Elephant
- 2005-07-15
That sort of thing happens all over. Some call them 'young guns' or something similar. I call them 'granola types'. You know the person I'm talking about--the young 21-24 year-old fresh out of college who's now teaching in places like South Korea or Japan. Yeah, he/she looks like he/she belongs out on some hiking trail eatin' granola and wearing hiking boots.
The granola types have a more 'liberal' reputation back in the states, the source of most granolas. Most have probably written that term paper that talked a mile about the 'evils' of discrimination in any form.
Those same granolas throw that out when they touch down in their new digs as teachers in Asia. Give them the job of finding/interviewing potential teachers at their schools, and they will go with younger people just about every time. They discriminate against the older teachers, yes.
You're right- granolas don't really WANT their schools to hire teachers. They want their schools to hire 'playmates' for them so they go can do 'cool' things with someone else instead of doing those things all alone.
Welcome to the real world. You could open up a store that sells hiking boots in some of countries where granolas are plentiful. Maybe you could even reverse the discrimination practice when YOU start interviewing and give 'em a taste of their own medicine.
Howard Zinn, Historian
- 2005-07-13
I know all about it. I've experienced just that in the last two weeks. I wondered why I didn't get a job I wanted in Taiwan. Now I know, thanks to your post.
A young guy interviewed me. And I ain't so young, if you get my drift. I guess he wanted a playmate instead a teacher.
Remember all the 'discrimination is something you shouldn't do' lectures in ethics classes and term papers back in the USA during your college days? Well, it seems some white folks forget all that when they land in Korea and start interviewing potential teachers at their respective schools.
The "age discrimination" problem is something I, a 38-year-old white face, have found in SK when young gun white faces were interviewing me.
It seems young guns, a plentiful lot here, want only other young guns to join their ranks at the schools for which they interview. That way they can find young buddies to 'pal around' with and do the cool things the young, 'hip' types do around here. If you're an older teacher, you credentials, maturity, and experience mean nothing to these guys.
IF you are an 'older' teacher candidate looking for a job here, your odds of landing that job will increase substantially if a native Korean gives you the interview. This is especially true if you're from the USA and the interviewer is an older gentleman.
Avoid the young-gun interviewers if you are over 30.