Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Welcome to Smashing English!
Before we start this video, be sure to subscribe because I make new videos all
the time and I don't want you to miss any! So with that said, let's get on with the video.
Okay, so today's video is going to be a little bit different. If you follow this channel,
you know that most of the time I post videos to help you learn English and if you are here for
that, today's video will be a great chance for you to practice your listening comprehension.
What I want to talk to you about today is my experience on this website:
iTalki. If you are an english learner or a learner of any language, you might have come
across this website before. Now currently, I am a teacher on iTalki, I teach English.
But I'm also a student on iTalki, and I learn french on there. It's a crazy world we live in.
So I just want to tell you a little bit about my experience both as a student and a teacher.
So I'll start off by telling you about my experience as a student. If you only care
about my experience as a teacher, skip to this part of the video where I will talk about that...
Just give you some time to skip if you want... no? Still here? Let's talk. So I learned French in
high school and, like a lot of languages in high school, I didn't remember a lot of it. So when
lockdown happened, I thought, 'how can I spend my time wisely?' So I decided to learn some more
French. So of course I started with Duolingo, with grammar books, with reading materials,
watching Youtube videos like you're watching right now. But I realised that my main problem
was speaking and I wasn't improving my speaking by reading Harry Potter in French, it wasn't
really helping me. So I found a French teacher on iTalki and honestly I have nothing bad to say.
Now the good thing about iTalki is there are so many teachers to choose from, you can really take
your time to find the perfect teacher for you. You know, there may be a teacher with 12 million
qualifications and so much experience but you might not click with that teacher
as much as you would someone who has no experience no qualifications. But something just clicks there
so you can make the choice and find the perfect teacher for you which I really like.
A good thing about iTalki is most teachers offer a trial lesson which is normally cheaper than their
normal rate. So I've seen teachers that charge six dollars an hour but i've also seen teachers
that charge thirty dollars an hour so if you see a teacher that you think, 'Oh I like them but
I don't want to spend 15 for an hour lesson just in case we don't click,' You can choose a trial
lesson which are normally half an hour and they're normally a lot cheaper. In terms of how much
iTalki has helped me with my language journey, you know that it's no surprise that babies
learn languages so easily it's because they're talking it and they're trying and they're making
sounds and they're making sentences. So iTalki is exactly that, you're talking the language with a
native person who will say don't say that we don't say that, here say it like this instead. So for me
personally, I feel like I've really improved since I started taking lessons in April because I'm
speaking, I'm talking. It forces me to actually really try and make sentences rather than just
reading a book in French and going, 'yeah I get it now,' Don't get me wrong, it's scary!
The first lesson I had with a French teacher, I was so nervous that when the lesson ended I cried.
I was so stressed out and it just took so much of my energy to be like I don't know what she's
saying, this is crazy, that when it was finished the relief just made me cry. So I understand it's
super scary to go one-to-one with a native speaker and speak in a language that you're not used to.
But trust me, the teachers are your friends, they want you to do well, they're not going to judge
you if you make a mistake, that's what you're there for! It's good to make mistakes. That's
the only way that we learn! So from a student point of view I can't fault iTalki really. I
think if you're a dead beginner, if you're really just starting to learn a language,
you might find it tricky. Especially if you speak to a native speaker who doesn't speak your native
language. So I would suggest having a bit of a base knowledge of the language before you go to
iTalki, so just being able to make some simple sentences and understand some important words
that you might need. I would suggest being at that level before you try iTalki, it'll just make it
easier, I think. Okay moving on to my experience as a teacher! Okay, so before we get started,
I think it's important to say that iTalki is not my employer. I don't work for iTalki. I think
a lot of people think that, you know, iTalki is a company and the teachers work for them.
It's not like that, it's like an online forum where teachers can advertise themselves
and students can find you. iTalki provide the platform for finding students and finding teachers
and because they provide that platform they take a commission from your pay. So iTalki currently
charges 15% of your rate, so if you are a teacher and your lesson is 10 pound an hour, iTalki will
take 15 percent of that before they pay it to you. For me, I think this is worth it, because i would
never have found any of these students without iTalki, you know? If I just started a teaching
business, I don't know how I would have found any students. So because of how easy it is
to advertise yourself and to find students, I think personally the 15% commission is worth it.
