The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the tough economy is prompting young Americans to flock overseas to teach English:
Out of college, out of money and out of luck in a lackluster economy with millions of people out of work, Jeremy Salzman felt trapped after college graduation, facing a certain loss of freedom and an uncertain stretch under the watchful eyes of his parents.
So when the newly-minted graduate of the University of Michigan had to choose between returning to Atlanta to look for a job or signing on for a hitch as an English teacher in South Korea, it was a no-brainer.
He’s now teaching kids in a private school 7,000 miles away, with no professors or parents to answer to, no homework, and maybe best of all, no rules and no curfew.
He’s having a pretty good time, apparently:
So far, he’s having the time of his life, and also, he feels, providing invaluable help to youngsters there. He works at least eight hours daily, then parties by night, often into the wee hours, with other expatriates, most from the U.S. or Canada, but some from Britain, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand.
He goes to a gym daily, swills SoJu, a stiff vodka-like drink, fills up on Korean barbeque and sees “amazing” sights.
“I am not an English major, and people in America would not want me to teach their kids English…what I am good at and enjoy doing is helping kids become successful at something.”
He adds: “I came to live out a once in a lifetime experience that I won’t have the opportunity to do again when I have a real job.”
I’m sure the actual ESL professionals appreciated the “real job” crack, as did Anti-English Spectrum, who no doubt have posted this on their locker room bulletin board.
Hey, but party on, dude.
(HT to reader)
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Obviously, the poor soul hasn’t read the lousy Lousy Korea blog, yet. But soon enough, he’ll realize how lousy Korea is and follow other Expats in mass exiting the country, like Lousy Korea and Korean Rum Diary. Wait, whaaat? They are still in Korea?
“I’m sure the actual ESL professionals appreciated the “real job” crack”
It’s not a ‘crack’, it’s truth.
Oh wait you said ‘actual ESL professionals’. Yes, well, for those select few who are professionals I suppose…
Oh gee, I wonder where all the Korean stereotypes of English teachers come from? Articles like these just about validates all those stereotypes.
In January the Dong-A Ilbo did a thing talking about Korea getting more grads from “elite” US universities. Since it cited UNC—admittedly one of the better state schools in the country—I can assume the source from the consulate in Washington would consider Michigan “elite” as well. Clearly 22 is 22.
Surprised to see they got a hold of Dave Sperling, the guy behind Dave’s ESL Cafe. He certainly seems inaccessible to the people who actually use his site, and it’s remarkable that inertia has kept that forum popular years after it stopped being useful.
Question:
Isn’t there a noticeable difference between those recruited (in both quality and temperament) for public schools vs. those recruited for private hagwons?
Wow, I always get thumbs down.
Tough to say, WangKon. Public schools do seem to pay more lip-service to “qualifications” in their ads, and the interview I had with my former school district was much more involved than any I had with a hagwon. I do think the week-long orientation sessions that happen with a lot of public school jobs help get teachers up to speed, too. There’s a lot of room for improvement with them, but going through one sure beats flying halfway around the world and then being driven directly to your school.
I think this dude is typical of most of the ESL teachers i’ve met, and if the stereotypes ended at “can’t get a better job”, “not a real teacher” and “party whore”, i’d say those were fair discriptions of many, many of the ESLers i’ve met.
However, when some Koreans use the terms “Aids infected”, “druggies”, and “molesters” to stereotype ESlers, then they’ve gone way off the deep end.
Whose responsibility is it that international jet trash like this gets hired? How related is it to the fact that even the supplementary educational market in non-controversial (i.e., unrelated to “nation building) subjects is still effectively closed to foreign investment?
Yup. Korean schools could fill almost every teaching position with someone qualified to teach in his or her home country. There are so many looking for work because districts are not hiring new employees. This fellow with a business degree from Michigan might actually have gotten hired over a qualified teacher graduate of a less prestigious institution. A college dean at a SKY school where I used to teach wanted to hire an applicant with a PhD in economics and one year of ESL teaching experience over more qualified applicants with MAs in English or TESOL and several years of teaching experience, “But a PhD is better than master’s degree, I think,” he explained. Mind you, this same academic college filled some of its newly created academic advisor positions with Korean master degree holders even though there are plenty of unemployed and underemployed Korean PhDs. They also tried to give these Korean academic advisors the official job title of 전임 교수 but were blocked by real Korean 교수s with PhDs.
Dave Sperling – man, I’d like to just smack that guy.
I think it’s just 시장원리. It’s going to balance out in the end. More qualified people will apply as attractiveness as a destination goes up, and there’ll be less demand as Koreans ease off their English craze.
