By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Star power is not connected to only celebrities or business tycoons. Those who really draw the attention of mothers of middle or high school students are star instructors in Gangnam, southern Seoul.
Thet are instructors at ``hagwon,'' or private educational institutions, and are more than stars. If they move their workplaces, thousands of students follow them. When they release books or launch special courses, loyal fans become the first collectors or enrollees.
The star teachers' names are brands and they prove their quality by the lectures they conduct. Lee Man-ki and Lee Seok-rok in Korean, Park Seung-dong in mathematics, Sohn Ju-eun in social studies, Lee Beom in science and Kim Ki-hun in English represent their workplaces and their subjects.
They usually started teaching at a small hagwon to earn fame that gets them to larger ones in Gangnam. The influence they have had is beyond imagination; Kim Ki-hun is said to have taught around 500,000 students both online and offline. He is also known to have generated 8.3 billion won in profit in one year. Lee Beom has an online broadcasting station of his own _ the program browser, Gom TV, is one of the most downloaded software in the country.
Sohn Ju-eun is chairman of the nation's largest hagwon franchise Megastudy, which makes more than 100 billion won in sales a year. The company has the nation's top-level instructors and their direction of teaching affects other hagwons and even, sometimes, schools.
The perks these star teachers receive are lucrative. Some experts say that they are offered more than 1 billion won deposit from other hagwons once their contracts are rumored to soon expire. Their annual salary is far higher than office workers _ Lee Beom got 1.8 billion won, while Lee Keun-kap made 1.7 billion. Kim is said to have received 3.8 billion won last year.
Also, some stars take part in management. Megastudy gave Kim 10.1 billion won worth of stock options to keep him. The teachers are often provided with good cars or luxury goods.
For hectic scheduled stars _ they usually have more than eight to nine classes a day _ hagwons have five to six assistant instructors for each. The apprentices answer students' questions online, take care of administrative work, find information or resources and do personal errands.
Some instructors go their own way. Lee Man-ki, once a superstar of the state-run educational TV channel EBS, has his own hagwon franchise specializing in essay writing and Korean.
Kim, the English guru, also established an online English education channel, which has already made around 3 billion won in profits. Megastudy, which still has a contract with Kim, recently canceled stock options that could have been worth more than 101 billion won, but according to some reports, he said he does not mind as he is sure his own business will make much more than that.
Nowadays these star instructors are one of the most admired jobs. Everyday, hundreds of university graduates wishing to become (won) multi-billionaires like them and become their apprentices. Especially, as getting a job is difficult these days, such instructors are getting more popular than ever.
However, taking a step further into their glamour, these stars are not always happy and comfortable. Not all hagwon teachers are stars _ there are more instructors who struggle with 1-2 million won monthly salary _ and the competition is fierce. Once the students lose interest in the lesson, they simply turn away to other ``stars.''
Those who already have more than 50 to 60 hours of lectures a week spend double the time preparing for them. Considering the lectures are done from late afternoon to overnight according to students' schedules, they spend literally the whole day to prepare for the lectures and conduct them _ downtime is scarcely guaranteed.
Their health is becoming a major concern for them. After the tragic death of Cho Jin-man, an essay writing teacher who passed away due to overwork in 2001, instructors are all aware that their health can collapse at anytime.
``Like many other jobs, you must really enjoy teaching and be dedicated to it. Do not think about the money we make because everything comes with the price we must pay,'' an instructor said.
Many instructors crave to retire before their 50s to live a comfortable and relaxed life because most of them are burnt out through stress and people pointing fingers at them for charging high private tuition fees, he added.