How much should I charge?

[Cyberus]

Guys and gals,
As some of you may know, I am an English teacher by trade, that is to say an 'EFL teacher', someone who teaches English as a foreign language.
I have been looking for employment for the last 6 months, have considered going abroad to live and work, but with a mixture of lack of experience for a particular job or lack of enthusiasm, I have sat getting further into debt, and more depressed about my situation as the days roll by.

But! I think I have found the job for me - telephone teaching! I have contacted a French company that have basically offered to employ me, but have asked how much I would charge for a 25 min telephone lesson, including costs. The thing is, I want to earn as much as possible, so I don't want to sell myself short and quote too small amount, but on the other hand I don't want to ask for too much and not get any work.

So, is there anyone here who could do me a sneaky favour and email the company asking how much they charge for lessons? That way I could pitch my costs right :-D

Also, if say, they charge, I dunno, 60 Euros an hour, how much of that would a company typically take, any ideas?

I'd really really appreciate any help from you guys, this will (hopefully) be a life-changing moment for me!

Thanks in advance,
Adam

[x56h34]

Also, if say, they charge, I dunno, 60 Euros an hour, how much of that would a company typically take, any ideas?

I'm learning proper English from you as we speak. :-)

[bloodline]

Quick Cyberus!!! Send him an invoice ;-)

[Doobrey]

vite, quelqu'un lui donnent une chaussette  :-)


Erm, getting back OT..
 It might be worth asking how many hours a week you could expect to be working, and work it out from there.
 You gotta set a higher rate for being self employed, cos you never know exactly when you`re gonna be working.

[cecilia]

Doobrey wrote:
vite, quelqu'un lui donnent une chaussette  :-)

une chaussette

shouldn't this company tell you what the percentage of thier cut is? I mean, i wouldn't work with them if they didn't want to say!

are they the only company that does this service? If not I'd find out what the others are doing.

[McNorris]

That is what I had planned to do with my Linguistics degree till I got really burned out on Linguistics (and maybe school in general). I think English is a better major for those wanting to teach EFL (Or ESL as it is called here (English as a Second Language)).

Good luck to you!

I don't know about France, but in Seoul, ROK one can exspect $30000-$40000 (USD) a year to start. In some cases w/ room and board are provided, especially if working for a University. Understand the pay is similar in Taipei, ROC. And bigger cities in Japan I have heard pay more (I don't have many friends from Japan so I don't really know). The futher into the country-side you go, the better the pay, and (as with all country-sides) the more mellow the lifestyle. Seoul is great. Friendly people, good food (if you like Korean food), tons of stuff going on ALL the time, and BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. It's like NYC without as much crime.

I would plan on working hard in ROK or ROC, but I would anyway. I'll tell you one thing up front. South Korea and Taiwan have a six day work week. Saturday is an informal dress, a sort of "easy" day. The school systems in both are pretty rigid, but they usaully go easy on Westerners that teach. They want fluency above all (actually more like native English speakers). And, at least in ROK, they tend to Lean toward Americans and Britons (though you will still meet Aussies and Canadians).

Hope this helps in some capacity. :-)

[Cyberus]

Hey, you studied linguistics? Cool!

Anyway, she asked me to quote costs, a couple of firends suggested asking for 25 Euro for 25 mins, she wrote back and said that she would be expecting to pay me half that...

SO I didn't get the job, despite the fact that I said I'd be willing to discuss the rate further.
Doh!

[cecilia]

if there was no interest in negotiating, it means she is only interested in ripping off someone willing to do the job for nothing.

you are better off.

[bloodline]

Cyberus wrote:
Hey, you studied linguistics? Cool!

Anyway, she asked me to quote costs, a couple of firends suggested asking for 25 Euro for 25 mins, she wrote back and said that she would be expecting to pay me half that...

SO I didn't get the job, despite the fact that I said I'd be willing to discuss the rate further.
Doh!

€25 for 25 min does seem a bit steep to me... Though I know nothing about how this works.

I would have thought that it should be between £15 and £20 per hour...

[Doobrey]

bloodline wrote:
€25 for 25 min does seem a bit steep to me... Though I know nothing about how this works.

Depends how many hours a week they offer him, if it`s not the equivalent to a full time job then it doesn`t seem that bad to me.