Online ESL Teacher for Palfish
Summary(Review): Palfish has its own interactive app to teach a wide variety of subjects from phonics to TOEFL, to IELTS. It is recommended that you have a TEFL certification or an equivalent. You as a teacher can set your own rate. The typical rate that teachers set is $12.4-$17.04 per hour with some teachers charging as high as $20 or more. You do not have to be a native teacher to join Palfish as a regular teacher, but you still need to meet their standards. They are currently on a hiring push for teachers who can join their program for teaching children. For this program, you must be a native English teacher. We have a full guide for teaching at Palfish and a compiled review.
Read this comprehensive application guide for Palfish.
Job Overview for Online ESL Teacher
Pay Rate per Hour:
Minimum: $10
Maximum: $30
Class Size:
one-on-one
Student Ages:
Preschool (age 3-5)
Elementary & Junior (age 5-15)
High School & College Prep (age 15-18)
Adult (age 18+)
Class Schedule:
Early Morning (6am-9am)
Morning (9am-12pm)
Afternoon (12pm-3pm)
Late Afternoon (3pm-6pm)
Evening (6pm-9pm)
Night (9pm-12am)
Late Night (12am-3am)
Job Details for Online ESL Teacher
Accent(s):
Native North American
Native UK
Native Australian/New Zealand
Native Ireland
Native South Africa
Non-Native Neutral
Philippines
Degree Required:
Bachelor or above
Certification:
Yes
Years Experience:
Min Hours Week:
4
Internet Speed(Mbps):
Min Uploading: 4 MB/s
Min Downloading: 12 MB/s
Oakary works closely with Palfish and many schools. We help you land a job quicker and smoother by submitting one application and match you with MULTIPLE Teaching Jobs based on your teaching preferences and qualifications, and assisting you with the interview process and communication with the recruiters..
Online ESL Teacher Job Description
- Hourly Rate:
- Base pay: $12.4-$17.04 per hour + incentives per hour
- Student Age Group: mainly age 3-12 and adult
- Class Size: One-on-one
- Class Length: Official Palfish course is 25 minutes or lesson by the minute
- The number of Class Session per week: N/A
- Class Schedule (Beijing time):
- Peak Mon – Fri: 5:30pm – 9pm
- Peak Sat-Sun 9 am – 9 pm
- Off-Peak 24/7
Set Your Own Rates
Pay is on a monthly basis with a minimum payout of RMB 200, which is not too hard to reach. PalFish has a minimal weekly commitment of 4 hours. The company takes a 20% commission, but you can set your own pay rate per minute in the “Me” settings page in the app. Then the earning is measured by the length of the lesson you delivered. As a result, it gives you great flexibility in terms of earning potential if you’re a great teacher! They recommend Payoneer for international payout instead of PayPal. There are two types of teachers on PalFish, official ones or regular ones. The official ones can perform the same teaching as regular ones but also have scheduled classes, which give them better stability and predictability in terms of the class arrangement.
Live Streaming
PalFish has something very different from other platforms, the live streaming feature. It allows teachers to broadcast to a large group of audiences instead of one-on-one or small group (2~6 students) teaching. It gives teachers opportunities to build up reputation and publicity quickly and dramatically increase your potential earning with no limit to the number of participants theoretically. Others can also reply to the video recording for a price.
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How to get help applying to Palfish
Comprehensive Palfish guide
After clicking the link, enter your phone number on the screen:
After you enter your phone number and hit the submit button the app will download. Install the app:
After the Palfish App is installed you will enter your phone number again:
You will be sent a verification code. Enter the code:
Next, you will upload a picture, choose your sex, create a username, and create a password:
Now you need to fill in your profile information:
Read our guide for the next steps. As long as you followed the steps above we will contact you to help you out. Look for our messages:
See you on Palfish!
Regular vs. Official Course Palfish Teacher
Be a Palfish Teacher
Job Requirements for Regular Palfish teacher
- Fluent in English
- Both native and non-native teachers. Prefer UK/US/Canada/Australia
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Creative and energetic
- Passionate about students English
Recommended but not required
- Experience in English teaching
- Holding English teaching certificate( e.g. TEFL)*
Payment
- You are able to set your own rate. Palfish does not influence your decision at all.
