English Teacher

http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/atoz.asp?cat=204&id=327

I think the rates can vary based on number of years of experience as well - I get paid more than that because I have over 8 years of experience actually teaching in high schools and 6 years of teaching privately. My education also helps (I have Masters in teaching and a degree in English literature from two prestigious universities.) Depending on those things you can charge more.


Don't assume local parents won't pay - I had quite a few local students REALLY struggling with their Shakespeare and other literature work - and their parents were more than happy to send them to me.


I worked from home - so I started by advertising in my building, (highlighting any strong selling points - years of experience, degrees, specialities) and then word of mouth is your best friend...if you are a great teacher, the word spreads pretty quickly. If teaching writing is a strength, this generally goes over very well - as many parents feel that the overall writing standard in HK, regardless of school, is actually not as rigorous as it could be.

Do the high schools do a lot of different types of essay writing, creative writing? How do you mean the writing standard may not be as rigorous as it might be? Grammar, style, all of the above?

If this is to believed... look at the first advert on this site:

www.on9class.com

notyou -


I only mean that in a class of 30 students, teachers tend not to assign as many essays or written assignments as they might - the grading does get INCREDIBLY burdensome. (I used to be a high school teacher - one essay assignment translated in 120+ papers I had to grade.) So - generally, teachers tend to slow work papers - lots of draft process, brainstorming, peer review, and then producing a final written produce over an extended period of time. This does ensure generally good quality of work from the students. BUT, it also means that students in a year only produce a couple of major pieces a year.


With a private instructor, currently, my students in a year complete generally 8-9 "major" pieces that they work on over a year. These also go through draft processes and whatnot - but I can make the process faster - and they get extra attention on their weaknesses, which is not something that all classroom teachers can provide, no matter how much they would like to.


Practice is the key to good writing - grammar, style, essay writing and creative writing all require practice for improvement to occur. They just don't get as much practice in schools. Parents know this, and if they want to see major improvement, it is often their thought that they need to hire a private teacher.


Many students in HK do struggle with good writing - and that's why I had a huge number of students who sought me out specifically for that reason.