Job Discussion Forums

[ExpatLuke]

I'm curious about what the general going rate for private lessons is and if it's different based on city.

So, how much do you charge for a private lesson with a single student? How long is each lesson? Would you charge less if you taught 2-3 students at the same time or charge them all the same? Also, saying which city you're from would give a better overall picture of the going rates.

Private language lessons in the US start around $35 per session, but can easily go higher than $50 per session. Charging those prices here doesn't seem realistic to me, but I really have no idea.

[Demonietto]

I'm in HCMC and just started a private lesson. I used the advice from my TEFL teacher in Chiang Mai: $15/hr for up to 3 students, $5 for each additional student. Note that the average salary there is considerably lower than here. He also suggested having them pay up front in 10-class increments and have a 24-Hr cancellation policy due to the lack of timeliness in the country, but I'm not doing that yet. I had a similar question and searched the forum and found people charging up to $50+ an hour in HCMC, but I couldn't justify that for my teaching experience (less than a year). It's less than I make at my regular job but for me it's something fun and stress-free to fill a couple mornings and put some cash in my pocket, and hopefully help out two nice young folks with poor English skills who are moving to California. If it's your main income source I would do more research. Some people even teach for free!

[vabeckele]

I am not going to mention fees, but...I would calculate the cost of one entire full classroom hour of 10-12 students - Any individual is using that time allotted to a full classroom and thus, should pay that rate (I would charge a small certain percentage less).

Not many wanted my time after that, and personally, i feel for 90 percent of the learners, they should be learning in a group centred environment anyway.

Many wanted interview skills and on the job language training, and I ended up giving advice and stuff for free. Waiters and chefs just can't afford those fees. Another reason to be in a group.

[mark_in_saigon]

The kids going to the states are often from families that can afford it. Sometimes they contract better teachers thru a language center and pay upwards of 50 bucks an hour for their kiddo.

There are quite a few folks on CL trying to drum up business doing this work, mostly at relatively low rates. I am thinking this is more or less the same situation as we have with teacher's pay generally. We have a very few really good and highly paid teachers, and then we have the other 90%. With the tutoring, my guess would be that you would have a tad bit more demand for the higher levels, as those students should have this extra need (often going abroad) and higher income levels, but this is certainly not every case, just "generally speaking".

[ExpatLuke]

When I mentioned language lessons in the US, I meant for English speakers learning a foreign language. I looked into taking both Vietnamese and Japanese lessons. The Japanese were more expensive at about $40 per hour. I think the Vietnamese ones were cheaper because my city has a larger than average Vietnamese population.

It's interesting that $15 per session has been the only answer. I was expecting more. I thought $25 would be about normal.

[skarper]

It is rare to find someone able and willing to pay 20-30USD an hour which is what it needs to be to compensate for an hour of regular teaching you will miss.

Of course some teachers are working for for 15USD an hour and there may be odd times in the week when you can't get a normal classroom hour so it is not a straight conversion.

As ever it's a market and some people are happy to work for less of even teach for free.

Personally I'm not into it because the students really would do best in a class anyway and you do get a lot of cancellations without notice. There is also an issue with laziness and wanting the expensive teacher to do all the work.

If pressed I'd say you need to charge a minimum of 10USD per hour and a minimum of 5USD per student per hour. SO if you have 4 students studying together you make 20USD which is not bad.

[Tigerstyleone]

I don't charge anything for private lessons, and I only tutor female students under 30.

[I'm With Stupid]

I don't see why anyone would teach them for less than they would normally earn, given that they should involve more work (material selection, syllabus design, mixed level classes, etc). Also don't underestimate how much someone (especially companies) can save by arranging private lessons instead of going through a language school or agency. I know a few people who do privates, and all of them get paid more than their normal hourly rate at their normal job. Presumably they also don't pay tax on it (I can't begin to imagine the hassle involved in trying to do that, even if you wanted to).

[skarper]

It obviously depends who the client is.

Individuals of modest means would get a discount while large companies with big budgets I would try to fleece.

40USD an hour would seem a reasonable starting point for corporate work. If they have a lot of classes and a workable schedule then I'd consider a discount but not below about 25USD.

All theoretical because I'm not interested in this kind of work.

[LettersAthruZ]

From what fellow freelancers in the major cities of The North have told me, it generally goes around $20-$25USD per teaching hour in Hai Phong and around $25-$30USD per teaching hour in Ha Noi.

Again, like Skarper stated - it all depends on who the client is! Don't walk into Ford Motor Companies of Viet Nam and say ya want twenty bucks an hour for teaching their Vietnamese executives......and don't demand thirty from a family that you do know as fact is just scraping by.......

[Oh My God]

[TRH]

Are posters perhaps talking about two really different things? On one hand we have teachers doing corporate lessons dealing directly with a client outside of a contractual relationship with a language school. On the other we have people providing lessons to other individuals or small groups either at the teacher's or the students' homes. Could this be part of the fairly large fee differences people are quoting?

[Oh My God]

[Anh Dep]

[TRH]