WAYS TO EARN MONEY ONLINE – TEACHING ENGLISH, PALFISH

WAYS TO EARN MONEY ONLINE – TEACHING ENGLISH, PALFISH

Last year I went on a full time travel trip. During this time we spent 6 months exploring South East Asia, just before the money started to run out. We ended up getting jobs and moving to China to teach English. As much as we loved this, it didn’t give us the luxury to travel and see more of the world at the same time.

A great way to earn money online is by teaching English! Most companies require you to be from a native English speaking country (some companies are really cracking down on this!), a form of TEFL, a degree, or a teaching qualification. I personally am from an English speaking country (England), my 120 hours TEFL, and a degree.

In the past few months, I have been teaching online for a company called Palfish. I interviewed for several different online teaching companies, and this is the one I managed to get a job with.

I have to admit, some of the interview processes are quite hard if you’re new to teaching. Some of them make you go through scenarios, or do a maths/english test, or something against the time. A lot of companies only want teachers from Canada or the USA, so I only found a few companies that would accept people from the UK.

Palfish Logo

Palfish

I found out about Palfish through a friend, so applied immediately.

PalFish has three main types of teachers:

1. General PalFish Teachers (those who teach Free Talk and Live Streaming)

2. PalFish Official Kids Course Teachers (has stricter hiring requirements, see below)

3. PalFish Philippines Course Teachers (open to Filipino English teachers)

Palfish Class Types

Free Talk and Live Streaming

• • teach to multiple students in a free-form live stream

  • 1-on-1 classes with no curriculum or time commitment restraints
  • Require no qualifications from teachers, and can be open to non-native English speakers, and allows you to set your own rate

    PalFish Official Kids Course

    • 1-on-1 children’s classes using the PalFish official course material

    • No lesson planning, no talking to parents, no correcting homework

    • Can earn up to $22 USD/hour

      PalFish Philippines Course

      • Same as the Official Kids Course, but is open to teachers from the Philippines

Teaching on Palfish

Palfish interview process

You must enter your basic details before the interview, and if you pass the basics, you will be invited to an interview. Please note, all information will be through the app, you don’t get any external notifications via email or SMS.

When you book an interview you will be given a time slot. This interview won’t be with a real person, it is a slot where you complete your demo class. There will be a picture of a student, and you will just have to act like you have heard a response from the student.

You can head into the interview as many times as you want, to make sure you practise going through the slides, filters and content. Make sure you go in before to check it out.

Tips for interview:

• Print off a few colourful posters including your name and the Palfish logo for your background
• Have a blue shirt – try and aim for a royal blue colour
• Enter the interview a few minutes before, the timer will count down before the lesson starts. Try and aim for at least 20 minutes and do not exceed 30 minutes.
• When you try to exit, the app may warn you that you will not get paid unless you stay for a full 25 minutes. This is only for real classes AFTER you are hired. As long as you teach for at least 15 minutes for this Interview, you will be fine.
• Get an idea of where all the filters you will need. You most likely will be doing the hello monkey trial, so the fish, cat, dog, and monkey filter are the ones you want to note.
• Get a few props to use, the company love the idea of extra props, movement, and sounds.
• Introduce yourself! Show them your background before you start teaching.
• Enjoy it!

You will usually be notified after 2 days, but it might be delayed over a weekend or a holiday. Just check out the app.

If you pass your interview, you will then need to pass a quick quiz. It is a quick 20 minute quiz, just make sure you read the handbook before you do it.

Once you have passed all of these steps, you will be asked what times you can make. Note – these will be automatically opened for you. I passed and my slots were already opened and some booked – luckily I was free when they had been booked!! You can close these whenever you want, as long as they’re not booked.

Palfish teacher

Earning

You are paid in Chinese Yuan, but once it is added to your account, it is converted to GBP or USD. Recently they have changed the way you earn, and how much you get paid for trials/lessons.

Each trial earns you 55 yuan, and if you use the level up point system (5 levels), you can earn higher amounts for your lessons. Palfish often run competitions to earn points, and bonuses. If you teach over 40 lessons a month, with no cancellations, you also earn a 200 yuan bonus! You receive points from teaching, referrals, students cancellations and perfect attendance.

So it’s small and steady processes, but it does keep an income coming in!

Palfish points

Pros

• You can pick and choose your hours. This is the one thing I loved about it, is that you have freedom over your hours. A lot other companies ask you to do a certain amount of hours a week and specific day. Whilst with Palfish, you just open up which slots you do/don’t want.
• One to one – nearly all the classes are one to one, sometimes you might get two children in your class, but the small number really is effective for teaching.
• Payment is regular, and always around the same time of the month.
• The Palfish courseware is extremely fun, interactive and colourful. You are provided all the content, there is games, songs, and interactive stages for the students.
• Palfish is done from your phone or ipad. So you can teach on the go, it is so handy, just prop your phone up and off you go.
• The more you teach/level up, the higher your pay is for lessons. I really like the idea that it is continued each month, so it’s a small reward system for you.

Cons

• It can be hard to get started. You start with maybe 1-2 trials a week, and sometimes this doesn’t pick up, sometimes it does. You can have good and bad weeks with getting booked.
• There is big competition with marketing yourself. It’s almost like social media. This is the way you get students and trials. You need to really make the effort with posting moments, doing lives, commenting on the reading app, and making sure you’re getting yourself out there. Not everyone has time to do this, I certainly don’t.
• You can’t use it on a computer or laptop
• Sometimes you an go into Palfish prison – if you cancel a class, you can lose a lot of points, and get fined. Then you don’t get many bookings for a while.

Teaching on Palfish

For me, I know I will continue to work for Palfish, and really hope it is a way to keep earning money whilst travelling. It’s a decent amount to bring in to the bank, and will help the travels to continue. I really have enjoyed working for Palfish as it is so easy and convenient to use. I just hope my hours continue and my classes continue!

Looking at signing up? Click this link here to get started. I would really appreciate it if you put my code in – 43025023 (I do get a bonus if you are successful)