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tatu
Joined: 23 Jun 2006
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 Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 6:07 am Post subject: High Private Lesson Fees |
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Maeng charged monthly tuition of 1.5 million (1,105 dollars) to 4.2 million won (3,095 dollars) per student. Over 14 months beginning June 2007, he earned 500 million won (368,514 dollars), meaning he raked in 200,000 won (147 dollars) an hour.
If cash sales are combined, his earnings are estimated at more than one billion won (737,028 dollars). He set tuition rates through interviews with parents, so fees varied depending on the student.
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http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2009042900458 |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 7:18 am Post subject: |
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And those people who charge 50,000won an hour and teach 40 hours a week scurrying here there and everywhere think they're doing well ^^
A lot of TOEIC teachers make good money too. A popular teacher can rake in US$200-300k a year. It puts most native speakers working here to shame. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 9:32 am Post subject: Re: High Private Lesson Fees |
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[quote="tatu"]
| Quote: |
| Maeng charged monthly tuition of 1.5 million (1,105 dollars) to 4.2 million won (3,095 dollars) per student. Over 14 months beginning June 2007, he earned 500 million won (368,514 dollars), meaning he raked in 200,000 won (147 dollars) an hour. |
1. The fees not "high" if that's what the market is willing to pay. I've got some students where if I charged $1,000 per hour, they would not care. Hell, I had one family who was willing to pay almost $400 extra per session if I parked a block away and took the servant's entrance into their house so their neighbors wouldn't see me and ask why their kid needed tutoring.
2. Dang, if I didn't just take six weeks off to screw around in Korea, I could have made more than this guy. But to be fair, I've come to realize that to get to the $500,000+ category, I am going to have to hire assistants. If this guy is doing everything by himself, then wow - he is way more organized than I am.
3. Funny enough, I found that Korean-Americans are hard to get as clients as they think they are smart enough to not need any help and are often very price sensitive unlike apparently their Korean counterparts.
4. To be a "popular teacher", you have to be intelligent, self-motivated, professional in demeanor, know how to network, and have decent social skills. Only a handful of NETs on Dave's have those factors. But for those people, I believe they could take the lessons they learned in Korea, apply them in the U.S. and be quite successful. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 10:32 am Post subject: |
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Oops. Just read the article. The snippet I was replying to was misleading. That whole article was sensationalistic. That guy employed five tutors, so really he's not making that much once you factor in the overhead. I make just as much as the six of them on a daily basis by myself and I don't have to worry about getting busted.
People should privately tutor in the U.S. where everything is legal and you can charge as much as you want or what the market will bear. I know of a tutor in my area that charges $1,000 per hour. I'm dirt cheap in comparision.  |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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As he gained fame as a �pinpoint� lecturer"
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What does that mean? |
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Goku
Joined: 10 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:15 pm Post subject: Re: High Private Lesson Fees |
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[quote="madoka"]
| tatu wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Maeng charged monthly tuition of 1.5 million (1,105 dollars) to 4.2 million won (3,095 dollars) per student. Over 14 months beginning June 2007, he earned 500 million won (368,514 dollars), meaning he raked in 200,000 won (147 dollars) an hour. |
1. The fees not "high" if that's what the market is willing to pay. I've got some students where if I charged $1,000 per hour, they would not care. Hell, I had one family who was willing to pay almost $400 extra per session if I parked a block away and took the servant's entrance into their house so their neighbors wouldn't see me and ask why their kid needed tutoring.
2. Dang, if I didn't just take six weeks off to screw around in Korea, I could have made more than this guy. But to be fair, I've come to realize that to get to the $500,000+ category, I am going to have to hire assistants. If this guy is doing everything by himself, then wow - he is way more organized than I am.
3. Funny enough, I found that Korean-Americans are hard to get as clients as they think they are smart enough to not need any help and are often very price sensitive unlike apparently their Korean counterparts.