- For one-to-one class, the average pay rate is approximately $10-18 per hour. However, there are teachers charging more than $30 per hour and still quite popular. Note: This is what they advertise, but teachers have reported much lower pay.
- All payments are made through wire transfer to a Chinese bank account or through Payoneer.
Notes
- Teachers from non-English speaking countries are also encouraged to apply. Palfish does not have any preference with regard to nationality for this position.
- This position is currently open.
Become a PalFish Official Course teacher – Special Program
PalFish Official Course is a special kind of PalFish Lesson, being organized and publicized by PalFish. PalFish sets the tuition rate and provides teachers with class slides, and with full support with daily issues.
Step by Step Intro to Applying for PalFish Official Kids Course by Palfish
Job Requirements of a PalFish Official Course teacher
1. Have experience in teaching students under 12, passionate and creative (for courses under 12 years old only)
2. Able to go online from about 6-9 pm, Beijing Time
3. Hold a certificate in English Teaching (TEFL or other certificates). If you do not have one then you have to promise to get one within a few months.
4. Native English speaker from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand
If you want further details about the program then check out our Palfish guide.
Class Structure
The student bodies are mainly focused on the children’s English education, but also plenty of adult lessons in demand, which you can find many college students or young professionals sharing photos and be posting on the thread. With the “Start Tutoring” feature by PalFish, it gives you great flexibility to teach anytime and anywhere if you’re looking for something without scheduling and teach whenever you’re available. Furthermore, the class length is flexible, since the rate is calculated per min instead of a fixed schedule. Except that there is a kids’ course, which is 25 min per session.
Teaching Materials
Colorful and well-designed storybooks and games are designed to enrich the learning experience for younger students. However, as you can tell from the varieties of the audience on the thread, students are range from kindergarten kids to adults who are eager to improve their English language ability. This might require you to be creative and flexible in terms of the teaching styles. The class is taught via mobile smartphone on iOS or Android, NO computer is required.
Online ESL Teacher Job Requirements
- Minimal weekly commitment: 3.5 hours
- Have experience in teaching kids English as a second language
- Have a neutral and clear accent
- Teaching certificate holder, at least 120-hour training time (e.g. TEFL, TESOL, CELTA, etc).
- Can be online for more than 10 hours per week (between 6-9pm Beijing Time)
- Preferably major in education
- Native Speaker with a neutral accent （Europe, Australia, NZ, South Africa, North and South America all accepted）
Preferred Qualifications
- Teaching experience preferred
Technical Requirements
- Compatible iOS/Android phone or tablet
- English lesson will be delivered via Palfish iOS/Android app
Online ESL Teacher Salary and Compensation
Payment
- One-on-one class ($12 – $14 per hour) Seminar class (17$ – 40$ per hour) Teacher has the right to set the price.
- All payments are made through wire transfer to a Chinese bank account or through Payoneer.
How to Apply to Online ESL Teacher?
Oakary works closely with Palfish and many schools. We help you land a job quicker and smoother by submitting one application and match you with MULTIPLE Teaching Jobs based on your teaching preferences and qualifications, and assisting you with the interview process and communication with the recruiters..
Online ESL Teacher Interview Process & Tips
Get hired with this Comprehensive Palfish application guide
Company Information for Palfish
PalFish is an online English education company based in Beijing and launched in 2015. Palfish has a series of English teaching products, including PalFish English, PalFish Reading, and PalFish Kid, which have accumulated over 10 million users. Among them, over 100 thousand are paying users. With the products as the core, PalFish empowers content, teachers, and students through product improvement so as to allow students to achieve a better learning result. For years, PalFish continuously introduces high-quality educational resources in the world to provide users with a large amount of interesting learning content and maximizes student’s learning efficiency through product iteration and big data analysis.
Founded in 2015. HQ in Beijing China. 京ICP备15041723号-2 京ICP证B2-20170036.
Online ESL Teacher Reviews
Palfish is one of the top paying ESL teaching companies.
