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Mikejelai
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:45 pm Post subject: Home-stay/ESL school in Philippines?? |
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My wife is a board certified (eg, government credentialed) English teacher in the Philippines, where she has been teaching Koreans at a Korean owned school. We are thinking about opening a small (maybe 8-12 Korean students)
home stay ESL school. Room and board and 4 hours or so of English instruction per day would be included.
Do you know anyone else who is doing this already? Any idea what they charge? And who in Korea funnels the students to them? Any idea what the start up costs would be?
Constructive and/or critical input would be greatly appreciated. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:26 pm Post subject: Re: Home-stay/ESL school in Philippines?? |
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| Mikejelai wrote: |
My wife is a board certified (eg, government credentialed) English teacher in the Philippines, where she has been teaching Koreans at a Korean owned school. We are thinking about opening a small (maybe 8-12 Korean students)
home stay ESL school. Room and board and 4 hours or so of English instruction per day would be included.
Do you know anyone else who is doing this already? Any idea what they charge? And who in Korea funnels the students to them? Any idea what the start up costs would be?
Constructive and/or critical input would be greatly appreciated. |
450k won for study
500k-1000k won for room and board (single not shared).
price difference is living out in the province or rooming in the city.
Rates are based on 4 weeks of study.
Students are responsible for their own airfare, 60 day visa and (if a minor) WEG.
Students are found by use of a (bilingual) website, naver ads, a couple of travel agencies and personal referrals from K-teachers in schools and hakwons. It's all about the networking.
Camps are 20 days, 1.5million including airfare and WEG.
Adult / uni student classes are a bit different and pricing depends on the time, class size (1:1, 2:1, 8:1) and focus of the class.
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Mikejelai
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 3:10 am Post subject: |
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TP,
Thanks (as usual). Any idea what the current/future market for this is/would be? Or is it already saturated in Cebu? elsewhere?? |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 3:45 am Post subject: |
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Someone I know just crashed and burned on this.
One year, and untold thousands of dollars down the drain. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| Mikejelai wrote: |
TP,
Thanks (as usual). Any idea what the current/future market for this is/would be? Or is it already saturated in Cebu? elsewhere?? |
Most of the Korean schools in the Cebu area are seriously under-enrolled.
Cebuace was empty last week and not expecting any students before the summer break.
GEOS was empty (and has moved out of the Golden Peak) and was hoping to get students for the (Korean) summer break.
Cleverlearn only had about 20 students in the dorms.
AITI only had enough work for 1.5 FTE NES teachers and the maximum class size is 8 students.
The hakwon at marina mall had shut down and took its convenience store with it.
The SAEEI (south east asia experience institute) school had shut down and moved the last of its students out to the hagwon at Alta resort.
CPILS was almost empty.
So I would guess that the current market is weak and the short term outlook is flat.
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Mikejelai
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 2:41 pm Post subject: |
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| So where are all those thousands of Korean students in the Phils (as reported in the media) studying? |
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Dr. Whom
Joined: 06 Mar 2010
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Mikejelai, I replied to you on the Cebu forum. Different user name.
Haha. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Mikejelai wrote: |
| So where are all those thousands of Korean students in the Phils (as reported in the media) studying? |
There are/were lots of them in Makati and up north in Bagio there were hundreds of them prior to the floods last November. A triple whammy of typhoons sent a bunch of them home in a hurry.
At the moment, Cebu is virtually void of Koreans. I was in SM last week and only saw about 3 or 4 young couples during the whole day. I didn't see any in Ayala.
Most of the Korean car dealers in the north reclamation area have also closed their doors, packed up their bags and headed home.
My guess is that the economy is not recovering as well as the K-Times says it is.
NOW, as a bit of a side note:
IF you were coming here to live anyway and wanted to set up a home-school/camp to supplement your income then it would be a different matter.
Your setup, overhead and fixed costs would be substantially lower. Labor costs would be virtually non-existent above what you would normally have anyway.
