Teaching young Chinese kids bad english and other fun tricks
I am making a post two days in a row……….there must be something in the water. Of course there’s something in the water, we are in China after all. One of the easiest ways for English speaking people to make money in China is to tutor. You can go through a service who hires you out to people (yes it does sound a bit like prostitution) or you can put up a flyer advertising your services (yes this sounds a bit like prostitution too). Of course, I didn’t do either. I was walking back to my room after breakfast one day and a lady stopped me and asked if I spoke English. At first, I just thought she needed someone to translate but she asked if I would be willing to tutor. This wasn’t a hard question to answer because I know the money tutors make. Her next question to me “Which country am I from” and when I said USA, her response “Oh Good.” See the Chinese really do like us. At first, I thought there would be only one student but when I showed up later in the day, the one student had grown to three students. I am not complaining because I really like the three children. My preconceived notion was the children would be very well behaved but in typical kid fashion, they were bouncing off the walls. I think children are all the same around the world and it’s only when we become adults things change (maybe kids should run things for a change). Most tutor sessions are for an hour to two hours long and pay is pretty good by Chinese standards. I tutor the three children twice weekly and paid 400 rmb. Normally, you can live off of 400 rmb in a week (excluding rent, utilities, phone) and have money left over. The more students you tutor the more money you can make. Because we are in school, I did not want to work more than twice weekly. With all the boring information out of the way, I would like to introduce to the world GoGo, Tony, and Alice. GoGo is the comedian of the bunch and has a really good heart. Tony is the brain of the but has a tendency to be an instigator. Then there is Alice……poor sweet Alice. She takes a lot from the two boys so I try to help her give it back to them. Alice is quiet and a bit shy but lets go every once in a while. Just so you know which kid is which, they always sit in the same seat, from the left it’s GoGo, Tony, and Alice. I am really glad I got to have this experience and will really miss the kids when I am back in the US. If you plan to be in China for any length of time and have a few hours to spare on a weekly basis, my suggestion is to tutor. Oh yeah, don’t forward this to the IRS, they don’t like it when people make money.