Korean Job Discussion Forums

[No Moss]

I'm an American currently living in China, considering doing a year in Korea before (finally) retiring to Thailand or someplace similar. I'm in good health, still have some of my hair, and I'm relatively well-qualified
(four-year degree, TESOL Cert, 5 years of experience). My question is: will any decent place have me? How old is too old?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Some places will not consider you, but those are places who have a rather odd set of values.

You may have to look a bit longer, but finding a job is quite possible.

[Derrek]

It's worth a try. Yes, there is rampant age discrimination here. But you can find something. I'd try some of the Public or Private schools. I know one guy somewhere nearing 40-50 was working for one not far from here.

[zappadelta]

Aren't you about 40 Derrek?

[Derrek]

No, I turn 34 this next month.

[ThePoet]

I started here at 41 and I got my uni job at 43. I don't see age as a problem here.

Poet

[dulouz]

41 when I got here, 43 now, just got a real white collar teaching job at a public high school.

You will meet the freaks and the best. The people that say no to you because you are too old are likely stupid. They are not the kind of people you'd want to deal with anyway. Age is good BS filter. I use usa.com as my email address to weed out people that don't like Americans.

The bad people that you will meet are the real crooks because they see you as desperate and will thus try to abuse you.

I got picked up by word of mouth and now I have a desk, laptop an organization chart, a brand new school with vauge academic goals and an ulcer. Just like back home.


You can work hard here. It takes hard work to do that but you can take in 3 million a month legally.

[schwa]

52 here, sailing along. Just dont be too weird.

[Keepongoing]

I work in a University and I am 51. We have/have had teachers older than me at the University. I think with the climate of English teachers being suspected of messing with the students, that older tea`chers will be more popular with the schools, perhaps not with the students. Based on evaluations that students give age dsoes not seem to matter that much. If you are sincere and love teaching it will make itself known. At first they may be sad that they did not get the young cute teacher but that is temporal.

[Zark]

53 here - in a university position.

A lady who was about 60 just left the university last semester.

Better schools will look at your qualifications and experience and be happy to have you. You wouldn't want to work at the schools that are looking for Ken and Barbie anyway.

Age is even less of an issue in Thailand. As in most countries - I think you'd want to steer clear (if possible) of language schools and public schools - and focus your job search on colleges and universities. With a BA/BS look for the smaller colleges and universities, junior colleges etc - and or focus on a specialty (where people like to see experience! = gray hair) such as IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, etc.

As said above your search may take a little longer - but it is always worth the extra week or two to find a superior position anyway.

Good luck!

[Len8]

If your young at heart and get along with the students then age doesn't matter. There is a guy at our place who is 57, but he packs the weights in the weight room with the PE majors. Lifts as much as they do in fact. He looks a lot younger than he is though.

[skinsk05]

Sejong U had a woman in her early 60s, and recently forced a veteran male to retire at 65 (he's in Thailand now). Both enjoyed their jobs, had wisdom to share, and were young at heart. They had more patience, amazing resiliance and energy to spare (despite in the first case, recent breast cancer).

My current U has a few older folks. . . try!

[hellofaniceguy]

If you think you're to old...then you are.

[poker player]

There are plenty of places that will discriminate against you because of age, especially the recruiters because they know they have to work harder to place an older teacher. The way I look at it, any place that will discriminate because of age will be a pain in the ass to work for anyway. It will take a while longer to find places that care more about the individual than his/her age and to me, that's a good qualifier for a good school, although by no means the only one.
Universities are the ideal place for older teachers because age is often considered a postive there.
The most liked teacher I ever met in Korea was a 60+ retired nurse in Daegu who came to Korea after her husband died. The school, the staff and the students were devestated when she decided to retire after 8 years so she was no spring chicken when she started. At her going away party, attended by about 300 people, she was given so many gifts, a school van had to deliver them to her apt for her. The father of 1 student that she had taught for a few years gave her a wad of cash that would choke a horse. She never told me how much it was but my guess was at least 4 mil. No wonder, that kid apparently hated English when he first met her and just before she left, had bagged a huge TOEIC score. She was the only teacher I knew who made over $3mil a month working for a hagwon-mainly because her classes were all high school students who paid a hefty premium to attend 1 of her 10 weekend classes. She would only take 10 students in a class and the waiting list to get in was apparently at least 200. I sat in on 1 of her classes and can tell you it was like watching a spiritual revival-those kids worshipped her. I didn't work at her school but apparently the other teachers who did said they learned more off her in a semester than any TEFL course. She only taught during the week if she felt like it and was paid 40k/hr for those. Rumor had it that she taught business privates during the week at 100k/hr and the school had no problem with it. Her apartment was huge and well furnished by the school.
Moral of the story-if you're good, age is irrelevant.

[No Moss]