The new visa regs have put hagwon owners in a tight spot, with a growing shortage of teachers forcing teacher wages up and forcing school to cut classes. A representative of the Korea Hagwon Association told the JoongAng Ilbo that its members “can no longer bear the rising labor cost.” My happiness at news of suffering hagwon owners is tempered only by news that recruiting agencies — the people who brought you The Blacklist (they’ve deleted the personal information, BTW) — are raising their commissions, too.
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay! I say keep it up. Let the very people they drive out in droves spread the word on how it truly is to be a foreign teacher working in Korea.
This is not the fault of the country, mind you, just the very few up there in the government who have nothing better to do than generalize the fault of a few misguided deeds to everyone else in the industry, regardless of how much these people have contributed to Korea’s education.
Feel the love.
I get the feeling the evil-foreign-teacher stories are going to be a little less plentiful in the local media this year.
I have only ever really felt like a minority while digging in the Marmot’s Hole. My ‘wonjangnim’ is a saint among men. I just don’t know how to show it. I only wish that the potential teachers on their way to this land know that they are not always looped into the same category as backpack-flag flaunters, drug-abusers or basket weavers. Maybe we’ll form a coalition of people who know a bit about Korea and *gasp* actually like it.
There’s an old saying about chickens coming home to roost that applies here.
I concur with #1. Keep it up. I hope this will force all of them hagwons out of business and relieve some of the pressure off the average Korean families who spend 50% of their monthly income on private education.
cm: “I hope this will force all of them hagwons out of business and relieve some of the pressure off the average Korean families who spend 50% of their monthly income on private education.”
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Off-topic I know, but what has happened to the Lost Nomad? Zenkimchi put up a note, but no comments as yet…
Hope it’s just a vacation!
#6,
How many piano hagwons are there that hire foreigners?
I wish I actually had the time to attend an “art” hagwon. My stick figures don’t even look like sticks.
As a side note (because I’m temporarily banned from Dave’s), people who have had E-2′s in the past don’t have to do consular interviews in their home countries, they can go to a third country to do so. Mokdong Immi told me yesterday in Korean and in English. Just in case anyone is wondering. And yes, may hagwons rot in hell.
Us in the Gyeonggi Public Schools have had to do everything except the interview already and I still don’t see how they’re going to get that one working. It’s a hassle, but not that bad, and once your here you don’t worry about it any more.
As for raising the prices, do you really thing the parents are going to stop paying?
Also, do you really think they are going to stop blaming foreigners?
The people who love to do the blaming will now say it’s the actions of foreigners that resulted in a scarcity and then the price increases.
People who are THAT xenophobic will always find a way to blame the foreigners. They are out there in out own countries as well.
Pete> Lost Nomad quit the blogging race about two weeks ago. Not a vacation
I should point out, though, that I do feel bad for some hagwon owners — I worked for two of ‘em, and both always did right by me. One, in fact, was a saint who really was in it to teach kids, and in an economically depressed area, no less. And unfortunately, it’s owners like them with schools in the countryside who are really in trouble, since countryside schools are reportedly REALLY having trouble finding native speaking teachers.
Still, the English education system is so messed up, and owners are in large part to blame — if the quality of teachers and education is poor, one must remember it’s the hagwon doing the hiring. And they’re also the ones paying wages and offering working conditions that virtually guarantee the only ones who’ll work for them are the young, inexperienced and underqualified. Granted, they’re only giving the public what it wants, which points to the real problem — not only does the public have an unhealthy obsession with learning English, it’s also not particularly picky about how it learns and who it learns from.
Does anyone think the government may be doing all this as a face-saving measure (for hagwon, not the expat hooligans obviously) to clean up the private education industry? Are they that smart?
Getting rid of seemingly less-than-qualified teachers and bad hagwon by creating more stringent requirements for foreign teachers would allow the government to avoid directly confronting a messed up and no doubt powerful industry. At the same time, they can respond to public fervor by appearing to boost the education standards of the nation’s teachers, both foreign and, from Robert’s most recent post about upping native teacher standards, Korean teachers.
Just a thought. I’m probably thinking about it WAY too much. Somehow, I connected all these new visa rules to one of Robert’s posts (I believe) about how the government wanted to build a road in Cheongnyangni in order to kick out all the prostitutes in a typically Korean face-saving fashion.
Thoughts?
“Somehow, I connected all these new visa rules to one of Robert’s posts (I believe) about how the government wanted to build a road in Cheongnyangni in order to kick out all the prostitutes in a typically Korean face-saving fashion.”
Dang, I missed a post about prostitution?
That’s alright. I’m sure there will be plenty more in the very near future.
Isn’t this amazing? And they didn’t see it coming? An inadequate supply of teachers to begin with corresponding to a greater demand not just by parents but a more ambitious government. Now they want to shrink the supply by putting more pylons in front of those who are willing to offer their services. This is an unforeseen development.
As I said on the open thread, there are still those who only want to hire young females. I love it when people don’t see the writing on the wall. Or in this case, a government handed down edict. You gotta love those myopic few who still believe they can be selective. Wait till they are forced to hire hispanics and blacks.
So, what’s the matter with hiring hispanics and blacks?
You tell me. By the way, are you a black or hispanic male over forty. Go ask a hogwan for a job. I would like to know their explanation also.
Tell me that was tongue in cheek.
#18, 19, 20
The hagwon owners might finally get the opportunity to confront the fruits of their racism.
As an ESL teacher survivor, all I can say is: Schadenfreude!
#6, I think you are putting the cart before the horse. Hagwons are there as a response to the demand for more hours of intensive education. As a case in point, I was having dinner with some friends the other night, all with kids in middle school. They constantly moaned (and with good reason) about the competitive nature of the system here and how they spent fortunes on private tuition. But when I asked who would be the first to step back from the breach, none of them would even consider the thought.
