Korean Job Discussion Forums

[i]

Marry a Korean and just do privates (legally, of course, after registering with the proper authorities). I read that on Dave's several times.
Here is an F2�s story. I was sitting in the US, kinda burned out at my job and started reading tons of posts like this on Dave�s. I�d worked in Korea in the 90�s and as I kept reading, I thought I�d sell a bunch of things, put the rest in storage and move with my Korean wife and kid back to Korea for about 5 years. After all, there was no F2 when I was married and living here before. I took people�s word for it.
I was used to a mid-90�s Korea. I got out right before IMF in 97. Things were cheap, but I lived in the southern part of the country. This time I wanted to be in Seoul.
Moved to Gangnam. Put up pamphlets and the jobs rolled in. Within a short period, I was making on paper $50K a year US and was fortunate to have free housing for awhile. Then the cycle started. One job that was a large chunk of my schedule, went out of business. Privates canceled regularly, many would just give it a go for 3 months. It�s the magic the foreigner is supposed to make in teaching one-on-one. It�s the same student who had tried everything for years and I was just one more experiment for them in a failed attempt to learn English. Another hakwon I worked at gutted their English department (literally) and when I returned from vacation, I had no job. It became a �listening� hakwon where the Korean teacher and I were no longer needed and the students just listened to their headphones and wrote in their cubicles.
To succeed, I�d have to be constantly advertising, starting new gigs as old ones quit. Sitting in a room with a kid who hates to study, thinking up ways he can get his mom to cancel these sessions. Apartments and kids change, but often the same situation. Then all the time wasted getting from point A to B, and then wait for the next session. If you hit the bus right away, you are 45 mins early. Hit it wrong, you barely get there in time.
Then there�s the adults. I found if I am correcting their English, they lose face. Just let them talk and communicate. We�d make progress, but the novelty wore off and the cancellations would start and you�d have this time set aside for them that another wants, but they always cancel.
On top of this, I was spending a ton of money. I could live well on 10,000 won a day in the 90�s. You have to live on Ramen to do that now.
I read others who have made a go at this. I could have continued, but I just dreaded most tutoring sessions. The adults were unreliable and most kids were unbearable. I stopped accepting kids. Well, then I was able to only work early am before people start work and evenings when middle and high school students get out.
In addition to all this, there were E2 visa holders working for 25,000 an hour in the area. They never seemed to be an option, since they were either gone or their schedules full. But with the economy slipping, these extremely wealthy Gangnam people, with L Vuitton bags and 2 Mercedes in the parking lot, were wanting me to cut my price in half, which I was not willing to do.
I ended up scheduling the ones I liked into the weekends. I took in job outside Seoul for better pay and housing at a regular job. Being an F2 I could work half the hours of most teaching jobs with more pay, but it was a lot less than I was making, and a lot less stress. The weekend privates in Seoul started to fizzle out. I worked some around my school outside Seoul, but I quit accepting any new tutors. As my last student moved to the US, I quit doing any privates.
I write this to anyone thinking of giving up your life wherever you are, married to a Korean, thinking you can make easy dough here. It isn�t easy. It can be done, but it isn�t for everyone.
Fortunately my old position back home re-opened and I�m going back to my old life. I am leaving 3 years sooner than I�d planned. But this life really has no future for most, and the quality of life isn�t very good for a foreign family living on a teacher�s salary. Just my experience if this helps someone see the other side of the coin.

[Sadebugo1]

[brier]

[i]

Well, I have worked with some great teachers and have known some people who could pull it off easily. It takes the right kind of person. Entertain to make the kids happy. Educate and produce results to make the mom happy. That's a razor-thin line. If a kid doesn't want to learn a language, no one will be able to make them.
The best students I've met in Korea didn't have the money to hire a private teacher. That's sad. If the system changed, the best students would be able to have the private teachers. But now, money talks, but doesn't result in much.

[edwardcatflap]

Yes the key to it is regularity. it doesn't make any difference if you're E2 or F2.

1) Get a full time well paid job with low hours
2) Get examining work, this is regular and reasonably well paid.
3) Get lucrative extra corporate work/privates.

