English classes that is not relevant. I do not make the curriculum I simply follow it.

At the public school I am at I only saw the Korean teachers come in for their two mandatory days they are required to. While they were at the school the majority of them played badook or go stop on the computer and went home. I saw very little or no teachers in their classes doing work.

Deserve? That is a little insulting to the foreign teacher here isnt it?

I put in the same amount of hours as a Korean teacher. I teach more classes a week than they do. I also have summer and winter camps where I put in 40 hours a week while they are on vacation. Why? Because the government has decided to turn public school positions into hogwans.

I am an accredited experienced teacher who does their best to give my students a decent English experience. My job is made much harder by the Korean school system that doesnt teach its students the alphabet in grades one and two but gives them an English textbook to read and use in grade 3. It does not make much sense.

As Jack the cat said expecting Koreans to make sense may be too much to ask.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

People b1tch about the lack of holidays, and it's understandable, but why not just get a job at another school and take a two-month break? You could even mention that you'd love to renew your contract but your not going to because you need time off to visit your family.

[Real Reality]

According to the Samsung Group's chairman, Lee Kun-hee, to succeed globally, Korea must forgo the thought that Korea and being Korean is superior, and foreign specialists must be treated with respect.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200206/14/200206142349223599900090109011.html

The starting salary for primary teachers in Korea is $24,140, marginally behind that for Australia at $25,775. Korean teachers, on the other hand, reach $39,921 after 15 years and $66,269 at the top of their scale.
http://www.austcolled.com.au/pubs.php?id=538

[crazylemongirl]

Here's a simple way to ensure better conditions. Stop siging bad contracts. The only reason that gyeonggi do is getting away with this is because people keep signing them.

[-666-]

good point!

Although as some of the other posters have said people are leaving the high schools in droves!

[John Henry]

[ThePoet]

[JacktheCat]