If you were outside of a major city your setup costs would run about 5 million won (extra buildings and fixtures) and the operational costs would be 0 when you don't have students.
Compared to places IN the city where space has to be leased for 1-5 years (house big enough or space for class/dorms) with continuous costs even when there are no students.
Plan "B" can work quite well with the correct marketing and a small network of friends in Korea.
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Dr. Whom
Joined: 06 Mar 2010
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds like the homestay thing is pretty dead. My Korean wife and
I are thinking of moving to either Cebu or Baguio. How could we
supplement our savings? |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Dr. Whom wrote: |
Sounds like the homestay thing is pretty dead. My Korean wife and
I are thinking of moving to either Cebu or Baguio. How could we
supplement our savings? |
Depending on your visa status you may not be able to.
Those who are married to a Pinay have some options.
They can obtain resident status and the ability to work legally.
They can (jointly through their spouse) own land and engage in small business.
IF you are married to a Korean and do not have Philippine heritage (entitlement to balikbayan status) then your ONLY 2 options for long term stay with the option to earn a supplemental income are the retirement visa and the investors visa.
The domestic economy is protectionist. The list if things you CANNOT invest in (as a foreigner) is HUGE.
The list you CAN legally invest in is small and the required minimum investments are LARGE in comparison to the expected rate of return.
Put your savings in to a nice, interest bearing account and live off the proceeds.
Lease (you can't buy) a nice place, just outside of town, run a few chickens, have a cow or 2 and think hobby farm. Your "worker" will cost you about $80 per month. Your utilities will be about the same (assuming aircon and mod-cons). Your food costs and other living expenses will be minimal.
You can have a comfortable lifestyle here (outside the city) for about $300 per month. You can be comfortable in the city for about $500.
$150,000 in interest bearing savings or bonds (at today's rates) will pay you enough to retire permanently here on the beach without ever touching your investment. $250,000 makes it very attractive, even in the city.
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peter07
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Gwangmyeong
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:19 pm Post subject: |
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I visited the Phils back in late February and early March. My friend lives in Angeles with his family and he just started a hakwon there. He has three students and he's hoping to do something but he has a lot of competition that is more organized and funded. He also tried the homestay thing but failed.
The Korean presence in Angeles I saw while visiting my friend was simply ASTOUNDING. I remember driving for long stretches and all I saw was Korean signs; I wondered if I was in Korea or the Philippines. There were Korean eyeglasses stores, a clinic of Oriental medicine, restaurants and the like. It was quite nice and the red-light district is but just a part of the scenery, not all like I feared.
Another interesting thing I learned. I was talking to a retired U.S. Navy guy and he says the Koreans are just the latest wave of foreigners who are investing in the Phils, but that Filipinos eventually take over again. He said the Japanese were in the Phils first, then the Americans, then the Aussies and now the Koreans. Since foreigners by law cannot own land in the Phils, what usually happens is foreigners run a biz under a ten-year lease then usually the landowners take over the business after the lease ends.
Perhaps you can take baby steps toward this goal by assessing the market and such. Just because there are so many Korean businesses in the Phils doesn't mean that they are successful. Better yet, talk to Koreans who do run businesses there and see what they say. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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Mikejelai
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Plan B is the one we would opt for; probably in Talisay or between Talisay and Cebu city. Yes, start out small, employ no one, have a regular source of income in addition, network with Korean agents, etc. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:36 pm Post subject: |
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Did you notice the fine print in that article:
"A language school requires a minimum capital of P5 million, including classroom and books. " or to put it in terms we all understand, 125 MILLION won as your investment.
Put that much into time deposits and you can live comfortably off the interest and NOT risk your capital.
That was the "investor visa" that I alluded to earlier in the thread.
Invest tons of money and guarantee at least 10 full time jobs for Filipinos and you get a residence visa (but you still can't own the dirt the business is located on).
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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| As usual, Tom knows what he is talking about. |
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