Job Discussion Forums

km618 · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 65

i'm in beijing now and i've been thinking about giving some private lessons but i'm not really sure what to teach. what am i supposed to do? one of my friends told me that people would pay me 100 rmb an hour just to talk to them...

Ahchoo · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 606 Location: Earth

They give me that just to be in the same room with them.

ChinaAndrew · Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 48 Location: china

Are you talking about doing some extra work in a private school or teaching out of the house? If a private school be wary of your contract, does it mentioned something along the lines of 'not rendering your services elsewhere without the school's permission'

Depends on the level: children? adults? then you can use their coursebook or find something suitable in a bookstore.

I good way to find a lot of students is by doing 'english corner'

I have found it to be unpreditcable at best. I taught business english for about 2 months at a local company.3 evenings a week, boss said he was very impressed with my teaching. But they got stopped because everyone was too busy..
I was a little dissapointed, got used to the extra moolah

Good luck anyway.100 an hour sounds a little high maybe not for beijing though.The standard around these parts is about 70 but I have got 100 from some.Bit of a poor town

km618 · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 65

i'm talking about going to a student's home or he/she coming to mine. my brother was going to do it for a girl he knew for 70 and when he told our chinese friend she laughed and said that it wasn't enough. on a beijing forum i looked at some of them charged more than 150 so i figured around 100 would be ok. i don't want to charge too much. yeah the english corner would be a good idea. a chinese guy i know said that he would help me find some students if i needed him to

km618 · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 65

oh i forgot to say...
i'm a 21 year old american guy. the only real experience i have is a month of teaching oral english at a university (which i'm still doing)

ChinaAndrew · Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 48 Location: china

Another thing..a lot of parents(if you are teaching children) will want 2 hour sessions.figuring that the more time cramped in the better. People just don't have the attention span for that, especially considering they've probably already been in school for 12-14 hours that day or adults been working since 6am.
So break it up, try for 40mins then a 10-15min break in between.
They will get more out of it and it will make things easier for you.
Nothing worse than dead silence or brain overload!

laodeng · Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 481

I don't think you want to go to the student's home--make him come to yours or to some neutral turf that's convenient for you. No one's going to pay you for transportation time--and time is what you're selling.

Teatime of Soul · Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Posts: 905

km618 What happened with the visa problem? Please let everybody know how it worked out.

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

Try and get the student to pay for the next class in advance if possible. The biggest problem with privates is the fact that they are often reliable and may cancel at the last minute or not at all. If they give you adequate notice of cancellation then you hold the money over till their next class. This can be hard to do if they don't know you, but once you get word of mouth recommendations it is much easier to lay down the rules.

laowaigirl · Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 20 Location: NY

sort of in the same vein . . .

if you want to hire a chinese tutor in a city like shanghai, how much should you expect to pay per hour?

Yu · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 1219 Location: Shanghai

jammish · Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1704

foreignDevil · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 580

Here are some simple rules for taking on private students:

1)don't travel to their home, have them come to you. I myself broke this rule recently and I regret it. There is a clear 'power dynamic shift.' I compromised with myself by charging 25% more.

2)Arrange payment in advance for a block of time. A reasonable amount is about "a month's worth". For example:if it is one hour a week at 150 rmb an hour, request 600 in advance. But if it is more hours or more money per an hour adjust accordingly. The bottom line is that it is perhaps unreasonable to demand more than a month's worth of tuition in advance, but at the same time you need to watch out for your own scheduling and fiscal interests. As a previous poster mentioned, having payment in advance means your student will be more likely to stick to a schedule, and you will be able to better plan you own finances.

3) provide a written contract in chinese that spells this out. Is it enforceble in court? I have no idea.. and anyway we are hardly talking about "big bucks" here. But a printed contract does make you look more serious. It has always helped me. I would be happy to show you or anyone else the Chinese contract I wrote myself. It clearly spells out the above about hours and payment, and covers cancellation, etc.

foreigndevil.