I'm still teaching at my original school I started with. The kids are, for the most part, great and I don't want to leave them. I am teaching mathematics to kids from ages 8-13, and English conversation to older kids from ages 15-19. I also teach at a mall, in a language school, Inlingua. I have students from all ages (4-40). I also teach private lessons in my condo. I've turned my one bedroom condo into a classroom, with a huge whiteboard, and a small selection of books that I can use for worksheets depending on the lesson. I'm beginning to understand what it's like to not have to plan much at all for tutoring/private lessons. I have done a lot of the prep work/book selection already so I essentially just start class and continue where we left off before. This is easy money.
How do I know how much to charge?
I think there are WAY too many people in Thailand who take advantage of their position. Read all this and then I'll slap the wages of life in Bangkok.
Becoming an educator should not be about ripping people off. I completely understand if someone is charging 1,000+ baht per hour for private lessons, but only if you are actually working that much and/or have the skill set to assist you in your class. 1,000 baht is approximately 28 USD. The exchange rate is obviously changing everyday.
Why, why, why, why!? I don't understand why so many teachers feel it's acceptable to charge this much for one hour of work. So here is my theory...at least for areas like Bangkok/Pattaya/Chiang Mai... Cities and places with larger population.
Thai people, those of them that are wealthy enough to afford 1000 baht per hour of lessons, are willing to spend it without even thinking about it. The farang (foreigner) make an easy exchange and cash in. The work load that I see most farang having for these types of lessons usually consist of : 'hey what is your homework I can help correct that' to 'lets just talk' to 'lets open this book'. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with these methods, however I do feel that if you have little to no prep, and charge that much you pretty much could be an English teacher fraud. What do I mean by fraud?
An ESL-NE speaker (English as a second language and native English speaker), are usually people who can speak the language quite well, without thinking. The trick, is being able to understand all the rules and exceptions in English. Knowing that the English language has 12 tenses. Not 3. Knowing that we call 'is, am, are' as the verb 'to be'. Knowing how to conjugate have, to be, etc... Knowing about prepositions of time and place, or the many parts of speech in English. Or knowing about the difference with 'either and neither' or describing the way to pronounce 'th' correctly without just having them repeat after you. As a teacher you should be able to figure out or research ways to effectively teach. Read that again, EFFECTIVELY teach.
Now I bet a lot of people could be reading this and could be thinking 'oh wow Harry you are hating on teachers and think you are the best.' No no no, I am not the best I am no where near that. I am rather aware of my skill set. I have some tricks up my sleeve as we all learn to build on our own. I do not know the Enish language well enough. I can't explain the use of adverbials verse adverbs. (What the heck is an adverbial!?) I can't describe the reasoning behind phrasal verbs, like 'passing out'. I can explain the definition but not why it is set up like that. How about that oh so familiar 'l' instead of 'r' that all the Thais say. No one can do the 'r' perfectly. It's because their 'r' in Thai sounds like 'l'. We need to be effective teachers in order to change this so they are speaking correctly. Not sit there for three hours and have them repeat it. Show diagrams of the tongue! Examples! Many words. (A trick I've used is to have them say 'motorbike' and they slightly grasp the r sound in that word. I tell them to cut that out and place it in another word like rice or road. To start using the 'r' sound and try to emphasize/exaggerate the sound. I've found it to work pretty well to make them exaggerate it then tone it down. Another good tip for the th sound I've used is to have the student very lightly bite on their tongue and breath out. Not push spit or make a fart sound with their mouth but more of a relaxing exhale. That's been working perfectly for the past few weeks in my classes of 40 kids. They are loving it. Usually they'd get annoyed but I think they can actually hear the difference themselves.)
