Thread: Part Time Pay

Do language schools in Bangkok usually start you out part time, or is it just a bad time to be looking for full time work in these places?On a related note, what is a fair wage for part time teaching? Is 350/hour too low to start with?

They usually hire part time to start then give you full time if they really like you and need full timers. As far as I know most language centres hire few full timers. I wouldn't work for 350B, but then again I'm not you. You have to tell me about yourself first. Are you experienced? Do you have a teaching certificate? Do you have masters or PHD in English? How old are you? How do you look? How's your personality? Are you charismatic? Also it depends on how much you want to work. If you want less than 20 hrs per week you can be more picky. But if you want 30+ hours per week you might have to accept 400B or less as most language centres start you off with few hours and then increase you load as you gain their trust. And it's very difficult to juggle 5+ workplaces at the same time.

Totally agree with MD. Language schools always start you off part-time to test you out. After they get feedback from the students after your first few classes you will find your hours cut or you will have more classes than you can handle. Think of it as a 1 or 2 week probation.
Get thorough introductions from your students to judge why they are studying English, then structure your lessons around that the best you can. A group of young higschool kids will probably just want to have to fun so play games, older highschool kids might be preparing to study abroad or take univerisity entrance exams in English, customer service staff may be forced to take English lessons from their company, young professionals (engineers, doctors, etc) may study English to move up in their career. Basically give the students what they want, have a sense of humor, be friendly and not too serious and you can win over any class.

Personally I wouldn't work for less than 600B/hr in BKK. Places that pay less 400B/hr are just looking for the cheapest monkeys they can find and will treat you accordingly.

Man, I could never do that shit right. I always wound up teaching for free or in exchange of house cleaning. I hated teaching private students.

You can't make money from poor people. I think there's an old adage for that, I don't remember how it went...

Originally Posted by Farad

Personally I wouldn't work for less than 600B/hr in BKK. Places that pay less 400B/hr are just looking for the cheapest monkeys they can find and will treat you accordingly.

I'm just not seeing those rates from language schools. Obviously, I haven't been here that long, though. One school I went to yesterday pays 500B/hr, another pays 450B/hr. Is that considered a "cheap monkey" wage? I do want to work full time, though, and I'm hoping it doesn't take long to get a position with a monthly salary. Hopefully I'm not expecting too much in that regard. Is 600B/hr a realistic wage for a new hire in Bangkok? I've got a degree but no TEFL certificate. I do have experience teaching, but not several years. Full-time positions at the school I interviewed with yesterday are paid 45,000B/month. I figure that would be a decent wage, no?

Originally Posted by fred flintstone

350 sucks but its a foot in the door and gets you experience and lets you make some contacts...one thing leads to another
what other options do you have?

Well I don't have a lot of other options at the moment. I want to start earning an income as soon as possible. I've only been here 2 weeks, but it seems k-12 schools won't be hiring much until October break. I worked in that type of school last year in Honduras, and to be honest, I was hoping to do language school work instead. Maybe just something other than the middle school age would be okay, but I was not happy in my job last year with 6 classes of 30 kids each everyday. My issue is with the lack of full-time positions available. I will work on part time wages, but I would like some kind of hope of a full time position thereafter. Is that expecting too much?

Thanks for the responses.

The rates depend a lot on where you work. BKK is more expensive but offers more schools and better money. I taught last year at private language schools in Patong, Phuket for 250 and 300B/h.
I also had private students and charged 400 to 500B/h, depending on how many hours and how far to travel. Even at these relatively low rates some people answering my ads didn't call back. Look at it this way: only three hours a week, Mo/Wed/Fri = 1,500B x 4 = 6,000B a month = a lot of money for many Thais!
If you teach privately you have to lay down some rules. Money up front for a week or more. A lesson has to be cancelled the day before, then no charge (you lose time). Cancellation same day or no show = lesson gets charged. Of course you have to play it by ear or you lose your student.
The private language schools would not pay a monthly salary, they only paid lessons taught, which could be between 2 and 8 hours a day. I had to give it up because there was less and less demand. The tourist season didn't really happen and that could be felt everywhere.

OP, I would go for the part time job at the language school. As other posters have mentioned, Bangkok is where the jobs are, and a variety of areas to live in, many of which are affordable. The positives of a language school are that the course start and end on specific dates, usually a six week cycle, then you get all new students after that.

Also, language schools often get corporate classes in the evenings and these are a real pleasure to teach. Once you have your foot in the door as a prt time teacher, you will most likely get either weekend students or evening students, and it could also happen that a full time teacher will leave and you can then get into a full time position.

I really enjoyed working for a language school when I did. For me it was a bit different, but I had started with one teaching corporate classes two evenings a week along with working at a private parathormone school. I was having problems at the parathormone school and I talked to the owner of the language school, asking if there was a full time position available.

They had just hired a full time teacher, helped him to find a place to love, drove him everywhere to get his paperwork done, and as soon as he was scheduled to teach, he ditched them. So they called me to come in for the full time teaching position in October. If I hadn't asked, I wouldn't have got the full time position.

No problem. Good luck.

If you've a degree + CELTA + 2 years ESL teaching experience, British Council are hiring full time staff at the moment.