Do English teachers leave Korea with 'buyer's remorse?'

By Toni Benn

Many English teachers I encountered in Korea had been living in Korea for two or more years, but hadn't taken much thought into what they'd do next. Sheltered by the comfort of a steady income in addition to other enticing benefits, I understood why many don't think too far ahead beyond life in “the Land of the Morning Calm.” The perks Korea gives to its teachers far outweigh those in countries like the United States, but nothing is ever as sweet as it sounds.

When searching for a teaching position online, many job ads possess titles such as “HIGH PAYING JOB IN SEOUL” to lure you in. As you start to read through the post, everything checks out. Health insurance is promised, in addition to severance pay at the end of your contract. You'll earn a pension with matching contributions from your employer, and receive an apartment or housing stipend. But the moment you sign your name on the dotted line, and you are fully processed into the system, your livelihood is literally in the hands of your employers.

Many foreigners come to Korea on an E-2 visa, which grants the legal right to work at a specific school. This institution is sponsoring your stay in Korea and maintains responsibility for providing you with the legally bound benefits that come with this visa. However, not all employers follow the rules. A teacher shared with me that his English academy committed a heinous act by firing him towards the end of his contract to avoid having to provide the contractually promised severance pay. They even attempted to withhold his final salary for the month he had already worked.

I found myself in a situation where my housing possessed mold that infiltrated onto my belongings and began to grow from the ceiling down to the lower regions of the wall near my bed. All I could think of was going back home to the States, because this was not the living situation I was in prior to hopping on the plane to Incheon Airport. Fortunately, my employer understood my situation, and I was able to move into a great apartment within a few days ― but not all teachers have this sort of luck.

These types of stories are cause for concern, because there appears to be very little government regulation of English academies. Yet, for the teachers they employ, these academies present an extremely high risk. Even still, foreign teachers continue to pour in, and I'm worried that the standards being set by employers nowadays are only going to decrease, as a result of the never-ending supply of workers.

All of these factors have caused me to wonder if the people who come to Korea to teach ever leave the country with “buyer's remorse,” or the feeling of regret after having made the decision to come, work and live here. Speaking from personal experience, there is a lot that I learned while working in Korea. All of the challenges I faced were common for teachers, and even if they seemed to be the norm, I had difficulty accepting them, as they showed how English academies often have the upper hand over teachers' lives. It didn't take long for me to lose hope and become exhausted from trying to understand, as well as conform to, a system I didn't agree with. But do I actually have buyer's remorse? As crazy as it may sound, in my case, I don't.

The children I was fortunate enough to call my students made my particular experience worth the struggle. So, I will continue to maintain my hope that Korea will begin to acknowledge the value teachers with different nationalities bring to their country and take steps to improve these teachers' working conditions.

Toni Benn (

tonicbenn@gmail.com

) now works as project manager for a software development company in the U.S.