It also depends on the position and the institution. I just watched two episodes of “we got married” on youtube through Brian D’s blog where Brown Eyed Girls’ 가인 and 2am ‘s 조권 go to learn English. (actually it starts from the previous episode) So in those situations in those 학원, it would be fine to have someone without a teacher’s qualification, without a PhD or a masters teaching them fun conversational English, from 소주 swilling, gym-attending 22 year olds. If anything, I would imagine it would be harder to learn English from the more archaic professor-types.
the article describes 95% of the hogwon teachers i’ve met here and it will until something changes back home job wise and here in terms of who the hogwons hire. they did miss the boat on how 95% of hogwons dont give a rats ass about teaching but thats another story.
oh yeah i wish somebody would have tipped off the writer about $perling oh well…
Take away all the foreign English teachers and the Korean English education system will be just as inefficient, if not more so.
“Take away all the foreign English teachers and the Korean English education system will be just as inefficient, if not more so.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you: is that the awesomemest left-handed compliment in all of human history, or what?
All,
There is nothing wrong with this guy. There is nothing wrong with having little to no experience and going to Asia to teach. The fact is that your students can still benefit from you greatly if you simply do your best in class.. there is nothing wrong with having fun while you do it, and partying. There is nothing wrong with being young and going overseas, doing a fairly undemanding job, and having fun. More power to him. He probably won’t be teaching linguistics at Yonsei anytime soon. So what? Those of you who want to take the career seriously bear no responsibility for this guy, no matter what others may tell you. You have to accept that your field is full of low -level folks who fill low level jobs. So what? Are YOU low -level? If not, why worry? There is just way too much fuss over this stuff.
Not that it matters much, but in what world is Michigan not elite??
I dated a gal who went to UM of Ann Arbor and she said it was okay, but there was a lot of white trash type people in the neighborhood. Well… it might have been because she was working as a waitress in a typical Midwestern “Bennigans” type of restaurant while she was going to school.
She was not a fan of Detroit and its environs, that’s for sure. When she came back to L.A. after graduation she was literally kissing the ground, Pope style.
@ PineForest: You are basically right, but guess what guys like the dude described in the article really annoy me. Mind you, as long as they don’t pass the criminal threshold they have all the rights to do whatever pleases them but still i can’t help feeling a twitch of disgust: i grew up poor, not starving poor but one notch above Trailer Park and when i was 22 not even in my wildest dreams i could conceive getting paid to party around in an exotic country, probably attracting in the process quite a few black-haired beauties. My only strike of luck in life was actually getting a job (let’s call it like a job) in the US at 23, through the proverbial somebody-who-knows-somebody-who-knows-somebody.
Call it envy if you want, it is probably a fairly accurate description. Still i can relate to the Koreans: their country was dirt poor and they fixed it through enormous work and a strong emphasis on education: watching foreign lardy assed buffoons treating something they consider (right or wrong) so important as education as an excuse to get wasted and get laid must really hurt.
One NSET’s commentary on this article is interesting:
From I’m no Picasso.
re: Sonagi and AAK,
Listen, I’m not pick sides here nor do I want to push my way into this disagreement. Seriously, I don’t. But these articles would imply that those actually in the Iraqi government would see some value in the Korean model.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/didcf_iraq-views-s-korea-as-ideal-partner-for-rebuilding-economy-814301.html
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/03/03/201003030056.asp
South Korea has got to be one of the few countries that have been able to build itself up from war torn dirt to lower rung of the first world. I would imagine this has some appeal to countries who are trying to rebuild themselves from a similar situation.
Thank God this was reported by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and not one of the Korean media. The Korean bashing would have been amazing.
Some hakwon students actually want to improve their English and will make more rapid progress with a teacher who knows and uses research-based strategies. A Korean office worker who gets up at 4:30 to attend a 6:30 AM class isn’t looking for fun.
thekorean,
No, I didn’t mean that Michigan wasn’t a top-notch university. My point was that this person, on paper, would likely be considered an elite grad, according to that article and to the consul.
You can’t judge the guy based on one interview, knowing how reporters cut things up and half-ass it a lot of the time. (Then again, you’d think the guy would try and present himself and his profession well if he’s being interviewed). As has been said in these comments, the guy’s behavior is a reflection on the industry just as much as on the people in it.
I’ve always thought that part of the problem (that is, why Korea is flooded with NSETs who know next to nothing about language teaching) is the overall philosophy of education in Korea. It’s less about learning “stuff” (knowledge and skills) and more about learning to harmonize in a group, making connections, and generally learning how to survive in Korean society. I don’t mean this as an indictment; learning these things will help the average Korean far more than learning to conjugate irregular verbs. But it creates a system where education is viewed as something to be struggled through, and if you come out of it not really knowing anything, that’s okay, as long as you were miserable and you bonded with the other miserable people around you.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that Koreans expect far too little from NSETs, and their hiring policies reflect this. As long as students are thrown into the stressful situation of having to speak to a foreigner, the system has everything it wants. The foreigner need only be foreign. It makes me respect those students who actually DO learn English competently all the more.
