Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Curious_george]

Just wondering if anyone knew the scoop on working at public schools. I know directors mainly prefer (and parents) white-skinned) Americans to work at their hagwons, universities (possibly), etc. but how about public schools?

Any information would be nice, as I am complating on working for a public school after my hagwon contract culminates.

~감삽니다~

[Alyallen]

I'm Black. I work at a public school. Starting my second year there at 8 am today.

I'm sure others will chime in but this has been covered before and I am really too lazy to search for the threads at the moment.

[Curious_george]

[JZer]

Yes, some employers prefer to hire white people. That goes for every level (hogwon through university). Despite that I think that everyone who wants a job gets one due to the demand for English teachers. The only place an asian-american might have a hard time finding a job would be at a university.

It is interesting the Koreans tend to be the hardest on their own people. Korean bosses give Korean workers a hard time and don't want to hire other Koreans to teach English. Maybe Koreans need to start showing each other some love!!!

[rawiri]

Public schools out in the sticks will take anybody they can get their mitts on regardless of age, race, questionable personal hygiene, sustained periods of alcohol induced coma's, teaching ability, social skillsand general out and out freakishness. Closer to the affluent areas of seoul are a lot harder to get into if you are anything but waspish.

[passport220]

There was a one black woman and one black man in the group of 8 teachers I was hired with. The man gave a speech at a training session I was at and he seemed very pleased with his situation and seems to be well received by his community.

[Lonewolph]

The general rule is the farther away from a major city the school is, the more likely they are to accept a non-Caucasian teacher. The reason being that so many teachers want to be in a larger city that the pool of teachers to select from is larger, so schools can be more "selective", shall we say. There are exceptions to every rule, of course.

Unfortunately, Caucasians are still considered the best catch because they LOOK more like an English speaker, and thus must be able to teach English better than those who do not look English-speaking. This belief is sometimes held by the school itself, but more often by the parents of the students, and thus the school seeks to provide the parents with a teacher to match their expectations rather than actually hiring someone with the necessary education/experience.

On the upside, education requirements have change in the last year or two and now public schools must have foreign teachers on staff, thus we have seen massive hirings for public school positions on the last year. Many recruiting companies have massive contracts with provincial educations boards and thus are able to push many applicants through regardless of ethnicity. Persistence should pay off.

[koldijk]

first of all, saying that a korean is racist is like saying that grass is green... second of all... i tell people that i'm a dutch canadian and almost everyone in korea... korean and foreigners... tell me that my english is very good but no one believes that i'm a "real" canadian...i was just born in calgary and lived their from 0 to 30... what a joke...

oh yeah, when i renewed my passport at the canadian embassy, no one at the embassy...then...had heard of calgary and it took 4 weeks and a lot of angry phone calls from my dad in canada and from me to finally get my canadian passport...

where are you from?

calgary

never heard of it (korean staff member)

me, pointing at a map of canada behind me:

see, calgary is right here... there are over 3 million canadians in this area...

TRUE STORY

[NAVFC]

[NAVFC]

[xingyiman]

I've noticed lots of black people coming here as English instructors lately. There's nothing wrong with that but taken with the thought that Koreans are very racist I would say that it probably represents the severe shortage of the kinds of teachers that they would really like to have (no offense to people of color intended). That means that the employment glut is showing no signs of a slowdown, yeah!

[manlyboy]

[rawiri]

I knew i spelt that wrong, the effluence was bugging me all through lunch.

[manlyboy]

[rawiri]

No worries there dude, bad spelling errors should be called on. I was a member of another korean esl board until i ripped into some posters for not knowing the difference between principle and Principal, things turned quite heated and i was subsequently booted but message boards are just for chits and giggles really.