Korean Job Discussion Forums

[masuro]

Does anyone know of a company that hires native speakers to call students for telephone English lessons? I think I've seen it somewhere but can't remember where. I ask because there aren't many people wanting to sign up for my private classes in this small town.

[discostar23]

where r u from
I have what you r looking for

pm me
with the following

1. nationality
2. what time you are available
3. gender (male or female)

cool

[Zed]

Is there anyone out there who is/has done it and can say that it is both a tolerable and effective way to teach English.

[Eazy_E]

I have to do it as part of my regular job at a children's hagwon. I have to call 6-7 students a day for 1-2 minutes each. It's extremely tedious and I'm sure the students hate it every bit as much as I do. They don't understand the simplest questions and conversations are always more difficult over the phone.

[PatrickSiheung]

I own my own phone teaching company. We are just getting underway and therefore small, but I can say first hand that phone teaching can be quite effective.

Most of our students do 10-13 minutes a day. One student inparticular was a complete beginner and now after just a few weeks can hold a pretty basic conversation.

Like anything though, whether the student studies at a hagwon, privates or phone teaching, the student only gets out of it what he/she puts into it.
We have a very specific teaching plan that all teachers are required to follow. We follow the KISS method - Keep It Simple Stupid Each lesson is aimed at teaching one thing and one thing only. All students are guided through the lesson and also given appropriate study tips so that he/she may practice effectively on their own. With plenty of review later on.

Another thing I feel proud about... there are no stupid level-up tests and such. At the hagwons I've worked at I've found that the directors were more concerned with leveling up students to please parents than actually teaching the students. Whether a student was ready or not, when 3 months was over, that student leveled up >< I can't count the number of times I would recommend a student for a beginner class only to have that student put in a higher level class because their mom/dad wanted them there.

Lastly... when you think of a typical hagwon class, each student is lucky to get 10 minutes one on one with the teacher. Phone teaching can provide this when privates aren't an option.

[Eazy_E]

I'm sure phone teaching can be effective when applied in a systematic way, but personally I would be happy if I never had to call a student on the phone again.

BTW, where do you live in Siheung Patrick? I'm in a tiny postage stamp town somewhere between Bucheon and Ansan.

[PatrickSiheung]

Definitely effective. I especially like it that I personally know where each student is in their studies. I like being able to give each student individual attention. Actually... I don't actually do the teaching so talking on the phone isn't a problem for me haha.

And I'm not in Siheung anymore actually. I made this name last year when I was still working at my first hagwon. Perhaps it's time for a new ID? =\ I lived in the Daeya Dong Area.

Living in Bucheon now near the subway station


EDIT: Just read your first post there Eazy_Z... I also had to do phone teaching last year when I worked at a hagwon. I hated their system of teaching. Basically the phone teaching there was just reading and repeating some basic phrases. We called it a "memory board." I hated the hagwon though.. there was ZERO organization and every teacher basically did whatever they wanted. There were no systems working there and it was a battle every day trying to teach.

Doing the phone teaching now is 100 times better. I get to organize everything the way I've always wanted to and finally I have students that are learning something. Beats having some stupid director telling me how to teach. pffft all they cared about was their bottom line.

[mb2086]

I've been basically offered a job teaching english on the phone with Englishsolutions:

www.englishsolution.co.kr

They will send more details if you email them and I will be asking more questions when I ring them tomorrow. The pay rate is 18,000 an hour. I think it is seriously worth considering as this is an expanding business area, together with the internet, with low overheads for Korean companies so naturally they want it!

There is also another company that wants instructors to teach French businessmen on the phone, and Korean too I think!:
www.bizbee114.com (click on the top right)

[Zed]

[Zed]

[mb2086]

What is the name of your company and how much do you pay? Can you issue documents for work visas?

The other company that offers phone teaching to French students is:-
www.coefficient6.com - you can be anywhere in the world for that one. Worth making enquiries.

[PatrickSiheung]

Zed:

We have both Korean teachers and foreign teachers. Our Korean teachers handle the students that have almost no experience with English. These teachers of course speak English fairly well too. Basically, when I call to interview them, if they can't speak to me, I don't hire them haha. By just passing that test I see them as a lot more qualified than most korean hagwon teachers.

The foreign teachers are living in Canada. We haven't hired any foreigners here in Korea. Whether we will in the future... I'm not sure.

As for materials, we currently use 3 different text book series.

About introducing new topics to students... Personally I don't feel long winded explanations are needed. As mentioned before, we use the KISS method Much learning is done through example. To introduce something new, we simply read through examples and conversations with the student stressing the important words. All of our students catch on almost immediately and understand what they are supposed to focus on. For example... if I wanted to teach the student when to use THIS, and when to use THAT... I simple read through the book stressing those words. With the help of the pictures in the book, all of our students have been able to learn in one session.

More complicated lessons warrant a little explanation, but all explanations are scripted. That is, each teacher teaches pretty much the same way(same wording, same examples). Teaching guides have been carefully written to keep explanations as short and simple as possible. I'm sure we have all had days when we try to answer a student's question but just end up babbling for 2 minutes when we really could have answered it with a simple and short explanation. I'm proud of the system we have in place. Everything's spelled out for teachers to make things as easy as possible.

Mb2086:

Our company is called Fun Language. We have a website. It's in Korean and undergoing some changes now, but if you're interested I can post the addy. We have not considered sponsoring anyone for visas. We have hired foreign teachers living in Canada and because the teaching is over the phone, visas are costly and unnecessary. We pay on a per student basis and it depends on the program the student registered for as well as how many days a week you teach that student. Payment though can range anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 a month per student. Many teaching companies give their teachers about 20 students. With that many it's very possible to make 600,000 won a month. That's a little more than 3 hours a day, working from home. There are some other perks we give our teachers too

[Eazy_E]

[canukteacher]

Be careful of that promise of 18,000Won per hour. That will only happen if all of your time slots are full. Students come and go, and it can happen that you have fewer students in an hour timeframe then is needed to make that 18,000Won.

Also, many adult phone students take frequent business trips. If they cancel you do not get paid.

Have a good look at the books you will be expected to use. Some of them can be rather "bad" to say the least. Also, you will often get low level students who want to "free talk", but don't have a clue what they want to talk about. Even the higher level students don't have much imagination when it comes to having a conversation. A frequent question/comment I would get was "Well, what did you talk about with your last student?"

You can make some cash, but personally I don't think that the amount you make is worth the effort. But, hey, give it a try...nothing ventured nothing gained.

Good luck!
CT

[mb2086]

PatrickSihung:-

I am interested in your programme. Yes please send me the ad and any other details. I am a British guy with no noticeabke accent, and would do the work from UK. By the way who pays the phone bills?