In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack talk about what they think the future of ESL entails. 00:00:00 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. 00:00:17 Jack And if you. 00:00:18 Jack Join the group. You will be able to talk with me. You'll be able to. 00:00:22 Jack Talk with social. 00:00:23 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. 00:00:48 Jack Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with. 00:00:52 Jack My co-host social. 00:00:53 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. 00:01:05 Jack And UM. 00:01:06 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. 00:01:25 Jack Because it kind of greatly affects my my livelihood, my ability to have a job and earn an income. 00:01:34 Jack And. 00:01:36 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? 00:01:44 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. 00:02:01 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. 00:02:11 Jack Yeah. 00:02:21 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. 00:02:31 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. 00:02:46 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. 00:02:57 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. 00:03:06 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. 00:03:19 발표자 Right. 00:03:22 Jack Yeah, yeah, things are more expensive now. Inflation has basically cut that by 1/3. 00:03:29 Jack Yeah. 00:03:30 발표자 Hmm. 00:03:31 Jack Yeah. 00:03:32 Xochitl The buying power of that same quantity, it's just not what it used to be. 00:03:36 Jack Thread. 00:03:38 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. 00:03:57 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. 00:04:06 Xochitl Front and and a bunch of those related charges. You know, we're talking about hundreds or over $1000 and then. 00:04:15 발표자 MHM. 00:04:19 Xochitl You know