Job Discussion Forums

[RollingStone]

Ive read some threads on proof-reading as a means to supplement income.

Can anyone provide experiences/insights into freelancing private tutoring to supplement income from ESL school? What are the wage windows, sources for prospective clients, issues etc?

[Glenski]

Wages are whatever you can get for private lessons. I've seen teachers ask for as low as 1000 yen/hr per student and as high as 10,000. Get it a month in advance.

Students can be had usually by word of mouth, often by pirating your former school (against their wishes, so if you go this route be discreet). Advertise any other way you can : information centers, supermarket bulletin boards, online, etc.

Issues? Many, including stability and low wages, plus usually no paid vacation time from private lessons. Location, choice of textbook, format, etc. I've also seen people who are getting ready to leave Japan actually SELL their students to other teachers.

Private lessons cannot be used as a source of potential income when it comes to trying to self-sponsor a work visa.

[RollingStone]

[Apsara]

Some issues: a) It is a very unstable source of income. Students cancel at short notice, disappear, move away, get busy or forget to pay you. You have to constantly look for new students to make up for the ones who are dropping out for whatever reason. Good luck getting the money out of the students in advance- I think many would balk at that and just look for another teacher. A lot of them look for private teachers rather than sign on at a school because they don't want to be roped into a schedule or pay in advance.

b) Location. When I was 21 and had just arrived in Japan I thought it was fantastic that someone would pay me 3,000 yen to sit in a cafe, chat and go through a textbook with them. By the time I was in my late 20s I started to find it quite embarrassing. Teaching in cafes can annoy/inconvenience your fellow patrons and the staff- some cafes even prohibit holding lessons on their premises. I have just one private student now, and took her on because she wanted lessons in her home.

c) Timing. Other than the occasional housewife, most people want lessons in evenings and weekends, and those times quickly get filled up, leaving you with not much leisure time if you are doing other work, and a schedule that hampers socialising with friends on more normal schedules.

I got my students through a couple of different agencies, friends who were leaving, Japanese friends whose friends were looking for a teacher, and a few people just suddenly asked me to teach them in the cafe after obviously listening to my lessons with other students. Obviously most of these routes require you to have been in Japan a while.

At one point I was making about �80,000 a month from private students, but it required considerable time and effort to get to that point.

[Glenski]

[Apsara]

Group lessons in a cafe? Now that is something I haven't seen yet, thankfully.

[ripslyme]

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[Apsara]

Wow- that's actually something I've never come across. I got my students for free from friends and other sources, and so when I decided to give them up to focus more on teaching yoga I also passed those that wished to continue on to friends who I knew would do a good job. The idea of money changing hands never actually occurred to me.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Waal, I'm talking about 15 years ago, but since it was pretty rampant at the time...almost to the point of protocol, that I'm surprised that it's unheard of by some. Could this have been a generational phenomenon or a regional one?

NCTBA

[earthmonkey]

I started freelancing as soon as I came to Japan seven years ago, and still do it actively.

On top of my regular work, my current weekly schedule includes 14 hours of private lessons. So, with cancellations, I do about 10 per week.

All of the private lessons pay at least 3.000 plus transport. The �3.000 lessons are old students.

In my experience, about one in every three or four students who starts to have a lesson turns out to be a good private student. My definition of a good student is one who has some purpose to their study and seldom cancels their lesson. So, you'll need to be pretty actively searching if you want to build up a good base. Poaching from your eikaiwa is not the way to do this. Demonstrating lack of character wouldn't be a good way to start a relationship. There are a lot of online services for finding students and you should use them. What has been more effective for me is word of mouth.

If I need to calculate my income, I calculate the private lessons assuming about a 30% rate of absenteeism.

Your friend said that you could make an extra $1.000 per month. You can if you give it a little effort, but it will take a while. I remember when I reached that point (�100.000 per month) because it seemed significant. I'd been doing it for about 2 years at that time.

Some tips (partial list) if you want to do freelance:

1. Learn how to teach. Chatting is not a lesson.

2. Take it seriously. If you do, they will. That means don't cancel at the last minute and, try to dress decently.

3. Charge a decent rate. (3.000 minimum)

4. Mention that you teach to everyone you meet.

I'm a firm believer in "not putting all of your eggs in one basket". It gives me a nice sense of added security to have my private students. Most of my students now pay monthly, but in the beginning it was cash at the time of the lesson. Some of them are still that way.

Good luck

[Brooks]

I teach at a McDonald's fairly regularly.
The students like the cheap coffee (100 yen).
It is open 24 hours a day, and it is by a highway that is north of the Tomei.
I always teach upstairs. Downstairs, it would probably annoy the customers. Upstairs is where the smokers go, and they don't care.
I don't like the secondhand smoke.

The students are picky and only like class to start at 9:30 on Saturdays.

I could probably teach more privates, but some potential students are weird, so I avoid them.

I often see people having one-on-one lessons in Tokyo and Kanagawa at cafes. Usually these are the busy, noisy cafes, like in Shinjuku, where people are coming and going, so people don't find the lessons distrurbing.
It is just part of the background noise.

[Apsara]

It is those busy cafes which are most likely to prohibit lessons in my experience.

There are often people waiting to sit down, and staff will actually go and ask people who have been drawing out one drink for more than about 45 minutes if they would like to order anything else, with the implication that if they don't, they should leave.

The noise isn't exactly conducive to a good lesson either, especially with a lower level student.

[RollingStone]

Big thanks for everyone posting!




Has anyone have experience using a 3rd party to find/provide students? I have seen elsewhere ads for companies searching for part-time teachers. Teacher assumes all costs (materials, transit, food etc), teaches at home or at a cafe etc, but the company provides the students. Issues?

Are cafe`s the only spot in town for private? Are in-home lessons popular (either teacher`s or student`s)?

Has anyone experience with remote teaching part-time?

Does anyone have experience teaching private in non-large cities? I assume the Tokyos and Osakas and Yokohamas would be prime areas for finding students, and it would be different in a rural town.

[Glenski]