You are gorgeous😍 I am wondering if you struggle with making ends meet in the months when you are only making 500usd. I want to get a better picture how much the cost of living is in SK.

Hi! Where from the states are you from? I find the cost of living lower here in the states, so curious to hear more about your experience.

work-life-balance is where it's at. good work is usually rewarded with more work.

한국 생활에 밝으시면 아시겠지만 한국에서 월 $2,000 초반대를 급여로 받는다는 것의 의미는.. 누구나 할 수 있는 일을 한다는 것을 한다는 것입니다. 한국인과 결혼한 외국인들도 영주권 이상을 취득하고 지인, 정보도 생기면 한국돈으로 월 250만원~300만원은 교육수준과 상관 없이 잘 찾아 갑니다.. $2,000은... 사실상 착취, 교육 수준도 보지 않고, 학력도 의미 없고, 누가 와도 대체 가능한 일을 해도 보장 받는 법적인 최저임금을 말합니다.. 이는 사실상 자신의 직업적 가치를 전혀 평가 받고 있지 못하고 있는 임금입니다. 저는 서울에 있는 외국인들의 급여 수준을 듣고..... 충격을 받았습니다... 미국 변호사분이 그냥 평범한 중견기업에서 일하고 있는 저보다도 연봉이 낮아요.. 한국 제가 알고 있는 변호사분들은 $100,000 이상의 연봉을 받습니다. 보통 대기업 다니시는 분들이나 전문직은 서울에서 그정도는 받거든요.. 왜일까 생각해보면... 한국은 전세계 최저의 출산율을 기록하고 있고, 정말 많은 외국인 노동자들을 들여오려고 노력하는 상황이라.. 상대적으로 한국어를 읽고 쓰는 것에 능숙하고 한국의 상황을 알고 99%가 고등학교 이상의 학력, 60%이상이 대학 이상의 학력을 갖고 있고 한국인들의 취업율을 사실상 원하면 직업을 갖는 0%에 수렴합니다. 현실적인 외국인 노동자를 구하는 이유는 한국인들이 기피하는 일자리를 상대적으로 저임금으 구하기 때문에, 취업비자를 내어 주는 경우가 대부분입니다. 그러면서 영주권도 주지 않고, 대부분 자국으로 돌아갑니다.. 이런 현실을 알면, 여행하기는 $대비 원화 가치가 평가 절하 되어 있는 수출중심국가라.. 좋지만, 취업하고 살기에는 만만치 않을 것 같다고 생각합니다.

I enjoyed your interview the most. I appreciated your honesty. I liked the idea of writing things out and evaluating your expectations. I worked overseas in central Asia in my late twenties and while I viewed it as a mostly positive experience, I had some rough days too!

@@kowboyinkorea hi hi! Thanks for your question. :) I'm originally from the Chattanooga, TN area where the average rent alone is about $1,400/month. Also, I LOVE budgets so here's your warning to save yourself while you can. This is gonna be... thorough. In Seoul, I pay about $475/month for rent, utilities are around $100, and phone/internet is $40. I don't need a car since I have plenty of public transportation options (no car payment or insurance), eating out is typically about $8-$10 per meal (no tips, hallelujah amen), I spend around $150-$200 on groceries a month, health insurance is $75/month, and if I do need to visit the doctor its typically less than $15 for the visit and prescription. Since this is Korea, of course I regularly lose my mind at Olive Young, Daiso, and nights out at noraebang. All-in, my monthly expenses are just over $1,000 and I'm able to save a pretty good chunk of my paycheck. Of course, everyone is different. But if I were to copy/paste this same budget AND standard of living to Chattanooga or a similar city, I would barely be able to rent a room in someone's house and wouldn't be able to get sick -- ever. So that's the perspective I was coming from in my answer. Again, thanks for engaging in this topic and I would love to hear more about your experience!

안녕하세요🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️

I would love to move to Korea

Great to listen to your story. It inspired me as my situation is a little similar to yours currently. I was wondering if you can explain a simple outline on how you started your business or if not are you hiring? Lol I have Cyber Sec and Networking background. Also legally allowed to work in S.K.

