Oddly enough, Korea appears to be the best place to go at the moment. Their pay is quite competitive, about $25,000/yr, but the schools provide housing and taxes are much lower, so you can potentially sock away a lot of money, or finally pay off those stupid student loans. It would take me five years of full time work and economic living to pay off all of my loans. This is, however, well worth it when you consider that if I went the usual route and took my time to pay off my loans, I would end up paying the US Gov't $25,000 in INTEREST ALONE. Not cool. Anyway, while looking through info about Korean jobs, I came across this section in a teacher/school contract:
14. DISCIPLINING STUDENTS
Due to the teachers' lack of knowledge of the students' mother tongue and culture, the school principals and the local teachers will eagerly assist the English teacher should he ask for help in disciplining the students. In unlikely case of a student disrespecting a teacher, the student will be warned that he/she can be dismissed from the school, and after 4the warning, dismissal will take place. This is to prevent some inexperienced schools from taking the side of rude students in fear of losing customers, while by leaving the teacher unhappy or angry in the class, they normally lose lot more customers. For the teacher and all other students in a class will be made unhappy by one rude student. The school Will Fully support the teacher, if the teacher considers a student rude or disruptive.
My favorite part is definitely the part about eagerly assisting the teacher in case discipline is necessary. Mike's told me that his Korean students always work the hardest and are the best prepared at his school in Myanmar. It would definitely be nice to work with motivated students and have the support of the school to do your job. Discipline is definitely a problem here in Austria.But yeah - it's all about the pay.
2 comments:
Ugh! I cringe at the thought of my undergraduate debt, which I still lug around. I'm fully of the inclination that US universities are the places where the middle class reproduces itself, and what better way to insure this than by having students from working class families walk out of school tens of thousands of dollars in debt...that way they will have no choice but to become part of the system and get a job in the corporate trenches. Good luck! The teaching thing sounds like a great deal, but if you consider it seriously, I would reccomend that you try to get in touch with some people who have taught through it before. I hear some of these programs don't really pay what they promise.
Yes, I've heard this as well. Of course they're going to try to convince you their program is the best in the world. I've asked Mike what he thinks about it (he's teaching in Myanmar) and he'll probably know some people at the international school there who have Korea experience. If I recall correctly, the problem in Korea isn't the money, it's the support. For some reason, in the back of my brain I'm convinced that Korean schools actually are the exact OPPOSITE of that little blurb. But I don't know - maybe some places are different?
Yeah - about the middle class and the debt thing - makes it harder to pay back the loans when the interest rates go up. Thank you very much George Bush. 1.5% is a LOT on a fat student loan. Yet another example of the persecution of the lower middle class in education (those just above the poverty line who still haven't got anything even though the government says they should be just fine).
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