CrunchWrapSupreme

I gave Outschool a look. You must reside in the US, UK, and some other English speaking countries. Presumably because you're going to be teaching those kids and need the same hours.

So I tossed it to my buddy who's back in the States, with an economics and finance background. I found there's a guy on there offering business and managing money courses for kids, who gets 100 bucks for a week course, only two classes. I said man, you could do this.

So he looked, and found that's one of the rare exceptions. He's a veteran on the site and in the field. Many of the newcomers are offering $10 classes, and getting few takers. Yeah, it's always a good idea, until it isn't.

Yes, us lowly ESL folks are the bottom feeders of the teaching world. I should've been doing this or that. But like all the other fast food workers, taxi drivers, and my family of Issan farmers, the job's there and needs to be done.

There's certainly more ambitious people out there. There's Musks, Bransons, and Bezoses, whom I guess everyone's pushed to follow similar trajectories, as we can't go a day without hearing about them in the news. But some of us are happy with just getting by, considering I've come from times when I've had it a lot worse.

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Eh i mean tempels and beaches.

I do English tutoring for Chinese, Japanese, Korean adults online. When I bring up Thailand they say they come for work or vacation. Of course I ask, so what do you do for fun? ALWAYS temples and beaches. Man they just love 'em.

2 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

And are they really "employees"?

The ridiculous new "gig economy". They're only employees when it suits them. Like now, when they need to be punished. But when they need help? Oh no, they're "independent contractors", to whom they could give a flying F.

6 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I see many online platforms with native English tutors asking (getting?) $40+/hour. If so, that gives a lot more relax time than $10!

 

To maximise one's earnings to a respectable level, $2500-3,000, an online tutor needs to be like 7-11 (not during curfew!). Hugely busy on weekends & every evening, 7 days a week, 6am to 11pm.

The platform called Preply lets you set your price. For general ESL you can start at $12-15, move toward $20 for specialized areas, and higher for test prep.

But as the name implies, it requires a lot of prep for the teacher. You've got to have your lessons ready to go, either know them or make them from scratch. You've got to give your students a plan to follow, homework, you've got to eval their progress. You've damn near gotta run a school. Haha. And they've got this ridiculous interactive teaching thing, click on this, drag that, I really don't get how the limited English speaker can grasp it.

Yeah, the hardcore online teacher will want to maximize their hours, perhaps if they plan on quitting their regular job, but I like keeping mine.

26 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

well they did publicly call their employee a terrorist

I'm being terrorized by their YouTube ads. Every damn video. Dear God. I can't even order them out here if I wanted to.

You know, the other day I got slammed on Reddit for telling this guy to get out of BKK. His tourist visa's running out, and he can't get an appt or whatever for CW. I said man, move out to Issan, I was in and out of my office in 30 mins. No other farangs. Man, you'd think I told him to change religions. Haha. But now look.

6 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Not sure about the suits; usually it's a corporate polo shirt! 

Heh, I'll try to get a screenshot. I recently saw one on one of the many YT channels covertly ogling the lovely ladies of BKK. Near a BTS station, Mr. tall Brit teacher looking dood, in suit with IELTS in hand, had his attn drawn by a new potential student. But as to who the customer will be, is unclear. ????

4 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

For IELTS/TOEFL and other exam work it's easy to find privates who will pay 1,000-2,000 an hour.

Yup. I've seen those guys strolling down Sukhumvit, wearing suits with IELTS books in hand. Congrats to them. I've also thrown such places apps, MA in Education, home teaching experience at non-profits, glowing references. But no test prep specifically. No dice. I've since decided the BKK attitude isn't for me.

Anyway, my OP was intended to steer people away from those dodgy language schools, which are the vast majority, had they been considering a second job, and to instead take up online teaching given its advantages.

35 minutes ago, zyphodb said:

316 Bht/hour is a really low rate, you should look around a bit, I'm sure you could get more...

I have, and here's what I've found:

1) Strict curriculum, planning, and set hours to follow. I've got enough work following my real job, which is now tougher as we've gone back to online, and thus I've got reports to write up. When I get home to teach it's mostly just conversational practice, and I like the flexibility.

