Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hellofaniceguy]

Is it me and my thinking or...
Hokwon A is looking for a FT. Offers 2.0 plus housing, air, insurance, etc.
6 50 minute classes a day 5 days a week. You will teach the SAME students three times a week and teach a new group the other two times a week. These classes are NOT shared, you are the ONLY teacher teaching them. So, do the math...
tuition is 130.000 Won a month, each class has 12 students, that's right. 12 students. That's 72 students on MWF and 72 on T/T. 144 students paying 130.000 Won. 18 million Won a month! One teacher! This school has 7 F/T's!! Same numbers apply. Each FT is earning the owner 18 million a month! And these teachers agree to only 2.0!!!! Something is wrong I think with someones brain housing group! And it ain't the owner! 18M a month times 12 months...
No....
I think teachers need to take a stand and don't accept a cheap wage knowing the facts.
What's your opinion??

[Demophobe]

They have more bills than just the teacher. I am not siding with the direactors, but...WOW!! Business owners making more than their employees!?!?! Yep...that's why they are the owners....they stuck their neck out and succeeded....start your own business if you want their kind of income.
Edit: this is a mercenary industry full of wanderers....the only people interested in a union (which is basically what you are talking about) are the long-term people. For the young, just-got-out-of-university people who come here to pay back the man, they are making more than they would back home, and are thus satiated. They just want a quick buck and run. Trying to round up everyone would be hard enough. By the time you collected all of their names, half are gone.
I would join a union, but I am not going to go through the years and years of grief and BS that would surround beginning such an endeavor.
I guess I am just lazy....then again, I haven't earned the starter wage of 2 million in a long time. (not saying anything but stating a fact here!)

[keithinkorea]

Hogwan make a shed load of money. But as with any business there are overheads and especially at the opening the owner will lose money for a period and possibly lose all his invested money if he picks the wrong pitch, wrong teachers etc.

There are many overheads, teacher housing, airfares, insurance, ultilities, business rates, stationary, marketing, taxes, bus drivers, vehicles, cleaners, cooks etc etc.

If I had the money to start up one I'd do it tomorrow, a hell of a lot of cash can be made if you run thing properly.

I used to work for a company in the UK that sold a lot of different types of products. The mark up was quite huge especially on the ones they manufactured themselves was huge and the company made a lot of money. But they also had a lot of overheads, including non paying customers, health and safety, training, etc etc.

Not calling you naive but business is supposed to be profitable and all companies have many different operating-start up costs. To even attempt to set up a hogwan you're really looking at investing maybe a couple of hundred million won with no actual guarantee of a return.

[t bear]

Its not all milk and honey for owners, if they can get those kind of numbers and sustain them, while paying the MARKET rate for teachers. They are not ripping any teachers off, they can leave or not take up a contract.
Good on them, they have done what many others in korea have not done. (ie all those hagwons that have gone bust, like one in my town that disapeared two weeks ago).

You may find like minded people north of the border where they believe entrepreneurial skills to be worth zero and all bosses are evil americans with skinheads, a hunch back and fangs out to do nothing but exploit the prolitariat.

[the eye]

there's no doubt we could probably snatch a few more easy bills from the greasy pockets of our even greasier employers...

not so easy...where i live, they have already banned together and agreed to offer a certain salary matrix
some only hire newbs, so they can rob'm blind

[Homer]

hellofaniceguy,

You want that dough..here is what you need to do.

1- Get out of teaching.

2- Invest tens of thousands of your own money to open a hakwon.

3- Manage the place.

I am surprised that you could be shocked that the OWNER makes more than the EMPLOYEES.

Also your 18 million figure is silly. It does not take into account the school's expenses (Books, utilities, insurance, rent (perhaps), korean staff, bus for the students, taxes, permits....).
Its not 2.0 vs 18.0...it's slightly more complicated then that.

Finally, you are a teacher, if you wanted to get into a profession where you made a cut of the profits of your employer then perhaps teaching is not the right choice.
If you wanted to be rich...bad choice of profession.

In the end, just how much do you thin a teacher (let us say you) should get from the job you posted?

[hellofaniceguy]

For one thing, I am not shocked by the amount of money that some hokwons are rolling in. That was not my point.
My point was the last sentence if you read my posting completely:

I think teachers need to take a stand and don't accept a cheap wage knowing the facts.
What's your opinion??

[Homer]

My opinion is that many teachers here earn more than they should or don't earn their pay.

Many do earn their salaries.

Too many grossly over evaluate their "worth".

Also the 2.0 figure is up in the air. Who does it apply too?
A newbie with no experience here or some one who has been here a while?

My basic position on the money the school earns is that I am a teacher there, not an investor.
I did not put up one red cent to start the business.

Is 2.0 really a cheap wage?
Thats the true question.

[Zyzyfer]

There's too many new faces flowing in each year. While higher wages would be nice, some Joe Nobody is always going to come in with bills and want something easy and painless to knock 'em out. If you want to make the cash here, you've got to show that you intend to be worth it, and stick around through the newbie years.

Also, you've got to figure the apartment into the affair. While some schools may put you in a shoddy shack, I've been lucky and have had decent places both times. Sure, the rent might only be 300,000, but that makes you're making 2.3 a month.

The best jobs with the best pay compared with work done don't supply housing.

[phaedrus]

If it's a for money business, in a fast market, the teachers (the most important people in this English carnival) should be getting bigger payments.

I think 2.0M asks for exactly that amount of effort, which translates into not much if you teach 30 hours per week.

Sob stories about fresh out of uni and good pay, take them somewhere else. Korea wants English teachers, and they are free to hire all the well trained and experienced teachers they want, oh wait..... too bad for them.

[Blind Willie]

[Gord]

[Grotto]

The hogwan I work at charges 120,000 a month for all students

The first 4 hours and 45 minutes are the same Mon-Fri
after 6:45
I have some students MWF and others TTH
On the days I dont have them they have a Korean teacher.

80-100 seems a bit low