The Korean instructors will receive about 26 million won ($18,882) in annual pay on a one-year contract and can renew for up to four years at one school. In comparison, native English teachers receive about 30 million won.
``Foreign native English speakers cannot teach students without Korean teachers, but the newly recruited teachers can teach on their own. We expect these instructors will replace foreign teachers over the long term,'' Euh added.
Christ. Yes, we're hired as native speaker assistant teachers, and are expected to work with a Korean co-teacher, but the fact is the Korean coteachers often don't come to class or don't do anything when they show up. Matter of fact one of mine spent two periods sitting in an adjoining room today grading papers when she should have been helping. So, in reality we often are teaching on our own, and we've grown accustomed to designing our lessons and activities with that in mind.
Moreover, why say we can't teach on our own? Is it simply some law that says we can't? Or is it assumed that we can't because
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So, this would only pertain to public school positions, correct? If that is the case, this is a sure fire way to expand the private English hagwon system.
I was under the impression that Lee Myung-bak's administration was trying to reduce the reliance on private schooling?
Also from the KT article:
"Among those respondents against the [practical English] instructors, 46 percent said it would bring unqualified teachers to schools and 21 percent said current teacher levels were already sufficient."
Again we see the word 'unqualified' being banded around like there was ever a requirement to teach English in Korea. If nothing more than a bachelors degree is asked for that IS qualified for the job.
I don't know if it's an intentional gaffe or not, but it seems rather difficult to prove a megative. 'Native English teachers are unqualified', they say; our response of 'we're not unqualified!' is not only bad English (double negative) but doesn't necessarily say we ARE qualified.
The question they (and to a certain extent, us) should be asking is "What makes a 'qualified' teacher?" As James said, the current 'qualification' is a Bachelor's degree. If you have that and the willingness to come to Korea to work for (presently) wages less than we could make in our home country, you're 'qualified' under the current standards.
Put up or shut up, Koreans - we're all here because we ARE qualified. If you want to change the qualifications, talk to your own government instead of bringing us down.
Well said, Chris.
So where exactly do I find these 'average' 3 million won paying jobs, cause I'm getting screwed at 2.1 million.
Our hagwon consists of nothing but native English speakers. No Korean teachers at all. Our students learn quite well. Full immersion. In fact, they learn more slowly when there's a Korean English teacher or a foreigner who's fluent in Korea because the kids don't feel the need to actually use their English to communicate.
Vespasian, I think the 30 million won means per year, which comes out to 2.5 million a month. I'll go out on a limb and say that's around what hagwons are paying now but definitely not what public schools pay. I weekly talk to Rowan, who runs ESL Planet recruiting and is the biggest recruiter for public schools here. He says that the pay doesn't reach near 2.5m for public schools.
Foreigners top out at 2.5 in the public schools. This is my fourth year in Korea, and I'm at 2.4 (for the second straight year). If I get my PhD in Applied Linguistics maybe I'll get that raise!
What might be happening is they're throwing in the other benefits, like cost of housing, airfare, and so forth. I took a swing at that my very first rant on this site.
I really hate when they bring up money. We get paid more than other assistant teachers---NOT more than other public school teachers, get that through your heads---but our skills are in demand. We often don't have education degrees or post-graduate education, but those aren't required. We don't have that training, but we speak English well enough to teach spoken English. Korean teachers often do have these qualifications but have little to no knowledge of, or ability in, the language. We get free housing. So do many Koreans, as they either live at home or live in apartments paid for by key money from their parents. We get free airfare, but we're also brought in from halfway around the world. We're not also not entitled to performance bonuses and enrollment bonuses, or *cough* "gifts" from parents and administrators.
