Job Discussion Forums

[Canuk girl]

I want to start teaching private lessons. I did post a classifed ad on a teaching website, and have had my first response.
I'm a bit concerned.. how do I set this up.. what should I charge, how should I plan lessons? (yes I did give this a bit of thought before I did it, but I haven't come up with a solid plan) I don't want to get myself in over my head, but really I could use the extra cash to send home to pay debts.
Another thing.. I also want to post an ad at the local grocery/discount stores, how would I go about getting something translated so that I don't look like a fool using an online translator that turns my; "So you want to learn english" into "English is something you really ought to learn"". Haha... any advice would be golden.. thanks folks..

[Gordon]

Where do you live (lots of foreigners around or very few)?
How much experience do you have?
How much do you need the extra work?
Factor in the travel time too.
Group class or individual?

I charge anywhere from 4-10,000 yen/hour.

[Canuk girl]

I've only been in Japan for two months, teaching, but I have a Uni degree in English, TESOL certificate, and taught speed math and reading as an assistant teacher back at home...its a private lesson, and I'm not DYING for the extra work, but certainly want to go back home nearly debt free.

[Gordon]

Would you travel to their place or stay at yours? Factor the cost of travel and time if you go there from door to door. What is your time worth to you? Are you teaching someone with a lot of disposable income (a professional) or not? There is no easy answer. Also look at prep time. If the person has something specific to learn, than you will need to prepare and research material to teach.

[cafebleu]

I`ve never taught privates in Japan but one of my foreigner friends here, an American man, has. He used to tell me that it is not a reliable way of getting an income - but you may be luckier.

Before I venture into his experience, I`d like to ask Gordon a question - where are you? I have heard so many times from other teachers teaching privates that the days of asking 4,000 yen are over - even from those comparitively rich professionals that live like children with mummy and daddy well into their 20s and 30s. Where I live there are so many ads advertising teaching for 1,500 yen to 2,000 yen per private class.

Canuck - be aware of a few things. My friend says it is difficult to get students to reimburse you properly. He travelled to the city to teach when he lived in inaka but he could not get his student to pay his fare (which was expensive). She was a dentist in her 30s living at home - no rent, etc, but like certain sheltered Japanese here she could not understand that she was rich compared to my friend who simply wanted his time and expense travelling to be reimbursed.

His response was to tell her of a fee rise (very politely) if she wanted to keep him and she refused. However, in her message on his answering machine she pleaded for him to stay friends. Yeah, right - I withold correct payment from you but I still want to have `friendship` in the form of free (this time) English with you. He never responded. I think anybody with sense would not have, too.

There are also students who mess their teacher around - cancelling at will, not serious because their purpose was a date in the future, trying to get more time out of their teacher with no payment for the service.

I have never been lucky to so much as get one private student. I have had experiences of students from a school I taught at wanting to hang out in my house and get entertained with free English - all the while never inviting me anywhere. I have had ex students from previous schools who `kept in touch` but I soon ascertained this involved giving them free English. I told them I was busy and when they needed a class, please give me a call and I`ll decide a good price for them. They never called.

[Gordon]

I live in the outskirts of a small city. There are not many foreigners here, so they don't have a lot of choice. My wife and I teach a few classes and don't really want or need any more. In my position, I charge students what is worth it to me, if they say no, than that is OK. One kindergarten class my wife teaches is 3,000 yen for 1 hr (no prep and is a 30 min walk away). My wife does it more to meet other moms and for socializing. Another class is where 4 kids (2 families) come to our house for 30 min every week, for 5,000/class. Another class is 1 hour/week at someone's house (an 8 yr old) that is a 30 min. drive away and we charge 10,000/hr once a week. They offered to pay taxi fare, but we have a car and I think that is enough money. A group of 4 women I teach, I charge 6,000 yen/hour and they are a 5 min. walk away.

Hope this helps, I don't give you this info to brag at all, but we have been blessed with great work. I teach f/t at a university and don't even need the extra income, but it's nice.

[foster]

I worked in a company and they paid 8500Yen for 90 minutes, which included travel. I also worked for a group of 20 people and was paid 6000Yen PLUS travel an hour.

One thing you can do is make the students pay a month in advance,with the clear understanding that if they cancel at the last minute, there is no refund or extra lesson. Be careful of the ones that want to be 'friends'. That is a cheap game they play.

It sounds awful to say that we should not be friend with Japanese people so as to avoid being used for Free English lessons. Not true. Some are genuinely nice people and yes, I want to be their friend. If you were a former student and now, you want to talk to me but not pay me, well then, I am sorry, but I am too busy.

I charged 3000Yen per hour for private lessons and 2000Yen per person in a group of 2 or 3. I also reckon that since I am a qualified teacher, it is fair.

And it is true that they can be very unreliable. Be firm and fair. If they cancel with less than 24 hour notice, inform them that they will pay for the lesson.

