Job Discussion Forums

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

I stand by my earlier comments. Note the conditional statement I used though – tutoring is not as difficult as ‘normal’ classroom teaching IF you set yourself up correctly. To provide some further details, I’m talking about an optimal situation which needs to be developed over time, not something you can walk straight into. In this case it’s exactly like the situation most new teachers find themselves in when they start to teach in China, you can’t expect to land a great job right away, you need to put a bit of legwork in first. Nevertheless, setting yourself up correctly as a professional tutor is very achievable. I’ve seen some tutors take less than a year to get themselves organised properly, others take longer, while some never get themselves sorted out properly. I won’t go into the details here, but if anyone is interested I’ll be happy to provide more information on this.

The reasons why I say tutoring is easier than normal classroom teaching are as follows:

Travel time : Good tutors have students who come to them. Thus cutting out unnecessary travel time and expense. Teaching from one's own teaching room (whether at home or in a nearby rented classroom), with all the necessary resources at hand and in a quiet, dedicated teaching environment, is much much easier than travelling out to teach.

Preparation time : Less preparation time is involved when tutoring. In short, no detailed lesson plans or extensive material preparations are required. As an example, to prepare for a days teaching I will open up the relevant students folders (detailing learning objectives, current weaknesses, any learning programs they are on etc etc), quickly review them, then go into my online resource library (which is very large and sorted by grade level and program) and load up any resources (e.g. specific grammar examples, vocabulary, worksheets etc etc) I think I will need. If necessary I will access some of the 100+ English books on my shelf and use those as well. For myself, and many other experienced tutors, this process is quick and takes up to 15 minutes or less. That’s about as much preparation as you can do. As any tutor will tell you, it’s very common that a student will come in on the day and have some updated requirements (e.g. test coming next week, some aspect of grammar they need help with, reading assignment they are struggling with etc etc x 100) which will radically change the focus of the lesson. Being flexible in order to quickly change the lesson focus, being familiar with the local curriculum and being able to quickly access the resources needed to help that student are key skills that good tutors need to develop.

Scheduling flexibility : The ability to set one’s own schedule, take days off when needed, set your own working hours and so on. Naturally when first starting off a tutor cannot be too picky. However, once they are established they can largely determine where and when they want to work.

Be your own boss : This is a big one. Working for yourself means no answering to demanding bosses, not having to deal with difficult colleagues, not having to attend useless and unproductive meetings and so on.

Paperwork : Tutors can avoid a lot of the annoying paperwork that goes with a regular classroom teaching position. Normally there’s no marking or grading to do, no progress reports, no assessments or evaluations. A 5-minute chat once a month or so with parents to update them on their child’s progress is usually enough. If something more substantive is required, a print-out of the child’s current status from their review folder does the trick.

In addition to the above advantages, tutoring is very lucrative at the moment, especially if you are in the right locations. Prices per hour are increasing, 300 RMB / hour or more is quite achievable in Tier 1 cities. Add to that the current high level of demand, a tutor who can establish a good reputation will soon have more referrals than he can handle. Word travels quickly between parents and in the tutoring business, reputation is key. For parents, a glowing recommendation from a friend saying, “Hey this guy really helped my son to improve his English!” is worth more than all the teaching certificates in the world. When I get a new referral, most parents only ask two questions, when can we start and how much?

Finally, good tutors will indeed soon find that their income from their private students overtakes their income from their main job. I’ve seen several tutors go through this process (myself included). If a tutor is organised, professional and takes care to develop their reputation, building their student base to 15 – 20 private students is a (relative) piece of cake. Again, good organisation skills are required here to keep the workload manageable and maintain a decent work / life balance. Travelling out to individual students, all in different locations and having to teach in living rooms and coffee shops where distractions abound, quickly becomes tiring.

buravirgil · Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 5:24 pm Post subject:

I appreciate the time and effort you've expended to detail your methods and consider it unfortunate they were expanded by a criticism of your assertion salaries are "low" in this or that location. Because I'll contend the assertions made in this thread, their emphasis on pay and what's appropriate, are an oversimplification and untenable. Your own descriptions of preparation, in which you claim 15 minutes is all that's required, only now include maintaining the alignment of objectives and referring to notation.

But I've responded to share an anecdote about Picasso because you've also shared what extensive resources

...quickly review them, then go into my online resource library (which is very large and sorted by grade level and program) and load up any resources (e.g. specific grammar examples, vocabulary, worksheets etc etc) I think I will need. If necessary I will access some of the 100+ English books on my shelf and use those as well.

are required to do what you do. Your success is a cumulative effort, and kudos for that. I think it's cool you want to share your methods. Publish them as a How To, or For Dummies format. An outline is partially achieved in your post.