Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cisco kid]

I haven't taught English since 1996-1998, and I work for a Korean company in administration (married to a Korean so I'm on the F visa).

Today I was talking to one of the patent team guys. He's an engineer that recently took and passed the national Korean patent attorney test, which is a tough nut to crack from what I hear. This kid graduated from one of the top tier schools (Korea university BA, KAIST MA) so I believe what he tells me because he's a pretty honest guy.

He said that his cousin taught himself English by reading a lot of novels and English grammar books that he'd buy in Kyobo, and after doing this for several years...he started tutoring Korean kids - he charges 1 million won per month for two sessions a week (2 hours per session) - but the key is his schmoozing the mothers after the lesson apparently he spends 20-30 minutes talking to the mothers and showing them his "passion" - which always translates to new students because the mothers talk to their friends and now everyone wants a slice of his teaching. He said that his cousin makes over 100,000 USD per year doing only privates.

Amazing, I know some FTs make good money in Korea, but I never realized that Korean private tutors make this kind of cash, all without ever having lived overseas. I asked him what his cousin's teaching method is, he said "that's the funny part, he just makes them read out loud from a book and corrects their pronunciation, he doesn't even teach them grammar!"

For cryin out loud. My wife and I make a combined income of just over 100,000 USD per year...I'm in the wrong freakin business!

[victorology]

I can see it but the guy is working a lot to earn that kind of dough. Does he have an office he teaches the kids out of? It would be hard to make a $100,000+ going to peoples houses even at those rates (considering the commute). He'd probably have to work 7 days a week.

I'm not saying he's not doing it but 1 million won for 4 hours a week (16 hours a month) is 62,500 won an hour. It's a pretty good rate but you're going to have to work your butt off and have a lot of things fall into place to make $100,000+ a year at that rate.

Let's say he has 3 lessons per day, 7 days a week. That's about 10 million won a month. 6 hours of teaching per day. An hour to an hour and a half of schmoozing with parents. Then you have commutes. He's definitely making a lot of money if that's what he's doing, though.