On joining 51Talk as a first-time Online English Teacher

I love English. Ever since I was a kid, studying the language can be considered as my forte. But after graduating from school and stepping out in the real world where you have to do and speak your best to get hired in a job, I realized that there is more to English than just what I learned from school.

After three years of working in the hotel industry, and after one and a half years being unemployed due to my pregnancy, and being preoccupied with taking care of my baby, I was already itching to print resumes and go out to the city to apply for a job. At this point, I had already hired a maid to take care of my baby.  But since it hasn't been a month since she started working for us, I knew that I should stay in the house for a while to check if she's good with the baby. And so, I started looking for online jobs. Looking for online jobs is not a new thing for me. In fact, I have signed up in many websites that offer online jobs even when I was pregnant. I tried Odesk and Onlinejobs.ph. The thing is that most jobs offered in these sites require experience in call centers, writing, computer programming, etc. Anyway, most of the jobs here are absolutely not for me, so I tried to look for online teaching jobs. I came across many job postings on Jobstreet.com.ph looking for online English teachers. Although some companies require the their employees to work in their offices, there were others that allow people to work in their own homes. One of them is 51Talk. 51Talk is an online English teaching school for Chinese people. Well, I decided to give it a try.

I wasn't quite sure on how things would work, since I never had any experience in teaching. Nevertheless, I passed my application and my internet connection speed test result online, and then I got a response in less than a week. I was asked to attend an interview through Skype. During the interview, I was asked some questions about myself, as usual. I was also given a test to check my English skills. After the interviewer told me that I had passed, she scheduled me for another meeting. This time, it was for a Demo Teaching session. I was quite nervous because I wasn't sure what I would do, at first. But she provided me the lesson topics that I would teach. So I figured it might be easy. In the demo teaching session, I had to call a Chinese evaluator who would pretend to be my student for that day. So I went on and used the material that was provided to me. It seemed quite easy and I passed the demo. I was really excited, since I am already in such a hurry to find a job. I was never the kind of person who would just stay home, accept and spend money that I did not earn myself. I mean, yes it's my husbands responsibility to provide for his family, but I can never accept that I am not being productive. The next thing that came was the orientation. They asked me for the date when I would like to have the orientation and the training. I learned in the orientation that, in this job, I would have to work only on the dates that I am available, and that I would get Php50 per class (class duration is just 25 minutes). So if I would like to have 8 classes per day (4 hours), that means my salary would be Php400 for that day. Not bad for a person who won't even have to leave the house. And of course, there would still be some bonuses, like the Php10 per class bonus on weekends and holidays, which means I get Php60 per class during these days, and other bonuses regarding perfect attendance, and the likes.

So I started teaching. Basically, my job is to correct the students' grammar, to teach new words, and to correct their pronunciation. I don't have to worry about making lessons, or to find a good lesson material, because it is provided in the website. In fact, when students book classes, it also means that they already chose a lesson material that will be used in the class. Well, there is also what we call a Freetalk class they can talk about whatever they like. Most students, who choose this kind of classes, are those who can already express themselves. Well, they still commit a lot of mistakes, but hey, that's what teachers are for right? Those students, who are in the basic level, usually choose lessons that  have simple vocabulary, phrases, and topics that they can easily learn and use in their daily lives. About the use of the internet in teaching, well, all I can say is that it depends on the strength of the internet connection. A weak connection is a real pain in the ass. I really hate it when I am having trouble because my student can't hear me well, or when the call suddenly gets cut short. Well, I knew that a strong internet connection, a reliable laptop/PC, and good headsets are things that I must invest on if I were serious about this job. The thing is, I bought a new Lenovo laptop. Later on, I found out that this particular model, or the new models from Lenovo, only had a single jack for the headset. There is no jack for the microphone. What happened was that even my new headsets don't work very well and I sound terrible. I usually end up unplugging my headset and conducting the class using the built in microphone on the laptop. Anyways, I could still teach and the students still learn from me, so what the heck? But I am still looking for a good headset, maybe a Bluetooth one, so that I could use it with my laptop.

All I can say is that, compared to my previous jobs as a hotel staff, I like teaching better. I can feel how my students respect me and admire me because of what I know, unlike in the other jobs where my colleagues look at me as if I were the dumbest person in the world because of the stuff that I didn't know very well. On top of that, I can stay home and still watch over my kids, and cook lunch and dinner for my family while I'm not working. Well, this is all I can come up with for now. I hope you like it.