~~~PalFish = I am not a formal teacher with them (because I chose DaDa in their place..they want 6p-9p for “formal teachers”), but I do make myself available and set my won rates (about $20/hour) to do what is essentially free talk lessons. I have times students can schedule classes, but for the most part I just sign on and “make myself available” and people call. Most of the time they just want to talk in English or ask me about my life, so if you’re not shy and don’t mind sharing personal details, students will love you and you get paid for audio-only calls (occasionally I turn on the camera, but I’m usually doing something else and tend to leave it off. Students understand).
I have been scouring the web for over a year, applying for some jobs, and not bothering with others.
My situation is very specific. I need to satisfy the following criteria:
Flexible hours
Good pay rate (minimum wage in Australia is $14 USD per hour), as I have six kids to feed
A slow internet connection is acceptable
No locked schedule
Straight off the bat, most schools fail on one or more points. That’s why PalFish works so well for me.
However, there are SO MANY features on the PalFish platform, that it works for anyone – including non-native speakers (assuming they have a TEFL-equivalent qualification and decent English).
YES, you heard correctly. Non-native teachers are WELCOME! My best mate from Russia even teaches Russian and English on PalFish. I have encountered some very popular teachers from Serbia, the Americas, Holland and pretty much anywhere.
PalFish is MUCH more than just a teaching platform. There are multiple ways you can make money, and I mean LOTS of money if you’re clever.
The most standard way to earn on PalFish is to simply be online and turn on “Start Tutoring”. This works fine if your per-minute rate isn’t too high, or if you’ve already got a ton of followers who love you and want to talk to you.
But, let’s delve a little deeper and discuss each monetised feature.
SETTING UP
Once you download the app, get verified and are ready to tutor, you need to attract some followers. It’s a bit like Facebook or YouTube, where you need to post “Moments” (more about that soon) in order to showcase the kind of person you are. It’s kinda like advertising.
You need to decide how much to charge per minute (in Chinese Yuan – ¥). Start low until you are in high demand. If your rate is low enough, you will immediately get callers.
Now you need to decide when you’re available for students to book lessons or Freetalk sessions with you. Set your schedule in half-hour blocks. You can change these WHENEVER and HOWEVER OFTEN you want, without penalty – as long as nobody has booked a slot. I LOVE this kind of freedom.
Note, however, that if students book lessons with you, there need to be enough slots available so that they can schedule their lesson.
FREETALK
This is the standard way to make money. Basically, you are online waiting for students to call. Nothing new here, lots of apps have this feature. However, keep in mind that PalFish is probably THE biggest app in China. There are literally millions of students using this app, so you’ve probably got a higher chance of finding students.
LIVE
Everyone on PalFish will tell you that doing regular FREE LIVE lessons is a must. This is true, as lots of students join a free live lesson to check you out. If they like you, they “Follow” you, meaning that every time you update your “Moments” (which is like your Facebook feed) they get a notification.
Getting yourself in front of students is key to getting bookings for Freetalk and for your Lessons and Seminars.
Once you are confident in presenting live shows, you can make paid live shows that you think are valuable enough for people to buy.
HINT: Make them cheap or nobody will buy it. So a ¥2 30-minute live lesson might sound too cheap, but if 20 students enrol, you’ve just made ¥40.
I have seen GOOD and BAD examples of Live lessons. I’m guilty of doing bad/hopeful ones, trying to charge too much before having enough followers and without doing enough FREE live shows.
I’ve seen popular teachers doing ¥5 shows with 300+ students (do the maths!)
The BRILLIANT thing about live lessons is that once it’s over, it stays on PalFish where additional students can pay the enrolment fee to watch the replay. So a good Live will continue to pay royalties.
During a live show, people can type their questions, but not talk audibly.
Other features include:
Pay to ask: You can set a fee to answer students questions. If you answer the question, you are paid. If you don’t get around to it, the student keeps their money.
Donations: Just like Twitch, Patreon etc, students can send you a donation (yes, even during a free live). Don’t forget to say Thank You!
Note: If you do not want to run the app on your Android or iOS you can use a browser version of the Live class platform. This makes using your PC or MAC to conduct a Live lesson possible (and much more versatile).
LESSONS
Here is where you can get creative and sell niche lessons on any topic your imagination can concoct. You upload the slides/photos for your lesson, set the price, write a catchy blurb about your course and start selling.
