Singapore - English a draw for young job-seekers to go Singapore

Over the past five years, a growing number of South Korean graduates have come to Singapore, seeking jobs to brush up their English. Some even take a pay cut and come against their parents' wishes.

They are adding to the growth of the South Korean community here, which, according to the South Korean embassy, increased from 13,700 to 17,000 over the last five years.

As Mr Yoon Jae Woong, the embassy's press and culture director, pointed out: "Singapore is an Asian country with an English-speaking work environment, multinational companies and great infrastructure and security. So young Koreans prefer to work here."

International job agency JAC Recruitment has seen more young South Koreans seeking a job here, from 600 in 2010 to 1,000 last year. Typically in their mid to late 20s, many of these young adults are well-qualified on paper but want to improve their command of English and gain some overseas experience to clinch better jobs.

Mr Park Guang Nam, 29, is an example. He graduated in business from Seoul's Myongji University in 2010. Armed with a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate that he got last year, he applied to more than 20 South Korean schools as an English teacher but never made it past the interviews. He also tried odd jobs like working at a ski resort.

Then, through a South Korean job placement agency, he landed a customer service job at eServ in Wheelock Place. There are more than five such agencies in South Korea offering jobs in Singapore.

Mr Park started work two weeks ago and is the only South Korean in a sea of Singaporean and Filipino staff. He attends to customers with broken iPhones and MacBooks, fixing simple problems on the spot and lodging reports for the more serious cases.

His salary of S$2,000 is not as much as he would like, he says. A fresh graduate in South Korea can earn about 2.9 million won (S$3,200) at a big corporation or 1.9 million won (S$2,100) at small and medium-sized enterprises.

But Park is willing to put up with less pay for now, as he hopes that improving his English will pave the way for better opportunities.

Kim Hyeon Jeong, 23, is also here to boost her language skills. After graduating in hospitality from a university in Seoul, she came to Singapore last year to do an additional diploma in hospitality at the American Centre for Education.

With a diploma in hand, she is now an intern at Koryo Trading, which distributes Korean food in Singapore.

Her plan is to become conversant in English and Mandarin, which she hopes will open doors to a job in a hotel here.

The stiff competition for jobs back home is a push factor for many. Although South Korea boasts a booming economy, many young people struggle to find jobs. About 80 per cent of the country's high school graduates make it to college. But more than 40 per cent of fresh college graduates were unemployed last year, according to a survey by the education ministry. Some also come here in search of a more multicultural living environment, different from the homogeneity of South Korean society.

When Jang Seung Youn, 27, finished her master's degree in hospitality at Seoul's Kyung Hee University, she did not bother to apply for a job in South Korea. Instead, she accepted an offer to work as an accountant at Todai international buffet restaurant at Marina Bay Sands.

She loves the "East-meets-West culture" in Singapore and is happy with her S$3,000 salary since her company also foots the rent for her room at a condominium in Paya Lebar.

Others value the overseas experience here enough to strike out on their own, some against their parents' wishes - not a simple matter in strongly Confucian South Korea.

After graduating in law at Myongji University and working for five years as a public relations executive, Ms Shin Yun Hee, 29, chose to come to Singapore for its racial diversity.

Her businessman father and restaurant-owning mother could not understand why she wanted to live apart from them. "But young people like me are more independent of our families and want to experience a different culture," she says.

Ms Shin, who arrived here three months ago, is now a magazine editor at the Korean Association of Singapore. While her salary of "S$2,500 to S$3,500" is close to her pay in South Korea, the living costs here are higher, she says. Room rents are double what she is used to in Seoul.

Another reason for the influx of young South Koreans is the growing number of internship positions available at South Korean organisations and companies here.

In late 2009, the Korea Tourism Organisation started a programme in which South Korean undergraduates spend two to three months at its Singapore office.

General manager Park Hyung Kwan, who has seen about 30 interns come and go, says the English-speaking environment certainly helps in their future job prospects. Two of his interns were hired as Korean Air cabin attendants, partly due to their improved spoken English, he says.

Some South Korean high school students are also hoping to get a headstart in the race to speak English by coming here for their university studies.

Still others are even transferring mid-stream to universities here.

After taking a gruelling nine-hour college entrance examination, Mr Jang Joon Suk was admitted to Seoul's prestigious Yonsei University, one of the top five in a nation of more than 400 colleges. But he dropped out after less than a month. He sat the entrance test for Nanyang Technological University and was admitted a year later. Now 25, he is a third-year student in electrical and electronic engineering.

"When they found out I had dropped out from Yonsei, my parents tried to kill me," says Mr Jang, half in jest.

But his father, who is a regional manager at Korean Air, and his housewife mother have since come to terms with his decision.

Jeremy Lim And Candice Neo

The Straits Times

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