Pay rates lets compare / ESL teacher status is dreadful (Eng/Kor)

Posted: 2002/03/20  By: me (Views:3719)

Korean factory worker/ 2 year skill certificate= 1,800,000 starting (1st year) with sickness
bennefits and increasing salary over years.

Korean pharmacist/ 3 year degree = 2,400,000 per month in Seoul. Even the girls selling
lipstick in department stores get better pay than a foreign teacher.

Now my point is this- we make 10,000,00Won to 15,000,000Won per month for our hokwon bosses
and sometimes even more if we work for an education company.

Why accept 1,800,000- 2,200,000 for 120 hours when a Korean three year degree holder earns
more than we do????

I havent included Korean high school teachers or elementary teachers because I can't find the
details regarding principles pay and the term holidays vary. What is obvious though is that
hokwons don't offer term holidays and continue paying during holidays like Korean high
schools/middle schools/elementary schools do.

Foreign expats living in Seoul and teaching in Hokwons are considered to be `desperate' or
the underclass by the expat biz community- why? Because the teachers are often desperate and
too stupid to say no to bad conditions.

YOU ONLY HAVE YOURSELF TO BLAME FOR MAKING THE DIRECTOR RICH.

Boycott REENA/SASA/ITS and any other agency offering 35,000 per hour for a morning class. I
know a guy that was paid 75,000Won per hour for negotiating a deal with a company by himself :)
without any selfish Korean `middleman' group taking a fat slice for doing nothing- the internet
can empower us all, but most teachers are to busy slaving away and being pawns to say no.

Its easy to say no, lets practice- `NO, no, NO'!!!

Oh, I forgot, some of you are scabs and will accept any contract and anything offered....some
of you are too lazy to research a good deal for yourself. Well, you are your own worst enemy!

You can pick up kindergarten work paying 50,000 per hour in Incheon quite easily now. You can
start teaching over the internet cheaply with aid of a Korean friend and earn 50,000 per hour
there too.

So why are you working for that boss?? Just quit and leave Korea. Come back on a tourist
visa, camp in a cheap yogwan and earn money for yourself while waiting for the employment
contract time to elapse on your passport. If you want to speed the process up you can lose the
passport and get a new one which voids the numbers/proof that you signed a contract with a
particular place beforehand.

There are two kinds of people in this world: Champions and Victims.

Which are you?