New Passions

It has been a while since I’ve had the chance to take a few moments and update this portion of my website, as life has been a bit hectic. Sharing languages with others has always been a passion of mine.

In the past year and a half I stumbled upon a company called VIPKid. VIPKid is a company based in Beijing China that allows students to take classes in an online setting with a native speaker of English who is usually located in the United States or Canada. I have began to use this as a way to supplement my income, and honestly it has been a game changer for my family.

In addition to teaching Spanish at my brick and mortar job, I am able to share my passion of language learning with students across the globe in China. We meet in an online classroom (think something along the lines of Zoom or Skype), and engage in a 25 minute interactive English lesson.

For language teachers VIPKid is a little bit different than what we are used to. In America we learn about Comprehensible Input (CI), but the Chinese model calls for forced student output and frequent correction of errors. It is not simply enough for the student to be comprehensible to a sympathetic listener. They are striving for perfection! This, and the fact that I am operating on Beijing time for my side hustle took a little time to get used to, but there are several things I love about this company.

1. Mostly importantly, I adore most of my students. They are a younger group than what I work with at my brick and mortar high school. My students range between the ages of 5 and 16 for the most part. The vast majority of them are between 5 and 11. The passion for learning, excitement of exploring a new language, and the creative imaginations that these young people bring to class is both refreshing and encouraging.
2. The ability to work from home. I often teach in a t-shirt, some basketball shorts, and occasionally my slippers depending on the temperature in my office area.
3. The pay! The pay is amazing! A class is 25 minutes long. For that class I receive $8.50, plus $1 for showing up, and an extra $1 per class if I teach more than 45 classes in a month which is always. Essentially I am making $21 an hour to sit at my computer on the weekends and during breaks from school, in addition to other incentives that the company is running.

All that you currently need to work for this company is a bachelor’s degree and some experience working with kids, preferably in teaching. If this is something you might be interested in, please reach out to me, or check out my link by going to this link.