So, if you are a teacher that is able to answer a ton of types of questions and teach effectively then I see no problem with charging that much for an hour, as long as you can back yourself up with the books and help with homework. (Minimal prep).. However, if you are simply not trying to educate yourself and are not self evaluating your lessons every single day you teach, then I think it's just shy of a scam if you charge that much. If you ARE simply trying to just sell your accent and memorized knowledge of 'how things are' in English, then sure! Go ahead! Do it, I encourage it. Thais love speaking and practicing too. I think it's worth only around 300- 400 baht an hour, though. Which is still good!!!!
Like I said I'm no expert, and I definitely need to grow a lot in the teaching realm.
So my lessons that I teach got me firing my comments about this because I get paid around 600 baht per hour in my private lessons. I still feel I am overcharging but the students/clients insist on giving it. Yes, I even tried lowering it because I just feel horrible if I'm not honest.
Ok I think you understand or can at least sympathize with where I am coming from. (There is another great example, 'where I am coming from'. That sounds like a difficult thing to explain. Maybe say 'it's the same as you understanding my perspective?' Sure that sounds good! Wait, do they know the word perspective?... Hmm)
The baht. How far does the dollar go? How far does the baht go? Here's my personal breakdown. And this is all of a decent living style. Nothing extremely fancy and nothing below comfortable living. I don't have to worry about turning on and off my electricity other than for saving energy, not my baht.
Well, the breakdown - if you take your time you can probably find a decently nice condo with a pool and a gym for around 7,500 baht a month. Including A/c and a stove top, and a fridge. Sometimes parking if you need it.
That comes out k be slightly over 200 USD a month. (Many can be found immediately for 10,000 baht a month)
As for food, one meal averages 35 baht (1 USD). If you want luxury meals - a couple hundred. Pretty good buffets from around 300-2,000 (extremely nice buffets... I never go there, haha. I always go to the 300 baht ones).
Electricity usually runs around 800 baht a month for someone running a/c frequently. Water bills are pocket change - probably less than 80 baht per months wifi/internet : 650 baht per month.
Transport: around 1,000 per month.
Ok now that you know that, check out all of this below...
So, even if you spent around 16,000 baht a month on living expenses, that's still a lot. So wait, wait, wait. Are u telling you that people can come to Thailand, teach lessons to people for 1,000 baht an hour, teach them at two periods every week, and perhaps have 1-3 people in one lesson/class? One a week with 2 kids, 1,000 each.... Is what? 8,000! Ok so let's try to get our money that we need to survive. And let's make us work a little harder, only one student per hour. We would need to teach 16 hours in one month. Less than half of the average full time working week in western worlds.
If you teach any more, you are rich.
Now, most of us have full time salary jobs, that are reliable for a monthly income. So that we don't have to rely on the flexible private lessons. Now I think 1,000 baht for a lesson was an extreme example for me to use, but it does definitely happen. However if you worked the work week the same amount as in a western world, you'd have to charge about 100 baht and hour to get what you need to live. Now that's absurd, you can definitely get a job paying more, working less. A lot less. Average jobs are 30-35,000 baht a month working around 15-25 teaching hours, not including grading and planning. Most of the jobs don't require an extreme amount of work, however some do. For example, my current job requires more than some of the international schools. I do get paid more, though.
Now, you can really see what I'm saying.
The sad part is that if we as tutors and teachers are not making it known that the working class, if they are able to spare 100 baht for an hour of just simple communication skills and phonics, they should be able to. Heck, set up your condo like I did for a classroom, bring 5 Thais in and practice simple phonics for 100 baht each. You have 500 baht an hour, helping the underpaid and working class citizens.
Okay enough ranting about all that.
Disclaimer I don't have anything against teachers that don't or can't explain parts of the English language. I can't, I'd be a hypocrite. However, I do find it a little scummy if you are charging so much for an accent. You don't offer them as much as they should be getting.
Hey maybe I'm still stuck in that western 'bang for you buck' mind set? Hmm..
So, if you happen to be strolling in Thailand and need to understand the costs of living please do so! Or if you are a fellow teacher, please feel free to use this for a little bit of insight on the world of private lessons.
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