My Painfully Realistic First Year of Freelancing

March 4th marked my final day as a full-time teacher.

In the past five years, I worked as the head teacher at my last private academy. As Head Teacher, I worked as the middleman between Korean and Native English teachers. My duties included creating and checking lesson plans, approving schedules, leading after-school programs, pitching field trip ideas and extracurricular activities, and smoothing out any cultural miscommunication that sometimes happens in international settings. all this, plus the regular work of a full-time teacher in charge of seven-year-old students.

I was tired most days, but I enjoyed the challenges. It was overall a rewarding job up until the final year, when our school was sold to a new boss who was demanding, disrespectful, and unknowledgeable about the needs of teachers or students.

Leaving the curriculum I designed and fought hard to maintain was hard. Leaving my students, who would be returning in hopes of taking my after-school writing class, was even harder.

But it was time to move on.

I was exhausted working from 9 to 4 at my academy and then private tutoring after hours to make ends meet. My writing and creative outlets were always taking a back seat to my teaching. And although I find a lot of joy and fulfillment in teaching English as a second language, writing is important to me, too.

I didn’t want to give up my passions to exhaustion over a job that no longer served me.

Since I have a marriage visa, I’m eligible to work outside of English Academies. So, I decided to become a private English tutor.

Over the course of my final year teaching, I slowly built a client list of students. Most of my clients came from generous recommendations by the older women I worked with at my academy. Others came from my previous client, who posted my information on her ‘Mom Cafe’ Naver Blog for mothers in her area. Getting clients who were both safe and dedicated to their children’s education would have been much more challenging if not for them.

There are a few ways to private tutor in South Korea, but you need to be cautious when putting your information online. I have heard horror stories from other foreign women. Korean men have been known to lure teachers to their homes, pretending to have children in need of tutoring. I wanted to avoid any dangerous situations, so relying on my mom friends was essential. I suppose this is called ‘networking’.

For private lessons, I travel to the child’s home and have a one-hour customized lesson in English. For some students, we play with toys and do art and crafts, and for others, I help with homework and teach them writing and grammar skills.

After a few months of interviewing and arranging my schedules, I now have seventeen reliable and lovely students! This was a blessing because I needed at least twelve to be able to pay all my bills and put away into my savings.

I charge 50,000 Korean Won an hour for my lessons. That’s roughly 37 USD. And 75,000 Won for an hour and a half, about 55 USD. My prices are standard for tutors, but in a few years, I may need to increase my service fee to keep up with rampant inflation.

Setting my own prices and my own schedule is one of the biggest bonuses of being a freelancer.

Freelancing has changed my life and given me so much more freedom. But, just like any job, it’s not perfect.

Let me share my perspective on how tutoring has changed my day-to-day life.

Downsides:

1. Paying Pension Fees

Korea has a pension program for retirement where companies pay up to 9% of their workers’ salaries to their retirement fund. This is matched by the employer. I’ve been able to curate a great start to my pension from working in Korea for the past 8 years. I currently have over 13 Million Won saved, roughly 9,400 USD.

But now that I’m a freelancer, I no longer qualify to receive pension payouts from an employer. Since, alas, I am the employer. With my business license, I need to pay 9% of my earned income into my pension. This is quite a large stack of money each month that isn’t getting matched by anyone, so it’s going to grow at a significantly slower pace, while also lowering my monthly income.

I know in the long run I will be grateful for these savings, but as someone with a lot of bills and debt to pay, it’s never easy seeing that bank withdrawal come through.

2. No adult stimulation

I don’t talk much with the parents I work for outside of a quick overview of their child’s performance. It can be quite lonely during the week, being stuck in my home all morning and only seeing children in the late afternoon.

It’s a good thing I’m a homebody, or I might go a bit stir crazy.

3. Asking for and arranging payment plans

Some parents are not on top of our monthly payment fees for class. This means I have to send reminder messages in order to be paid on time.

I don’t know why asking for my money feels so uncomfortable. I’m the same way online with my writing. I have a Ko-Fi but sometimes feel embarrassed to use it. Asking for money never feels right, and I’m wondering if that’s a cultural phenomenon or just my own personal insecurity. Perhaps it’s a reflection of my self-esteem.

When a parent forgets to pay me, or pays me an inaccurate amount. I explain kindly in person rather than through messaging. I feel more confident using a kind tone in person, rather than relying on a message that could be perceived as being pushy. (Again, I understand I am owed my money, but the anxiety always kicks in.) So, sometimes I have to wait an entire week before I get paid my expected amount, which can be very annoying when money is continuously going out, but not in.

4. Time management and scheduling

At the top of this section of my article, I posted a picture of my weekly schedule. As you can see, I teach every day. I no longer have weekends to rest as I spend my hours teaching and commuting on top of my regular writing routine.

