Comments on: English Teachers, Your Ship Has Come In

By: enempe

enempe — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:07:30 +0000

I enjoy giving students of a lower socio-economic background a wider view of the world and a chance at a better education. I really don’t care how much I could make. To be honest a lot of the other people who have posted here are the ones that are giving people like me an unjust reputation. There are a lot of people who are here for a sea-change and aren’t gouging parents for too much money in a country where the locals get payed sweet f.a.

I am happy for people to be payed what they are worth. Are you sure you are worth what they are paying you ?

p.s. I also think the media here is sensationalist ratings grabbing rubbish, and so do a lot of Koreans(from those I have spoken to). We do get payed a bit more than they do generally, and I think that most Koreans know that but I don’t think that they are all taken in by the hype.

By: dda

dda — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:21:19 +0000

I have never taught English — thank God! — and my last teaching gig ended 11 years ago, and the last time I taught in a hagwon I had lots of hair, so my outlook on this is probably skewed.

Back when I taught in a university specialized in pretending to teach foreign languages, first-year recruitees made 2.something million, like their Korean counterparts, and were, supposedly, given raises just the same as the rest of the faculty. You stuck around long enough, you get “fat” [we're talking the 90s here] salaries of 5.5 milion and up, plus free housing. And if you were a boot-licker, you could get part of your compulsory 14 hours of teaching — and your more or less compulsory overtime hours — transferred to one of the gravy trains: the Interpretation Institute, or one of the crash course programmes the uni was running for private companies.

The problem was to be able to stay long enough [which was not my goal anyway, as I was only using this job to get my finances back in order...]. One policy that was passed while I was there was that people would be replaced every three years, in order to “control expenses”. Since the replacements would start at the entry-level salary. Another was that the foreigners should have a PhD, or at least be registered in a PhD programme. Some long-timers were let go over that, too. Of course there were “exceptions”. I saw a new hiree that got into this school being accepted directly into the pay grade of a 3-year veteran because she had been teaching for three years in another uni, and the French guy who had more or less life and death power over his fellow French colleagues had said to the management that she was a good teacher. And she got past the 3-year limit rule.

I have no idea — and don’t really care to know — how much they get paid there today at entry level, but it can’t be less than 3 milion, which isn’t much anyway…

By: Juggertha

Juggertha — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:47:22 +0000

Nothing major on my end - dam Direct English is on every corner nowadays.

By: The Goat

The Goat — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:49:39 +0000

“Your readers are generally bitter. Its pretty obvious without the analysis.”

If this statement is indeed true, it looks like you will fit in just fine.

By: Maddlew

Maddlew — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:39:33 +0000

Wow! Stacked, you can run that sort of smack at some of the bittermen who post here, you can even run it at me and occasionally hit on a morsel of truth, but run it on the Marmot and I think you’re confusing him with another species of varmint.

By: Stacked

Stacked — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:54:24 +0000

@49, funny hearing you say that when you apparently don’t know your own audience.

Your readers are generally bitter. It’s pretty obvious without the analysis.

Maybe you should brush up on your Korean skills? I’ve read the comments and they are general bashing.

Of course given the level of insecurity and misery shown by you and your readers I’m not surprised that it turned into some insecurity thing.

Koreans in Korea don’t like Americans? Goddamn they must be insecure. Sorry they just hate you, much like most of the world.

By: Linkd

Linkd — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:16:20 +0000

Maddlew’s obviously been to one or two chamber of commerce cocktails.

By: Maddlew

Maddlew — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:43:38 +0000

The phrase that hit me was “socially retarded”. I think you were using the word “socially” in a very narrow context, specifically the utilization of contacts made in a social setting in order to find financial benefit.
You’ve got to understand that to some people a social setting is more real and not an environment to take advantage of. If I talk to someone I try to engage them as a potential friend and not potential fountainhead of wealth. To me and some others to do otherwise is akin to prostitution.
Now this is of course putting the situation into somewhat stark terms. In an ideal situation why can’t we have both, n’est-ce pas? Maybe what I’m trying to say is the endless self-promotion just gets extremely wearisome after awhile. Perhaps at your age it’s new and exciting and easy and the prospect of the potential for financial gain creates a buzz. For me mixing money with friendship tends to taint everything. People I meet who are into that sort of self-gloss start sounding like Bob Barker.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:33:40 +0000

“Just finished Jan-Feb kids hagwon program at 5 mill a month. It exists, fellows.”

Yeah, it does exist… in some nightmares I’ve had.

By: Teaching English vs Others in Korea | Live Teach English Find Jobs Teach ESL EFL Seoul Korea

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:15:11 +0000

[...] according to a recent news paper article via the Marmot’s Hole- some English teachers rake in 5 million a [...]