SMOE to cut 700 native teacher jobs in 2012

read a brief summary here.

Now I know some people are already saying that the jig is up. Korea has opted out of English. The esl community here will be dead soon. No more cushy high paying, low responsibility public school positions with optional sobriety! (.......well the last one is accurate). Seoul city went on the hiring spree to end all hiring sprees last year, hiring a Native English Teacher (NET) for every elementary, middle and high school in the city. That's over 1200 people. Most of these people are fresh of the boat uni grads who have nothing but their BA in Criminology which apparently is enough to teach English in Korea with absolutely no job training in their home country or in Korea (note, THAT failure is solely the responsibility of the Seoul Ministry of Education (SMOE) and not the fault of the 23 year old who applied for an available job, was hired, showed up on Sunday and was told to "go teach" on Monday). They have now decided to scale that number back. However, it's a small adjustment that really does makes sense given the cost of hiring so many people and bringing them over.

First, out of 22,000 E2 visa holders plus all the F visa holders there will be 700 less jobs, and I wonder how many hagwons will expand/open to fill the void? The fact is that the market will NOT become "flooded" with esl teachers. What will happen is that people will start to lose jobs for which they are thoroughly unqualified. I mean, the example 23 year old with a Criminology degree shows up in Seoul on a flight paid for by the Korean government. They get free accommodation in a world class city, a generous (relative to Korean standards) salary and 5 official weeks vacation (which does not include all the random days off, test days etc. where most teachers either play on facebook all day or else don't have to show up at all) and more if they can opt out (and want to opt out) or winter and summer camps. Now I know stories range from school to school and some teachers work long hours and don't have as many random days, but the fact remains that it is a relative gravy train for someone who's use is highly debatable in the first place. If some of these people want to stay in Korea, they will have to get TOEFL's (not online) and get hagwon jobs or else get relevant qualifications to teach (which you CAN do in Korea if you wish). These jobs are still readily available, but more and more you will actually have to show some ability or qualification to do the job. The simple truth is that if you don't know what a verb is you aren't qualified to teach anything but Phonetics to a pre-schooler.

Second, there's the turnover rate among NET's meaning that of the 550 that are staying in Seoul would be close to the number that would be renewing anyway. It also brings the number in line with other major Korea cities. For example (these number have not been fact checked so feel free to do so if they're way off) Daegu has about 300 NET's with a population of around 3 million. Busan has about 350 with a population of around 4.5 million. Seoul City (minus Incheon, Suwon etc.) has a population of around 10 million. In that sense 550 seems a reasonable number, especially if some will work in more than one school as has been suggested.

Also, hiring some 23 year old with a Criminology degree to teach English at a public school is... well dumb. For hagwon's I'd argue that a BA and a TEOFL/TEFL/CELTA is probably enough, but public school teaching is different, or at least it should be. Could you imagine what would happen in the US, Canada, Ireland etc. if the government decided everyone had to learn French and proceeded to hire a bunch of 23-35 year olds with no relevant education just because they happened to be from France, Quebec or West Africa? Now I am a big believer in the idea that a native speaker is essential when learning another language. Many Korean english teachers still say stuff like "You are from Canada, how about there?" However, 1200+ in Seoul alone seems excessive.

I also think many esl teachers have done this to themselves. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Koreans complain about their native teacher. Stories ranging from "he comes in hung over and stinking of booze every day" to "we called her at two and she had gone home with some random GI after being out til six on a Wednesday and was in some hotel across town." You have been hired to do a job. If you want to backpack Asia, boozing and getting up at noon, do that. Don't take a job and show up and act like an idiot and then get upset when you don't keep your desireable, well financed job. Also, the arguement that Koreans do it too doesn't fly as if a Korean shows up late with a story like that then they will be fired immediately and although coming in hungover is acceptable sometimes (much moreso than in the west), stinking of booze and talking about "how shittered" you got last night isn't and you don't hear the Koreans doing that. I know this isn't everybody that comes over, and I know many 23 year olds show up and do a great job but there are simply too many who treat their year(s) here as a holiday. Perhaps a measure that will weed out the idiots and get people who actually want to do the job they were hired to do (which includes MANY that are here now) isn't a bad thing at all.

This has happened before in the esl industry. In the 70's Japan was the place to go. You a functioning alcoholic with some education? Come live in Tokyo and be a teacher! Then the Japanese stopped and did some evaluations. The fact is that jobs in Japanese public schools are still readily available, but most people in them have a BA and an education degree, or an MA, or at least an English major. They also can lose their jobs if they under-perform as they have to pay their own way over and only get reinbursed if they finish their contract successfully. While I think Japan has gone too far the other way (it has been said that Japan speaks to the world through translators) certainly places like Singapore or Hong Kong seem to have found a happy balance. Teaching at a Hong Kong private school involves a real interview, and only people with education degrees or MA's in linguistics, education, TOEFL etc. are usually interviewed.

At the end of the day, very few people will notice the difference. EPIK may follow suit and drop some people, the economy isn't what it used to be, but I do think that hagwon work will fill the void. The real losers in that situation are the kids who can't afford private lessons at academies, although I don't know how much 2 hours a week saying "hello, where are you from?" with a westerner is going to teach them, at least it's something. I also think that Korea will (or should) follow the Hong Kong example. A smaller number of qualified teachers making a decent salary rather than cheap (relative to what HK teachers make) white people hired by the dozen. As to people in Korea now, many universities offer course based MA's in TOEFL, linguistics or even Asian studies (at least you'll be writing papers and studying a second language) in English. Do one. It's usually a year to 18 months (24-36 part time) and when you are finished you will have real qualifications. Most MA's here transfer to your own country either as an MA or as course credit towards one. Otherwise education degrees take a year in most western countries.

Finally, it wasn't that long ago that my fictional 23 year old with a Criminology degree could get a job teaching English at a UNIVERSITY. I mean, in Canada you can't even be a TA at a uni unless you are an MA student. Imagine signing up at your university for a French class and having a teacher with a Criminology degree walk in and not know the answer to your simple grammar questions... I'd want a refund. Well now that is increasingly rare in Korea and no one seems to be surprised, although it wasn't that long ago that the same objections were raised about weeding out Uni profs with no relevant experience, saying that it would raise the cost of English education in post secondary institutions. I think public schools are following suit.

So what it comes down to is this: you have a BA and maybe a TOEFL. You will be working hagwons.
You have an MA, and education degree or some other relevant qualifications. You can work public schools.

OR-

Next month some new policy will take effect with the government and everything I have just written will be irrelevant.