It’s difficult to reconfirm schedule times with parents. I’ve had to firmly tell parents that if they miss the lesson, it will be nearly impossible to have a makeup class during the week, since I’m fully booked during after-school hours.

Setting up times that work with commuting was challenging and it took weeks to make it finite. I have to account for traffic during rush hour and find the best routes. Which sometimes means walking a mile or two, instead of sitting on a halted bus.

Luckily, parents are understanding of my busy schedule and always seem appreciative of the efforts I take to make it to our lessons on time. I even have one mom who picks me up on her way home from work! What an angel!

5. Stress on the body

I recently bought a new pair of running shoes to help protect my feet from all the walking and commuting I now do. I’ve also started doing yoga in the morning to help with my shoulder, hip, and back pain. Since I meet around three clients every day, I carry around a heavy backpack full of student material. I’ve noticed the significant toll this new movement has had on my body over the past few months.

I’m young, but I’m not THAT young. And as a 31-year-old, I need to make sure I’m taking care of my health as much as possible so that I don’t run into physical complications later in life.

I also want to start a family soon and become pregnant, hopefully by the start of next year. So, commuting might be more challenging the further along with pregnancy I become. Also, I will have to take at least a month or two off, which means zero income since I can’t give myself paid maternity leave. So that’s something else I’ll need to plan ahead for. Luckily, Korea has one of the lowest birthrates in the world (due in part to the rampant misogyny and high cost of living here, but that’s a story for another time), so I can take advantage of the government’s many programs for potential parents and receive lots of stipends to help out with bills while I’m unable to work.

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Photo from the author: Latest cafe trip! A gorgeous Matcha shake

Upsides:

1. More time for writing and studying

Since I’m usually awake by 8 am, I now have over four hours each day in the morning that I can dedicate to developing my writing craft and studying Korean. I’ve also been able to take on a few online teaching jobs for a bit more extra cash.

It’s a huge relief to finally have the mental energy to focus on my passions. Each morning, I have my breakfast, read a little bit of my book or review Korean Vocabulary, and then I spend a few hours at my desk.

It’s truly bliss. Since I currently have no children, it’s a quiet and stress-free time all to myself as a creative.

2. More time for old friends

Now that my mornings are free, I’ve been able to visit my friends who are mothers to young children. They often express their loneliness since most people work during the day and in the evenings are too tired to travel to their apartments for a visit.

But now I can see my friends and catch up at both of our convenience. It’s been so healing to meet my friends in the mornings and learn about motherhood in such a cozy and supportive setting.

3. Higher income

I now make more per month than I ever did teaching and working after hours as a tutor. It is a huge relief to be making more money for the work I am passionate about.

I have a lot of student loan debt that I’ve been slowly working on, but sadly, as an American, the education system took advantage of teenage me, and now adult me is responsible for paying off a mountain of debt. Now that I’m making more, my stress is a little less intense, though not gone.

Because I have more energy to work on my writing, there is much more potential for me to earn some extra cash through selling my work to literary magazines and anthologies. So far this year, I’ve earned $100 from a Zombie anthology, $10 for a flash fiction piece, and of course, a little each month here on Medium.

4. Flexibility to travel.

In May, I took my first trip to Europe! My husband and I have been saving for years for our belated honeymoon trip. We went to London, Dublin, and Paris for 10 days! What a blessing.

Now that I’m not tied to a stiff contract with only two weeks of paid vacation a year, I can simply communicate with my clients and let them know when I’m going on vacation. (South Korea has awful work/life balance, this too, is another huge factor in the low birth rate.)

This, of course, comes with a huge cut in monthly income, but as long as I plan and save up accordingly, this freedom of scheduling is a huge perk.

5. More time for exercise and inner work.

I always joke with my therapist about how much I hate meditation. Journaling is fine, but sitting in silence is deeply uncomfortable.

I have PTSD, so I have to dedicate a small portion of my day to self-care; otherwise, I can suffer from anxiety and depressive symptoms like insomnia.

In the quiet of my mornings, I sometimes feel the urge to do some yoga and stretching. I’m not very athletic anymore, so starting a workout routine from scratch feels a little daunting. but I hope as the months go on, I’ll utilize part of my free time to work on my physical and mental health.

I am incredibly lucky to have the opportunity (and the visa status) to be an English tutor. It’s rewarding and impactful work. There are a lot of different ways to be a freelancer, but I think the path I’m choosing works for me. I’ve always wanted to embrace a creative lifestyle, and thanks to tutoring I can do that.

It’s common knowledge that authors, even famous and prolific ones, typically have a full-time job to support themselves. I wish writers could be paid more for the important work they do, but unfortunately, that isn’t the world we live in just yet.