Job Discussion Forums

[GueroPaz]

It helps to get the right niche, by design. I know a Christian who accidentally got into the Korean niche in a third country, and she's making out like a bandit: full schedule of privates at a high price, all classes one on one, all students attending international schools and dying to understand what's being taught all day, parents always making the kids be good students. In less than a year she's built it up to 24 hours per week, and she swears nobody ever failed to pay her (some have overpaid!).

She started with one family and two students, and never advertised because she was so good that the families at the churches spread her name by word of mouth. However, she's versatile: all levels of English; math to middle school; science at primary level; social studies (in English of course) to all levels; and she incorporates Bible studies as appropriate to these evangelicals. They think she's a walking English encyclopedia, whilst she walks on water.

I suspect that Koren, Chinese and Japanese students would be similar, unlike Thais. Surely other nationalities, including Mexican, have groups of motivated students. Of course, focus on a neighborhood that's upper middle class to nearly rico, so they won't mind paying and are likely to need the English in their studies or profession.

Now, if I could just become the walking encyclopedia of Veracruz...

[Guy Courchesne]

The Korean community in Mexico City is similar...large and a great network for private classes. Korean mothers seem to all know each other and word of mouth gets you lots of tutoring classes with the kids.

[M@tt]

koreans are undoubtedly more dedicated to private studying than any other nationality in the world. i lived quite well for six months doing nothing but tutoring korean teenagers in indiana. if i were to move back to mexico city, i would probably skip mexicans entirely (as a means of income) and focus on koreans. the TOEFL is a national religion and they tend to be competetive about schooling, plus they already have a culture fixated on private after-school lessons in their home country, so when they move abroad they are desperate to spend money on tutoring.
added bonus: pay on time, pay a lot (if you're good), tight communities and word of mouth (if you suck this works against you), free korean food!

[Guy Courchesne]

[TheLongWayHome]

[GueroPaz]

My friend says that if the house has a room with air/con, she gets to teach in that room, even if it is a bedroom with closed door. The maid or mom always brings fruit juice, or a snack. Late in one class, she had to chomp down on an entire chicken thigh, choice of chopsticks or fork.

She says that private tutoring of students (hers all go to local international schools) requires versatility and depth of background. One hour she'll be explaining Lakota Sioux and Mayas, the next hour math probability and Sumerian ziggurats, then how to answer in depth questions that require far more than just finding a key word in the text. Then onward to Venn diagrams, sexual harassment, human rights activism. Far more than the use of the past perfect and simple past in the same complex sentence.

In contrast to most of our Thai students, she says that Koreans will tell you when you arrive late, are not afraid to say "I don't know; will you explain this to me?" and can analyze things like motivation and cause and effect.

[geaaronson]

I taught university stateside for seven years and found students from the Pacific rim nations to be the most industrious. We were on a 5 semester yearly rotation and I would have at least one Asiatic student each time around. Across the board they were the hardest workers.

Not surprisingly, I found eastern Europeans to be a little more talented but ever so slightly less industrious.

Surprisingly I found West Africans especially from Senegal to be second runners up in that category.

Latinos were a mixed bag. I had several exceedingly self-indulgent Latinos, Columbians mostly who were talented but flagrantly immature and undisciplined and then on the other hand the very opposite.

I Don`t normally stereotype but when I consistently saw the same results from the same national groups I could not help but form opinions. I had enough students from each part of the world that I could easily discern consistency in pattern.

[MO39]

More advice needed from people teaching private classes in the D.F. -

When I was last here, in 2005, I put a ad in El Universal looking for private students and had a pretty good response. At that time, there were a good number of English teachers using El Universal to look for students. I just bought the Sunday edition of this newspaper and found no ads for language teachers looking for students. In fact, it was hard even locating the correct section to place such an ad. Has anyone recently found students this way? These ads are not cheap, so before I spend my money I want an idea of how effective they might be.

Thanks.

[Phil_K]

I haven't tried this because I'm codo and like the cheapest advertising possible i.e. free! but I would recommend online free classifieds. I posted on 2 of these when I was looking for individuals rather than companies, and had a good response. I don't remember the names of any but a search for something like "anunicos gratis D.F." will get you there. Look for those that have a lot of posts, which means a lot of people read them.

...and what about Segundamano? You can advertise free in the paper and/or online.

[MO39]

[Guy Courchesne]

[Phil_K]

That's true, but my philosophy is to put yourself everywhere, if it costs nothing, there's nothing to lose!

[Guy Courchesne]

Phil, I mentioned this the other night to you, but it could apply here too.

Embassies are a great place to network too. The Canadian and British embassies have weekly get togethers as both have bar/restaurants inside. You'll find a lot of Canadians and Brits at each (obviously), but also Mexicans doing business. Rub shoulders, pass out some business cards and you might pick up some students.

The US embassy doesn't have anything like it that I know of, but I've heard the Italian, French, Australian, and Swiss embassies do. The only drawback is that if it isn't your own embassy, you'll need a person of the relevant nationality to invite you in.

[ontoit]

W.O.M. adverts were always the most productive for me. People that are happy with you tend to talk about you. To wit: if you put your all into doing what you do, then you should never be lonely or poor.

[geaaronson]

I too did Segundomano online and got my first student, an attorney who wants 4 hours a week and a boyfriend to boot! And she is a real cutie!