Topic Talk | The Future of ESL
Description
In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack talk about what they think the future of ESL entails.
Jack
Hey, A is the English podcast listeners. It's Jack here and we just want to announce that we are now on WeChat. Our WeChat ID is A-Z English podcast that is A-Z English podcast, one word all lowercase.
Jack
And if you.
Jack
Join the group. You will be able to talk with me. You'll be able to.
Jack
Talk with social.
Jack
And we can answer your questions. We can read your comments on the podcast. So we'd love for you to join us and be active in our we chat group. Our WeChat ID is A-Z English podcast. Thanks. See you on the app.
Jack
Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with.
Jack
My co-host social.
Jack
And today, we're doing a topic talk episode and we're talking about the future of ESL or the future of EFL English as a second language or English as a foreign language.
Jack
And UM.
Jack
I've got a lot of opinions about this social because my job is here in Korea. I teach at the university and so I'm always listening and and trying to predict what the the future of the industry might be.
Jack
Because it kind of greatly affects my my livelihood, my ability to have a job and earn an income.
Jack
And.
Jack
I've I've got my opinions about it. What do you what are your opinions about the future of ESL? What do you what do you think the the future might might bring?
Xochitl
Uhm, you know, I haven't been in the industry nearly as long as you have, Jack. So like, I kind of, I feel like by the time that, you know, because of my age, I'm I'm younger and everything. By the time I graduated college and everything like.
Xochitl
That that the industry was already taking the nosedive while I was, you know, in college, I would say. And, you know, the writing has been on the wall for a while, that there's especially during with the pandemic and a lot of people.
Jack
Yeah.
Xochitl
I mean the no mad lifestyle and teaching classes online and then there were certain difficulties with getting visas and staying in different countries.
Xochitl
During the pandemic and there were, you know, a lot of complications because of COVID that created a ripple effect of a lot of systemic changes that were, I think, already kind of on the on the fringe before, but definitely.
Xochitl
Kicked up uh during and after the pandemic and uh, how do I say this? I'm I'm not really sure about the future. I do know that.
Xochitl
It's not as lucrative a business, you know, as it used to be. I would say definitely people who are in ESL now, it's kind of like a.
Xochitl
A labor of love and it used to be that, you know, 20 years ago, you're starting pay in in a job like what you would get paid in Korea was the same as what you get paid now. And of course it went a lot farther 20 years ago. Yeah.
발표자
Right.
Jack
Yeah, yeah, things are more expensive now. Inflation has basically cut that by 1/3.
Jack
Yeah.
발표자
Hmm.
Jack
Yeah.
Xochitl
The buying power of that same quantity, it's just not what it used to be.
Jack
Thread.
Xochitl
So I don't know and I think that also displayed some people from, you know taking the route of moving to another country because it takes a lot of money which a lot of people also aren't aware of to to move out to another country. Yet in Korea like you get an apartment provided.
Xochitl
And you get a lot of benefits, but just the visa process alone, plus they reimburse you for your flight ticket after like a year of contract, but you have to pay the money.
Xochitl
Front and and a bunch of those related charges. You know, we're talking about hundreds or over $1000 and then.
발표자
MHM.
Xochitl
You know your pay is just so. So I think it makes a lot of people question whether they want.
Xochitl
To be like.
Xochitl
Work to the bone in some of these jobs. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it, I think on both ends, both for, you know, schools that are hiring teachers from outside of the country when they. I think it's also become a thing of why should I go through the hassle of.
Xochitl
Hiring someone from outside of my country and paying for their health check and paying for their visa sponsorship and all. And you know, making sure they are who they say they are doing background check and receiving all these documents and processing them like why should I go through all this trouble when I can get someone in my own country with thanks to globalization and better education tools they might.
Xochitl
Speak, you know perfect English and I can just get someone who already knows the culture as well and who I won't have to worry about like.
Xochitl
Holding their hand and walking them through the process of moving to a new country and from the teachers perspective, it's like why should I uproot my whole life? I mean, a lot of people do anyway because of the adventure.
발표자
Yeah.
Xochitl
Aspect.
Xochitl
But at the same time it's like.
Xochitl
Why should I uproot my whole life to make minimal pay? You know, when I could just.
Xochitl
Vacation there instead. Or you know whatever. So I think both of those things have a are having an impact on the current market. What do you think?
Jack
Yeah. No, I think you're right on. I think you're on target there on the mark, there's a couple. There's kind of two different.
Jack
Boxes that I am thinking about, the two two kind of category.
Jack
Worries the first one is what you were talking about. It's like there's plenty of capable people in Korea and Japan and and China who speak English, just who speak English very well, who can teach, who are who are Chinese, or who are Korean, or who are Japanese they can.
Jack
Teach people in their own country you know, they're like, why do you need to bring in an expensive?
Jack
Uh foreigner to teach English when you can get.
Jack
Just the same quality from someone from your country, and it's probably much cheaper to.
Jack
You know you you you can avoid all the other expenses. You know the the travel expenses and the the bonuses and stuff like that, that they have to offer to attract people from other countries to come here.
Jack
Also, I think the the fascination with like English is starting to wear off a little bit like it's not.
Jack
UM, I I don't know. It's it's, it's not as.
Jack
How can I say it's?
Xochitl
People are thinking like it's not, like, indispensable now that you know English.
Jack
Yeah. Yeah, right. It's it's, it's not. It's not as special as it maybe once was or.
Jack
And.
Jack
You you know, I mean, I I think it's it's more of a I think people are learning it because English is still the the de facto international business language like that's the way companies or people and companies will communicate with each other internationally they'll use English as the.
Jack
The is the the common language, but that takes me to the other side of the of the issue. The other part of the issue, which is the technology you know you can you could write a form letter in seconds using chat EPT in perfect English.
Jack
Whereas before you used to see really hard and understand all the grammar and then write the letter yourself, you know now you can, it'll just spit out a perfect English form letter or any letter for you immediately if you just type in a few prompts.
Xochitl
Goodnight.
Jack
And UM.
Jack
And that's a big change. That was a big game changer, I think. And the other thing is I think the technology is going to get better like.
Jack
Apps like Papago or Google Translate are able to take a foreign language and and translate it into English in a very almost perfect manner. Like it's it's quite accurate and.
Jack
It used to be really not inaccurate. It used to used to be nonsense. It was really funny actually, when I would read essays that were translated through Google Translate because.
Xochitl
Wait.
발표자
You know.
Jack
Yeah.
Xochitl
It was so obvious.
Jack
Right. You were. So yeah, it was like something like, you know, I don't know. It just just bizarre, crazy things that I that I that I that I read there and now you now now it's much it's much more accurate. So you've got tools that are that are gett
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