It is 2003, again!

In all fairness I didn't watch it either, but it's a video posted by L1 which tells me all I need to know

Awful salary...for a certified teacher? 


ze=" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">https://www.eslcafe.com/postajob-detail/certified-teachers-needed-to-start-early-janu?koreasearch=&koreapageno=1&koreapagesize=60&chinasearch=&chinapageno=&chinapagesize=&internationalsearch=&internationalpageno=&internationalpagesi ze=

Awful salary...for a certified teacher? 


ze=" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">https://www.eslcafe.com/postajob-detail/certified-teachers-needed-to-start-early-janu?koreasearch=&koreapageno=1&koreapagesize=60&chinasearch=&chinapageno=&chinapagesize=&internationalsearch=&internationalpageno=&internationalpagesi ze=

Ohhhhh another hagwon that wants you to break immigration rules on an E-2 while also underpaying you...at least you get a nice 4 week paid vacation (kudos to them on that part).

Awful salary...for a certified teacher? 


ze=" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">https://www.eslcafe.com/postajob-detail/certified-teachers-needed-to-start-early-janu?koreasearch=&koreapageno=1&koreapagesize=60&chinasearch=&chinapageno=&chinapagesize=&internationalsearch=&internationalpageno=&internationalpagesi ze=

Should get at least 4 million won salary with 1 million housing allowance or a nice apartment with a couple of rooms included.  That's a lot more work than an ESL teacher.  So, I'd say anyone who takes it is dope.  But, their choice.

* maximum 22.5-25 teaching hours a week (Teacher will teach a maximum of 30 classes of 45-50 minutes) and work 5 days a week (Monday through Friday).

If you're teaching subjects and are planning materials for these classes...this is a HORRIBLE schedule. I currently teach 20 classes a week (15 teaching hours) at an int'l school...I spend roughly 35 additional hours a week preparing for these classes and doing marking etc, that amounts to 10-12hrs overtime (unpaid) I do weekly. And I have it easy compared to teachers in my home country!

So this school either expects you to prepare quality materials and plans for these classes in record time...or they don't give a flying f*ck about the quality of your classes and just want you to 'enterteach' and 'edutain'. Or maybe they want you to take your work home and do 15-20 additional hours unpaid per week while they rake in the profits.

2.1 for a certified teacher?

https://www.worknplay.co.kr/Work/Detail/Job/215431

For Baemin riders, who are full-time delivery workers, the average monthly wage was 4.2 million won
https://www.google.com/amp/m.koreaherald.com/amp/view.php%3fud=20200910000730

Two weeks of unpaid training, that's illegal  is it not?  And, to think, a recruiting agency promoting the position.

How do they have 17 foreign teachers working there?

https://www.worknplay.co.kr/Work/Detail/Job/215449

13,000 an hour? WTF? Must be female? European appearance preferred? They will surely get anger  for the white preferred bit - will lead to deletion, a ban, and many angry messages ... but the must be female requirement will receive little to no pushback in my estimation. That’s usually the case.

When I first came over in late 2012, my starting salary was 2 million won and my hours were about 7 teaching hours Monday to Friday. I got fired after one week and had to scramble to find another job, which I luckily did. The other job paid the same but it was only 4 teaching hours a day. Usually it was 2:30 to 6:00. Now sometimes we had certain months where we had an evening or morning class, and the once a year Saturday event.

My pay only went up to just under 2.1 over three years I worked at my school before I left. I was bad at negotiating or didn't even try. I ended up leaving in 2016 and once in awhile look at the job postings because I still belong to the job facebook groups. It seems like the jobs that I had no longer exist so I've never been tempted to go back. Part of me wonders if I should've tried public school. One of my friend's was a public school teacher whose contract was ending around the time mine was, and his coworker was one of my students. She also had a lot of pull in the school so I probably could've got the job, but I guess teaching ESL just kind of left me.

It is kind of sad though how even when I started, the wages hadn't changed in ten years from what I've read. I don't think my school ever paid a high wage though. One of my coworkers had past teaching experience in ESL and I think in the regular school system in America, and she was never paid more than 2.1. Another coworker came from public school to my school and his salary was also 2.1 million per month. 2.1 just seemed the max they would give, and they didn't care one way or the other.

When I first came over in late 2012, my starting salary was 2 million won and my hours were about 7 teaching hours Monday to Friday. I got fired after one week and had to scramble to find another job, which I luckily did. The other job paid the same but it was only 4 teaching hours a day. Usually it was 2:30 to 6:00. Now sometimes we had certain months where we had an evening or morning class, and the once a year Saturday event.

My pay only went up to just under 2.1 over three years I worked at my school before I left. I was bad at negotiating or didn't even try. I ended up leaving in 2016 and once in awhile look at the job postings because I still belong to the job facebook groups. It seems like the jobs that I had no longer exist so I've never been tempted to go back. Part of me wonders if I should've tried public school. One of my friend's was a public school teacher whose contract was ending around the time mine was, and his coworker was one of my students. She also had a lot of pull in the school so I probably could've got the job, but I guess teaching ESL just kind of left me.

It is kind of sad though how even when I started, the wages hadn't changed in ten years from what I've read. I don't think my school ever paid a high wage though. One of my coworkers had past teaching experience in ESL and I think in the regular school system in America, and she was never paid more than 2.1. Another coworker came from public school to my school and his salary was also 2.1 million per month. 2.1 just seemed the max they would give, and they didn't care one way or the other.

The Great Recession flooded the market from about 2009 to 2015ish or so.  The American economy which usually does well compared to most other countries,  was in the dumps for several years.  Lots of young Americans flooded into Korea to escape the recession and it changed and upended the Korean job market overnight.  Employers went from being desperate for us to being able to be very choosy as every job opening had tons of competition all of a sudden.  Employers could increase hours and keep pay the same.  It became very competitive to get a crapwon job all of a sudden. 