The first two are the bread and butter and the third one is the icing that'll get you up to 6 mill and over on good months but won't give you sleepless nights if it doesn't materialise. Unfortunately for some here, the first two often require qualifications so there's no short cut.

[RyanInKorea]

I've come to realize that it doesn't matter what visa you're on. Your personality, appearance (shallow as it is) and connections will get you where you want to go.

Ryan

[aishiii]

Yeah, it's not easy.

In my time here I've found that the biggest problem is consistency. Koreans aren't consistent. You'll get your gigs set up after a lot of hard work, get making some excellent money and wham, it falls apart. So you build it up again things are going well again and wham, something else changes. That's not just privates either. Hagwons / after school programs can be just as unreliable especially if you're being paid hourly.

One problem I've always had to contend with is the winter and summer holidays. I would get a workable, full schedule that I'm really happy with and then of course holidays come along and for whatever reason I lose a bunch of classes. And since I still have some of my other classes (which I want to hold on to) it prevents me from doing other stuff because it just doesn't fit into my schedule.

It's definitely a juggling act and the worse part is that if you have privates that are related in any way (mom's are all friends or something) and you lose one, you're likely to lose them all.

[i]

Well, you took what I couldn't put into words into words. That was the final straw in Seoul. Vacation before the new semester. They scattered, so I went to the states since I only had to cancel a few students. Came back, and several were done. One wouldn't answer the phone. I wanted to tell another it wasn't working out, and I never got the chance. She just said she'd call back soon.
They are quick to burn bridges. I'd have invited every one of them to stay in the US with my family for free if they wanted to continue to learn. I've done that with many students from the 90's, although they are adults now. I'm just picking one smart but it seems not-well-off student from my current school for that offer this time. None of the privates.

[edwardcatflap]

[RyanInKorea]

I guess you and I have different ideas of where we want to go. The topic at hand was making money, so I wrote my reply in that sense. Yes, I should have wrote that credentials were also important, but in my opinion, humble as it is, that is the least important category. It's also the only one you can fake.

My point remains intact, if you want to make money, the three aspects I listed are more important than your visa staus.

I will admit though, and I think this is what you mean, if you want to work at SNU or want to get paid to produce high end TEFL books and material, then credentials raise in importance.

Ryan

[i]

I can't give concrete evidence, but I've never had a problem getting a job. Only once was turned down here. It was when I first got back and the agent who was a go-between for teachers and tutors didn't call back. I'd been out of country for 11 years and it seemed he thought I'd lost my experience. That was fine, because I made a lot more on my own.
But I have blond hair and blue/green eyes. It's sad, but that is a factor in getting jobs here. But keeping them is another story.
But so many others are never given the chance due to skin color. I've never worked with a black or Hispanic teacher here. Those I've worked for would never hire one.
If I was thinner, had more hair and was a woman, I'd be unstoppable. But even then, you can't keep them for long.
Credentials were mentioned. I've never gone for SNU positions, but whenever I've been asked for certificates, I've said I don't have any. The reply has always been that it's not a problem.
One great thing about Korea is there's no lack of work. If you fit their profile, you can always make a buck. But the point of my post is, you probably won't be happy.

[brier]

[nosmallplans]

Word. People ask me all the time why I don't do more privates since I have an F-4. Simply put, it's not really that profitable.

[edwardcatflap]

My point was if you want to avoid i's experience you have to secure regular work with high pay and low hours, which you can't do on looks and personality alone. I'd be very wary of telling people that an F2 visa is enough if you have the other attributes you mentioned. Koreans may well judge teachers superficially at the bottom end of the market but when they want quality and are willing to pay the salaries that go with it, they can be as demanding as anyone in terms of qualifications and experience

[i]

I'll agree. Being lured here with just having an F2 doesn't mean success. Between gigs, I've looked at those with F2's on the various ESL websites where such folks post resumes that are on a broad range of Spectrum(s) and promised Work N Play and 9 OKs for you (PM me if these veiled references make no sense), and there are a lot of F2's that seem to be stranded here without work. They came here for the pot of gold, but are just getting by or not even.