@@mondaynightlove3875 Thanks for following! My story is long but I did an interview 4 years ago on a different channel that details my journey: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jr58bLVlu6vMY6c.html

Ohh was just thinking I wish I could ask him more specifics about what his business is about. What exactly is it you're selling or earning money from? Kind of curious. If you don't mind the question ofc.

@@rigelr5345 computer sales and repair. You can google the business name on the shirt I was wearing:)

Hi, curios with your business, Im planning to do the same business concept here in Korea for Indonesian community here.

Same here! Phil was and is great!

You are so beautiful! I think that's why you were the thumbnail ~

@@asl6304 aww thank youu

Agree about the thumbnail. What a charming personality and :)

You look good

You reminded me of Amal Coloney

You must love korea to sacrifice the higher pay in america

최저임금을 받으셨네요. 4대보험을 제외하면 세금도 거의 내지 않는 수준이고, 10대가 집 근처 편의점 아르바이트도 한달에 그정도 받습니다...... 한국에서 영어교사의 입지를 보여주네요;;

@@huyquoctran2088 easier to be an English teacher in Korea than America... 😊

she's very articulate.

Same… but i could be biased because shes from the states and speaking with the english accent i can easily understand.

If he did freelance probably not but we don't really know what he does there

well, lawyers are sort of dime a dozen... literally hundreds of law schools in the U.S. pumping out thousands of law school grads yearly. having a US law degree and moving/working in Korea isn't really the first option for many, but i guess times are tough...

In The Netherlands (extremely wealthy, west-european country), a state attorney makes even less. A couple of years ago, one female, young attorney decided to just go do only fans instead. Attorneys make here around 2.5-3k Euro/month after taxes. Pay does go up with decades of experience, but the starting pay just is sad. Also, taxes are absolutely brutal. If you make 70k or more, you already end up in the 50% bracket :/

How many hrs/day?

Americans don’t know how good they have it. In Asia we import US’s crap inflation. Disgrace the US

Computer guy is from New York City

@@d2master2040 cheers, looks like a chinese background❓️

How do you ensure to get your deposit back?

@@ellaa946 there's a whole system, where it's registered by the local district and get documents as proof.

Korean bully me

Korea is the country with the highest minimum wage in Asia. It has been 10 years since Korea surpassed Japan in minimum wage. And in Japan, foreigners' salaries are fixed, but in Korea, foreigners receive the same salary as Koreans.

Adventure? Get real who da hack will go there and spent ungodly on foods and rent

The situation is different in Japan and Korea. In Japan, the salary has hardly changed since 30 years ago, but South Korea has more than doubled in the past 30 years.

Well, it's because the media often shows us the sucessful ones, so we tend to think that others live better, richer lives.

@@user-ig5wx6mz5r not for foreigners. Pay for English teachers stagnated for 20+ years or went down in some instances. It recently started to go up because the minimum wage was increased and teachers would have been earning below minimum wage.

Salaries are low for foreigners because the jobs are limited for them. On the other hand, if they interviewed at a different city where tech companies are, their salaries would have been much higher. Koreans make double of Taiwanese and also more than Japanese in general.

Yes, the salaries are no where near keeping up with inflation. Our salaries are shrinking every year that passes :(

I think, probably, is the normal degree.

How is China?I know the average salary is lower than we are but also the price of things is cheaper

And as your saying of softpower I think all developed countries has their own national image that they can promote. People from developing countries strongly believe in those illusions and visit,but whether it is Korea,US,Europe, many things are below expectations. China in population sector is following our(🇰🇷) footsteps and will suffer a population shrink.l hope you guys could also build up China's soft power and are able to boost your population. Have a nice day

Korea is the country with the highest minimum wage in Asia. It has been 10 years since Korea surpassed Japan in minimum wage. And in Japan, foreigners' salaries are fixed, but in Korea, foreigners receive the same salary as Koreans.

probably a subjective, biased view of that lady who thinks the quality of her work is better than that of her local co workers

Lol welcome to Asia

Yup, welcome to asian culture. You're also expected to stay later than everyone else if you're younger. Auto respect to all older ppl as well. It's why even though im korean, id never wanna live nor work in korea. My kids will def go to school in America as well. Korean food though is undeniably the best haha

And here we are in the US clamoring for 4 day work week lol

I think if it‘s monthly salary, it‘s net, and if it‘s yearly income, it‘s usually before tax. So here people often say ‚after university, you can only expect 2.5mil Korean won usually, which means after tax 2.5mil korean won

稅後. After tax.

