The Weekly Chosun magazine ran a piece on Korea’s foreign English teacher community.
Seoul’s Department of Education recently said it would place native-English-speaking assistant teachers in all Seoul elementary and middle schools by September of 2008. The Department of Education, meanwhile, plans to increase the number of native-speaking assistant teachers from 1,183 (last year) to 2,900 by 2010.
There is growing interest in native-speaker-taught English education, the magazine said, and not only to boost TOEIC scores. With the era of globalization upon us, English has become a major factor in competitiveness, and students and office workers want to use the language like a native speaker.
One housewife told the magazine, “When I sent my elementary school children to a hagwon with a native speaker, it seemed their fear of foreigners gradually diminished… Before, they used to run away when they saw a foreigner, but now they go up to them and try to talk.” A 12-year-old going to an elementary school in Guri said that since attending English classes taught by a native speaker, he’s thinking is English rather than trying to translate in his head. A Seoul hagwon owner said that even if native speakers are teaching only grammar, they are actually teaching listening, writing and speaking at the same time since they are teaching in English.
According to immigration authorities, there were 14,355 native-speaking English instructors living in Korea as of August. Within the English-teaching industry, they say the number exceeds 30,000 is you include teachers without E-2 visas who are illegally teaching.
Canucks actually make up the largest number of E-2 visa holders with over 1,000 more than the Yanks, and Kiwis outnumber Aussies. The numbers break down as follows:
Canada: 4,598
United States: 3,951
Great Britain: 975
New Zealand: 630
Australia: 582
Ireland: 305
South Africa: 294
A Korean-American working as a native-speaking English instructor said many come to Korea to earn money during the gap between college graduation and employment or because they have a particular interest in Asian, including Korean, culture.
According to the magazine, English teachers usually come to Korea through recruiting agencies or after seeing employment advertisements. They usually sign one-year contracts to work at hagwon, kindergartens, English villages, or various industries (to teach employees English). Besides the usual classroom teaching, others teach over the phone, tutor or use video chatting to teach. In the case of hagwon, the going rate for native-speaking teachers is 15,000-25,000 won a hour, but in the case of one-on-one tutoring, the rate is more like 30,000 won to 50,000 won and above.
Immigration authorities set the qualification standards for English teachers entering the country. The current E-2 standard for foreign language teachers is that the teacher must be a citizen of a country where the target language is spoken as a first language and have at least a bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent) from a university in a country where the target language is spoken as a first language. Prospective teachers must submit a passport, visa application, contract, copy of their diploma, an identification document, college transcript and documents related to the school to immigration. If immigration verifies them, they get their nice, shiny E-2 visa. E-2 visa holders belong to the person, company or institution that invited them. If they leave their company, they cannot work. Moreover, they can only teach English conversation; they cannot teach translation or interpretation.
Problems occur, however since there are too few native-speaking instructors to satisfy demand. There are English teachers illegally plying their trade on tourist visas. Accordingly, those teachers who actually have the proper qualifications can virtually chose where they want to teach. In the case of hagwon, the school’s competitiveness is directly linked to the number of high-quality foreign teachers it has. When school parents come to discuss classes for their children, for example, some schools sit their foreign teachers where everyone can see them.
The magazine also notes that parents’ preference for white teachers has an ill effect on the supply of native-speaking instructors. Parents dislike Asian or black teachers, even if they are born and raised in English-speaking countries and have superior teaching skills. Accordingly, the number of non-white teachers at hagwon is very low; many, in fact, have all-white foreign staff.
Darryle Jackson, an African-American, said he sent in a resume without a photo and passed the telephone interview, but he wasn’t hired after he met with the hagwon owner. He figures this was probably because he was black. Meanwhile, Jeong Ju-min, who went to the United States in middle school and spent some 10 years there as a student, is employed at an English hagwon as a native-English-speaking teaching, but he pretends to act like he doesn’t speak Korean at the request of the hagwon boss.
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21 Comments
employment prospects in canada musn’t be too good these days. that is a lot of teachers for a country that only has about 30 million people (i think). relative to the other countries anyway.
Canada produces a pretty high number of university graduates every year, but there are not nearly enough good entry level jobs for them to occupy. Traditionally, many of the unemployed Canadian university graduates would go to the United States to seek jobs. But thanks to multiculturalism, globalisation, a stronger economy, or maybe just word of mouth, South Korea has become an increasingly popular option for many Canadians, whether they are career ESL professionals, engineers, recent university graduates, or backpackers.
It would be more interesting to see an article about the people who have chosen to remain in Korea for extended periods of time, including those who became Korean citizens.
I don’t have an E2 Visa any more, but I am still legal. I have an F2 (spouse of Korean). In the past, I had to still get another visa for every job I worked. That requirement was relaxed last year. People with F-4 visas (Kyopos–Korean-Americans, Korean-Canadians, etc) can also teach legally, but I don’t know how they are calculated in that statistic.
I would also like to add that E2 visa-holders can teach more than conversation classes. They can teach any aspect of the English language (reading, writing, speakin, listening, even culture). Translation and interpretation fall under another field. I’ve been teaching an economics course to high school students longer than I’ve had an F2 visa. I was able to get an E2 visa to do that, as it was seen as part of North American culture.