2) Some of the more serious places I've applied to have told me sorry, we're getting flooded with apps due to Covid, or I just don't get replies at all. Though I have good qualifications and references.

Heh, I guess everyone here's making hundreds of thousands of baht a month, but I've found my total take of around 65k to be pretty damn good for living in Issan.

But thanks, I will toss that English Gang an app.

2 hours ago, simon43 said:

I get paid the equivalent of 657 baht per hour ($20 USD).  My rate is higher than teaching ESL, because I'm a scientist(!)

Man, sounds like a sweet gig. I'm but a lowly ESL teacher. But I managed to land a slightly higher than avg salary out here at an Issan govt school, and along with the boost from online teaching, I find it's quite a good take for being out here.

Another lovely BKK CL language school ad, versus what I made last month for my online tutoring. Here's the breakdown:

Lang School = 24 hrs / 12000 baht / 500 baht an hr.

Online = 60 hrs / 19000 baht / 316 baht an hr.

I teach online everyday after school for 2 hrs, and also on the weekends. Yes, I'm working more hrs than the lang school, and the hourly rate is lower. But here's what I get:

1) With online tutoring I can pick my hours, and move them around as I wish. I could take a day off, then grab more hrs another day.

2) With online tutoring I'm not teaching the entire 2 hrs I book each day. I take students as they come, typically for 15 or 30 min sessions. The rest of the time I can kick back, reading or watching YT.

3) I end up getting more money at the end of the month. I'm on one of the cheaper sites, others are making more. If I have more time to kill on the weekends, I could grab another hour or two as I wish.

4) On the other hand, the lang school expects you to teach three 2 hr classes straight. This is killer, and robs you of half your weekend.

5) On the other hand, there's all the other lang school BS. They're typically jerks. There's getting to the place with the lovely BKK commute. And most of all, the BiB would love to see you without your work permit.

Tell the lang schools to stuff it. Teach online, in the comfort of your own home. It's particularly good out here in Issan, where your baht goes further, while you kick back in the moo ban.

I'm not shilling for any particular site, there's a number of them out there. Some geared toward adults, some kids, some more structured, some less so. You'll find 'em. Cheers, fellow teachers.

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

but every time he moved she thought he was about to kill her, so she stabbed him, seems like he tried to move multiple times.

That was the LAPD's defense in the Rodney King trial, and it worked.

7 hours ago, Neeranam said:

While the Billionaires in the West race to space with a lot more than this. 

Space is the place. Humanity must venture from this planet eventually.

A space race is of great benefit to all. We realized tremendous advancement during the space race of the 60's, 70's, and 80's, driven by the Cold War. Electronics, computers, aerospace design, materials, all greatly advanced, and likely wouldn't have been if not for that motivation.

Then following the collapse of the Soviet Union, losing a rival with whom to compete, along with an economic downturn, that advancement had stagnated. The Shuttle program was obsolete, and following disasters and mishaps it had to be abandoned. It was then quite sad that America couldn't get to space by ourselves for nearly a decade, when we'd been to the moon 50 years before. That finally changed last year, with SpaceX successfully executing their Dragon Crew program.

These are exciting times once again, with this new space race. Branson's stunt was nothing new, firing spaceships from airplanes had been done by the NASA X Plane program 50 years ago. But what the billionaire playboy proved was that it can now be done privately, without massive govt programs, for a miniscule fraction of that previous budget. The same goes for Elon Musk. Some may say it's a waste, playing with his expensive toys, but it's incredible what he's done with only a fraction of what the NASA budget used to be, and at a much quicker pace.

It's unbelievable Mars is now on the horizon, after that period of stagnation. We needed some people to jumpstart things again. I believe we'll see advancement for humanity as there had been before. My students love hearing about all this as well. NASA t-shirts have become popular items in the markets. Even if they don't get to space, it def creates a few future scientists and engineers.

