Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sevitzky]

Hey guys, I'm new to Seoul (as a resident) and starting to tutor part time while I look for a more steady gig.

Could I solicit suggestions for Hourly Rates?

The Work:
ESL Tutoring
Adults
Hourly
Travel to sites provided by clients (I guess Home or Work)

My Stats:
Doctoral Degree in Humanities (Culture/Arts/Writing/Etc)
Experience teaching college courses, syllabus design, etc
Ivy League Degrees
F-6, Came here w/ my spouse
No Formal certificates or prior ESL Experience
Mid-level Elementary Korean speaking level (currently studying at a Hagwon)

I'm seeing rates something like 30-40,000KRW / Hour being posted on Craigslist. I'm willing to take an "entry level" rate while I work up a couple ESL references, but as an experienced classroom teacher, I want to be close to market rate.

(If anyone has suggestions for the job search, I'm all ears, too! Aiming for summer or Fall 2014)

[beentheredonethat777]

Doctoral Degree in Humanities (Culture/Arts/Writing/Etc)
Experience teaching college courses, syllabus design, etc
Ivy League Degrees
F-6, Came here w/ my spouse
No Formal certificates or prior ESL Experience
Mid-level Elementary Korean speaking level (currently studying at a Hagwon)

I[quote]'m seeing rates something like 30-40,000KRW / Hour being posted on Craigslist.

[faeriehazel]

I would start at about 50,000 won. Sure you have an Ivy League degree and a PhD, but IME not a whole lot of adults are going to care enough to pay that much more than market rates. The key word here is adults. If you want to teach kids (particularly teenagers prepping to go abroad for uni), moms will definitely be impressed with your credentials, so you may be able to charge more

[wanderkind]

[Troglodyte]

I would have to say that the big money is not in tutoring unless you have a really good reputation and something to set you apart from everyone else (e.g. you're a minor celebrity, you've published books in EFL, you've have a great track record of getting your students to improve their test scores, etc.). Your PhD won't be that impress for teaching kids.

You can make more money teaching small groups of 2-4 students. If you tutor 1:1 then you can probably get 50k/hr. That's the going rate for general English classes. If you teach at least 3 consecutive classes with no pause between them, you might drop the fee to 40k/hr. If you teach small groups of 3 kids then you might charge them each 25k/hr. Their moms get a 50% bargain and you get a 50% bonus and classes are usually a bit easier when you have a couple of students so that they can interact with each other.

That 50k/hr though is for general English classes, usually speaking classes or working from a general textbook. That's the base rate. It goes up for special stuff. One of the easiest ways to bump that up to 75k/hr is by doing Business English (BE) classes. You can probably brush up on that from reading a few textbooks on the topic. Or even better, do in-company classes. Find a few big companies (e.g. banks or company headquarters) and offer to teach English to their groups of employees at the company offices. They will usually be well equipped to convert a meeting room into a classroom (better than teaching little Minsu in Mrs. Kim's living room). You can also get better money. Companies like it because it's very convenient for them in terms of scheduling and they can monitor who actually goes to the classes. For a class of 4 or 5 business students, you can easily charge 35k/hr/student (and more if you're good at it). If you impress your business students then it's also a great way to network and possibly drum up some private classes teaching their kids.

Aside from BE, you also do other English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes. Popular topics include nursing (or medicine in general), tourism industry (e.g. hotel workers), and tourism (for travelers). That's a bit of a niche market though and the pay is usually the same as for BE classes but it's worth familiarizing yourself with it in case you happen to stumble into an job opportunity.

There are also test prep classes. That's often the hardest market to get into and stay in. It's also the most boring. To get into that market, you basically have to familiarize yourself with the various tests that Korean want to take. Get really familiar with the formats and marking systems. You'll spend most of your time administering practice exams, marking them, and then evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your students. You'll then need to bring up their weak areas. It's really tedious and time consuming. For this reason, you'll want to charge AT LEAST 75k/hr. That would be a bargain basement rate. You would only charge that at the beginning while you're getting the hang of it and until you can show that you're capable of improving student test scores. Once you're students start getting better scores, then your reputation will get you more jobs from other mothers who have heard about your success. Then you start to raise your fees until they get to about 100k/hr. Beyond that it really just depends on how drastic the increase in test scores was. But it's often a short lived gig because students either pass the test (and no longer need you) or their scores plateau and they blame you for it (and stop hiring you). So, good money but high turn over rate and very time consuming and labor intensive.

Another thing to consider is location. If you have to travel a long distance to get to the classes then the fee increases. If you're in Seoul but have to head out to Bucheon to teach a set of classes (never go that far for a single class) then you're going to waste an hour or two in travel time. That's time lost that you're not getting paid for (plus the travel costs). You'll have to adjust your fees a bit if you're taking jobs that involve too much travel time. But that's usually only an issue if you get the gig through an agency. Normally you should be looking for for stuff within a certain travel radius. Not necessarily near your home but you all of the classes for a specific day should be in the same general area. e.g. If you teach at people's homes then try to schedule a bunch of classes in the same apartment complex for the same day. Same goes for business classes.

If you're renting a classroom then you might need to increase your fees a bit to cover your costs. Probably not a lot though. Renting a classroom can also save you some money because then your students come to you. Less travel time, few travel expenses. It also looks impressive and if it's in an area near to a school then it might be just as convenient for the mothers to send their kids there instead of having you come to their home.


So... lots to think about in regards to fees. I recommend that you hang out at a few foreigner bars and make some friends who are on F visas. They can probably give you the low-down on the local situation in regard to going rates.

[sevitzky]

Wow - tremendous replies Beenthere, Faierie, Wanderkind, & Trog. Trog, big thanks for so much in depth information! That should be a sticky! I really appreciate your (and everyone's) generosity in sharing.

I should say, I recently prepared for, and passed a stanardized testing process (not GRE or GMAT but similar). I sort of enjoyed the process. I have also worked as an on-air radio announcer and public lecturer. Should have mentioned that in my original post, as I have been pushing the public speaking angle in my interviews.

My plan has been to take some shorter term commitments, subbing, tutoring, while I get some classroom experience, and conduct a proper job search for the fall, with a pie-in-the-sky hope of a university position. I'm hoping I can get a better lay of the land, this way.

I completely understand the idea of tradecraft versus credentials. I know I need to develop my ESL teaching, but I have taught throughout my academic career, so I don't want to sell myself (or the market) short, as all of you recommend!

Was just offered a Hagwon job (starting a new post) too... I'm a blind man in this market!

[wanderkind]

I don't have experience in the university graduate / post-grad arena in Korea, but if you have a PhD / specialization, there might even be opportunities for non-ESL employment in universities (it would have to be at a big university I expect, to have enough English language on offer to make retaining non-Korean speaking faculty worthwhile). Networking will be your greatest asset there. If there are some journals in your field you follow you could perhaps troll through them for authors at South Korean universities, you might get lucky and be able to open a dialogue with someone in your field.
There's always the Google/Daum/Naver route for a less directed approach to sussing out opportunities, though I'm not really sure how you'd craft those searches.

[Speck7]

ROFL at loser PHd's, Ivy Leaguers teaching ABC's in Korea. No ambition in life.

[modernseoul]