Korean Job Discussion Forums

[some waygug-in]

How much should a person charge for this?

Someone wants me to do it for cheon won/ page (double spaced)

but it seems a bit low to me.

What do you guys think?

The guy's English seems really good, so it probably wouldn't be that much work, but I haven't seen it yet.........

If it's anything like the typical crap I've been asked to do...... I'd want 10,000 won / page because I would basically have to rewrite the whole thing.

[Yaya]

You have to look at it first. If it's total garbage you have to rewrite, I'd charge no less than 20,000 won a page. If it's simple grammar and style corrections, then 10,000 won a page.

I personally wouldn't accept anything less than 20,000 won per page.

[saw6436]

I sometimes do work for KBS. I charge them a flat fee of 30,000 per page and they seem quite happy with that. Mostly it is just editing scripts so the actual number of words is pretty small. KBS's English editor has the worst English skills so I sometimes end up re-writing the entire script.

[casey's moon]

Seriously? õ��? 1000won???? No frikkin' way. I only proofread for free (for friends -- a lot of them would bend over backwards to help me), or for 10,000 (more if it requires a lot of work). 1000 is kind of ridiculous. It's not like you're in grade six and you're doing a paper route!

[JongnoGuru]

Yeah, 1,000 won per page is "Will Proofread for Food" level.
I knew a really old-timer here who told me he earned 1 million won a month in the 1970s as an editor. Now I just can't imagine his editing load was anything like 33.3 pages per day (INCLUDING WEEKENDS), which it would had to've been were he charging as little as 1,000 won/page.

When people are being paid 20 to 30 times that, you're basically doing it for free. So why not just forget the pretense of being remunerated and do it for nothing?

[ajuma]

1000 won a page??? No freakin' way!!! And the more advanced the student, the more difficult the correcting is because the grammar is more difficult.

If it's a stranger asking, at LEAST 5,000-10,000 a page. If it's a friend...use your own judgement!

[some waygug-in]

Thanks for your responses. I wasn't about to do it that cheaply, but that's what the guy initially asked.

I told him I have to look at it first, to see how much re-writing it would need.

I don't trust the guy, it almost seems like he is supposed to be editing the stuff, but he wants to sucker some foreigner into doing it cheap.

He keeps going on about how he can help me deal with "problems in Korea", and at the same time implying that because of this I should be willing to work for next to nothing.

I may be wrong about that last part, but it wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be true.

The guy says he spent 10 years in the US. Why on Earth does he need me to edit his stuff? Something doesn't add up.

[Yaya]

Well, tell him that that is your price and to take it or leave it. If he's a friend who has indeed helped you, then maybe you can cut him some slack but more often than not, he'll tell you anything to have you do it for cheap.

There are some weird peeps in Korea who'll ask a foreigner they just bought ONE beer for to teach them English for free, meet regularly to practice English or some other favor like that. Use your discretion to decide whether it's worth your while or not, because a few of those Koreans are pretty loaded or well-connected.

[prairieboy]

Regardless of who it is, tell him 20,000/page. If he doesn't like it, that's his problem. If he tells you it's too expensive then tell him that your free time is valuable and this is what it'll take to get you to give up your free time to edit his pages.

If he's a good and close friend, then you might work out other arrangements for payment. However, that's done in the name of friendship. What you have described doesn't really sound like a true friendship so keep it on a business level. You can always find someone else to "help you out with problems in Korea".

Cheers

[some waygug-in]

He is neither good nor close and at this point I would hardly regard him as a friend. I was conned into meeting him by the director of the school. I actually didn't even know anything about this "meeting", I was scheduled to teach an extra class and I came in to do that. When I arrived at the school I found this guy waiting and I didn't know if he was supposed to be my new student or what was going on.

When the real student arrived I went and taught the class, 2 hours later this guy was STILL there waiting for me and he and the director were talking about how I would be so willing to edit his papers for him. As I was preparing to go home I was informed that I was "expected" to go for dinner with the guy and discuss it. I felt like telling the whole works of them to go "F" themselves, but I chose not to make a scene. So I went for lunch with the guy and now he thinks I'm his best buddy?

He has never done thing 1 for me and I have my doubts that he ever would. If he is too cheap to pay an honest price for this editing work, I doubt very much that I would be interested in any "help" he has to offer.

Sorry, I had to vent.

I was just interested in what other people were charging though, so thanks for the help.

Cheers

[rok_the-boat]

I would charge at least 10,000 a page. If you don't your friend will tell his friend and you'll be innundated with cheap offers. You might get up to 20-30,000 if you are good.

Also, to rewrite an essay for a student is not the academic way. You should just correct, or even maybe just mark the major mistakes and give them something to think about. Don't bend - and they will respect you and not hassle you too much later. If you do more than that, it is not their essay, but yours. If it is more of a business letter then function takes over and you sometimes have to rewrite the whole thing.

[Grotto]

minimum charge to proof read a paper for me 8,000won a page. Thats just for me to circle errors and hand it back.

Corrections and editing 12,000-15,000 won per page.

Rewriting 20,000 won per page+ (depending on whether or not its a technical report)

[some waygug-in]

Thanks again for the advice.

Much appreciated.

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

I hate it when Korean co-workers, who are neither my friends or good colleagues, march up to my desk, slap some document that they're writing for school or whatever and ask me to proofread/edit it. I tell them that I'm too busy to help them and they get this pained expression on their face like I'm a total beeeatch! Now, I'm glad from the responses on this board that not only was I right in refusing them but I should have charged them! I used to do it for free sometimes and now I feel like an a** for not charging them.

[some waygug-in]

I don't usually worry about some small thing that the Korean teachers bring to me to check over, but if it's a 40 page document that somebody else is charging for, you can bet your boots that I won't be doing it for free.