Interview with Jemimah – How I switched from Preply to private tutoring.

In this article, we will chat with teacher Jemimah, who managed to find success leaving Preply and pursuing private tutoring instead.

When most people think of teaching, their minds will jump to traditional classroom settings. However, there are many different ways that you could connect with students and teach English to them.

You could teach in a regular classroom, you could teach groups of students for an online school, you could privately tutor students face-to-face in your local area, or you could cut out the middleman and directly tutor students online from around the world without needing an online school to help you. If you are flexible and open to trying new things, you’ll discover how many opportunities there are for teaching English. 

Jemimah’s interview:

💬 What is your name and where do you come from?

“My name is Akinyemi Funmilayo, my students call me teacher Jemimah. I come from Nigeria.“

💬 How long have you been teaching English and how did you begin?

“I started teaching English 8 years ago after I graduated from University. I got off on the right foot since I studied English Education. Immediately after my graduation, I was assigned to a school for my compulsory National youth service for a year. That was where I started my teaching career.“

💬 Do you have any teacher training/qualifications/TEFL?

“Of course! I am a trained teacher. I have a bachelor’s degree in Education. I also have my teaching licence from the federal government of Nigeria to teach both in Nigeria and abroad.

More so, I have a 120-hour TEFL certificate where I learned specific techniques to help teach the English language to non-native speakers.”

💬 When did you start teaching English online?

“I’ve been teaching online for several years now, and moved over to direct private tutoring during the pandemic started and our local schools were locked down.”

💬 Which platforms have you taught on?

“I have taught on a few platforms including Preply and Superprof, but I now mostly do private tutoring without using these kinds of platforms. Private tutoring can be more difficult at first but it allows me to choose my own materials, class times, and cut out the platform fees.”

💬 Where are your students from, what age range are they, and what do you teach them?

“At this moment in time I mostly have students from Greece and Brazil.

My students from Greece are between ages 10 -12 while my students from Brazil are slightly older – around 16 years of age. I teach various aspects of the language ranging from vocabulary, the alphabet, and pronunciation. With beginner students I’ll usually start with conversational topics – greetings and introductions, different foods, best outing experiences, etc. and then build up to more advanced topics over time.”

💬 How did you find your private tutoring students?

“There are many ways to find students. I mostly use social media platforms find most of my students on Linked In.

I’ll search for keywords like ‘online English teacher‘, ‘learn English online’ or other variants and inbox the poster directly.

You won’t always get favorable responses, so it takes some pesistence to find the right student. Whenever I do find a good students i’ll then start tutoring them through Zoom or Whatsapp. I’ll also often organise free demo classes to let students try my lessons before buying. I’ll do this by simply dropping the link to these classes on Facebook groups where interested learners can join.“

💬 It can be difficult for people to transition into private tutoring – what tips do you have for people?

“Identifying why you need to transition is the first step to achieving success.

Are you transitioning because you are looking to increase your paycheck? Do you want a more flexible teaching schedule? Do you want to teach your own materials instead of those decided by teaching platforms? Do you want to free yourself from online schools with their policies and penalties?

If you think about why you wish to move to private tutoring, it’ll help you to devise a suitable approach to acheive your  goals. No matter which reason you have, private tutoring can still be a rewarding experience, you just need to think about how you’ll approach it.

Here are some of my tips that can help:

• Develop a passion for young learners – knowledge without drive can be useless.
• Get certified with a good TESOL/TEFL certificate which also covers online teaching.
• Set up a proper workspace with the right equipment – this means a well-lit and quiet space to teach from, and a laptop with a noise-canceling headset to block background noise.
• Jump in and start searching for your first students – run ads on Google or social media platforms, boost your online presence and organise free demo classes. A combination of these will most definitely give you your first student.

The most important part is to prepare well and then put in the effort. Everything is possible if you try and learn as you go.”

💬 What is your favorite part about being a private online English tutor?

“The best part is the freedom to be my own boss. Before I transitioned into private tutoring, I had to comply with the rules of the platform. I also had to agree with the hourly pay which wasn’t fair enough for the efforts I put in. However, being a private tutor allows me to control every aspect of my business including my curriculum and hourly pay. Such liberty is priceless.“

Conclusion

Teaching English through large schools and apps like Preply, iTutor, and DaDa can make it easy to start teaching and book classes with students. However, it’s not the only way to teach English online. There are thousands, even millions, of potential English language students out there, and if you set yourself up well, you could soon build up a schedule with your own private language students.

Directly tutoring students can be more of a challenge but you’ll be able to cut out the middleman and ensure all of the money paid by students goes directly to you. You’ll also be able to work more closely with your students and tailor more meaningful lessons to help them achieve their own goals.

In order to do this, you need to ensure that you have the right training, that you prepare well, and that you search for students with a clear strategy.