Just another thought, but wouldn’t teaching in Korea be a more enticing prospect if one were to own their own visa? Being beholden to a bad boss who is sponsoring your E2 gives you few options but to bail out should things go tits up. This would ensure that bosses have to pull up their socks, and it would also go a long way to reducing the shortages of teachers since you would be free to take on a second job. In my area there are schools who are prepared to pay almost double the going rate to fill short-term vacancies, probably because the risks of working on the sly are high. If more people could enjoy the conditions of an F2 or F5, there would be little need for this
#13 Thanks, Hatch. I’m gonna miss that guy.
aaronm, I am an F visa holder. The situation, however, seems to have caught these hogwan owners and directors off guard. When I interview, they tell me about the medical fifty-fifty co-pay, and I respond that I already have insurance. They tell me about the great accomodations and I say I already have a residence. They tell me about the severance at the end of a year and I tell them I don’t plan on staying that long and am not interested in signing a year contract. I tell them this is to their benefit also, but once they realise they have nothing special to offer me, they glaze over.
I tell them the only things I am interested in are hours, pay and time off. At this point they don’t seem to be listening. I usually get up and tell them I’ll call them if I’m interested. They wave goodbye as if from a dream.
Sex with locals?
Who moved my cheese? Oh….it’s over there in China where Koreans are flocking in droves and setting up “international” schools in a country where you can teach all the privates you want and can get a visa easily without leaving the country.
#25,
That and the fact that they wouldn’t be able to manipulate and/or rip you off.
That’s the way it in fact was — you just got a 1-year “teaching visa” and could work any institute or college you wanted to, and more than one at a time — hagwan owners thus had to treat you with slight respect if they wanted to keep you — until a sex-scandal in 1984 led to media-orchestrated public outcry which led to the current one-job-specific “slave” visas we now enjoy, in 85…
# 26,
Good point. Why are they encouraging miscegenation?
“wileycoyote”, a goo friend of mine, had this discourse with “R.O.K.” over at OMN: Love the title….
http://english.ohmynews.com/reader_opinion2/opinion_view.asp?code=2554098&menu=c10400&no=381424&rel_no=1&opinion_no=10&page=&isSerial=&sort_name=&ip_sort=
R.O.K: “…Stricter and thorogh background search is required by the Ministry of Education in Seoul.
Possibly establishing a close network with F.B.I.and other international police agencies.
Need to be much more discriminate and selective allowing the foreigners to teach in Korea. Korea should not be a safe haven nor easy way of making money for these unqualified foreign language teachers; ” a wolf disguised in a sheep skin.”
We all need to be assertive and to protect our nation’s integrity.”
Wiley: “Here are some additional ideas for protecting the “nation’s integrity” from evil foreign ESL teachers:
(1) withhold their pay until their contracts are up, then get them deported…
(2) provide them with slum like quarters and keep them under virtual house-arrest when not teaching.
(3) if they fall victim to crime from a korean, ensure the police treat them as a perpetrator.
(4) sensationalize every ESL teacher incident in the local media (when not busy villianiziing USFK, of course), because only foreigners commit crime in sparkling Korea.
(5) ensure the teacher’s visa is linked to the hagwon. indentured servants make better educators!
(6) If male, keep them distant from the opposite sex, UriMinJok!
(6) if the teacher is female, subject her to subtle and not so subtle sexual harassment, especially at mandatory social gatherings.
(7) if the teacher does get paid, make sure there are adequate banking restrictions to keep them from their money.
(8) treat the foreign teacher like a freak in general society.
(9) contract obligations should only apply to the teacher, not the hagwon. Confucius said so.
(10) Last but not least, give them ill-behaved spoiled students to teach.
If dynamic Korea follows all the above named precepts, they will attract the cream of academia and will never have to worry about fan death or foreign wolves predating their pure society.”
(1) withhold their pay until their contracts are up, then get them deported…
AGREE TOTALLY.HAVE SEEN/EXPERIENCED IT.
(2) provide them with slum like quarters and keep them under virtual house-arrest when not teaching.
DISAGREE PARTIALLY WITH SLUM.
(3) if they fall victim to crime from a korean, ensure the police treat them as a perpetrator.
BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH NOT TO HAVE DEALT WITH COPS. TOUCH WOOD.
(4) sensationalize every ESL teacher incident in the local media (when not busy villianiziing USFK, of course), because only foreigners commit crime in sparkling Korea.
TOTALLY AGREE.
(5) ensure the teacher’s visa is linked to the hagwon. indentured servants make better educators!
TOTALLY AGREE.
(6) If male, keep them distant from the opposite sex, UriMinJok!
DISAGREE.
(6) if the teacher is female, subject her to subtle and not so subtle sexual harassment, especially at mandatory social gatherings.
TOTALLY AGREE.
(7) if the teacher does get paid, make sure there are adequate banking restrictions to keep them from their money.
DISAGREE. THREE WORDS FOR HAPPINESS IN KOREA:NONGHYUP BANK CARD, SAMSUNG CC, LG TELECOM PHONE.
(8) treat the foreign teacher like a freak in general society.
DISAGREE.
(9) contract obligations should only apply to the teacher, not the hagwon. Confucius said so.
TOTALLY AGREE.
(10) Last but not least, give them ill-behaved spoiled students to teach.
TOALLY AGREE.
B.S. aside, what are the typical, legitimate qualifications most of the native English speaking teachers at hakwans have in their possession?
I am considering joining the English teaching industry here in Korea. I have masters, bachelors, and associates degrees. Will I also need a TESL (or the like) to teach English here in Korea? Thanks.
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