>1000 NT rates for one to one classes

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
21

I use the same method as Battery9. The hour is 1000$ but I add 200$ for additional students. They divide the bill.

As for teaching to managers in the Hsinchu science park, it’s a thousand a head no negotiation. After all the company pays. I have to admit that when I take some students from my city (Judong), I go lower on the price cause I see some very smart kids, but their parents don’t have the money to pay for these classes. I usually get a few just before they switch to Junior or senior high school and I charge them 500$.

My two cents.

itsavideotv.com/

22

When I first came here, I charged 600 an hour (basic conversation) but I noticed that students were unreliable and bothersome. I got rid of all of them and started charging at 1000 an hour plus. In my experience they started taking my classes more seriously at 1000 an hour and I get better business that way. I’m not sure why. People THINK they get what they pay for, I think.

I upgraded my skill set as time has passed. Maybe that helps.

23

Bob wrote:

IELTs. Well, I’m DELTA qualified and know something about the English language for a start. Also I care about my students - I mean REALLY care - so they appreciate that and keep coming back for more, as well as recommending me to their friends. Unlike many schools, I treat them with respect and give them back the confidence that the cram schools have taken away from them. It’s as simple as that.

And it does show up: Taiwan has the lowest IELTs/TOEFL scores in the world, and have had for a long time. The buxibans aren’t completely to blame for this, but they are a big part of the problem. I worked for a buxiban here in Taipei for around 5 years and I saw how the factory system destroyed the students, forcing them to sit in huge classes and listen to a Taiwanese English teacher rattle off lists and lists of words that they never learnt how to use. I think many students here are on automatic pilot and never really consider that there may be alternatives to studying at a buxiban . . . alternatives for example like studying privately, one-on-one, with a qualified English teacher from a strange foreign land such as the UK or Australia or NZ . . .

There’s nothing wrong with the IELTs test . . . don’t blame that. As proficiency tests go, IELTs does a pretty good job at measuring language proficiency.

But most buxibans here have their in-house tests, which are often prepared by amateurs whose background is not in curriculum design. If students were taught by qualified teachers using quality materials, then higher scores would be the order of the day as well as greater speaking and interpersonal skills.

[quote]Further, the Chinese, like other consumers, believe that you get what you pay for.

Oh really? I thought people were all out to get as much as they can for as little as possible. Isn’t that how it works? If you found two great Mandarin teachers, one for NT500 and one for NT1000, which would you hire week in and week out? Would you draw from savings or borrow from your parents to pay that extra NT500? [/quote]

Yes, I’d pay more for the better teacher because in the long run it’d be cheaper in terms of money and time saved as well as reducing worry and stress levels. I used to buy pirated DVDs, but I had so many problems with quality I gave up and now only buy the real thing . . . and I’m much happier, even though I spend more.

24

  1. At the risk of overgeneralizing, “the Chinese” absolutely do not use the axiom “you get what you pay for” in making purchase decisions. Over and over again, observations show they want the cheapest possible, quality be damned. Something irrational takes over when they want to hire a white face to teach them or their kids English.

  2. I overheard some punk kid, FOB, boasting in a coffee shop that he won’t consider anything less than 1000/hr. Does that mean he has expertise to teach or just expertise to overcharge?

A person with integrity will consider what the customer is asking for, not just take as much as they can get. It is reasonable to ask for more if you have to prepare lessons and material than if they want guided casual conversation with some correction. I also consider prepayment packages with cancellation restrictions for some lower rates.

25

  1. At the risk of overgeneralizing, “the Chinese” absolutely do not use the axiom “you get what you pay for” in making purchase decisions. Over and over again, observations show they want the cheapest possible, quality be damned. Something irrational takes over when they want to hire a white face to teach them or their kids English.

  2. I overheard some punk kid, FOB, boasting in a coffee shop that he won’t consider anything less than 1000/hr. Does that mean he has expertise to teach or just expertise to overcharge?

A person with integrity will consider what the customer is asking for, not just take as much as they can get. It is reasonable to ask for more if you have to prepare lessons and material than if they want guided casual conversation with some correction. I also consider prepayment packages with cancellation restrictions for some lower rates.[/quote]

Well, when it comes to hiring me as a teacher for NT$1,000+, my students are definitely making a “rational” decision. And that’s what I love about my darlings: Their ability to sort the wheat from the chafe.

26

I haven’t done any private lessons in my four years of teaching, but I think 1,000 NT per hour is a perfectly reasonable rate. For one-on-one it may be a bit expensive, but the rate should be based on your time and not the number of students. So if the potential student has a few friends who want to join the class, encourage them to do so for the same rate.

