Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Article Title: Native English Teachers Receive Higher Salaries
On average, English instructors with academic degrees from IVY League schools earn about 4 million won a month, double that of regular English native speakers. However, not only Ivy League graduates but also regular foreign teachers are enjoying rising wages due to a soaring demand for native English teachers in schools, English immersion camps and institutes. Native English speakers are now paid about 2.2-2.8 million won from an average 2 million won earlier.

An English immersion camp, which will open in Paju, Kyonggi Province next month, will pay about 2.7-2.8 million won a month each for about 140 foreign instructors. They will also be provided accommodation and flight ticket fees. An official of the camp said that the salary is expected to go up if it hires qualified teachers with English education academic backgrounds and teaching experience.
article by Chung Ah-young, Korea Times (March 19, 2006)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200603/kt2006031917583411970.htm

[PRagic]

Yeah, 2.8 for that camp...for 40 hour weeks!

[crazylemongirl]

[Ya-ta Boy]

It's nice to seem some figures for a change. I get frustrated when people post about how the number is going up or down and there is nothing to substantiate the claim.

From this article, it's clear the supply of teachers is increasing. It must be the increased demand that creates the opposite impression (for some people).

And I definitely like the upward trend in salaries.

[weatherman]

I would say on average that for the first time since 1999 they are edging up, and too slow at that. While Korean labor enjoys raises of 5 to 10% a year, foreingers in general are getting generally bollock smells from the management.

The whole rubrics of who is qualified and who isn't needs some clarification from the Korean government and more so from the media. Ivy educated doesn't mean qualified to teach. What about educational backround, years in the field, industry recognized certificates and training,
managerial and qualified peer evaluation? There is a lot more the Korean government should be doing. And this doesn't even start to bring up what qualifications does a Local national have for operating an educational institute.

[SuperHero]

An article published in the Korea times - quality journalism. Like the lemon lady said what the hell is a harvard grad doing teaching English at a hagwon in Korea?

[Homer]

RR..gasp...was that a link about something positive in Korea???

You must have hit your head real hard again...

[Gorgias]

[PRagic]

Here we go. If you work at a Hakwon, then your wages have indeed kept track with cost of living increases. In 1993, for example, the average salary at a hakwon was a cool 1 (one) million. At an exchange of roughly 750, that meant 1,333 USD/month. In 2006 dollars, that would mean 1,831 USD/month. At the current exchange, that would put a hakwon salary at roughly 1.8 million per month. The increases to 2.0 million and higher are demand driven, and that's good. The market was trying to pull wages into the 1.8 range for some time, which would only account for basic cost of living increases figured annually (in other words, nothing really too good going on for the workers).

I'll have to figure out the university scales, but I imagine that, broadly speaking, they don't reflect any of the increases shown to Korean staff.

Wage controls here in Korea have often been a problem, especially for domestic workers. Employers traditionally try to keep wages artificially low, banking on supply, only to eventually be confronted with 20-30% wage increase demands. This really screws with your productivity and with the image of your market in the world.

So much for the 7 a.m analysis. Blah...

[Nolan Ryan]

Talk about inflated salaries....

once again the propaganda machine comes up with numerical figures that are mind boggling...they have inflated surveys,population density ratios and now comes salaries. Given that the average salary here is 2 mill, how could that paper ever come up with a b.s figure of 2.8 mill? Well the answer is easy...they are hiding the fact that there is a native speaker teacher shortage in their schools and hakwons...This shouldn't come as a surprise to these guys given the high number of screw jobs they perform on teachers every year and the drastic reduction in vacation time!

What does the propaganda machine do to cover this up? They inflate the salary figures and embellish on the number of Ivy league teachers in the school/hakwon system. They are really trying to say," come to Korea where we don't pull any screw jobs on you...if it's good enough for Harvard grads then it's good enough for you!"

The fact of the matter is that for the average teacher working in either environment to make an average of up to 2.8mill,(not including housing),then every teacher out there would have to be teaching at least one to two private classes a month as well...

Ah well...I wonder what the next wayguk related article will be..."Kimchi Consumption Makes Foreign Teachers Teach Better". Where's a shovel when you need one?

[huffdaddy]

[antoniothegreat]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

'who are graduates of Ivy League universities in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries'

What other countries have ivy league universities?

'English instructors with academic degrees from IVY League schools earn about 4 million won a month, double that of regular English native speakers. ... Native English speakers are now paid about 2.2-2.8 million won...'

Isn't 2 x 2.2 to 2.8 = 4.4 to 5.6? Not exactly double.

I hate to think of what else is wrong with this article.

'An English immersion camp, which will open in Paju, Kyonggi Province next month, will pay about 2.7-2.8 million won a month each for about 140 foreign instructors.'

Yes, and in exchange they're quickly going to learn what gee-sook-sa and yah-gahn mean.

[Paji eh Wong]

That was an interesting little crock of shit.

[huffdaddy]