Korean Job Discussion Forums

[last goodbye]

Can anyone tell me what the going rate for phone english is?

[World Traveler]

Koreans pay a good chuck of change to do it.

Make sure there is no middle person taking a big slice of the profits when you do it.

[Troglodyte]

I don't think they do phone lessons anymore. It usually on Skype or something similar.

If you know how to tutor individual students (or groups of 2) then I wouldn't go much below the going rate for in-person, multiple lessons. If you were teaching in person then you'd get (or should get) 40k/hour (or per class if they are under 1 hour) IF (that's a big "if") the school or company offers at least 3 classes in a row. Otherwise it's 50k/hour. The lower rate is because you don't have to travel to the 2nd and 3rd classes. Same goes if a group of moms hire you to teach a series of classes in the same apartment building (i.e. you don't waste time travelling between classes). Slight discount if you don't have to travel. Definitely don't go below 35k/hour.

If you're doing a lot of part-time work (privates, tutoring, temp work, in company classes, etc.) then having a few phone/skype classes can be good because you can slip them into any open slot in your schedule. They don't require any travel. If you're really well organised, you could even be travelling while you do them (use a mic and earbuds for that).

It really comes down to what the students want and what you're able to offer. If they just want conversation practice for an hour and you have some free time then you might offer them a better deal. If there's no video, then you could be eating lunch or travelling on the bus while you earn some $$$. It's basically filling a slot of time that would have otherwise been dead time where you couldn't have earned anything anyway. Maybe you'd be willing to go as low as 25k in that case.

If the students want something that requires more prep and attention from you then the price goes up. If they want specialize topic classes (e.g. business English, medical English, travel phrases, etc.) then the price goes up. If you have minor celebrity status (unlikely but possible - maybe you wrote a book or have been on the TV) then the price goes way up.

But in short, with no other factors taken into consideration, the going rate would be 35k-40k /hr.

[last goodbye]

Thanks for the replies... quite helpful