The BKK hi-sos are unlikely to hand over their baht to see food handed to the needy queues in Pattaya, poor Issan farmers, or have quality vaccines ordered and distributed en masse. Well, we can collect the necessary funds by selling them 9999 plates for their Ferraris. In the same vein, perhaps it takes some billionaire playboys and their competing egos to again drive an effort for humanity's benefit.

My wife and I registered for Astra at the hospital in the nearest big town, out here in the Issan sticks, not too far from Korat. This consisted of us writing our names, phone numbers, and passport/ID card number on a paper on a clipboard, with about 6 other poor farmer looking types at 8 am. I was told we'd be called in about two weeks. My coworkers already got theirs.

My God. First the French, now the Canadians. While us "Leaders of the Free World" are being told to fly home to get jabbed. We've sure got egg on our faces.

8 hours ago, Walker88 said:

Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates

And Richard Branson on his new spaceship, swooping right down from 282000 feet. They shall market AGGRESSIVELY for only the HIGHEST quality, VIP tourists. Spaceships, astronauts. The sky's the LIMIT. After all, we've got some real SPACE CADETS at the TAT.

59 minutes ago, Card said:

Notice that the masses reacted only after they watched 1 guy hold the culprit.

No different than my M1 (7th grade) students. One finally decides to act out in the group, then they all do. Kids.

Buys a lot of vaccines.

If it takes some silly number plates to elicit some compassion from the hi-sos for the rest of their people, so be it.

2 hours ago, calbts2 said:

Contrast that with US expats who are required to file taxes from abroad every year

Every year I must remind Uncle Sam of my modest teaching salary for my student loans. I just love that monthly payment.

This office is indeed one of the worst.

Just look at their huge waiting area outside. They're overloaded with migrant workers from neighboring countries, expat workers, teachers from the intl schools, and retirees. Inside you'll see plaques stating "something donated by this school or that factory". That's how they operate. Should your employer be one of those who does that, you're in and out. If they don't, expect your paperwork to drag and drag, as it has for me and former colleagues.

I've watched them hassle retirees for income docs, making them run back to the bank. They've got us on rental contracts and other landlord docs, having them redone two or three times, for names or signatures in the wrong places. The usual suspects are the young, female IO's with something to prove, or a bone to pick against all these foreigners in her country, or whatever.

I've seen them yell and point at some date in a passport going "Ah, so you're on overstay?", when it's some other date, not a visa date. Pointless posturing. I'm extremely happy to have put hundreds of kms between me and that place.

When I got back out here to Issan, I was in and out of my imm office in less than 30 mins. Change of address, Non-B, 90 day.

Years ago, when I was a lonely young man, the Philippine dating sites were a godsend. The ladies I talked to were all well within legal age. I've always had a thing for older women. They're a lot more neglected too. We built ongoing, long distance relationships, and for just kicking them a few bucks here and there, to recharge their phones and buy some groceries, we er, satisfied each other's needs. A lot cheaper than this OnlyFans thing the kids are into these days.

On 4/24/2021 at 2:30 PM, VocalNeal said:

 

So Granny in the village with an old Nokia phone will be SOL?

A team of health workers in uniforms came to our Issan moo ban a couple of months ago, and we're a bit remote. They urged the old folks to get jabbed because of their higher risk. Heh, the first question the old folks asked is, which jab is it? They were told Sinovac. They refused.

What they didn't tell the old folks though, is that if they were to go to the nearest big town's hospital, Sinovac and Astra jabs are available. My coworkers all got Astra jabs, and I'm waiting for mine.

Certainly lends credence to the theory that someone's pushing the Chinese jab, for some reason. As that poor engineering student found out, who's going to jail over that Wikipedia edit.

There was a post on Reddit about this about a week ago. There was a condo raid, checking passports, and they said the whole thing seemed fishy. Another guy said he was shaken down by a guy in a brown uniform, but that it looked a bit off. He was next to a bunch of win drivers when it happened, who all said they'd never seen this guy before. They all laughed at him, and he walked away.