(Forgive me if this is in the wrong forum, please (this is my first post, hooray!). If it is in the wrong forum, then I apologize in advance and hope a moderator could move it to the right one. )
Hi everyone! I’ve been an occasional semi-lurker in these forums for quite a while (occasionally stumbling across a relevant topic or something through Google, etc) and today I finally made an account.
(tl;dr at the bottom)
Anyway, let’s cut to the chase.
I’m currently an undergraduate student working towards my Bachelor’s in California. I’m coming back to Taiwan for summer vacation and I was hoping I could find some sort of part-time job and I figured being a tutor would probably be the most viable option. (good pay & flexible hours)
My questions are:
what sort of hourly rates should I be asking for? I can speak both English and Chinese fluently. I’m guessing the range would be around… 400nt/hour - perhaps 800nt/hour?
should I only try to find a job as a private tutor or should I also try to find a job as a buxiban teacher? (if I could, and even if I could, which one would you recommend?)
are there any other places that you guys would recommend to find a tutoring job other than Tealit?
Thanks guys!!!
-legobrah
tl;dr
-gonna be in TW over summer
-currently goes to school in the US (undergrad)
-looking for a tutoring job/some sort of informal teaching job (only option b/c no degree yet) (speaks both english/chinese)
-wondering if possible to find a job like buxiban teacher
-wondering if private tutoring is better or being buxiban teacher
-wondering what sort of hourly rates I should be asking for
the reality is that buxibans aren’t going to want to hire an inexperienced teacher for the summer since it’s not something that you can just show and do immediately. They need to invest a certain amount of time to train you (horrible training albeit) and don’t want to repeat the process a few months later.
Your best bet is trying to find a job at a summer program. I have no idea where to look for those. Some (most?) of these are nothing more than a babysitting service that is sold as English immersion.
I’m also going to assume that you’re Taiwanese. Forget about getting 800NT/hr since you are inexperienced and looking for short term work. You will be lucky to make 400NT/hr imo.
[quote=“Abacus”]the reality is that buxibans aren’t going to want to hire an inexperienced teacher for the summer since it’s not something that you can just show and do immediately. They need to invest a certain amount of time to train you (horrible training albeit) and don’t want to repeat the process a few months later.
[/quote]
Damn, I sort of guessed that. Oh well.
[quote]Your best bet is trying to find a job at a summer program. I have no idea where to look for those. Some (most?) of these are nothing more than a babysitting service that is sold as English immersion.
I’m also going to assume that you’re Taiwanese. Forget about getting 800NT/hr since you are inexperienced and looking for short term work. You will be lucky to make 400NT/hr imo.[/quote]
Yep, I’m Taiwanese. Can’t read or write Chinese though… haha.
Thanks for your input man. I was mainly curious about the hourly rate because I’ve been digging through Tealit (a website that’s sort of similar to craigslist) for private tutoring and some of the posts asks for how much you charge and I didn’t want to lowball myself when applying I guess.
How much do you think I should charge? 400nt/hr sounds about right for 1 on 1? It seems like most of the postings are only looking for conversational English.
My situation is basically the same as legobrah’s; going to spend part of the summer (1 month) back in Taiwan before starting undergrad at Cal (Go Bears!). Been living in the US since 2010, so fluent in both English and Mandarin. Want to know where to get started if looking for private tutoring opportunities, e.g. links to popular sites would be tremendously helpful.
Willing to tutor English, Science, History. Thx in advance!
Why would anyone go through the effort to setup a private tutor for a month? It takes time to understand what the student’s needs are and establish a rapport with the student. By the time you have done this it will be time to go home.
note - you don’t need to convince me but rather the person that you want to tutor. Most people don’t want a short term arrangement with an unknown tutor that likely doesn’t have any experience. There are short term opportunities available (usually as referrals from satisfied students) though.
I have some ABC friends here and this is what I’ve learned:
If you’ve never had any teaching training or teaching experience before, you are going to crash and burn on your first student. Expect to invest a significant amount of time in free language exchanges to get the hang of things. In addition, demand is low for ABCs vs. the other alternatives. $300NT/hr is more in line with what you should expect to make as students who choose ABCs do it for budgetary reasons (white faces cost more). Realistically, a good income for your first summer here should be measured in hundreds of NT dollars per week - low thousands if you really hustle. It simply takes time to build up your skill and reputation. No buxiban will hire someone that is not going to be here for years. Even if you lie, your contract will have a clause that basically lets them keep your last month of earnings anyways so it’s not worth it.
)