"Money's no problem... you are family!"

hs0zfe wrote:

There's the owner of a tiny rural language center who keeps begging me to come and "help" his center.
He lacks students and couldn't afford to pay anyone even $ 3 an hour, JMHO. 

Is it customary to lie about such matters? Just wondering.

His English is really bad (but that's not stopping him from teaching at his own center, I mean living room). When questioned, he said what I've posted as the subject line. Q: What's he thinking?!

Bad English is almost a requirement to start a " home " school I think.
The owner of one of the schools I work for , nailed me down to a per student, per month, fee, but when the parents renege on the payments , she thinks she doesn't have to pay me either, sometimes it gets down to $4 per hour, ( 4 x 2 hr classes , usually about 6 --12 students per class ). This came to a head, when I found out she was also building a new house?????

I, and my business partners, simply provide 1-on-1 English language training on a No Charge basis. Up to two hours each session.

It is best to have someone in the premises (your home?) to make sure no funny business happens. I use a camera (without telling the student) for the first one or two sessions. Especially with students of the opposite sex. None of our students can be under 16.

We also let the local children use our idle/unneeded office computers in the evening and for some periods on the weekend (we work 24/7). No games allowed!

We transmit WiFi for children living around our office and homes.

I might be a little old fashioned, but not everything should need be done for money, especially from people poorer, much poorer, than yourself.

" I might be a little old fashioned, but not everything should need be done for money, especially from people "poorer, much poorer, than yourself.[/quote',
  While I admire your generosity , I'm not quite sure how many people will take that, as many Ex Pats are not as well off as you Jaitch.
In the last 3 yrs, I've become the poor neighbour in my old farming commune. The people I meet, who are, " much poorer, than me, " definitely haven't got time to learn English for instance.

I've had a few students that I have taught for free, and even then they are so unreliable, usually late, not even having the decency to call when they can't make it.  Some people you just can't help.
And when I do have private paying students, ( even rich ones ), I charge a lot less, than what I normally get paid.

hs0zfe wrote:

Q: What's he thinking?!

He might be confused between doing a business and a charity work. That's all

virgoks wrote:

He might be confused between doing a business and a charity work. That's all.

Money I rarely give away, and teaching isn't charity. it's helping people in return for them letting YOU share their country. (And the lower cost of living) One other thing, I never give away anything that is manufactured by me, or my services I sell.

One of my students landed a job, due to his English skills, paying VND6.5-million + OT/month. This is more income that his two parents and his brother earned  in total/month. And all it cost me was loss of leisure time. He has now been short listed for a VND15-million job in Japan.

bluenz wrote:

I've had a few students that I have taught for free, and even then they are so unreliable, usually late, not even having the decency to call when they can't make it.  Some people you just can't help.

I have a few rules for my students. (1) Always arrive within 10 minutes of appointment; (2) Confirm instruction time the day before; (3) All students are given three strikes and the fourth is termination.

My time is valuable and if the student doesn't confirm, the slot is given to another student. Free doesn't mean it has no value.

Jaitch wrote:

bluenz wrote:

I've had a few students that I have taught for free, and even then they are so unreliable, usually late, not even having the decency to call when they can't make it.  Some people you just can't help.

I have a few rules for my students. (1) Always arrive within 10 minutes of appointment; (2) Confirm instruction time the day before; (3) All students are given three strikes and the fourth is termination.

My time is valuable and if the student doesn't confirm, the slot is given to another student. Free doesn't mean it has no value.

Yes, how true this is, but because many VN think that ALL Foreigners are filthy rich, and have nothing to do all day, some try to take advantage of this, and many find out the hard way ,of the true value of non material things.

bluenz wrote:

hs0zfe wrote:

There's the owner of a tiny rural language center who keeps begging me to come and "help" his center.
He lacks students and couldn't afford to pay anyone even $ 3 an hour, JMHO. 

Is it customary to lie about such matters? Just wondering.

His English is really bad (but that's not stopping him from teaching at his own center, I mean living room). When questioned, he said what I've posted as the subject line. Q: What's he thinking?!

Bad English is almost a requirement to start a " home " school I think.
The owner of one of the schools I work for , nailed me down to a per student, per month, fee, but when the parents renege on the payments , she thinks she doesn't have to pay me either, sometimes it gets down to $4 per hour, ( 4 x 2 hr classes , usually about 6 --12 students per class ). This came to a head, when I found out she was also building a new house?????

Scots and Irish welcome

Jaitch wrote:

bluenz wrote:

I've had a few students that I have taught for free, and even then they are so unreliable, usually late, not even having the decency to call when they can't make it.  Some people you just can't help.

I have a few rules for my students. (1) Always arrive within 10 minutes of appointment; (2) Confirm instruction time the day before; (3) All students are given three strikes and the fourth is termination.

My time is valuable and if the student doesn't confirm, the slot is given to another student. Free doesn't mean it has no value.

Is your name Jesus?