If they are talking about monthly income it is usually after tax, yearly income it is before tax.

😅😅😅😂😂😂😂

Yes they are but with make up...what about without. They seem very nice people though.

See this is the irony of paper currencies. An American teacher in korea is earning minimum wage or less in USD (1.8-2k/mo) but a South African or Filipino is earning quite a bit compared to their local currency

This is a common misunderstanding that foreign expats gets paid more in Singapore. As a business owner in Singapore. It is actually incredibly challenging to hire foreigners against locals in the same job field. Also, you have to sort of prove that you aren't able to hire locals to fill up those roles. Employment pass and levies will kill the employers first (in the high thousands per month for each expat), so Singaporeans in general actually get a much higher take home pay than foreigners in the same job. I'm thinking the regulation is about the same in Korea in this case, just that their average income is a lot lower.

Korea is the country with the highest minimum wage in Asia. It has been 10 years since Korea surpassed Japan in minimum wage. And in Japan, foreigners' salaries are fixed, but in Korea, foreigners receive the same salary as Koreans.

Singapore is not a country.

@@user-sc4ui6rp6j"Singapore is not a country". What??

@@vkkl6213 yes Singapore is not a country

Japan is even more overworked than america lol. Like way way more

Asian Americans in the US should be grateful what they are making in the US..

Salaries in America are probably one of the highest in the world. People in western Europe and Canada would probably find 200k TC in tech to be on the higher end. I imagine that would be amazing for Korea? Not so much here

The local currency (krw) has lost a lot of value since 2020. So, all the salaries are low in USD terms

so, how much did you earn in China?

But the cost of living evens it out - so ya’ll are all basically getting paid the same thing lol

@@Genericperson658 no, the life he described sounds much more comfortable than that of an English teacher in Korea

@@Genericperson658 Teachers are paid better in China, even taking into account cost of living. The market is much larger, and there is a general supply-demand imbalance, leading to competitive salaries. In addition, earning more money in a higher cost of living area is better than earning less money in a lower cost of living area, as your money goes much further when you move around. That being said, there is a lot of compromise when you work in China. The money is better, but you give up a lot in terms of freedom, access, and work-life balance.

@@Huawei_Jiang Currently, teachers in tier 1 cities can easily find positions for 25-30k RMB a month, with good benefits like housing subsidies, insurance, travel stipends, etc. Entrepreneurial-minded individuals can supplement that with part-time work like tutoring, making 200-300 RMB / hour on the low end. Even in the smallest cities, teachers can still make 15-20k/month, where the cost of living is a fraction of those in larger cities. Many foreigners have left China after the COVID-years debacle, therefore supply of teachers has dwindled. Plus, while the private sector is willing to bend over backwards for them, the government has treated foreign nationals with increasing animosity over the years.

As a Spaniard I totally get him. We are used to fresh veggies for a bargain

If you saw the price of fruit here (coming from Europe at least), you would probably be too

😂​@@bmsnow

Coming from a country where fruits and veggies are considered poor-people food because how cheap they are here, being in Korea for 1 year was an absolute madness for me. The prices of agricultural products there are just..... bad. The guy's response is justified.

Imagine not being able to chose your favorite greens! 😢

With $40,000 USD p.a, they definitely wouldn't survive in my city (Sydney). Here you need at least $65k-$70k USD to survive. Rents here literally cost like $40k USD p.a.