That said, I like to think English education in Korea is getting better. I don’t know if the partying, know-nothing NSET will go the way of the dodo anytime soon, but I believe progress is being made.
#8: I have to agree with Sperwer on this one. Open the market to foreign competition and the only locally owned hagwons remaining will be the ones that hire real teachers. And they’ll solve the my-kids-are-in-Catholic-school-overseas problem while they’re at it. But I forgot, in Korea free trade and free investment=BAD.
Let me fix that for you:
“But one of these articles would imply that in the opinion of a solitary Korean government official, those actually in the Iraqi government would see some value in the Korean model.”
Now it’s fair and balanced.
Hey IHBB,
I’ll make you a deal. If, within the next two years, the government reconstructing Iraq does make a printed comment, in a reliable news journal, that the Korean reconstruction model actually is a useful model for them, then I’ll have the full right to dig up your # 26 and call you up on it. You can do the same for my # 20 and #27.
Over the past 30 years Korea has developed some expertise in getting from point A to point B. One of Korea’s economic strengths are companies that can build infrastructure at a more competitive price and faster timeline then many European and American companies. Hence, their rather visible presence in infrastructure projects all throughout the Middle East.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100302/BUSINESS/703029903/1005
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE51N11820090224
I think if I was a country trying to recover from invasion and civil war, looking for anything meaningful or helpful from the Korean economic model is a no brainer. Hey, it didn’t stop George W. Bush!
http://www.slate.com/id/2167362/
I mean… if there is any inappropriateness in making the comparison, it certainly didn’t stop Bush.
That’s right.
Don’t know Sperling. His forums were a great means of communication early on. Someone once explained to me how much that dude was raking in with his job ads years ago, he must be a gazillionaire by now.
I like the reactions to the use of the term white trash as compared to the use of the term nigger.
There’s no need for any deal WK. For all I know, there may have already been some Iraqi govt official who was quoted as saying he sees value in the Korean model. I wasn’t disputing that possibility. I was simply pointing out that the articles you linked to didn’t imply what you implied they implied.
In fact they weren’t even really about the topic of the Korean Model at all. The substance of both articles was focusing on the potential business relationship between Iraq and Korea with the reference to Korean experience as a throw-in aside in one quote from the Korean govt official.
I also think that you’re focusing on the actual physical reconstruction of Iraq and saying that Korea has significant experience and cost advantages in that area, which I think is true. But that’s not really what was being discussed in terms of the Korean Model. It’s more about the overall development and not just building stuff.
And I’m sure you are aware that the Slate link you just posted, was posted by yours truly yesterday among a few others in support of the proposition that using Korea as a model for the future of Iraq is ridiculous for numerous reasons.
Of course it didn’t, which is why it’s pretty difficult to find any non-partisan analysis in support of his comparison, while it’s quite easy to find many who think it ridiculously ignorant of the present reality and history both.
And oh yeah, this is in the wrong thread.
#25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Institute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlitz_Language_Schools
These are both operating in Korea and have been for the last few years. There may be others, but it hasn’t forced out Korean-owned and managed hagwon yet.
Hamel,
Are these fully operating subsidiaries to home office standard or just franchises paying lipservice?
Arghaeri, you are asking the wrong guy, but your question almost sounds like you want to believe they are “just franchises paying lipservice.”
No my question sounds like, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were, not that I want to believe it, and goes directly to your use as an example of foreign competition when in franchised they would not be foreign competition, but local competition with a “brand” advantage that korean customers will go for.
Even some of the fully owned subsidiaries of some pretty big brand names that I’ve had dealings with have operated very much “korean” way of doing business.
Not language businesses BTW.
I don’t know how that is possible. I thought franchises have very strict rules to follow, otherwise they lose their contracts.
I believe Outback and Bennigans. for example, use all important ingredients and recipes supplied from the States to do their cookin.
I dont know about WSI or Berlitz, having never had any dealings with them. I just know they exist, so for those who are curious it might be worth writing to the head office of either or both of these businesses.
Robert,
This article makes me wonder if the scope of jobs available for Americans in Korea is more limited than in neighboring China. An article of a similar strain in the New York Times, published last year, certainly makes me think so.
I don’t mean to put down teacher’s work, but i was wondering, do people really need to go to school to learn some English ?
I read some books, tons of trash magazines and watched tv with subtitles , after 6 months my English was pretty much at the fairly low level it is now
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