Imagine a young, well-dressed man who makes over $ 1 million a year, owns several exotic sports cars, dresses in the best suits money can buy, and is idolized by tens of thousands of teenagers. You might think that this person is a pop star, professional athlete, or famous actor, but you probably wouldn’t expect to actually find this person as a Hong Kong tutor. Asia is home to an interesting phenomenon where tutors can earn more than a million dollars a year and are treated like celebrities.
In Hong Kong, big-name tutors are billionaires, and even the average celebrity tutors earn more than $ 120,000 a year. Government teachers take home less than half. In South Korea, celebrity tutors can earn more than $ 4 million a year. This phenomenon has been driven by a number of variables, but one of the main ones is the strong desire that students have to perform well on high-risk entrance exams that can determine an individual’s future success. The following article looks at various tutors from countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore who have turned their tutoring careers into a source of wealth and celebrity.
Rose lee English teacher, South Korea
Korea is home to many famous tutors who have been enriched in large part by the growth of online tutoring. Companies in South Korea like MegaStudy allow South Korean students to purchase access to tutoring class videos through their website. This has allowed the best tutors in the country to reach tens of thousands of tutors and take a share of the revenue. A famous tutor who benefits from online tutoring sales is South Korean English teacher Rose Lee. Rose Lee is one of the most successful and famous English teachers in Korea. She is going to buy the title “Queen of English” and earns most of her money through online classes. In 2009, the “Queen of English” expected to earn about $ 7 million.
Richard Eng English, Hong Kong
Richard Eng is one of the earliest famous Hong Kong tutors and ultimately helped launch the trend in the Hong Kong tutoring market. Twenty years ago Eng started working as a teacher. He taught his school students during the day and worked as a tutor at night. Over time, she was able to grow her evening classes through word of mouth and eventually opened her own in tutoring school. It was around this time that Eng stepped up its expansion efforts and began advertising in local newspapers and on television.
Richard Eng recognized the fascination and obsession with celebrities of many young people and began marketing his tutoring business with this in mind. Using billboards, bright brochures, eye-catching TV commercials, and modeling photoshoots to promote his business and his tutors, Eng was able to change the face of his tutoring business. Eng and his tutors wore designer clothes, had trendy hairdos, and began to look like pop stars promoting their latest album more than tutors looking for students.
Eng’s unorthodox strategy paid off, his company Beacon College now has 12 schools in Hong Kong and just opened one in Tokyo. It has a total of 50,000 students, 300 employees, and brings home about $ 1.5 million a year.
Phang Yu Hon Physics, Singapore
Named one of Singapore’s most sought-after “Super Tutors”, Phang Yu Hon is now also the highest earning private tutor in Singapore. Mr. Phang Yu Hon was previously a research engineer and began teaching in 1997. In his first year he had 8 students and earned less than $ 10,000, which was a large pay cut from his previous job. Even though his friends thought he was wasting his education pursuing this career, Phang Yu Hon persevered, and it paid off. By 2010 he had 200 students and was earning $ 520,000, expecting to earn $ 600,000 – $ 700,000 the following year.
Woo hyeong-cheol Math teacher, South Korea
Another South Korean tutor who has benefited from the country’s education obsession and online tutoring trend is Woo Hyeong-cheol, one of South Korea’s best-known and highest-paid math tutors. Woo is not affiliated with any institution that is part of the official school system, but he is considered one of the best intensive school tutors and earns $ 4 million per year. Although he teaches in intensive schools (South Korea’s test preparation schools), most of his income comes from his online tutorials, which are accessed by some 50,000 paying subscribers.
Karson Oten Fan Karno English, Hong Kong
Known as K. Oten and the “Tutor King”, this well-known Hong Kong tutor is a famous tutor and even has a secondary career rapping with local pop singers. He uses his stage name “K. Oten” both in the classroom and in the recording studio. At one point in his career as a tutor, K. Oten earned up to HK $ 2.65 million ($ 340,000) for 40 days of work in 2006. The evidence of his loyal fans was seen in 2006 when Fan was fired by King’s Glory (one of Hong Kong’s leading tutoring companies) and began teaching in modern education. He ran an extensive advertising campaign and invited his students from their former employer to transfer to Modern Education. As a result of Fan’s departure, King’s Glory claimed that the number of students dropped by approximately 7,000.
