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giovanni
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 41
Location: Texas USA
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 Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:13 pm Post subject: freelance and private lessons in China |
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I am a white woman in my 20s, American, with a degree in education and a masters (M Ed, not MA!) in TESL. I have 4 years experience teaching ESL in a public US school. I'm a certified teacher in 2 states in English, ESL, and science.
Tell me about working for yourself in China (specifically Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu)
How hard is it to find decent part time work? I have a place to stay in Sanlitun in Beijing, I'd like to spend a couple of months making some money.
How do you find students to tutor privately?
Any good website recommendations?
How much do you charge?
Is there a market for English babysitting?
I want to be free to travel and move about the country. Not interested in international schools at the point in my life.
I've spent a summer moonlighting in Seoul and it worked out extremely well, how hard is it to do the same in China?
Thank you |
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Shroob
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 1339
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:07 pm Post subject: Re: freelance and private lessons in China |
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| giovanni wrote: |
I am a white woman in my 20s, American, with a degree in education and a masters (M Ed, not MA!) in TESL. I have 4 years experience teaching ESL in a public US school. I'm a certified teacher in 2 states in English, ESL, and science.
Tell me about working for yourself in China (specifically Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu)
How hard is it to find decent part time work? I have a place to stay in Sanlitun in Beijing, I'd like to spend a couple of months making some money.
How do you find students to tutor privately?
Any good website recommendations?
How much do you charge?
Is there a market for English babysitting?
I want to be free to travel and move about the country. Not interested in international schools at the point in my life.
I've spent a summer moonlighting in Seoul and it worked out extremely well, how hard is it to do the same in China?
Thank you |
I think your biggest probably would be coming here legally. Without an employer to sponsor your work visa you'd have to be illegal. It's up to you how much you place on that.
I say that as it may be possible to find an employer willing to jump through the hoops for a well qualified candidate such as yourself for 2 months (you said a couple), but I really doubt it. |
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giovanni
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 41
Location: Texas USA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm willing to risk it Shroob. I want to be mobile and able to travel around Asia and move about China. |
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diced260
Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 80
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Preface: I'm not in China. Never have been.
I would consider approaching local international schools for sub work. Might also be worth talking with their teachers about your babysitting idea.
There's also some sort of tutor-vetting site online. It's a bit involved, but they have clients and some of the gigs sound plush. |
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Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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OP:Your dream of living the vagabond life traveling about China is unrealistic.
Do some homework. Find out what's involved in obtaining a Z visa, then adjust your plans. I'll say it again: China is not the Land of Milk and Honey.
At best, you might find a position with a chain that needs someone to float among schools, filling in for teachers who have left for greener pastures. Should you manage to find such a position, you probably won't stay a week here and a week there. It'll probably be a month or two here and a month or three there. Worse, you might be liked so much at one school that you'll have to stay at one school. |
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giovanni
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 41
Location: Texas USA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| diced260 wrote: |
Preface: I'm not in China. Never have been.
I would consider approaching local international schools for sub work. Might also be worth talking with their teachers about your babysitting idea.
There's also some sort of tutor-vetting site online. It's a bit involved, but they have clients and some of the gigs sound plush. |
Thanks for your response! Good idea about the sub work- do you have any suggestions about the tutor sites please? |
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giovanni
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 41
Location: Texas USA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Bud Powell wrote: |
OP:Your dream of living the vagabond life traveling about China is unrealistic.
Do some homework. Find out what's involved in obtaining a Z visa, then adjust your plans. I'll say it again: China is not the Land of Milk and Honey.
At best, you might find a position with a chain that needs someone to float among schools, filling in for teachers who have left for greener pastures. Should you manage to find such a position, you probably won't stay a week here and a week there. It'll probably be a month or two here and a month or three there. Worse, you might be liked so much at one school that you'll have to stay at one school. |
Can you tell me more about why you think it's unrealistic? Back in 2007 I did 3.5 months in Seoul (granted staying in one place) but I just strung together a bunch of part-time jobs (mostly kindergarten and young kids because I look the part) and some private tutoring (mostly businessmen who wanted to whine to me about their wives over coffee at Starbucks for 50,000KRW/hour). I saved $10k while living it up. EVERYONE on the Korea forum said it couldn't be done. It took loooong days and working every day but I did it. What would be the difference between Beijing and Seoul? I think it might even be easier because I have contacts in Beijing and Hong Kong who know lots of rich people. I got the credentials now too
Why would I have to stay at one school? The whole point of me freelancing would be so I could bounce |
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diced260
Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 80
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:07 pm Post subject: |
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I considered this outfit: http://www.tutors-international.net
I was contacted by one person from the company and he seemed a bit (lot) more professional than your average Dave's vacancy rep, no offense to them. I ended up backing out because I really need to up my quals and rehabilitate my references after years of vagabonding. I would definitely reconsider them in the future.
