Korean Job Discussion Forums

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

Anyone care to guess the salary of some Korean teachers in this country?
Not all but some.
Even if there was 1 teacher on this salary I would have been surprised.
It absolutely floored me.
Some teachers in the International schools, public school system and universities make up to.......
wait for it.....
it is even too shocking to write....
25 000 000 A MONTH!!!!!!!!!
That is about US300 000 a year!
Not all of it comes legally...a lot of it comes from individual student payments for extra teaching...but still!
My boss, an ex High school teacher in Korea, claims to have been making 20 000 000 a month. Obviously I asked him why he left!
I have been arguing all day with the Koreans in my office calling them liars.
Has anyone heard of this?
I am happy to be proved wrong...I am just so jealous.
Surely it is not a Korean teacher that has the highest teaching salary in the world...SURELY NOT!!!!!

nautilus · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!

You're new here, right?

koreans often make mistakes with numbers in English. often. Usually, in fact.
Last week a guy told me he earned 20 M a month. Wow, i replied, really? (he was only a bank assistant.) I pressed him on it and ultimately got him to write it down.

2000 000.

"yes! 20 million!" he repeated. Rolling Eyes

Koreans use the word thousand, million, hundred very freely without being exactly sure of their exact figure.

-if a teacher was earning 25M a month i'd be very, very surprised. He'd have to be teaching a very specialised, in-demand subject, 24 hours a day, to large groups of people who were all paying 100.000 an hour.

LiquidSunshine · Joined: 31 Mar 2003

Mr. Pink · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: China

What's even funnier is you fought with your coworkers about this, actually believing it were true. Man there is a sucker born every minute.

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

well I am in my 5th year here, but thanks for the tip.
Believe me this argument has gone on for a few days now.
I am far from convinced, but they are starting to break me.
I realise the confusion for numbers. There is no confusion.
I also have gotten the three different people from 3 different circles of acquaintances to write down the figure.
Now I know Koreans do have a tendancy to exaggerate the truth from time to time.

I guess it is just difficult to believe that the Koreans know more about Korea than me!
And maybe, just maybe, even though I post on Daves, there are a few things I did not know about this place.

BigBuds · Joined: 15 Sep 2005 Location: Changwon

My wife is always getting her thousands and millions mixed up, so when ever we do the accounts, I have to clarify everything by writing it down.

Sometimes she makes our savings look unbelievably amazing Shocked

. Then I clarify things with her and Sad

.

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

Much of it comes from kickbacks from students...but ask around...see if you get similar answers before the "one born everyday" accusations start flying around.

BigBuds · Joined: 15 Sep 2005 Location: Changwon

oops, double post. Embarassed

poet13 · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 12:30 am Post subject:

Dude, or Dudette.... sounds like they're screwing with you. When I came here, I convinced my coworkers that in Canada we all lived in igloos, the only place you could get electricity was close to the US border cause they ran a line across to help us out, and our primary source of protein was whale and caribou. They only started to get suspicous when i offered penguin recipes. Guess I took it too far.....ha ha ha..

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

Yeah I guess. I will sleep better at night believing that.
Fair dinkum! Embarrassment to my homeland!

You mean you guys really don't eat Penguin frikasee with sauteed caribou entrails?

nautilus · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!

Actually its not that far fetched. I have a base rate of 3.8M for 12 hours a week to businessmen. The rest i do privates to company groups..its shocking..I can't even write it..but

9.2 Million a month.

so i rake in 13 MILLION A MONTH !!!.

I'm teaching while I post this in fact, they're doing a writing exercise, gotta go..

VanIslander · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:00 am Post subject:

I know a korean teacher pulling in 10,000,000 won a month. Yes, ten million.

But they are all privates and he works six days a week until midnight.

I don't envy him.

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

Homer · Guest

OP...you either miss-understood the number (highly possible) or are being taken for a ride on the gullible express (somewhat possible).

What is quite impossible is the salary you mentionned...even with "kickbacks"... Laughing

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005