Monday, April 13, 2009

JOBHUNTING'S SUCH A BITCH!

I am now officially pathetic.


Thank you for your application but unfortunately we can not help you to apply public school in South Korea due to public school application regulations.

Native English teacher must graduate middle school to university in English speaking country including US, CA, NA, AU, SA and UK .

If you haven't graduated your secondary school and university in one of those countries then we can not help you to apply public school in South Korea .

As we are recruiting public school teachers in South Korea our agency won't able to help you with this case.

I wish you best luck for your future ESL career and Thank you for your understanding in advance.

Best wishes
What best wishes? I HAVE graduated secondary level. I AM a university UNDERGRADUATE. The only fucked up fact that is that i am not a citizen of any of those Native Speaking Countries. And they will accept Mexicans because it said NORTH and SOUTH America.

UGH! Who cares! Once upon a time, i was a very promising teacher, with leadership and managerial skills to boot! I was an aspiring writer, challenging myself over, and over, and over just to keep up with the evolution of THIS language this country desperately yearns. But again.. WHO EFFING CARES?! In this frustrating place, i am a useless sack of muck product from a country, more effective in speaking English than these idiots who are now fishing abroad for more white skinned teachers who they hope, can teach this language they sooo want.

You want rave, I'll give you rave. Did you know that in the Philippines, these people coming from these countries cannot even compete to Filipino English teachers? My friends, most of them are licensed teachers, and one of them told me this funny story. See, they (my friend and another colleague) went to apply for a private institution in the Philippines. They were applying together with (dig this?) white-skinned people, who, as labeled from this country, NATIVE SPEAKERS. I said people, not person, it's plural. I'm not telling you how many, but there were certainly more than three. Subject to teach: English.

If you ever applied to teach in a school in the Philippines, then you are aware that there are certain degrees of interview and tests before actually landing the job. Wouldn't you know it, the Native Speakers were denied the tenure, and my friends got the job. The idiots, only refused to do the work because; 1. Religion (Iglesia Ni Kristo) collided with the school (Catholic), and; 2. because the other idiot didn't want to stay. If you ever studied in the Philippines, or had younger sibling starting school, then you are also aware that private catholic schools are NOT cheap. Teachers' salaries on those places are well-deserved.

There's mo-oore....
The call centers. Do these people from US or anywhere else actually think that when you call for an inquiry or an account, or stock market, they're speaking with Native Speakers too? My brother worked in a call center, dealing with stock market. My dad, also worked in a call center before i went away, and my dad always had stories on how these idiots from these countries HAVE NO COMMON SENSE. Simple questions: Have you tried the on button?; or Did you check the batteries?; and these people, as my dad would say, just slap their foreheads and apologize, sometimes just hanging up because they're too embarrassed. DO THE MATH!

Getting lost in my dizzying thoughts: CALL CENTERS THAT ARE US-BASED ARE LOCATED IN THE PHILIPPINES, and not underground LA!!!

No, i am not giving up. My dad, he taught me that much: persevere.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi.

Im sorry about that application thing. I can understand the frustration you have right now. Based on my limited exposure to your blog, i can honestly say you are a lot better (at least your writing skills) than some Filipinos i know teaching English as SL here in Korea (those that i know personally and online). You are a lot better than those college graduates whose posts can be found in many Korea-related blogs asking/begging for information regarding job openings for Pinoy teachers. Its your gift/talent i supposed.

Unfortunately, thats not enough. As many people already pointed out, teaching English requires more than passion and proven skills. Korean hagwons, schools need documents, certifications, diplomas etc. Thats how the world works, and it goes the same way in our country (Philippines). That is a fair practice i guess.

I dont agree blaming the Korean system for their prejudices, discrimination practices and biases. They can hire whoever they want to hire. Its their money anyway.

I am fully aware of the bad practices that hagwons do by hiring incompetent fresh graduates (native speakers) on the basis of skin color, but i dont think its a widespread practice. But again, its not my business since (as ive said) its their money anyway.

Regarding native speakers vs pinoy teachers, we are not yet in the position to brag about ourselves as better teachers than these native speakers. These native speakers were hired actually as "native speakers/co teachers" and not as teachers. Something that we Filipinos cant provide especially the accent that they desperately need.

We are ranked 32nd among countries in the English exam scores even though we already adopted English as an official language. And i dont think its something we can be truly proud of.

Regarding, call centers. Yes its true we are very competent in English thats why call centers are popping up like mushrooms all over the Philippines. But its also popping out elsewhere outside our archipelago (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India etc).

And also lets consider the fact, that the bigger reason for this is the lower wage that Pinoys asked as compared to Western nations. This will save these companies a lot of money. Another evidence of this is the growing popularity of these call centers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (Countries that fared lower in English proficiency as compared to the Philippines, but with lower PCI thus lower wages)

Good luck to your job hunting.

reijene said...

yes, i am also aware of that fact... but, to the call center market, the Philippines is a much better place because other Asian countries, and i quote... have very stiff accents... making them ALMOST impossible to train (^_^).

Thanks for the moral support.