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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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 Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| The craze hasn't gone away, there's just a glut of English "teachers" thanks to the crap economy and Korea's willingness to fork over decent cash for simple degrees. Presumably once (if?) the economy picks up back in NA, fewer teachers will come to Korea, and English will be in higher demand again. Or, as many others predict, Chinese will become the new English. Start learning your Mandarin people! |
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fosterman
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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problem is most foreigners think they deserve 50.000 an hour to talk to little sungmin for 1 hour.
so finding all those mothers who will pay that money is slowly diminishing
sure back in the day it was all about keeping up the jones, telling other mothers sungmin has a native speaker twice a week etc etc
but mothers now realize hakwon provide better service, more hours, free pick up service, more homework, direct line of communication, and tests!
all for half the cost.
the rich mothers who love to throw money around are the ones foreigners target, but in the past 5 years we have seen a HUGE influx of westerners coming here to seek their fortune in ESL 50 bucks a hour etc..
so those jobs are becoming harder to find. 5 years ago I was turning down and giving away so many jobs it was crazy. now I haven't been offered privates for months. 5 years ago I would never see other foreigners walking around in my neighborhood, now it's a daily occurrence.
and when I do get offered privates I say 50.000 , they say ohhhhh ok I will call you.. they never call back.
I think we have milked it long enough. I dropped my prices down to 40 now, and still nothing, just mothers saying, you can't do 30?
I understand them, I mean 50 bucks an hour LOL I feel like a thief really
especially when some of the houses I visit you can tell they don't have money. the rich mothers.. yeah no problem . so I might drop my prices down to 25 this summer. to try and get more students.
it's all about the money now buddy. the top 1% have it all in Korea.
and the so called middle class and poor, just can't afford to pay crazy money to the bog noses anymore. I mean after all, which hakwon doesn't have a big nose in it? |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd say it's an influx of foriegners and a huge drop in the economy doing this with the tutuorials more than anything. The perfect cure is for the US economy to hurry up and start growing again. Is this ever going to end? I hope Americans change their politicians because whatever they've been doing for the past few years hasn't been working. |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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| fosterman wrote: |
problem is most foreigners think they deserve 50.000 an hour to talk to little sungmin for 1 hour.
so finding all those mothers who will pay that money is slowly diminishing
sure back in the day it was all about keeping up the jones, telling other mothers sungmin has a native speaker twice a week etc etc
but mothers now realize hakwon provide better service, more hours, free pick up service, more homework, direct line of communication, and tests!
all for half the cost.
the rich mothers who love to throw money around are the ones foreigners target, but in the past 5 years we have seen a HUGE influx of westerners coming here to seek their fortune in ESL 50 bucks a hour etc..
so those jobs are becoming harder to find. 5 years ago I was turning down and giving away so many jobs it was crazy. now I haven't been offered privates for months. 5 years ago I would never see other foreigners walking around in my neighborhood, now it's a daily occurrence.
and when I do get offered privates I say 50.000 , they say ohhhhh ok I will call you.. they never call back.
I think we have milked it long enough. I dropped my prices down to 40 now, and still nothing, just mothers saying, you can't do 30?
I understand them, I mean 50 bucks an hour LOL I feel like a thief really
especially when some of the houses I visit you can tell they don't have money. the rich mothers.. yeah no problem . so I might drop my prices down to 25 this summer. to try and get more students.
it's all about the money now buddy. the top 1% have it all in Korea.
and the so called middle class and poor, just can't afford to pay crazy money to the bog noses anymore. I mean after all, which hakwon doesn't have a big nose in it? |
I am like you. I always thought, even a few years ago, that 50k was a ridiculous price to ask to tutor--unless I had to travel a far way to meet them. I advertise 50k, but would go down to 35k--no lower. |
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creeper1
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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It was crazy in Korea 5 years ago. There was an English craze so strong that I knew it couldn't be sustained.
So has it died? Well, no, died is too strong a word. It has declined.
And I agree with the previous posters. The reasons are as follows -
- Foreigners - Korea is bursting at the seam with foreigners EVERYWHERE. English is no longer that special difficult to obtain commodity.
( This foreign population aint going down either. WIth facebook and social media the secret that big bucks can be made in Korea is well and truely out!)
