Supposing I said that I wanted to move to Taipei, and would take ANY teaching job, with only one stipulation: that I would only work for a minimum of one thousand dollars per hour.
What sort of work would I price myself into?
A serious question, not just a ‘what if’.
Assuming that you look and act professional, clean up nicely (i.e. a clean, pressed, button-down shirt with tie), have suitable experience (at least 2 to 3 years), you could probably do corporate English classes.
If you speak Mandarin well, have a winning personality, and a lot of personal connections, you could probably live off of private students.
If you have none of the above, stick with your day job… 
I wonder if you really can get jobs that ACTUALLY pay 1000 per hour. By that I mean jobs that don’t require gobs of unpaid duties, thus dragging your actual per hour pay to well below 1000 per hour. I think these high per hour places are often just smokescreens, although you can get a well-heeled privates to pay you that much.
All the 1000NT/hr jobs I get usually don’t involve much talking 
Perhaps it’s possible to land a $1,000/hr. job, but I bet you that it will be less than part-time work, like maybe 4 hours a week or so and would require a lot of dedication. People who are willing to toss that much money out for English lessons are going to want the real deal and will probably know enough to be able to sniff out a fake teacher (as in just rolled in from Thailand, looking to replenish their “recreational” account).
Chewycorns - the gloves come off now that you’ve outed me
I would say that it is totally possible for me to put on a shirt and tie. It would also be no problem for me to provide the ‘value’ required to earn 1000 dollars. I would imagine that there are hours available at 1000 plus, and I will look in to Maomans suggestion of corporate classes. Thanks for the advice and help so far.
I would suggest that most of the 1000NT an hour jobs
a) Require a fair amount of preparation time for each lesson
and/or
b) Are 2 hours or less at one place and one time.
So you waste money on unpaid preparation, travel and waiting, so you could well be better off taking 2 hours of work requiring no preparation and little travel at 6 or 700 an hour.
Brian
Brian wrote [quote]I would suggest that most of the 1000NT an hour jobs
a) Require a fair amount of preparation time for each lesson
and/or
b) Are 2 hours or less at one place and one time.
So you waste money on unpaid preparation, travel and waiting, so you could well be better off taking 2 hours of work requiring no preparation and little travel at 6 or 700 an hour. [/quote]
As usual, my fellow Kiwi is spot on. I would much rather take some reliable block hours at NT$650-700 an hour than run around town chasing an hour or two here and there. Then you can have a few more lucrative classes as icing on the cake.
Corporate classes can be a real hassle because:
- Businessmen are busy chaps and often cancel.
- If you teach at a company, classes aren’t properly streamed so you end up teaching a wide range of levels. And only a few will be motivated
- Corporate students often imagine their English to be better than it really is, and insist on learning difficult business English even though their general English ability is crap.
- Fewer tasty birds.
[quote=“almas john”]Corporate classes can be a real hassle because:
- Businessmen are busy chaps and often cancel.
- If you teach at a company, classes aren’t properly streamed so you end up teaching a wide range of levels. And only a few will be motivated
- Corporate students often imagine their English to be better than it really is, and insist on learning difficult business English even though their general English ability is crap.
- Fewer tasty birds.[/quote]
Having done the corporate English thing for years, I concur with what AJ is saying. Still if you do only two hours in the morning, two hours at noon, and two hours in the evening, you’re still pulling in 6k a day. Do that 5 days a week, and you’re rocking.
It is not necessary to wear a button-down shirt. Get yourself a proper shirt with double cuffs, no front pocket, and removable collar bones.
Actually getting paid $1,000NT /hour not that far fetched considering some of my students are already paying that much, although I only see half of that in my pay.
When U teach classes or one on one students for your school getting $500NT/hr, how much do U think the skule is getting? maybe 800NT, or maybe 900 or $1000NT/hr…
Interesting…
[quote=“webdoctors”]Actually getting paid $1,000NT /hour not that far fetched considering some of my students are already paying that much, although I only see half of that in my pay.
When U teach classes or one on one students for your school getting $500NT/hr, how much do U think the skule is getting? maybe 800NT, or maybe 900 or $1000NT/hr…[/quote]
I did land one of those 1000 NT/hr gigs that way, a few years back. I was leaving my buxiban and on the last day of class, a student who I’d been teaching one on one took me to his house. Even though I was leaving the school, he still wanted me to stay on as his teacher. The school was paying me 550. He was paying the school 1000. It was a sweet deal in the best interests of both of us.
Huh…