Actually Teaching on Preply

I mentioned this teaching site and app before, but getting an account and getting classes actually happening takes a little bit of work.

One of the benefits of Preply is unlike some online teaching gigs, teachers can set their own prices. Some other companies force the rate as low as twelve dollars an hour.

Theoretically, you can make much more than that per hour on Preply, but first you have to get enough people into your classes and giving you positive reviews.

I had set up my account months ago and left my going rate at $30 an hour, which in my mind was equal to the three thousand yen it usually costs for one hour of English teaching in my area. In reality, that should have been $20, but even that price probably wouldn't have helped.

At the beginning of this year, a sudden shock to my livelihood left me a little more desperate so I dropped my rate to $10 an hour and I waited.

It turns out that students can set their budget before they search, so if they only want to pay $10 an hour, they'll only see people who have set that rate or cheaper.

As I expected, there was more interest in my profile, but most seemed to come from the app itself, sending my notifications any time someone viewed my profile, encouraging me to contact them and ask about their English goals.

Out of seven of these notifications, I responded to the app and sent inquiries to five, received responses on three of those, and actually landed one student. 

What I didn't realize until later is that students are encouraged to take a preliminary exam to see what their levels are and these results can be seen by the teacher but only on the website as viewed on a PC. Their mobile app and website as viewed on a mobile browser will only shunt you into the classroom waiting area to sit alone until class starts.

This student seems happy with our current progress and even wrote a review. I will mention my plan to increase my rates a little in the coming months, but only after we've had a few more classes together.

In addition, I had one very strange interaction on the app. Someone sent me a message asking if I could help them with their English. I asked what about their English they wanted help with. They responded by asking if I wanted to take their class and learn English from them. I don't know if this is just a confused person or some bizarre scam, but I stopped responding after explaining that I wasn't interested in taking lessons from them and was confused by what they had said at the beginning. They responded twice. I'm not going to bother reading them.

I don't know if I like Preply, but it is work