When the travel allowance was included, I was earning about $1,000 per hour teaching business English back in Thailand. In actuality, the agency I worked for could have paid me a LOT more, because they were charging the company far more than they were paying me. I don’t know the cost of the average buxiban here, but it seems many students are getting ripped off for what amounts to a few hours of being entertained by the foreign clown. I consider myself a decent teacher, but the curriculum used at my buxiban now guarantees that the students will never learn to communicate effectively.

This, combined with the pitiful pay rate here, is why I am returning to Thailand in December.

27

NT1000 is a reasonable rate for a talented teacher.

What I’m questioning is whether or not the one’s who get that rate are actually the ones who are good at teaching, or the ones who are good at marketing themselves.

Lotusblossom perhaps you could tell us something about the improvemnts you show in your students exam scores, and besides caring, really caring, how you manage to achieve those results.

28

[quote=“bob”]NT1000 is a reasonable rate for a talented teacher.

What I’m questioning is whether or not the one’s who get that rate are actually the ones who are good at teaching, or the ones who are good at marketing themselves.

Lotusblossom perhaps you could tell us something about the improvemnts you show in your students exam scores, and besides caring, really caring, how you manage to achieve those results.[/quote]

Since new students for private lessons are largely acquired through word of mouth, LotusBlossum’s students are apparently satisfied with what they are getting.

Courses for IELTS and TOEIC are always more expensive than general English courses, though I really don’t understand why. I’ve taught a few TOEIC courses and they were among the easiest I’ve ever done. All you need is a good course book and a CD player. My students all had substantial improvements. Teaching someone to take a test is a lot easier than teaching them to communicate effectively; but since test scores allow students to get jobs, they will pay far more for test results than for an ability to communicate.

29

I don’t have a set rate. It depends on the type of student, their needs and how much travel/ preparation is necessary. For adults, a basic conversation/grammar close to home will cost $750/hour, but for IELTS prep, 25km away (with certain outcome expectations), I charge $1300/hour. I think my clients would be suspicious if I charged less; the price reflects the type of class and the fact that not everyone is qualified to teach it.

30

Ditto.

31

[quote=“bob”]NT1000 is a reasonable rate for a talented teacher.

What I’m questioning is whether or not the one’s who get that rate are actually the ones who are good at teaching, or the ones who are good at marketing themselves.

Lotusblossom perhaps you could tell us something about the improvemnts you show in your students exam scores, and besides caring, really caring, how you manage to achieve those results.[/quote]

Can’t tell you much, except that I know the language back-to-front, discuss interesting topics in a pasionate and stimulating way, and help them improve their scores . . . and themselves. And talking about improving scores: Just last week a private student of mine wrote to me telling me that she’d scored a ‘7’ overall in the IELTs test.(Listening: 8.0; Reading: 8.0; Speaking 6.5; and Writing 6.0). She is a Ph.d candidate and wants to go to the UK to study and was promised a grant from the Taiwanese government to cover fees/expenses if she got a 7 overall . . . and she did with my help. The point is that she’d been studying in a buxiban for months, took her test twice and got a 6.0 each time, and in desperation searched for a private teacher who knew what they were doing to help bump up her score. Anyway, she found me, and hey presto she got the 7.0 she needed. Students pay me good money, so I need to give them results.

BTW, a 7.0 overall is extremely rare in Taiwan, where the average IELTs score is around 5.39. Countries who do well on the test are: 1. Germany(average: 7.4); 2. The Philippines(6.9) and 3. Malaysia(6.7). Maybe the Taiwanese should look to these countries for their IELTs inspiration . . . or sign up with me for private lessons!

32

[quote=“lotusblossom”][quote=“bob”]NT1000 is a reasonable rate for a talented teacher.

What I’m questioning is whether or not the one’s who get that rate are actually the ones who are good at teaching, or the ones who are good at marketing themselves.

Lotusblossom perhaps you could tell us something about the improvemnts you show in your students exam scores, and besides caring, really caring, how you manage to achieve those results.[/quote]

Can’t tell you much, except that I know the language back-to-front, discuss interesting topics in a pasionate and stimulating way, and help them improve their scores . . . and themselves. And talking about improving scores: Just last week a private student of mine wrote to me telling me that she’d scored a ‘7’ overall in the IELTs test.(Listening: 8.0; Reading: 8.0; Speaking 6.5; and Writing 6.0). She is a Ph.d candidate and wants to go to the UK to study and was promised a grant from the Taiwanese government to cover fees/expenses if she got a 7 overall . . . and she did with my help. The point is that she’d been studying in a buxiban for months, took her test twice and got a 6.0 each time, and in desperation searched for a private teacher who knew what they were doing to help bump up her score. Anyway, she found me, and hey presto she got the 7.0 she needed. Students pay me good money, so I need to give them results.

