I have had a lot of students whom I used to teach come to me asking for online tuition. Things are going really well, and they know what to expect and what I expect from them. Everything is legal, and I will be continuing with them after I migrate next month. I know how to legally finalize everything in Taiwan when I migrate, but I have a couple of questions:
What is the best method for receiving payment when you are teaching from a different country? I have watched videos comparing this, and Paypal seems very convenient, but there are even options that include payment management and scheduling, like Tutorbird. Has anyone had experience with this? I currently just do bank transfer, and it is easy because of course there is no international transfer.
On another note, how do you handle an online student who knows (and whose parents know) the goals and expectations but only shows interest in chatting and shuts off when it comes to anything beyond speaking. This is not a big deal because it is only one student, and I have tried for months to engage the student, so I know I am doing what I can. It causes me no stress, but it seems like a waste of time, and I would rather teach s student who is willing. The parents know that there are problems but cannot do anything to help (they say). Have other teachers had issues like this? Can you offer suggestions? Has anyone actually dropped a similar student? If so, how? I am not saying I will drop the student, but it is a possibility as I have other, more willing students, who want tuition.
If this is in the wrong forum, apologies. I couldnât be sure about where to put it.
I get frustrated with those kinds of students. Even for free talk classes. If I donât see improvement I feel like Iâm wasting their time and money. Try a remote quiz program like âQuizzisâ
It allows you to take your questions and turn them into an almost interactive video game for free. Thereâs a lot of pre-created material from other users that they make available.
At least you get instant feedback of what they have learned and monitor how many times they have taking the quizzes.
My question is payment. How would you get paid remotely.
If you use ATM or other methods, I guess you will lose your Red envelope wiggle room.
I use Quizizz, Nearpod, Quizlet, Wordwall, and a few more apps like that. They get a few moments of involvement, but when the app activity is over, engagement is over if weâre not just talking. I will keep plugging away and see how it goes for another month.
Regarding the Red Envelope: it sucks that you canât get the âwiggle roomâ.
I uh⌠give up on them lol. One of my adult students told me that she doesnât want to learn grammar, she wants me to correct her every time so that she could learn through mistakes, without knowing the grammar rule.
In case I didnât make myself clear enough, she doesnât want to know âbe Vingâ or when to use it, she wants me to correct her every time she says âI swimmingâ or âI swam when you calledâ. We had a talk that I didnât enjoy and she might drop my class.
I just learned that most people donât care about English. They just need to feel like theyâre going places. Iâve learned to cope with that. Now I just comply with them as long as they learn even just a tiny bit.
As long as they learn from conversations, I donât see a big problem. Theyâre probably not even going to use English in the future.
Many adult students have developed rationales about what they think they need⌠usually hinging around two partial misconceptions⌠lack of vocabulary and incorrect grammar. Even higher level students will tell you this.
In reality, their deficits almost always revolve insufficient practice, interaction, and poor productive/receptive skills. These are almost always the result of extensive grammar translation teaching and methodology.
This is true. I had to teach an older Taiwanese businessman 1-on-1. He was nice enough but had the worst productive/receptive skills Iâd ever encountered. He was under the impression that he could rattle off any old rubbish and it would be âpracticing Englishâ. Any feedback or corrections would be brushed away with a curt âI know, I knowâ. Very frustrating.
Me: Did you do a Covid test when you came back?
Him: I think in Taiwan we still can come back from the middle of the May. There are still some cases from under the family and environment. Because Taiwan is still everything more and more better I think will be more comfortable. We several test the material but we can buy test Family Mart⌠rambles on for another minute or so
You are indirectly involved in a way⌠she may be rebelling against parental authority or teachers⌠how old is she? ⌠or she may be turned cold by too much academic speech. Not everybody is the same, no matter how much parents or teachers wish.
I can only suggest that you develop a cooperative way to teach her⌠which you are clearly acknowledging⌠by tying the grammar directly to what she is saying and showing her by example how a rule may help her say better what she wants to say. Thatâll be tricky, if she is fickle.