Seriously, I think it'd be worth talking to some IS teachers. They may have already been approached about tutoring younger siblings of their students and may have (had to) decline.
Another way to go about this might be looking for expat life websites and posting your availability there, highlighting the babysitting aspect. You might be the only TEFLer who actually wants to babysit! There are plenty of expats with a lot of grown up business to tend to... |
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giovanni
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 41
Location: Texas USA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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| diced260 wrote: |
I considered this outfit: http://www.tutors-international.net
I was contacted by one person from the company and he seemed a bit (lot) more professional than your average Dave's vacancy rep, no offense to them. I ended up backing out because I really need to up my quals and rehabilitate my references after years of vagabonding. I would definitely reconsider them in the future.
Seriously, I think it'd be worth talking to some IS teachers. They may have already been approached about tutoring younger siblings of their students and may have (had to) decline.
Another way to go about this might be looking for expat life websites and posting your availability there, highlighting the babysitting aspect. You might be the only TEFLer who actually wants to babysit! There are plenty of expats with a lot of grown up business to tend to... |
That site is nuts! Thank you so much.
And yes I do want to babysit, I think it'd be fun! I'm looking for a break from real teaching (international schools sound like it'd be as much work as a US public school) |
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Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| giovanni wrote: |
| Bud Powell wrote: |
OP:Your dream of living the vagabond life traveling about China is unrealistic.
Do some homework. Find out what's involved in obtaining a Z visa, then adjust your plans. I'll say it again: China is not the Land of Milk and Honey.
At best, you might find a position with a chain that needs someone to float among schools, filling in for teachers who have left for greener pastures. Should you manage to find such a position, you probably won't stay a week here and a week there. It'll probably be a month or two here and a month or three there. Worse, you might be liked so much at one school that you'll have to stay at one school. |
Can you tell me more about why you think it's unrealistic? Back in 2007 I did 3.5 months in Seoul (granted staying in one place) but I just strung together a bunch of part-time jobs (mostly kindergarten and young kids because I look the part) and some private tutoring (mostly businessmen who wanted to whine to me about their wives over coffee at Starbucks for 50,000KRW/hour). I saved $10k while living it up. EVERYONE on the Korea forum said it couldn't be done. It took loooong days and working every day but I did it. What would be the difference between Beijing and Seoul? I think it might even be easier because I have contacts in Beijing and Hong Kong who know lots of rich people. I got the credentials now too
Why would I have to stay at one school? The whole point of me freelancing would be so I could bounce |
First, Korea is not China.
Second, as someone else pointed out, you would need a school or company to issue a letter of invitation which you would present to the Chinese consulate in order to secure a Z (working visa). Whoever issues that letter of invitation will be responsible for you. How many people do you think will want to be responsible for a stranger?
What would be the difference between Beijing and Seoul?
Beats me. They all look alike.
I think it might even be easier because I have contacts in Beijing and Hong Kong who know lots of rich people.
If you have these contacts, why are you asking strangers in a forum about how you'd go about doing what you want to do? Talk to your connections. |
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doogsville
Joined: 17 Nov 2011
Posts: 924
Location: China
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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| giovanni wrote: |
| I'm willing to risk it Shroob. I want to be mobile and able to travel around Asia and move about China. |
Both would be difficult once you've been arrested, processed and deported to your home country. I am neither trolling nor attacking your idea here, but the situation in China is changing rapidly with regard to foreigners working illegally. Granted, much of the evidence for this is anecdotal, but, since this is China, much of the evidence for anything is anecdotal, and tightly controlled by the government. The bottom line is you are proposing to come to China and break the law, so you need to be aware of the very real risk and consequences of that. Can it be done? Yes. Should it be done? That's up to you.
You mention contacts in Hong Kong. I would suggest that HK would be a much better fit for you than the mainland. I quick look on the HK board here on Dave's will throw up a very recent thread about private teaching there, but again, they mention the legalities and risks of doing so. If you are willing to take the risk however, HK might be a better place to do so. It's fairly easy to get a tourist visa and come to the mainland as a genuine tourist, and travel to other Asian countries is easy from there too. |
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