It has only been the last 3 or 4 years that there has been slack in the job market and it has been easier to get a job compared to those years.  But it is still nothing like before the great recession.  The 90's and 2000's decade were called the golden age of Korean ESL for a reason.  Cheap living cost, ease of getting a job, good exchange rates, huge savings potential, and not many knew about it.  Also it was much less developed and livable.  These kids today who want 10 different kinds of cheeses would have been sol back then.  Also, you had to deal with a lot more c()ckblocking when it came to dating local women and lots of xenophobia rampant in the Korean media (fake news before the term was coined).  Everyone wanted to go to Japan but came here for the money.  The buildings were more grey and drab, litter and spit was everywhere, lots of weird behaviours, etc. 

So, move on to 2020 and during the 2010's decade, Korea became more modern in their thinking and renovated many of those grey drab buildings or tore them down and rebuilt.  More foreign restaurants and food, etc.  Rise of coupang.  It is easier to live here in some ways, but also much much more expensive. 

There are plenty of job opening (Covid exceptions temporarily aside) and the market is not flooded anymore.  The US economy was humming along with lots of jobs the last 2 or 3 years until COVID.  Also, many veteran teachers had jetted off to China.  Now probably Vietnam and elsewhere. 

Employers got use to being picky and choosy which they could for a time.  But as of last year, that was no longer the case.  If they wanted an experienced teacher or someone that could teach, then they certainty would have to pay more than 2.1.  As they have raised their fees over the years and make millions in won in profit, they certainty can raise the salaries. 

If an employer wants to keep you, there should be at least a 100k raise a year standard and starting at a higher amount for salary.  But if folks stay and accept it, then it makes the problem worse.  Some hakwon owners may just let the positions go empty and be stubborn.  If parents want a foreigner for their little Min Su, then they will have to up the wages.  There are plenty paying 2.1 to 2.3.  But there are also many in the mid 2.0s to upper 2.0's even 3 million.  Facebook job groups do have those posting.  But you have to dig a little deeper to find them. 

Many foreigners may have to demand a certain wage and be willing to be rejected and spend another couple of weeks in their parents basement.  Take a little more time to get something better.  If more folks did this, it would speed up wage hikes.  But either way, I think they are finally slowly coming along. 

Everyone has missed the biggest factor here and that's the kind of people who are coming to Korea now.

The people coming to teach here actually like this country and aren't just money grabbing succubi who do nothing except bite the hand that gives them a cushy life.  Guess what?  The people coming to Korea now are going to drink your milkshake old men.  They love Korean culture.
They're making an effort to learn the language.  They're making an effort to assimilate into Korean culture.  All of things that you don't do.

  They don't care about earning 2.1 instead of 2.5.  Who cares?  They get to live in a country they love.  There's more to life than money.  They're not the ones who, in twenty years' time, will need their kids to translate for them when they're out and about.

You only need to spend half a day lurking the K O R S H A R E chat to know how fucked you are.  These kids are early 20s and already at TOPIK 4 and 5 and are hungry for more.  The fact that people go on and on about "noobs"accepting 2.1 are missing the wood for the trees.  Do you really think they're going to be scrambling around for contract renewals year on year after arguing with their CTs for the millionth time while in their 40s.  They're nothing like you.  They will have left that world behind a long time ago.

But... if not stagnant wages, what is there to complain about? If there's nothing to complain about, how can they spend time complaining? What... what do they spend all their time doing? HOW DO THEY LIVE?!?!??

They speak TOPIK at a level 4 or 5 but can't qualify for the F-2 visa because they don't earn enough, nor can most of them move on to E-7 jobs because well, those jobs are few and far between.

Loving the culture doesn't pay your bills, nor does it set you up on a steady career where you don't have to worry about job security every 1-2 years...nor does loving the culture get you pay raises so you won't be on the same salary you started on 10yrs ago.

My take is schools and hagwons in Korea can't believe their luck at having an almost inextinguishable supply of subservient pushovers to choose from when it comes to EFL teachers...so much so that Korean schools in China are now trying to hire EFL teachers from Korea, whilst offering Korea level pay.

Yep, Spain and Italy are full of EFLers who are really into the culture, speak the language fluently, and are on  around 1200 euros a month.

These kids are early 20s and already at TOPIK 4 and 5 and are hungry for more.

  suhhhh dude_{jk im mid-20s and TOPIK 3 (crying emoticon)}

drink your milkshake

Really happy to see this phrase catching on

suhhhh dude_{jk im mid-20s and TOPIK 3 (crying emoticon)}

tylerthegloob more like tylerthehardstuckto pik3

tylerthegloob more like tylerthehardstuckto pik3

really though, topik4 feels far away... anyway i think CO4 is correct_{even saying that feels gross} i'm going to drink hangook62's milkshake and then flee the country

(also idk where this bullshit "hardstuck" thing came from. must've been league, overwatch or some other game for casuals)

really though, topik4 feels far away... anyway i think CO4 is correct_{even saying that feels gross} i'm going to drink hangook62's milkshake and then flee the country

(also idk where this bullshit "hardstuck" thing came from. must've been league, overwatch or some other game for casuals)

I feel like CO4 is correct about more people being willing to come here at least. Korea isn't just budget Japan like it apparently used to be but is now a destination on its own. And considering the sort of cognitive dissonance K-pop stands manage on the regular I'm sure living here won't be much of an issue for them regardless of their personal expectations.

That being said I feel like anyone who comes here for that sort of stuff and gets placed out of Seoul might have a tough time.

Also the first time I ever heard "hardstuck" was in the context of League. Although I'm not sure if I'd call the world's biggest e-sport "casual"