Teaching Private Students

Teaching Private Students

by Hall Houston

Another source of income is the private student. Since private students pay you directly, teaching them can be more profitable than classes at a school. They come from a wide variety of sources: friends, previous students, and even strangers will sometimes approach you in need of a tutor. One method of recruiting new students is to post a notice with your name and phone number on bulletin boards at college campuses. Having name cards printed in English and Chinese is also recommended. One rich source of jobs is the bulletin board at the Mandarin Training Center. Spend your first couple of weeks at the MTC making new friends and checking new postings. Another great bulletin board exists at the Taipei Hostel, a few blocks away from the train station.

One more strategy is to find businesses that are in need of an English tutor or proof reader. When you arrive at the Chang Kai Shek airport, you will find a large amount of tourist information available. Included in this information is a listing of major businesses that do international trade in Taipei.You could find some very lucrative jobs (NT$800 - $900 an hour) by visiting several of these companies and offering your services as a teacher or proofreader.

When you meet your potential student for the first time, be friendly and talkative. Speak slowly and try to determine your student's level. You might want to bring some EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks and have the student read out loud for you. (Lucky Bookstore, located in the same building as the MTC, has a good selection of books on ESL.)

When setting an hourly tuition rate, take into account the time of day, number of students, distance you have to travel, and your willingness to accept another class. A good hourly rate for a private student is NT$500 or $600 an hour, although you can expect more if you are teaching a group or if you have to travel a long distance to go teach. Sometimes a student will demand a lower rate, but I would never accept less than NT$400.

A substantial disadvantage of teaching private students is that they can be unreliable. Quite often students in Taiwan will faithfully attend for one or two months, then start skipping or cancelling classes, and finally decide to stop the class.This can make your monthly income difficult to calculate, especially if your student has been paying one class at a time. For this reason it is imperative that you tell your students that they must pay you four weeks in advance, and they will lose money if they do not show up. Some students will accept this and some will not. If a student seems skeptical, you can provide a photocopy of your passport for security and remind the student that a private school would also require advance payment. Do not fail to make this clear to the student! The student's prepayment will ensure at least a month of steady income. If you agree to let the student pay for one class at a time, you are setting yourself up for financial turmoil.

Your ability to hold on to a private class for more than two or three months depends on how well you meet the student's needs. Try to measure early on what your student hopes to get out of the class (conversation, business English, vocabulary, listening, etc.) If you push your student too hard to learn, he or she may get frustrated and promptly stop the class.

Private classes can easily get tedious for both the student and the teacher. To keep the class interesting, use a variety of activities, such as listening, reading, role play, and writing. Take the student places where he or she can practice English, such as a Western restaurant, or a conference. Use authentic materials from English-language magazines and newspapers. Above all, don't rely too much on a textbook, and help the student to find ways to use English in their everyday life.

Try this page for more teaching ideas.

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