A Korea blog I read has a great example up of what happens in Korea to cause over half of foreign teachers to not renew their contracts. Sure, it’s not the only reason, but in my opinion, problems like this woman experienced are the major contributing factor and are virtually universal. Not every school is like that, but from talking to other expats in the year I lived there, combined with reading dozens of Korean expat blogs, I’d say that it’s more common than not. I experienced these same things in my rural schools of 60 or so students that she experienced teaching at a high school in Seoul, so it can happen anywhere. Anyway, here you go: Quitting Seoul Metro
You know, for a country that is so obsessed with its image and making tourists come to their country, they could probably make huge inroads by simply treating their foreign teachers better. Whether they like it or not, English teachers are the largest group of westerners in Korea, and it doesn’t help that when we eventually return to our home countries, most of us don’t have very nice things to say about working there.
“over half of foreign teachers to not renew their contracts”
The problem here, like almost everywhere, is that almost that percentage of teachers are going to go back home or move on anyway, so it hardly seems worth the effort to make 5% more stay.
1. That’s not what I was saying with the entry. I was not at all talking about trying to retain more teachers, I was talking about giving them a more positive experience so they have positive things to say about Korea when they return home. Right now, most teachers go back and tell folks there’s not much to see in Korea/not to work there/it’s boring to visit. If they had a more enjoyable time, they might actually return to their countries and encourage tourism, and also, they may stay longer. It seems a common theme that folks come to Korea for the benefits and the main reason they leave is because of their treatment, so if they were treated better, I think the percentage that would stay would be more than 5%. But again, that’s not what the entry was about.
Ha ha… I am going through some of your blogs now.
Good to hear that! I’ve got some useful stuff in my archives.