It is a business and should be treated as such.

[Gordon]

Yes always get the students to pay up front. I get them to pay for the month at the first lesson of the month. If they want to cancel, it must be made well ahead of time and if a late cancellation doesn't inconvenience me, than I don't charge them. I have never had any problems, but I know it can be abused. Yes, it is a business.

[Canuk girl]

So then basically, I should email the potential student back, ask him if he prefers I travel to his station, what type of English he wants to learn, and then I can give him a price? He's probably a 20 min train ride away, I was thinking roughly 2500 Y/hour, 2000 per student with two or three students?

Thanks

[Kestrel]

I get a lot of my cash through a placement service called No Limit English. Students contact them when looking for a teacher and tell them where they want to have lessons and what kind of teacher they want, then NLE goes though the files and all that, calls me (if I'm the lucky candidate), and sets up a trial lesson. That's a half hour, for free. The student pays NLE a fee (monthly, I think?) for the service, signs a contract with them for a year, and pays me 3000 for a one hour lesson--prices go up for more students, students have to pay in case of sudden cancellations, and since NLE sets the prices and the rules and has the student sign the contract, I don't have to be the rule-enforcing guy. Pretty sweet all 'round. I"m not sure how much of Japan they cover, but I think it's at least throughout the Kansai area.

[Glenski]

Canuk Girl,

Send me a private message here and I will respond with an Excel file I made to cover description of private lessons. My current email is down, so I will have to do this by work email, and I don't want to post it publicly.

Basically, charge up front costs. Take travel into account (that's the cost of transportation as well as your time, which has value). Think about a sliding scale for growing class size. Think about what you are going to do if someone misses 2 classes a month and has paid for 4. Will you reimburse him for the loss? How?

If you teach in someone's home, or a cafe, or your own home, what sort of expenses will you take into account?

To ask for one person to pay 2500 yen/hour is far too low, in my opinion. Charge 4000 minimum. If they balk at it, tell them there are other teachers. If they want quality, they have to pay for it.

Get an idea of what sort of level you are dealing with. Perhaps meet someone for coffee or talk to them on the phone. Do NOT deal with written responses as a measure of their speaking level. Definitely find out what what they want to learn (chatting, newpaper reviews, office lingo, science talk, presentations, travel vocabulary, grammar, etc.). The more you know, the better you can serve them.

[shmooj]

Canuk girl, you are mentioning "he" in your posts re potential students. I think you should also be wary of meeting male students alone on their patch. You could into serious trouble. There was an instance of just such a thing happening described on this board albeit in the China forum as far as I remember.

A neutral location like a coffee shop or making sure that someone else (preferably not male too) is also present should be a prerequisite.

Can't be too careful and there are plenty more female students out there for you than male students anyway.

Of course, I'm presuming you really are female

[markle]

I heard of one guy in another country who charged his private students 30 - 40 hours in advance I think he even charged at a slightly lower rate (say 2500 /hr instead of 4000) because the students invaribly stopped turning up after 10 hours.
A bit cynical but it did fix the unrelability problem

[Celeste]

I am very up front with potential students about my cancellation policy. If I have to travel, they pay for blocks of 4 lessons up front. If they cancel on me and I have already left my house they lose the cash. If they call me ahead to reschedule, I can only add in another lesson at their regularly scheduled time (I am really fully booked.) None of my students has ever balked at this. I charge 7500 for 75-90 minutes for groups of up to 6 people.

If students are coming to my home (rare- I don't like teaching in my home because it means I have to clean up first.) then they are probably a friend of a friend and I am more lenient about scheduling and cancellations. If they cancel at the last minute, well as I haven't left the house, it's no big deal.

[kamome]

I make all my money teaching privately. I charge 3500 yen for an individual, 4000 for a pair and 4500 for a group of 3. I teach all my classes from home-if I had to travel I'd raise my prices to minimum 5000 per hour. and up to 1000 yen if it's a group. I used to travel to lessons but now I prefer teaching from the comfort of my own home.

Put yourself in the Yellow Pages if you're serious about teaching privately ( if you're just looking for a few privates to supplement your income I wouldn't bother ). It's worth it and makes you look "legit"-however you need to contact them soon if you want to be in next April's edition. It also guarantees a constant turnover of students ( many of whom drop out after a few months for various reasons ). You'll need some Japanese to deal with telephone enquires etc. If you can hack teaching kids ( I can't ) that's the best way to get a lot of students quickly ( more than half of the telephone calls I get are mums wanting english lessons for their kids ).

Like another poster said it's best to get them to pay 1 month in advance. I give a demo lesson and if they decide they want lessons they pay a "registration fee" of 5000 yen which basically covers my time in the demo and the cost of a textbook.

It took me about 2 months starting from scratch to get enough private students to equal and another couple of months to surpass my old eikawa salary ( and I work less than half the hours ). It can be done. Good luck!