In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack talk about what they think the future of ESL entails. 00:00:00JackHey, 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.00:00:17JackAnd if you.00:00:18JackJoin the group. You will be able to talk with me. You'll be able to.00:00:22JackTalk with social.00:00:23JackAnd 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.00:00:48JackWelcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with.00:00:52JackMy co-host social.00:00:53JackAnd 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.00:01:05JackAnd UM.00:01:06JackI'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.00:01:25JackBecause it kind of greatly affects my my livelihood, my ability to have a job and earn an income.00:01:34JackAnd.00:01:36JackI'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?00:01:44XochitlUhm, 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.00:02:01XochitlThat 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.00:02:11JackYeah.00:02:21XochitlI mean the no mad lifestyle and teaching classes online and then there were certain difficulties with getting visas and staying in different countries.00:02:31XochitlDuring 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.00:02:46XochitlKicked 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.00:02:57XochitlIt'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.00:03:06XochitlA 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.00:03:19발표자Right.00:03:22JackYeah, yeah, things are more expensive now. Inflation has basically cut that by 1/3.00:03:29JackYeah.00:03:30발표자Hmm.00:03:31JackYeah.00:03:32XochitlThe buying power of that same quantity, it's just not what it used to be.00:03:36JackThread.00:03:38XochitlSo 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.00:03:57XochitlAnd 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.00:04:06XochitlFront and and a bunch of those related charges. You know, we're talking about hundreds or over $1000 and then.00:04:15발표자MHM.00:04:19XochitlYou know your pay is just so. So I think it makes a lot of people question whether they want.00:04:24XochitlTo be like.00:04:26XochitlWork 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.00:04:43XochitlHiring 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.00:05:03XochitlSpeak, 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.00:05:11XochitlHolding their hand and walking them through the process of moving to a new country and from the teachers perspective, it's ...
