Since this site focuses on people who primarily aim to make money online, or at least to a large degree if I'm not mistaken, I hope to be able to point the way for people who are interested in working as language tutors online. I will discuss how I got into it, the pros and cons, and what to do if you want to get started. I will be splitting this into more than one publication so it doesn't get too ranty. I think this post will be more about what led up to me becoming an oh so trendy digital nomad, even though I'm not doing much "nomadding" at the moment.
First of all, I do have a background in education. Don't let this dissuade you if you don't, there are ways around that which I will discuss later. I moved to Spain when I was 16 and started teaching English in summer camps, as well as cash in hand tuition for kids of parents who were excited to have a cheap alternative to sending their child to a pricey academy. So glam.
At the age of 20, I decided to quit journalism and head back to Landaaan to get a degree in Education with English Language and Community Development. The uni I went to was not anywhere near as good, but I applied myself (after partying a bit too much in the first year) and got good grades. After all, it was my second hack at uni, and in something I actually found interesting, even if I had some truly shitty lecturers who seemed to think their purpose in life was converting us all to Marxism and Atheism rather than actually teaching us the subject at hand. That's another post for another day though!
Fast forward a few years and boom, I had a nice degree and now it was time to get a full time job. Well that was a wake up call. The part time jobs I had held during my studies weren't enough hours a week to continue if I wanted to live without claiming benefits. After 6 years of university education under my belt, I wasn't going to accept that. I had worked hard, and I wanted it to actually pay off.
I tried 2 different jobs, the first being an assistant project manager for a Spanish civil engineering firm. 3000 euros a month with some nice perks was great money considering I had just graduated and was working in a job completely unrelated to anything I had ever done before. They weren't the most professional people unfortunately, so I had to move on. The next job was being an assistant site manager through an agency, and it truly depressed me. It was quite tedious and boring, and I didn't see that line of work going anywhere. After almost having an altercation with some burly bricklayers, and nothing being done about it, I walked. Assurances were given and when I went back and saw them still there, I literally packed my things and left. This was the first time I had ever quit a job and boy did it feel good!
It didn't take me long to find a new job, between 2 weeks and a month if I remember correctly. I decided to go back to what I knew, which was working with young people and education, so I became a teaching assistant! I absolutely loved this job and have so many good memories from it. It's like being a teacher, minus all the onerous parts. However, I just wasn't satisfied. I wanted more.
I was giving China a lot of thought, but decided to be sensible (when does any good ever come of that) and get a PGCE first. What a mistake that was. After months of being ravaged by working days of arriving at school at 8, leaving at around the same time in the evening and still having more to do, I was falling apart. I love teaching, working with young people is fun, and I have a passion for languages, but I had no life. The salary wasn't worth it, and I just felt like I was surrounded by moaning Minnies all day. Square peg in a round hole syndrome kicked in and I really regretted not taking a job offer I had from China. 16 hours a week for about the same money as 16 hours in less than 2 days? Yes please. Why the fuck WOULD I choose to crucify myself for months a time in a mostly thankless job, ready to be pounced on by parents, and generally an industry that places little value on those running it.
So I quit. Technically, I took a leave of absence, but I knew I would never be returning to that life.
That's when things started to get interesting. Unfortunately, the friend of a friend very sadly passed away in a surfing accident in Bali. He was only in his early 20's, but he at least died doing what he loved. In that very moment talking with my friend, I thought to myself "If I died tomorrow could I say the same thing about my own life?" We carried on speaking and he threw it at me, "Mate, you've been speaking about travelling for ages, why don't you just book a ticket and go?" I knew he was right. I ended up buying a ticket one way to the Philippines there and then. Before I went away I was doing food deliveries for Deliveroo and then Uber EATS on my road bike, saving up extra money before I went away. I trialled and got accepted as a chef but was only offered part time. I did a charity cycle through France with some of the friends of Cam, the young man who at such a young age died, but inspired me to get off my comfy sofa in suburban outer London and do something interesting with myself. I spent three weeks with them, fully loaded with camping gear, and helped towards the few thousand pounds collected for a charity to install water pipes in a war torn part of Kenya.
Now I'm in the Philippines. Teaching online is providing me the means to stay here and enjoy my life. Not only that, it will ultimately enable me to start doing my own independent community development work. And this is all made possible by logging onto the internet and doing what I love.
In part 2, I will be discussing how to get started in online teaching. Stay tuned!![]