Your lesson undergoes a screening process, but as long as it’s not terribly bad, it should pass. From there, you share your lessons with your followers and in other groups and try to sell it.
A point of difference about lessons is that they stay active, meaning you can sell, resell and sell again! You have an option to restrict “one per student”, which is useful if it’s a discounted lesson, or not the kind of material you’d teach twice to the same student.
SEMINARS
This is a somewhat new feature that allows you to conduct a seminar for your nominated fee. These are unique in the way that your seminar is like a group class, with up to 6 students – each being able to speak, write on the whiteboard and interact.
The seminar is set up and scheduled for a certain date. If one student joins the seminar, you are committed to running that lesson. More students can join that lesson, up to a maximum of six students (so ultimately, you want all six spots filled, so you can get a maximum return).
This means, if you have a ¥25 seminar that lasts 25 minutes and 4 students join, you make ¥100 for running that seminar. Not bad!
OFFICIAL TEACHERS
PalFish is hiring Official teachers. You can apply through the app and organise an interview and demo class.
There are huge benefits for being an official teacher, in that they really promote you, send the students your way, give you lots of trial students and provide all the course material.
There is a tiered payment system where the more 25 min classes you teach, the more you are paid per hour. The base rate is ¥50 per 25 min class, PLUS an extra ¥5 if you are on time to class (i.e. ¥55 per class, or ¥110 per hour).
You will also get a nifty PalFish T-shirt at some point (I don’t know when, since I’m not an official teacher).
MOMENTS
As mentioned earlier, Moments is like your Facebook feed. Keep adding your news, video blogs etc to your feed in order to get students interacting with you and following you. This is your key to attracting them to your future Live events, lessons and knowing when you’re online for a Freetalk session.
ABOUT STUDENTS
What kind of teaching method you choose will influence the kind of students you get. With the advent of their Official Teachers, PalFish is focusing on young learners, so the bulk of those young students will choose official PalFish courses.
However, parents still may find non-official teachers, especially if you have lessons that interest their child.
On the other hand, there is a huge population of teen/adult learners on PalFish, and these guys are more likely to use Freetalk, Live lessons and Seminars. They will pick and choose lessons that grab their attention, and Freetalk with teachers that are cool and interesting.
Like most Chinese platforms, students are usually online during the peak period, Beijing time, and this is the recommended time to be online. However, there’s a possibility adults will call at any time, so keeping yourself online will give you a higher chance of catching a student who’s browsing the teacher list.
SUMMARY
I’m super impressed with this professional app. I’ve watched it grow over the past year and it’s blowing competition out of the water (I’ve tried PopOn, Nicetalk and others).
If you have time to promote yourself, build a following and maybe even become an official teacher, you can make a good wage.
Clever entrepreneurs can even make a small fortune.
There is so much more to the app, and more being developed with every new release.
There is a referral program, so if you refer other teachers or students, you are awarded ¥20 when they join. For that reason, I hope you will use the following link if you decide PalFish is for you. This is my affiliate link.
I am a Palfish teacher now thanks to your guide! It was very helpful and thanks for the messages when I signed up. It was nice to have someone help me through the process.
Awesome and glad we could help!
This sounds fabulous and so interactive! Love the idea!
It is a rather cool concept. Just follow the instructions in this guide https://oetjobs.com/guide-for-working-at-palfish/. You will get a message from us on the app. We send you a message in case you need a little extra help. Most teachers are fine with just using the guide to get them going. Good luck!
Hibthere, I followed the guide BUT I’m stuck with the picture book recording. How does it work.exactly? Thank you for the help!
Hey, I know you :). Haha you got through it and I just saw that you are a teacher now. Will chat with you on the app for your next question.
Hi,guys! I am also having trouble with the picture book part of the application. My profile is almost set up. Can you please help? I can’t find it on other guides and videos. Thanks heaps!
That is a difficult part of the application. The book is small and it is hard to read the text as you go through it. Just read the text and have it record you. Swipe to get a new page. Hope that helps!
I would like to know if non native English speakers get paid by yuan and not dollars?
Hi, i wanted to ask that if an Asian or non native apply or if not than are there any other platforms
All teachers will be paid in Yuan, but Payoneer will convert to USD for you. Of course, there’s a small fee associate per transaction.