That language center is high up in the mountains in Son La province.

The owner was posing as "the manager", referring to "the owner" when asked about the salary. But he guaranteed $ 1,000.

*My help would be limited to Skype lessns.
* I urged him to drop the GRAMMAR ONLY approach. (Why hire a dog and bar yourself?)
* His wife's English is much bettr and she is good wth children. But he claims the parents would nt allow their children to be taughtby a kindrgarten teacher.
* The owner may be a lecturer at a small university, but I doubt he would get a TOEIC core of even 220.
* It's sressful, having him sit in and mispronoune words, confusing the kids.

"Go away and let me do the job" would be too rude to say? OTOH, I doubt the man s actually  l i s t e n i n g  to anthing anyoe says to him. 

Him choosig vocabulary and grmmar stuf his teenage class already  k  o w s  and can do => this will cost him dearly in the long run. These teenagers have broadband at home. Let them s p e a k and drop te heavy grammar approach!
*********

While I coudn't stay for a year or sig the contract (requring the payment of a deposit of 1 M Dong in cae of somehow failing in y duties), I offered him practical help:

a) to build a website with WIX
b) Skype lessons @ $ 2 payable after students report al went well
c) Honest feedback and help with an honest ad for the job. Somene might take it @ $ 200 with free room & board and use of anoriginal Honda Dream.

Nice location - beautiful views from those mountains! Wonder if the 'natural steam' bath is still operating on the side of the road to Dien Bien Phu?

Ask him how he learnt Vietnamese - not from a book! Start them reading VN English newspapers, and things will will be better than some crap English story book featuring 'Helen Keller'.

Better to drop the grammar.

" While I couldn't stay for a year or sign the contract (requiring the payment of a deposit of 1 M Dong in case of somehow failing in y duties), I offered him practical help "
Wow, never heard of that before????

I've had a few VN Teachers assistants in my classes before, ( 1 was a Uni English Teacher , Mastered in Eng ), I simply told her to please not repeat the words after me, ( I could see the look on the students confused faces:), that is what I was there for.
I try not to have any Viet in my classroom, ( think in English, talk in English ), but of course there will always be things that need to be translated, if the students can read, I try and use Google translate, I like it when THEY correct Mr Goggle.

When we lived in Q2 last year a couple of neighbours asked me if I could help their kids with English. I agreed, because I had quite a bit of spare time then.

I set up the dining room as a class room and made sure that one of the kids parents would be there throughout, my wife also present (gossiping with the parent). The pupils were two girls, one aged 6 and one aged 9.

After initial shyness, the 9 year olds English took off like a rocket and by the time we left Q2, she was able to hold limited conversations in English, to a fairly good standard.

The 6 year old was somewhat different. She wanted to learn, but she would be half asleep, yawning and barely paying attention. Her English improved but it was an uphill struggle for both of us. Her parents would have her knock on the door at 21:00 hours to ask for a lesson, until I put my foot down and told them I would not accept her coming after 19:00 hours - and according to a plan.

All of the tuition I did was for free and I enjoyed it immensely, especially seeing the 9 year old progressing rapidly.

The downside was that we started getting parents knocking at our door asking if they could bring their kids along too. Some of them were openly annoyed when we said no, we just don't have the facilities or time to take on more. A frequent comment was "well just put another chair at the table and my kid can join in." It wasn't easy to explain to them that you cant really teach kids of widely differing ages and abilities at the same time.

I dont do it now as I am too busy. But there is a real need for good quality English teaching here.

eodmatt wrote:

But there is a real need for good quality English teaching here.

I guess that explains why the HCM school board has hired Filipinos to teach English!

Nothing is free 
Of course 'money' is the problem!

charmavietnam wrote:

Nothing is free 
Of course 'money' is the problem!

Another 'brilliant' contribution to the discussion.

Jaitch wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

But there is a real need for good quality English teaching here.

I guess that explains why the HCM school board has hired Filipinos to teach English!

If they are Qualified English teachers, ( who probably know more about the English language, than most Native English Speakers in VN, myself included, my memory isn't that good ), then I don't see them being employed as a problem, most VN's want an American accent anyway, ( it's usually up to the parents anyway ).
  The Uni here in QN, and the " elite " high school, still don't have Native English teachers.
There was some Adults doing some sort of test at my school today, during our break, they came over and asked us the answers to some of the questions, that's when I asked if they were VN English teachers, sure enough , they were, ( Must be the same cheats AP was talking about a few months back? ), the other Foreign English teacher I was talking with, couldn't even answer  many of the questions correctly,

" A frequent comment was "well just put another chair at the table and my kid can join in." It wasn't easy to explain to them that you cant really teach kids of widely differing ages and abilities at the same time."
  Right on Eodmatt, I wish I could get that through the head of one of my schools owner, she is constantly bringing in new students, many with no exposure to English whatsoever, ( some as old as 10 yrs ). And then there's the parents who want their kids to just be able to speak English, and not worry about reading or writing it????