idiots actually taking them. Theres a hagwon in my town who repeatedly hires international students illegally from the local university. They are students from Ghana, Nepal, India, Russia. The school hires them for 2 days a week, then fires them a couple months later when parents complain about their accents / English level. They work for peanuts basically because its illegal for them to work at all. These kinds of jobs will never get a qualified teacher from one of the 6 regions that are eligible for the E2. But, if they never get caught hiring illegally... then theres no incentive for them to actually hire a full time E2 or F visa holder. They arent bound by paying for housing, airfare, competitive wages, admin and paperwork. And they can fire them at any time with zero negative effect because they know the worker will never complain because they were violating their student visa in the first place.
1. Simply being from one of the 7 countries doesn’t make one “qualified” to teach ESL. Ghana is a native English speaking country as is India. 2. Notice how these “unqualified” people aren’t being fired for things like poor pedagogical practice, poor knowledge of the English language, poor curriculum, poor classroom management etc…but rather for something as stupid as “the wrong accent” or perceived “English level” by parents who can barely speak the language themselves. The parents are as big a problem as people who truly believe being from 7 countries makes one a “qualified” esl teacher.3. ESL is in the state it’s in today because it’s an unregulated industry dictated to by clowns (parents) and controlled by opportunists (businesses who will give the parents whatever they want as long as the moolah keeps rolling in).The market got this bad because in the past 2 years, hagwons in Korea have learned how much further they can push/bend/stretch/take the piss with their docile foreign staff…who only keep coming back for more and applying to be treated like shit in droves. They (hagwons) spent 20 years doing that pre-covid , depressing wages, gradually reducing benefits, increasing workload (lunch duty, bus duty, toilet duty etc), doing tons of shady things, but people kept coming for lower and lower pay while profits kept soaring. And then when they thought covid would be the straw that would break the camel’s back, they were astonished to discover teachers were even willing to endure 2 weeks of quarantine in filthy, barely furnished and decaying one-room-tels and even not get paid for a few months (because hagwon has no students, but owner still drives that luxury German car)…all for the chance to be in “trendy” Korea!Even EPIK now has a pomposity-riddled application process where even having tattoos in places where students and colleagues would most likely never see them would disqualify applicants…all for the grand starting salary of 1.8 million krw per month before tax!I predicted esl in Korea would get worse when the pandemic started, in high it has. I’m predicting now it hasn’t even reached halfway to rock bottom. Until foreign teachers bring the industry to its knees by leaving and staying away, things will continue to be in free fall mode. ESL doesn’t have to be a dead end job. For those who want to take it seriously as a long term career, my suggestion would be to get properly qualified (teaching certificate/license/M.Ed etc) and go where the money matches the qualifications…that and/or consider ELA in international as a viable option as well.
Yes, the market is the worse I've ever seen, too. Bakeacake is right. I've had people from various ex soviet countries knock on my door from time to time, looking for holiday teaching work. I also think many businesses are lacking students so they are trying to cut corners where ever they can...salaries and conditions being the first. They're trying their luck and hope someone will bite. I'm pretty sure full time newby jobs with horrible salaries and hours are still being filled, again driving the market down for others.As fo P.T jobs. I'm starting to think non native F. visa people are taking them. No right-minded person would even consider what is being thrown around, presently.
EPIK is just becoming a really comfortable internship position for the young privileged youth from the 7 Elite English Speaking Countries.
It's probably those F visa marriage migrants from countries like the Philippines or some European countries, that don't qualify for full-time English teaching positions, so they take on a few part-time jobs to make a few extra bucks while their kids are at school. And the international students seem to be a sought-after target group for these part-time jobs as well. Recently there is a really big English play-based Kids Cafe Franchise which has been opening up branches all across the country, and they had some ads for pt positions claiming that University students and non-native speakers could apply as this is not an "English-teaching" position, but more of an interactive cafe where all you do is "play" with the kids in English. These cafes are in some of the biggest department stores and I'm sure the owners are making a mad profit from this as the moms probably pay huge fees for their kids to join in while they pay the non-native English speakers 12,000 an hour. They have full-time positions for native English speakers from the 7 Elite English-speaking countries, but it only goes up to 2.6 and there is no housing stipend or housing offered at all.
They claim they're looking for Native speakers but I can't fathom who'd do ithttps://seoul.craigslist.org/edu/d/english-kids-cafe-need-tutors-in-bundang/7437709432.html
Yes, there are a lot of people here who can't get a full time position, but can speak and teach English to a fairly high level. My bet would be they get employed under the table for less money and no conditions. As for this new Kids Cafe thing, I'd never heard about it. Very creative! I guess that's what everyone needs to get...more creative, if money making is your object (and it is for most). My wife and I were actually talking about this (not the kids cafe), this morning. Looks like 2022 might be a busy, get off my arse some more, year.
This is actually the best market there has ever been for a native teacher. There are not native teachers in this country. You can demand whatever salary you want! Just dont be a dummy and take the jobs from Scotty . You could easily get a job at 2.7 with no experience right now. With experience, you could be making 3-3.5 plus housing. Schools need the foreign teacher. If they dont have one, they lose business to the school that does. Know what youre worth in the current market! and DON'T work for EPIK!
Where are most of these good 3.0 ~ 3.5 mill a month Jobs? Is it certain larger Hakwon chains that are offering this salary?
