I kinda had enough of Language Exchange. Jianging way too much English as it is.
A couple of days ago, passing near a Mos Burger joint, there was an ad stating that they pay 80NT an hour for some burger flippin. So, I’m thinking, the hell with LE. I’ll teach for one hour, get 600NT and then find some student who would rather sit with me at a cafe for a couple of hours, get paid 100NT an hour, then work at Mos or wherever. What do you guys think?
For NT100 you’d probably have to pay for their drink, but yeah, this works. The Chinese teachers at the private Chinese-teaching buxibans often start at less than NT200 an hour; a friend of mine got two teachers from SHIDA who were willing to teach him for NT350 an hour. Since we are surrounded by millions of Chinese speakers, there is certainly no reason to be paying them the same wages foreign English teachers get.
Personally, I would pay NT200 or 250 an hour; I think there is an ad on the boards here where Chinese teachers offer to teach at this rate.
That’s not too bad. Luckily, I’m not looking for a teacher, just for someone to converse with in Mandarin. So, any student with a decent accent would suffice.
Yeah, that’s what I thought too, and I’ve been very pleased with the student I hired. I have a lot of teaching experience, and I know what I want to learn and need to practice in Mandarin, so I don’t need a “real” teacher. In any case, the student I hired is more intelligent and better educated than the Chinese teachers I’ve had at the buxiban.