BTW, a 7.0 overall is extremely rare in Taiwan, where the average IELTs score is around 5.39. Countries who do well on the test are: 1. Germany(average: 7.4); 2. The Philippines(6.9) and 3. Malaysia(6.7). Maybe the Taiwanese should look to these countries for their IELTs inspiration . . . or sign up with me for private lessons![/quote]

7 on the IELTs, gosh, that’s impressive! I’m still a tad curious though about your actual methods. You mentioned earlier something about discussing interesting topics in a passionate and stimulating way. That sounds like a good method. Is there something you do to get your students talking in a passionate and stimulating way too, or do you do most of the talking? In my experience (which admittedly is rather limited) many Taiwanese are kind of weird and boring to talk to regardless of how well they might have done on the exams. I thought they focused too much on exams and needed a more grounded experience with the language, but as you pointed out earlier no, no, the IELTS is a good proficiency test.

Still a little curious too about the hypothetical posed earlier. My questioned wasn’t whether or not you would pay more for the better of two DVDs, my question was whether you would pay extra, month after month, for the better or two equally talented teachers. The two situations are not really analogous are they?

33

I’ll give a brief description of my tutoring job.
1,250 per hour, 2 siblings (1 elementary school, 1 junior high), tutoring in their home with materials I prepare. 2 years on the job, total travel time to and from their home: 30 minutes walking, preparing materials: about 30 minutes or less. Homework: reading articles, texts, short stories, age-appropriate books, writing summaries. In class: telling me what they have learned, orally summarizing what they’ve read, telling me about their week, singing. Results: top school marks, trophies in various English language and other competitions, earning seats in classes after highly competitive testing.
Parents: business people. Students’ level: near native quality, able to work with materials at Western grade levels appropriate to their age. These students had a good foundaiton of English when I started with them and they’ve continued to improve. I’m now spoiled and would only agree to tutoring this calibre of student.
Edit: I’ll add that when I first began the tutoring, the parents told me that I would receive 1,000 NT per hour. After about 6 months, I noticed what I thought was an “overpayment”
in my monthly envelope and tried to return the money. The answer was that they had decided to increase my pay. I have also been paid 1000 NT per hour to provide pronuniciation help to an executive of a large international company. The company paid.

34

We have some recent data on this topic. Students anonymously report to us hourly rates charged by teachers they meet through MYU as well as overall class ratings (0-5) and positive/negative comments.

Here is a chart (recent data over the past few months):

Positive experiences with teachers seem to be proportionally higher among the higher hourly rates. Why exactly? I don’t know. But it does mean that you can charge 1000 NT/hr or more and leave students feeling good about the lessons.

35

Sure. It’s very little to do with teaching though.

36

I just have one little sub-note to add. I think the amount that a tutor charges is related to how much they “need” the income. I also charge a pretty high rate for my tutoring and I feel that my students are still getting a good deal. The reason they are getting a good deal is that they are getting my spare time. I tutor in the evening and it’s overtime and extra income for me. I really don’t need the money, although I have become accustomed to having the cash on hand and leaving my salary in the bank. I actually prefer to have a simpler life and spend my spare time traveling, learning, or helping out animals.

I guess if my students weren’t happy with my process or style, or they thought my rates were too high, they would just cancel and move on to a cheaper teacher. I wouldn’t mind and have actually recommended that to a few who were concerned about it.

So I recommend to new teachers or new arrivals who are interested in building up hours and saving money that you offer a bit lower rate, but that you build up over time. You will build up a good group of students over time who are willing to pay for your quality time. And you old-timers out there, don’t lower your standards!

37

[quote=“almas john”]
This thread is about an 18-year-old newbie’s search for teaching privates, not the mythical demi-god “I’m not a looooser” English teachers.[/quote]

I continue my valiant quest…

38

I think that an IELTS Prep Teacher…assuming that the teacher is a certified IELTS Examiner, not just someone who has tried to familiarize themselves with the test…can command good money for private tuition. If I remember correctly, the approximate pay per hour for examining was about 1200, so with the prep involved for private tuition I would say that 1200-1500 / hr. would be reasonable.

39

I would never charge 1200-1500, even though I think I’m better qualified than most. I generally charge a more reasonable rate (800, usually).

HOWEVER, I only give up my free time to teach kids whose parents are in positions of influence - people with whom it is worth building up a little guanxi. It is a policy that I believe has served me quite well.

40

My wife used to charge 800 an hour assisting a couple of working professional with their reading, pronunciation, and comprehension skills. 1000NT an hour is not that far fetched. People will spend the money if you help them get the result that they want.