4. To be a "popular teacher", you have to be intelligent, self-motivated, professional in demeanor, know how to network, and have decent social skills. Only a handful of NETs on Dave's have those factors. But for those people, I believe they could take the lessons they learned in Korea, apply them in the U.S. and be quite successful. |
Tell me this was in Gangnam,
I refuse to believe this was anywhere but Gangnam.... |
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Arthur Dent
Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Location: Kochu whirld
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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-he received private lectures at a studio apartment in Seoul�s posh southern district of Gangnam.
- The Dong - A Ilbo
APRIL 29, 2009 03:07 |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 5:31 pm Post subject: Re: High Private Lesson Fees |
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| Goku wrote: |
Tell me this was in Gangnam,
I refuse to believe this was anywhere but Gangnam.... |
Heh, actually it's in southern California as I only teach in the U.S. I have a lot of students from Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes, Malibu, etc. I've seen rich Koreans before and they have nothing on rich Americans. Seriously, nothing.
I'll send you a PM Goku, if you don't mind. |
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robot
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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300,000,000 won is nothing.
There are test prep stars at the bigger schools who sell out classes of 500 and make millions of dollars a year. |
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Goku
Joined: 10 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 6:21 pm Post subject: Re: High Private Lesson Fees |
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| madoka wrote: |
| Goku wrote: |
Tell me this was in Gangnam,
I refuse to believe this was anywhere but Gangnam.... |
Heh, actually it's in southern California as I only teach in the U.S. I have a lot of students from Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes, Malibu, etc. I've seen rich Koreans before and they have nothing on rich Americans. Seriously, nothing.
I'll send you a PM Goku, if you don't mind. |
I don't mind at all ^^
I also highly believe that if the market exists then someone will pay. Money is no object for the wealthy and having a relatively wealthy family myself, I can see the effects. My Aunt who took over a small corporation would always drown me with money, especially if it was for education. We're not Korean, but I can only imagine how much farther it would go for a Korean.
People who net into the few thousands have a different scope of money than people who don't. People view money as % of their income, not absolute values, so it doesn't suprise me that if tutors are smart enough to find the right people and the right target market, they can really make bank.
Madoka, if what you say is true, I'd love to hear more about networking abilities and how to be a popular teacher (and I'm sure a lot of other NET's on Dave's want to too). A lot of teachers don't know how to use their wits about them to really maximize the benefit of their proffession and ESPECIALLY social skills. |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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| madoka wrote: |
People should privately tutor in the U.S. where everything is legal and you can charge as much as you want or what the market will bear. I know of a tutor in my area that charges $1,000 per hour. I'm dirt cheap in comparision. |
What do you teach in the US? Surely not ESL.. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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| robot wrote: |
300,000,000 won is nothing.
There are test prep stars at the bigger schools who sell out classes of 500 and make millions of dollars a year. |
The thing that confuses me here is that there is a limit to what you can charge for ESL. Is there also a limit to what you can charge for SAT and test prep work? According to the article, apparently there is. Anyone know what the limit is? Is the only way to bypass this limit legally to have monstrously large classes? |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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I've heard the amount you may charge ranges from 5K - 15K Won.
This guy must have pissed off the "established" hagwon down the block |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Hyeon Een wrote: |
What do you teach in the US? Surely not ESL.. |
Yes, you are correct. There is too much competition in ESL and that drives down the prices. You'd have to be insane to try it in the U.S. These days, I've become specialized into professional and graduate school admissions, so I work with college grads on their applications. That's not to say that someone doing ESL in Korea right now can't figure out how to apply those skills in the U.S. though. If you know how to get privates in Korea and were successful at it, then you should be able to apply some of those same techniques in the U.S. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject: Re: High Private Lesson Fees |
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| Goku wrote: |
| People who net into the few thousands have a different scope of money than people who don't. People view money as % of their income, not absolute values, so it doesn't suprise me that if tutors are smart enough to find the right people and the right target market, they can really make bank. |
Heh, I went to one student's home in BH. In the driveway were a couple of guys detailing several exotic cars, the cheapest of which was a S63. Inside their mansion, I counted at least 4 butlers/maids. And this was one of several homes they maintained around the world. What they paid me was meaningless to them. They just wanted the best for their kids. |
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