- They're better at English - Some Korean English teachers are now pretty good.
You don't have to leave Korea however. There is still good money to be made there.
Any foreigner, if determined enough, could spend their whole life teaching TEFL in KOrea.  |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Dodge7 wrote: |
| I always thought, even a few years ago, that 50k was a ridiculous price to ask to tutor |
I was in Seoul back in 1989 and learned that the going hourly rate tutors charged was 50,000 won. Back then I thought it was a princely sum. This was when the exchange rate was under 700 won per dollar and living costs were really, really low. |
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pegasus64128
Joined: 20 Aug 2011
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Underwaterbob wrote: |
| The craze hasn't gone away, there's just a glut of English "teachers" thanks to the crap economy and Korea's willingness to fork over decent cash for simple degrees. Presumably once (if?) the economy picks up back in NA, fewer teachers will come to Korea, and English will be in higher demand again. Or, as many others predict, Chinese will become the new English. Start learning your Mandarin people! |
Chinese will never become the new English as it's impractical. Mane Chinese schools now start students off learning English even before Chinese as it's easier and promotes literacy. Hangeul was developed to increase literacy amongst the population. Chinese characters were traditionally only learned by the elite and peasants used only pigeon spoken Chinese. It's English or Spanish. Chinese looks like it's becoming increasingly useless every day that passes. The Chinese economy has been getting bad press for a property bubble and fiddled numbers. It's a global crisis and everywhere is effected, except North Korea which is just already screwed. |
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deekman81
Joined: 03 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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I'm personally swamped with work, and honestly, I don't see it getting lighter anytime soon.
I know this is only a small sample, but many of our teachers are heading back to the USA or Canada either for grad school, or to get a job.
The economy is (albeit) slowly coming regaining strength in NA, and I think in the next couple of years, you'll see a massive departure back to the USA, which means more jobs here in the ROK. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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| madoka wrote: |
| Dodge7 wrote: |
| I always thought, even a few years ago, that 50k was a ridiculous price to ask to tutor |
I was in Seoul back in 1989 and learned that the going hourly rate tutors charged was 50,000 won. Back then I thought it was a princely sum. This was when the exchange rate was under 700 won per dollar and living costs were really, really low. |
Korea was also far less livable for expats back then, too. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Yaya wrote: |
| madoka wrote: |
| Dodge7 wrote: |
| I always thought, even a few years ago, that 50k was a ridiculous price to ask to tutor |
I was in Seoul back in 1989 and learned that the going hourly rate tutors charged was 50,000 won. Back then I thought it was a princely sum. This was when the exchange rate was under 700 won per dollar and living costs were really, really low. |
Korea was also far less livable for expats back then, too. |
I think Korea was far less livable for Koreans too, but yeah. |
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mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sorta glad to see it dying down (in Japan apparently too). I enjoyed my time in Korea as a Gepik teacher, but the whole English system there is broken.
I'm not here to "bite" the hand that fed me, but English teachers in Korea are way way overpaid.
Obviously there will be some who get offended at that statement. But my above statement probably doesn't apply to them. (if you get what I mean).
I also taught privates for $30 an hour. I probably would have done it for $10. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:17 am Post subject: |
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| Julius wrote: |
I agree the market is slipping a little.
This is because:
a) Fewer kids each year (birth rate).
b) Aging population. Old folks do not spend money learning a new language.
c) The economy. The cost of living has risen and people have less income to spend on English education.
d) Increasing popularity of Chinese. Ten years ago little minsu went to 5 english classes a week. Now she goes to only 3, and learns chinese for the other 2.
e) Bad press. The media has taught Koreans to be wary of or at least resent foreign esl teachers. There is also a campaign to teach yourself english via various other techniques- tapes, foreign TV, whatever.
f) Faltering American economy. America is in deep trouble. Koreans do not want to learn the language of a fading empire.
g) Flodded market. There are too many waeguks in town. That means less work for everyone. |
They do like their anti-US rhetoric, which extends to all the whiteys unfortunately.
Didn't they send a bunch of teachers home (fired them, didn't renew contracts, fewer hirings, etc.). Guess it wasn't enough.
Is the American economy is so much trouble that it is fading. Doubtful? |
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