FYI Rowan- as of July of this year, there are 48.8 million people in S. Korea. (CIA World Factbook).
joeseoulman, I think Rowan was referring to Canada’s population - about 32 or 33 million these days - not S. Korea’s. As an F2 for the past four years or so, I’m also curious as to how the F2, F4, and F5 holders fit in - or don’t - to the stats. I think there is some truth to the Canadian economy being a factor in some teachers’ decisions to come here, but speaking for myself and most of my friends, it was more a case of checking out a new place for a year or two and making some cash at the same time. (Never imagined I would be in my second decade here, but staying on hasn’t been about an inability to find work in Canada.)
actually i meant canada with the 30 million. and yes i’m too lazy to look it up.
I on an E-7 and upon meeting a teacher I usually hear..
“So, where do you teach?”
followed by
“Oh wow, you have a real job.”
Great mentality. Though, I found this article to be very informative and impartial as a basic “heads up” for concerning E-2 visa holders.
I don’t know why the race issue was mentioned as sexism seems much more prominent as is the issue with the general belief that non NA accents are inferior. In fact, I would argue a young good looking African American man or women would be miles ahead of large, ugly smelling Kiwi. There is a heirachy of preference based on being attractive.
At least in my line of work the older, fatter and more bald I get the more money I will make. hehe.
oops,
I’m on an….
It’s interesting that there are more Canadians there than Americans, but I’m not too sure if it’s really about teaching English. It seems to be me, it’s more about getting the kids use to the idea of dealing with foreigners.
You would argue that, I’m sure, but just because you’d like to think it so doesn’t make it true. In Korea the old rule still applies, even for “large, ugly smelling Kiwis” - “If you’re white, it’s alright, if you’re black, stay back.”
It would be interesting to compare the number of teachers in Korea with the number in Japan, anyone got any stats?
was it 15trillion won spent on English learning?
That makes it a hell of a lot per teacher
I’m large, ugly smelly and a Kiwi, and I havn’t had any problems!
My Pakistani-American lieutenant buddy couldn’t even get into Helios last Halloween weekend because of his race.
Only Aryans and K-aryans welcome there…for everyone else, there’s always UN and King Club!
Mark,
Off limits club? Koreans don’t like to admit the Icantstandzs.
If blacks are accepted today way faster than Kiwis and women, there must have been a cultural revolution since 2002…….
Can’t stretch my imagination enough to believe it….
I didn’t look at the exchange rate today, but it seems it has been getting more profitable again to teach in Korea.
I started when the Won was at 790 to the US $. But within a year, it was up to where it is now, and at a year and a half point, as the Asian Tiger Economies fell, I saw it hit around the 2,100 range and only came down to about 1,200-1,300 by the time I left teaching.
But the place is still going to have problems recruiting teachers even if the Won gets back to around 800-900, because the internet has made it too easy to find out how shitty the industry is and how the headaches are not worth the cash unless you are really desperate. And the US economy is not bad enough for most college grads to decide to throw caution and advice to the wind and go to a South Korean hakwon….
Has anyone ever published a history of the Hagweon industry? I seem to recall that there was a time back in the mists of history that hagweons were illegal, but that this was relaxed under Chon Duhwan.
When the Peace Corps left in (1982?) they had to do something to put native speakers in front of students. Some of the PCV’s I met in out-of-the-way places were doing some pretty solid work, and their students were coming along nicely.
As far as the trillions spent on English, I guess this proves the old adage “throw enough mud against the wall and some of it’s bound to stick”…
I served in the Peace Corps from 1974-1976 and there was certainly a demand for private tutoring. But I don’t remember all that many hagwons that offered English via native speakers. One big reason was that in those days there were VERY few westerners in Korea who were not either military or Peace Corps. In fact, running into a non-American was a rarity back then.
Holy crap, are the Engrish teachers in Korea really making 50k USD a year fresh out of school teaching kindergartners?
God I’m in the wrong business.
The 9 to 5 business world can’t compete with loafing by day, starcraft by night and not to mention the bevy of Korean hookers. One cannot forget the hookers.
Seriously, no matter how boring teaching English is, it has to be better than sitting in a cubicle (actually antire corner office for me, Yay!) all day and looking at bills of lading or letters of credit all day until your eyes bleed.
“Holy crap, are the Engrish teachers in Korea really making 50k USD a year fresh out of school teaching kindergartners?”
Some of us F5 holders earn more than that. You just need to diversify your income. For example, I teach at a university and own a business (we had two, but we sold one at a profit). Then there’s the stock market. Korean stocks are pretty predictable (goes up 3000won then goes down 3000 won. Just like clockwork).
Here’s the thing about being a hagwon chimp:
1) About 95% of your pay goes into your own pocket after you handle utilities. So you have near $2000 to play with every month. Abd all i know is that I’d never have that must spending money back Cantaxada
2) You don’t pay rent since the hagwon provides housing. The downside to this is that they, more often than not, provide you with a shit-hole to keep costs down.
3) Despite the occasion frustration, the job is pretty easy.
4) If you don’t like what’s being offered to you while job hunting by one hagwon, you can just go down the street and see what the next one has to offer.
Overall it’s a pretty good life.
Actually, getting university grads (those qualified to obtain an E-2 visa) to come to Korea has become more difficult in the last little while. I’ve helped management recruit potential teachers for the company I work for. It’s not like it used to be 7 or 8 years ago. This is the case with the company I work for anyway. It seems to have started right around the end of ‘02.
anyone aware of any updates on these stats?
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