Studying whilst privately tutoring - bad idea or just..no?

[nazreal]

Hello everyone!

I'm hopefully going to study Chinese at Tsinghua this Sept 2010 (I've completed my reg but am yet to hear more from the uni as I didn't realise you were supposed to bung a load of cash in the post with your paper documents...oh well! waiting from an email from them...)

and basically, I'm wondering what the consensus is on privately tutoring English whilst being a student. Obviously there will be issues what with a student visa, however, I don't want to register with an agency (is that even out there?!) so I was thinking of pinning up an ad *somewhere* (you can see I've thought this through..!) and do like an hour or two tutoring every week....

I'm currently an English teacher anyway (not the EAL kind mind you - hopefully it won't be an issue) so I'd ideally like to tutor students studying English lit or language is fine too....

Any comments/suggestions would be great - thanks!

nazreal

[JenniferW]

You're going to face a lot of competition - from Chinese students (undergraduate and postgraduate level) who are English majors, as well as from other native speakers (teachers as well as students), plus the expectation that you will do this as a 'language exchange' rather than as something you get paid for.

[crisgee]

It isn't supposed to be allowed but it's largely ignored. Even private tutorial schools employ foreign students. And they prefer caucasians too.

[nazreal]

Oh really?

Dude ok....as I was thinking either that or getting some paid work academic proof-reading and/or (possibly most of it will be) copy-editing.

Also, interestingly, my being Chinese but an overseas one at that, may work against me in this case. Bizarrely I'm a Chinese English teacher (luckily none of my students give me funny looks! And I teach in a properly ghetto state comprehensive but I'm hoping this shouldn't be a hindrance - more an advantage? oh well....we'll see - thanks for the advice!

[crisgee]

Being Chinese -- might be a disadvantage in some cases especially if you're teaching kids. I tried applying for a teaching position in a school (that's when i found out they prefered caucasians) and the boss told me that even their own American-born Chinese teacher got discriminated against by the parents. They complain about their kids not having a white teacher. That's why they let that teacher go. Well, what can you do.

Don't know about schools that specialize in adult education though.

Edited April 11, 2010 at 04:16 PM by crisgee

[Brian US]

I'm currently at BLCU and every native English student in my classes have done teaching on the side at some point. I have never personally heard of issues teaching part time with a student visa.

I don't think there is any competition with Chinese students if you are a native speaker going for 150+ kuai jobs. My American born Chinese friend has been turned down several times (specifically for not being white), but I'm sure a simple pay cut at a desperate school wouldn't be a problem. If I stay in the library long enough I will always get a request for language partner, so posting an ad will bring immediate contacts.

[engrafted]

That's how I'm putting myself through school out here. Study all day, teach all night and all weekends. No time for play.

It's not a problem if you just don't make a lot of noise about it.

I even hand out business cards... But they don't say anything about teaching.