Thanks for your input. I used to make good money as a teacher in Korea (2,500,000 a month), but that was way back in 2007. The exchange rates were good, and things were kind of cheap. I've been in China for years. In late 2022, I was curious about Korea and looked into the GEPIK teaching program for a March 2022 start. However, the pay was pathetic - 2.0 or 2.2 at most. No way!

OECD average annual wage 2022 (USD) USA: 77463 Germany: 58940 OECD average: 53416 South Korea: 48922 Italy: 44893 Japan: 41509

Because much of that average salary is based on people running businesses and white collar jobs which most of the foreigners in these interviews are not in, except for the lawyer. Korea is a very very competitive society, unless you are smart enough to get a top level job in tech or engineering, you are not gonna get paid much. I mean entertainment and teaching english are low paid jobs anywhere. Korea isn't short of doctors, lawyers or accountants any time soon. Its like this all over east asia, korea being a little more difficult i think

This is after tax. Not sure what tax bracket this lawyer is under. Does he have to pay in both countries? Anyone got info on that?

Do you think the salary is low at Korean standards? Korea is the country with the highest salaries among well-established countries in Asia. They even receive higher salaries than in Japan. In Japan, the salary for foreigners is fixed, while in Korea, foreigners and Koreans receive the same salary. Are you still dissatisfied?

No…..he’s talking about how he’s strugggling in Korea and dktv get a lot of income from their vidoes lol

@@Mokawoo Nah, Danny took a break from KZfaq and DKDKTV a while ago.

@@Mokawoo Although, now that I'm looking into it, it looks like he started running a video production company with a friend where they've recently made K-Pop music videos among other things. So, I guess not teaching.

He is considered middle class in Korea as well. He makes so little for an attorney in Korea. The minimum wage in Korea is $7.80. And avergae income for lawyers in Korea is over $100,000. The average salary for Koreans is about $40,000 a year. I don't think there are much demand for the U.S. licensed attorneys in Korea.

The amount of money the pharmaceutical companies doctors and surgeon make is crazy and as well as scary we prefer to travel to home country to get treatment In Usa for me the most hated thing is it healthcare system it really sucks

He makes the same amount as me and I'm fresh out of university T T

well, you have to take into consideration the sample set here. these are foreigners in korea, a land where "normal" jobs aren't easily given to foreigners. most foreigners surviving in korea do so by either : teaching, working in an "english" related job (i.e. editing), or freelancing. most korean firms will not even hire foreigners unless you're super fluent in korean and have specialized skills. unfortunately, the reality is many foreigners who make it to korea are those still "figuring out their calling", and sorta killing time.

@@kenichi407You need to be fluent in the local language or have specialized skills to get a good job in any country.

Yes, housing prices in Seoul are expensive. (But I think it will be relatively cheaper than major cities in the United States) I think there are many foreigners who live on monthly rent or jeonse. jeonse : Type of housing lease that gives a deposit before entering the house and gets it back later.

Yeah house and food are expensive

Korea food is pretty cheap when I went there, which country specifically in Scandinavia? I heard it was expensive over there?

In exchange for a high salary, you have to pay a lot of taxes in your country.

Probably not the best comparison. I lived in SF (from NYC). I’m also in tech. And Silicon Valley is an anomaly and nowhere in the world is similar as a business sector (eg tech). Even tech in NYC pays (slightly) less, but costs can be even higher there than SF (of course personal lifestyle matters).

If u move to Seoul, your pay will be adjusted to Google Microsoft Korea wage. Company pay based on your residency that’s how they deduct your state and local taxes as well. If you live in Florida but work for a SFO based company, your biweekly deduction has a portion going to Florida.

What job do you do?

@@d1am0ndsI’m in tech.

if you work remote you ain't getting cali wages bro , they will argue that it would be best to give that salary to someone that actually lives in the usa

Coz they were or are koreanboo. They chasing their oubaaa and eoonniiis

I am glad I am paid in USD here 😂

In USD, yes. But if u are from Argentina, Philippines, etc....pretty high

What if she doesn’t eat like an average American ?

@@Genericperson658 Well she should be super obese if that's the case.

SE asians?

I'm doing alright. I have two kids from a previous marriage so I am not driving around in a Lambo.