Korean Job Discussion Forums

[islanddave99]

Does anyone know about this plan to hire native speakers for elementary and middle schools- and for English immersion schools? All junior high schools are supposed to have a native speaker by 2007.

http://topkorea.proboards62.com/ind...read=1138722153

[Captain Corea]

Yup.

Heard about it.

I'm wondering though why anyone in their right mind would take those jobs.

Most experienced/certified teachers I know are established in their home countries and WOULD NOT pack up their families to come over here for 2 weeks vacation and $2000 a month.

[Demophobe]

[khyber]

yes.
busan hired 53 new teachers this year.
they are (to my knowledge) expecting to hire on double that in september...and then similar amounts over the next couple years.

They're spreading money out REAL thin like; promising much less enticing living arrangements and the like..

[plato's republic]

Sounds like the public schools are turning into glorified hagwons

[crazylemongirl]

[islanddave99]

this one seems to work:

http://topkorea.proboards62.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1138722153

[Yu_Bum_suk]

One comes across news items like this all the time, but I think it's partly wishful thinking. I've also read that the number of teachers with EPIK has declined quite a bit. There's no way they'll have FTs in ever middle school by 2007 - especially as many rural middle schools have less than 300 students.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Homer]

I tend to agree with the Myth and Captain Corea...to an extent..

Some certified teachers do come here because they wish to teach abroad as a priority. Some also come here because they are fed up with the school system back home where teachers get less and less respect along with having to pay high taxes (well for Canada anyway).

The salary might be lower in Korea (in raw numbers) but if you look beyond the amount at how your income breaks down in expenses vs disposable income/savings then that 2 grand starts to look a hell of a lot better to some teachers.

I am a certified teacher in Canada (Ontario) and taught a couple of years in HS in Ontario (Toronto and Ottawa). I came here for a change of pace and in a short 8 years I have made inroads towards savings and career advancements that I could not really have hoped to acheive back home with a teachers salary and my income.

The work load of a teacher back home is also something to consider. You usually have to bring grading home with you on a regular basis (this is not paid for as it is not considered part of your duties!), you have to attend several useless school board meetings, deal with retarded education reforms. At High School level, many of us had to deal with student violence (two of my co-workers were assaulted in my time as a teacher (a couple of years)) and a society where students are never wrong and the teacher gets blamed for every thing. Many parents are also horrible to deal with and basically look down on teachers (read many and not all). Teachers also deal with ever more numerous classrooms and students that pay less and less respect to them.
You do get your summers off but most of us basically needed that time to recharge and there were quite a few teacher burn outs.

As a teacher back home you are permanent after a few years and that gives you benefits like pension and a secure job. This is one of the biggest draws of the job.

Does this vanish in Korea?

That depends on the teacher. If a person just skips from hakwon to hakwon then yes it does vanish (to an extent because demand being what it is here, jobs are plentyful).

Also, the 2000$/ 2 week off premise is faulty. Most certified teachers I know here get around 6-8 weeks off (which is plenty) and make around 3-4000 CAD per month with much lower expenses. Why? Because they know where to look and what they can get as qualified and experienced educators.

As for the benefits questions it only vanishes if you forget to consider that with a higher savings potential here you can outperform most saving plans you had back home (unless you lived in a small town for example).
For example, in a few short years here I paid off my student loans, bought a house back home that is now nearly paid for (10 year morgage) as I am renting it. I have invested more than I could have hope in mutual funds and other revenue bearing investments. I get to travel a couple of times a year and my family (wife and son) and taken care of with no financial worries.

I have also acquired a new set of skills and expanded my profesional folio with a new language (Korean), new experience as a consultant ( a field I am moving to more and more).

Does this mean I think teaching here is absolutely better than teaching back home as a certified teacher? Not really. But it is not a black and white scenario where one place holds all the good cards and the other none.

[snehulak]

The only way they can even come close to meeting the goal of a native speaker for every school is to farm out each teacher to multiple middle schools. I teach at seven different schools (some elementary, some middle) and I know of one teacher that has nine, so technically each school can claim to have a native speaker even though it is for only a few hours each week. This kind of schedule leaves teachers sick and exhausted and few of them re-sign after their contract ends. Their goal is unattainable.

[Homer]

[VanIslander]

[laogaiguk]