Teaching In Korea

There are plenty of blogs out there about what type of job to look for. And I'm going to be one of them:

1) If you use a recruiter, do NOT let them pressure you into signing for any job. I was hounded by my first recruiting agent to take a job I didn't want and cut him loose. They're making money off landing your butt in a school, don't forget that. While many recruiters are great, there are those who are in it for the money and just want to place you as fast as possible. And if you find out a recruiter is lying about anything--how to get a visa, how health insurance works, standard number of sick days, that everyone in Korea is losing their English teaching job and you should be grateful for the shitty one he just presented you--forget it. If you don't use a recruiter, a safer bet than Craigslist or Dave'sESL is to find someone advertising their own job, looking for their own replacement. Chances are, if they're helping out their school like that, it was a nice gig.

2) Even before you know what you want out of a job, join a Facebook group for the area you want to teach, preferably a job-seeking one. Keep an eye on salaries and benefits offered, criteria schools are looking for, etc, so you know what the industry 'standard' is.

3) Research the ever-loving crap out of your school and the city you're going to be living in. Ask on Facebook if anyone has worked there before or lived in that city. A recruiter will likely give you the email of an English teacher working there if you ask nicely, but there's always the very slight chance that teacher is telling you everything you want to hear because if you take up her contract, she gets to leave a shithole of a school. And then you're the one stuck.

4) Gather your 'documents' before you even decide for sure that you want to go to Korea. It's a long process--and different every year for every nation, so I'm not even going to bother listing them--and you don't want to be left out in the rain if a really nice position comes along and the school goes with another candidate because you didn't have something notarized.  

5) If something seems fishy, inconsistent, or you have just a bad feeling about something... Go with your gut. You're moving half way around the world; don't risk it. You will find another job, one that makes you eager to get on that plane.

I don't really know what to say about my job in Korea. I can give you the facts; I work 9:30 - 5:30 Monday through Friday in a private kindergarten. My students are between the ages of three and six, and I have about 80% of their names memorized, so that's like 60 kids right there. I teach English and, as just sort of happens with this age group, I also teach how to be a functioning human being on a basic level where blowing noses and cleaning off tables is concerned. I teach twenty-two regular classes per week along with one cooking class and six special extra English tutoring classes. On Fridays, I could be doing anything from leading four basic yoga classes to chaperoning a field trip or helping cook kimchi or cut birthday cake. 

You should know that I'm not so passionate about my job as to stay at it for years and years, but I am damned good at it. 

However, I'm not paid to be passionate. I'm paid to be in the school from 9:30 - 5:30 regardless if my butt is merely warming a desk chair. (This is a big part of work in Korea for foreign teachers. Your butt will be so good at sitting by the time you leave that you should just try out for the Olympics.) I'm paid to make my own lesson plans, follow directions, and not offer a dissenting opinion. In return, I have an apartment that is only kind of shitty with no rent to pay, free tasty lunch, and a boss that pays me on time and doesn't deign to interact with me beyond a few pleasant greetings as she doesn't speak English very well. All in all, I've gotten a pretty solid deal and I'm pleased.

This is the way teaching English works in Korea; there is no cookie cutter for schools, public or private. As many different directors and principals as there are, that's how many different types of schools you will come across. Some of my friends work four hours a day and have all of the material prepared for them, and outside of report cards there's little paperwork. Some of my friends have bosses who work them sixty hours a week. Some have even had bosses scam them and nearly get them deported out of South Korea. Some people work in amazing schools where they're treated as educators with equal skills and talent to bring to the table. You just never know what you're going to get unless you inherit the job from a friend.

On the flip side of that coin, the schools get what they pay for. Most of the English teachers here are not teachers. If you want to become an English teacher in South Korea, you must be a native speaker, have a clean background check, a bachelor's degree in anything, and a pulse. Being a white, young female helps a lot, too. (If you have more qualifications and experience beyond this, you can find a school more to your liking or negotiate for a higher pay. However, as of 2014, if you make 2.4 million won or more, your tax gets hiked up from 3% to 15% so be careful when you sign that contract.) Many English teachers here are not teachers, that's just facts. People have written interesting articles about how this has affected English education in Korea and how the job market has changed and remained the same over the years. As I've only been here a few months, I have little right to wax whimsical on these points.

From what I hear from the veterans, one major thing has changed and one major thing as stayed the same. The salary has not risen with the cost of inflation and living; my predecessors 10 years ago made what I make today. There also, the grizzled vets claim, are a lot less knuckleheads over here to drink and be douches and show up at school hungover. Some veterans tell me teaching has gotten better, others tell me worse. It does feel, somedays, with all of the farewell parties that a lot of people are abandoning ship. But there are always newbies to replace them, to take over their contracts and apartments just a few days after the 'garage sale' where I can pick up cooking pots and chairs on the cheap. 

"There will always be jobs in Korea," someone said to me before I came here. But until you step into your first school, you may not be wise enough to figure out which ones to avoid. It's a learning experience, one that you pick up fast.

My school is a business, there's no two ways about it. When I asked what was expected of me, I was told just to make sure the kids are happy and have fun. Whether they learn anything takes a back seat, was the message I really took from that. Again, this is a private kindergarten, and there's no curriculum. The textbooks I was given were selected without any real guidelines, and from these I make my lesson plans. But, really, in the back of my mind, I'm less of a teacher and more of person for students to practice speaking with. The way I see it, my real duty is to foster an enjoyment of learning English (or at least not fuel a hatred of it) and give the students practice with talking to a native English speaker. They'll need it; for the rest of their education, emphasis will be on grammar and reading, much to the detriment of their oral abilities.

My job could be a lot worse; as I said before, I know people who have worked insane hours and been cheated out of pay. I really, truly, only have stressful days from Monday to Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday are something of a cakewalk. My coworkers are great (even though I'm pretty sure they're sick of me forgetting textbooks and props in their classrooms) and my boss is trustworthy. For a first time job in Korea, I did alright.