He is quite communicative⌠but pinpoint accuracy may be a distant goal for him. He really throws out a lot of talking points just in those few lines⌠lots of places to continue conversationâŚ
Yeah thatâs the issue I had. His answers were always good springboards to discussions - which I appreciated - but they were all over the place and never addressed the questions. An hour of tangents where one party isnât really listening to the other, and isnât open to suggestions, isnât condusive to âgoodâ communication imo.
I currently only have one student who is doing advanced grammar. She is learning SAT and is in high school. With her, I do not nitpick her grammar, especially during conversation (which is when warming up and closing), instead opting to correct frequent errors by incorporating correct usage into later conversation.
The student I mentioned in my OP hates grammar and reading in particular, but they are the areas he needs most help with. Perhaps LESS structure and MORE free-flowing content are the way to go. The student is obsessed with comics and sports, so I can perhaps steer away from texts, instead focusing on leading the conversation, making notes as I go along. I am using a pretty neat app called Scribble Together, which I use with some other students for presentations. I am going to try keeping note of issues the student has, taking time, whenever conversation slows down, to bring attention to grammatical issues. I will give examples, and sent everything to the parent to print off so that the student can review.
All of my other students are fine with using texts, which I also support with my own materials depending on need. This student does not fit that mold, it seems, and requires a different approach. I will just have to see how a free-flowing approach goes.
I think the core reason is lack of confidence⌠if theyâre confident, they wouldnât refuse trying. The thing that really gets me is how they come up with all kinds of absurd reasons to refuse to try.
You know you want improvement the second you hire a teacher. If youâre perfect then stay perfect already, why bother pestering a teacher?
Back to the topic, sometimes itâs not just âlanguage proficiencyâ, but the way those people have lived their whole life⌠He might do the same thing when he speaks mandarin. Iâve met those people.
Have you determined the studentâs interests? Is the studentâs ability high enough to have a serious conversation with him or her. If not, is your Chinese or whatever language good enough?
I had a student from an elite HK school who was the same, but after a serious conversation and agreeing to use the studentâs interests to create a gaming environment that also implemented the English being taught in his school, the lessons moved much better. Sometimes he still hung up the call and refused to return, but eventually he relented and his scores improved from the 40s to the 80s quite quickly. Admittedly, the work required for each lesson was daunting, and even though the pay was about US60/hr, I wouldnât have done it if his mom wasnât the sister of an acquaintance in Taiwan.
I know the studentâs interests and try to engage in those areas of interest during conversation. It works. I have tried some gamification, but the amount of work that goes into that is high compared to what I charge for the class. Quizizz isnât too bad because some of the sets are pre-made, requiring only proofreading and alteration to my needs (great sharing community). Quizlet is pretty good in that way, too. So are many more apps.
With some students, I use Explain Everything, which I subscribe to, and Scribble together, although the latter requires a stylus of some kind to be truly enriching. I could teach the student how to use Explain Everything and do projects that flow from discussions. I just have to figure out a way to work grammar and reading into it. Perhaps some kind of research that requires reading will be key. I am very wary of the preparation time though and how proportionate it is to the hourly fee. I think the rate is good, but I have heard of people getting way more. I wonder how people look upon charging more for high preparation time when materials are based on the studentâs own interests. Do people even do that? Also, is it unheard of for a teacher to do a trial period to see how the student responds to the teacher (and vice versa)?
I do a trial lesson for my tutoring class and some local bushiban. Some bushiban (mostly tutoring centers) even preinterview students and will assign students to the teachers that suit them best, and even refuse to take students that doesnât fit the bushiban culture.
I think youâre allowed to interview / do a trial lesson with the student. As long as your boss is okay with it.
Btw could you share some of the Quizlet sets? Iâm new to this and I find it difficult to search for be suitable sets. Theyâll just put âenglsih vocabualryâ on the title and I donât even know what level it is or what it is about.
100% agreed. I was doing at least double the prep VS the teaching time, which is why I wouldnât have done if it werenât for a friend. If youâre brave, alert the parents to this and maybe they can accommodate you.
Not sure about Quizlet in particular, but you need to be really careful with the material because I find errors in most of it. With the paid subscriptions, you can usually edit out the mistakes and still save some time versus designing things from scratch.