So because iTalki is really just a platform, it makes every teacher's experience very different
and I think your success on iTalki depends on a few different things. So, there are two teacher
types on iTalki. You can be a professional teacher or a community tutor. Now, a community tutor
means you can teach without a proper teaching qualification so as long as you have a degree
you can teach on iTalki. But a professional teacher, you need to have some kind of teaching
qualification and teaching experience. Now luckily, I managed to become a professional
teacher in April. Now, I believe it's a lot harder to become a professional teacher and I think the
qualifications that I have, if I had that now and tried to become a professional teacher they
would say, "oh sorry that's not enough." So I have a TEFL and five years teaching experience,
that's what I've got and I became a professional teacher with that. My partner, he has the exact
same qualifications as me but he has been trying to upgrade to a professional teacher for the past
four months and they keep saying that because there are a lot of teachers on the forum now
(because of the lockdown I'm guessing) they are not prioritising people with just a TEFL,
so you have to have a bit more in order to get up to that professional level. Now the difference
between a professional and a community tutor can be quite big because when students try to find
a teacher on iTalki they might click a little button that says just professional teachers,
I just want to see professional teachers. So all the community tutors get filtered out,
so that means that I as a professional teacher get a lot of traffic because people are
constantly seeing me in the searches, However my partner, because he's a community tutor,
he doesn't get quite as much traffic even though he has the same qualifications as me.
So obviously if me and my partner worked in a school we would be paid the same rate,
you know because we have the same qualifications and whatnot. So that's where it gets a little bit
tricky, I think it just depends on timing and I think I was quite lucky that I joined quite early
on in the pandemic, whereas now I think because a lot of people have maybe lost their jobs or
are doing very different things, they want to work from home, there's been a bit of a surge in
teachers on iTalki. So it's a bit harder to become a professional teacher now. But I do think it is
still worth it if you want to be a community tutor because my partner is still a community tutor but
he is getting booked up really really well and I think it's because he has a good video. You know,
it's so important to have a really good teacher video, I think that does wonders and also because
he is a good teacher, so he's keeping his students and slowly he is able to increase his price so
that he's getting more money because obviously professional teachers can charge a little bit more
than community tutors because it feels like you're getting more money's worth. But he is slowly being
able to increase his price just because he's proving himself as a good teacher so it's still
worth it even if you start at community tutor level. In terms of support and help from iTalki
i'd say they always reply which is good! I have had to deal with them once because I received
one inappropriate message. Now I've been on iTalki since April and I've only received one
inappropriate message so that's quite good going, I think, considering it's a forum open to people
all over the world. So when I had this inappropriate message, I sent it to iTalki
and said this person should be off the website and they replied within about two days and said
thank you we'll take care of it. So they are prompt with their support. In terms of the pay,
this is where it gets very specific for every teacher. So I started my iTalki journey charging
seven pound an hour, which is below the minimum wage in the UK and not a great wage.
So I started at seven pound an hour and they often they recommend for you to do this, they say in
order to build up your student base try to start at a low rate. So I started at seven pound an hour
and then slowly I just built up and built up and built up and it just depends on demand. You know,
if you have a good video, if you have the qualifications, if you have good reviews,
if you're able to keep your students, all of those things will mean that you can increase
your price. It's like giving yourself a pay rise which, is what I quite like about this job,
you know you can look at your bookings and if you think I'm getting booked up loads,
so many people are booking me, then you can just, you know, treat yourself to a little 30p
rise or something. So it's a slow burner, you will not start iTalki and be BAM I'm in the money!
But you have the potential to build up to that and then it's sort of limitless really. Like I say,
I've seen teachers charging 29, 30 an hour, so it's possible. I do not charge that much,
can I just say? And I don't think I ever will. So, if you're looking for a reliable quick income,
I don't think it's right for you, I think it's better to find some kind of online school where
they have contracts and much more reliable hours. I personally prefer the flexibility of iTalki and
I can live with the thought of 'oh maybe one week I will get 30 pounds less or something,' I can
live with that because I love the flexibility and I love the fact that I don't have a boss, I don't
have anyone to report to, I can just do what I want, you know? It's up to me how I teach,
what I teach, when I teach and that for me is worth the unpredictability of it. But I think,
you know, once you've been at it for about two or three months it becomes
quite reliable and predictable, like I can very comfortably open my hours from Monday to Friday,
nine to five and I know they will get booked up. So it's like having a normal job but
with the flexibility of being able to choose whenever you work. So everyone's experience is
very different but that's my personal experience. I'm now on about 16 pound an hour which is
great for me, that's perfect for what I want to do and what I want to be buying but that did take me
about eight months to get up to that that rate. And in terms of the work itself, I love it! Like
I say, I don't have a boss, I don't have things that I need to follow, I love the freedom of it.
I'm not very good with authority, though, so I think that's where that comes from.
But if you're someone who wants to try it, I would say get a TEFL or some kind of teaching
qualification. I did mine online, it cost me about 30 pounds and I did it in about three months.
Get yourself a teaching qualification and just try it, you never know it could become
you know a full-time job which is for me now, it's now my full-time job. So there you are,
that is my experience on iTalki as a student and a teacher. If you would like a lesson with me,
I'll leave the link for that down below and also down below will be the link to my partner's iTalki
if I'm fully booked. So hopefully I'll see you in a lesson! If you have any questions for me about
iTalki, put them in the comments and I will reply. This video wasn't sponsored by iTalki at all,
I just wanted to talk about it. And if you want to follow me on Instagram it's there, so you
can follow me there if you want. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time, tata!