You know what? I work hard, and I earn the money I get. Yeah, yeah, I blog a lot, but I'm a fast typer. I end up with 25 or 26 classes a semester, almost all of them with original content or materials I designed in part or in all on my own. This morning I spent three hours digging up pictures and putting together a lesson for proverbs and modals. I don't walk into the classroom like mahy Korean teachers do and open the textbook, turn on the CD-ROM, and speak Korean for 45 minutes. No, I actually have to design activities to get students talking, get them using the language, and get them to buck the conditioning they've had the past 8 years of their schooling that tells them to sit down and shut up. And, yes, I design my activities with the assumption that I'll either be in the classroom alone or that my coteacher will not be wiling or able to help. So nothing like "well, she can just explain this in Korean."
ZenKimchi has gotten on my case before for making this an us vs. them thing . . . but when it comes to bureaucrats with their head up their ass, I am not uncomfortable being aggressive. There's a profound ignorance about what we actually do and what our job entails. I'm not a lazy fuck who gets by on my very good looks or on my status as a native speaker.
And you know what? We "can't" teach on our own? Fine, make that the policy. Force our coteachers to actually coteach. See how far that shit would go. When I told my coteachers that they needed to be in class, some of them even argued with me. So if people are going to bitch and moan about what we do, why direct it at us, rather than the people who should be in charge? I'm really fucking sick of this guilt trip laid at our feet. You wanted English, you paid for English, deal with it.
And if you want to get on my case for "not talking" on your show, maybe having a topic like this to have a conversation about would have gotten more of the "character" you were looking for.
No, I'm not getting onto you for an "us vs. them" attitude. Preach on.
And I wasn't the one saying you weren't talking much. I think you did pretty well. It's a panel discussion, not an interview show.
Last Saturday I went to the Seoul Chapter's KOTESOL mini conference...saw a presentation on how to develop co-teaching relationships between the NET's & KET's. The first half was an open forum that listed:difference in expectations, lack of cultural respect, unclear directives, lack of co-teacher skill training, baggage of both teachers... that are obstacles to co-teaching. The crowd was a mix of NET & KET. Some really great ideas were mentioned & solutions offered that even the KET's agreed was needed. The presenter said he anticipated these aspects of the over-all problem. He then launched into his PPT full of statistics on how successful is coteaching blah blah blah.. then he finished with his prognosis that most of the problems can be fixed by:being more selective in hiring the NET, placeing the KET in charge, training the NET on cultural respect blah blah blah... there was no mention of any of the responsibilty or accountablity to be placed at the feet of the KET or mention of the great ideas given earlier. After, we headed to lunch in mass. In line, I chatted with a guy who said he WAS going to apply, but after the 'big finish' was so different than the forum, he decided to stick with the hogwans. Sitting eating lunch, chatted with another group of NET's from PS & they said it was all more of the same with no change or progress...surprise!
Brian-
You make a good case and describe most public schools fairly well both in the post and your comments.
Similarly I dislike discussing money but again, our "skills" are in demand and so why shouldn't we command a premium like you say?
Certainly in Hakwon foreigners are paid significantly more than their Korean counterparts.
The unfortunate flip side is that some Koreans view their foreign colleagues as overpaid and under worked.
Hopefully the likes of us who spend more than the required 25 hours a week in the classroom, preparing and developing curricula go a ways in dispelling this notion in our Korean off-siders.
In public schools things vary greatly. In Seocho-gu foreign teachers start at a rate lower than we in Gangnam do, but their cap is a little higher. That doesn't take into account that to get the big money you have to stick around for 5 years and hold a Ph.D. in Linguistics. Nevertheless at the end of this year (and hopefully with a newly minted MA in Linguistics in hand) I will be pretty darn close to plus/minus 3 million
While not wanting to disagree with either Rowan from ESL-Planet or the esteemed Member from Alabama 2.5 is starting to get a bit middle of the road if you ask me.
I will disagree with Chris however. There is no way I would be earning this amount of money in New Zealand as a regular school or Language Teacher. Ditto anyone from Australia, South Africa or Canada.
Just to make clear they're talking about "unqualified" Korean teachers here, not native speakers. Doesn't mean Chris's question isn't valid. Who is more "qualified" to teach: a Korean who knows English or one who doesn't?
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