'Stop exploiting us,' Korean language instructors tell universities
Temporary Korean language instructors hold up signs calling for better job security outside Seoul National University Cultural Center, as the inauguration ceremony for the new university head Oh Se-jung took place inside, Feb. 8. Courtesy of SNU labor union
By Lee Suh-yoon
Korean language programs for exchange students and foreign residents have boomed in recent years with the global popularity of Korean culture. The number of foreign students coming to the country for language programs surpassed 40,000 last year.
But the instructors who teach these certified Korean language classes to foreign students at prestigious universities here still lack basic job security, fearing sudden dismissal or a cut to assigned class hours whenever they renew their temporary contracts.
Kim, a Korean language teacher in her 40s at the Seoul National University Language Education Institute (SNULEI), has worked there for nine years on a series of temporary contracts.
Kim and dozens of other instructors who have taught Korean language programs at SNULEI for many years ― to around 3200 foreign students annually ― must renew their contracts with the school every six months.
Despite the poor working conditions and job insecurity, Kim said in a phone interview, “We have similar responsibilities to other contract instructors teaching Korean students, participating in course development and holding meetings with other instructors teaching the same class in rotation. We are also not allowed to hold part-time teaching posts elsewhere.”
The situation is similar at other schools.
Most of the instructors at the Korean language center run by Korea University are hired on temporary contracts that must be renewed every three months. Kyung Hee University's case is worse, with 80 percent of the instructors not even offered formal employment contracts, simply relying on verbal agreements with the professors there.
But few dare to speak up in case the school assigns them fewer class hours ― a decisive factor in their monthly pay, which is usually below the minimum wage level.
Even in the case of SNULEI, which pays a higher hourly wage than other universities at around 40,000 won ($35), Kim and 38 other irregular Korean instructors earn just about 1.7 million won a month as each of them is assigned just 12 to 15 hours of teaching per week.
“At least my husband is employed. The unmarried instructors at the institute have a much harder time paying their bills,” Kim said. “Many instructors hold a Ph.D. in Korean language education and we spend hours outside the classroom to prepare classes, attend LEI meetings and grade students' work ― these hours don't count because the school maintains the notion that we are part-time instructors rather than full-time teachers at the center.”
Such a practice has been possible due to a legal loophole in their status ― they are not “instructors” as defined by the Higher Education Act because they do not teach regular courses at the universities, according to the education ministry's interpretation in 2011.
Thus they are treated as “workers” at the universities, but the schools withhold permanent employee contracts even though the instructors are de facto full-time workers, because they can save costs by not offering stable wages and permanent employee benefits such as health insurance and paid sick leave.
Kim says the instructors have been edged recently toward even greater financial insecurity, as schools increasingly limit their weekly teaching hours to sidestep new regulations that force education institutions to switch temporary instructors who teach more than nine hours a week to permanent staff ― coming into force in August.
“My institution cut down the weekly teaching hours from around 16 hours to 12 hours, saying there were fewer students,” Kim said. “But it suddenly hired new instructors ― which is a strange thing to do if student enrollment actually fell. I think they were just trying to lower total teaching hours per person.”
As the controversy drew media coverage, former students of the Korean language centers are speaking out against the unfair hiring practices.
“My Korean teacher Choi Young and her fellow colleagues at the Korean language center run by Korea University were all temporary employees ― even back in 1991,” Vladimir Tikhonov, a prominent left-leaning Korean studies academic and a professor at the University of Oslo, said in a recent Facebook post in support of the Korean instructors at universities.
“My students also learn Korean at these various language institutes run by Korean universities on exchange programs. What will they think when they know their teachers are being exploited on six-month contracts and monthly wages of 1 million won to 1.6 million won?”