Gringo.Floripa: It ain't worth it if you already have multiple successful businesses like you have. Nothing is a free lunch, and they've only mentioned a few of the headaches here.

The last group of people I had were highly advanced speakers that I was practising with and in total, they put about R$ 500/month in my pocket, and I worked with them for 1 hour a week. Even still, 1 hour per week (2-3 if you include preparation) isn't worth it.

The secretary saw me yesterday and said there are lots of people coming in looking for me, but I don't want to do it anymore. I'm just burned out from dealing with lazy people and making lessons. (I don't like the online lessons I've seen). I've already told people, if they want to practise, just play tennis with me and I'll speak English the whole time.




Edited by spongebob - 25 January 2012 at 08:02

Originally posted by spongebob hpeak: how in the heck can someone in BH charge that? BH isn't a cheap city to live in. Maybe he rents and office and sticks people in groups like a course. Otherwise, he's probably running himself into the ground going everywhere for little money.

I have no idea how he managed...if he was working 40hrs per week he would only clear 1080 per week, not counting bus fare and expenses. Any time I did a class at r35 I made sure there were 2 classes after it or it was at say 11am or 2pm which were generally slow times. But, r27 all day long I just don't understand. If I recall correctly he lived in Prado, but I ran into him in centro quite a bit.

Originally posted by Gringo.Floripa My statement was based on the premise of what this other guy supposedly does:  R$50-60 per hour, simply for conversation, with the requirement the conversations be held at a bar!  Sounds like a no-can-lose situation to me!  Although, the headache you mention, might be a valid concern... the next morning.

I don't know if anyone does this -- sure, a course can be 100% conversation -- but usually you start noticing errors and then you have to try to fix those errors. It's the same for all Brazilians I have seen. I think that the Brazilian teachers/instructors who just don't give a sh*t have the right idea. They just go and listen to the students, they don't correct them, and talk in Portuguese, yet the still collect the money! And the majority never learns a thing!

Having a course doesn't sound all that bad because you can just pay other people to teach the lazy people, but then you have to deal with employees, taxes, and all the headaches associated with that. Maybe 3caxaças (too funny, hp) can enlighten us. After all, she said that she's emitindo notas, so she must have at least the structure set up.





Edited by spongebob - 25 January 2012 at 10:39

Originally posted by spongebob Having a course doesn't sound all that bad because you can just pay other people to teach the lazy people, but then you have to deal with employees, taxes, and all the headaches associated with that. Maybe 3caxaças (too funny, hp) can enlighten us. After all, she said that she's emitindo notas, so she must have at least the structure set up.

Mmmmm, 3 cachaças, i could go for that right about now.....

Anyone who's worked with a school (or run a business) knows that it's just a different type of headache, not a headache removed, to have other people do it for you.  Coordinators, etc, to be honest anything dealing with people gives me a migraine.
To be honest my structure is set up for translation, which is what I am trying to get the hell away from teaching to do.  I can emit notas for trans or teaching, and that's where my notas come from.  It's not Micro Individual (which I wish I could do, b/c you pay very little, you needn't have a contador, and now the limit is higher than it used to be) because translation and consulting doesn't fit under the MEI.

My solution is i don't teach the lazy people.  If students are lazy, rude, etc or don't show up, I drop them.  Not rudely, but just a fact - if I don't enjoy it, I make better money translating, and it's not doing me any favors teaching.  I mostly keep my hand in the massa because I work exclusively with companies, and showing my face in the office makes it easy for them to answer the question "oh, whomever will we hire to translate this into English?  oh right, the american woman who comes here to teach the boss."
A given: took me some time to build up the network and to start getting referrals from people who were recommending me.  And I regularly set limits and say no: no kids, no college students, nobody who is not a professional.  No in-home classes unless I have gotten to know them, and everyone has to have a reference.

ETA: but unlike class-in-the-bar guy, my folks do homework.  they write, and they do grammar drills.  these folks are coming to me because they're motivated, most of them with a big friggin chicote right behind them (travel, bosses, reports, etc) and they need someone to get them moving, correct them, and not only explain why, but to make it so that THEY can explain why.  There are no conversation classes, everything is structured, and we use books.  I use many different ones, am not a huge fan of many of them, but i have no need to re-invent the wheel, despite how many times people have suggested I write my own (I have written one book, but it is about teacher training, not teaching.  There are already too damn many English books out there.).  And there is some good stuff online, but who has the time to research for every class when good texts already exist?
Anyway, I've been doing this long enough to match group needs with the texts that are out there.  I recently started a group of engineers with a text from U Chicago, if i'm not mistaken, that is decades old, written to get foreign grad students fluent in English ASAP.  It is all drills, and it's a bear.  They have studied for years, but now they need to TALK.  In a few weeks they will be talking, guaranteed.  Another group uses no-text picture books (Lexicarry, if anyone is taking notes). 


Edited by 3casas - 25 January 2012 at 19:34

it's called Rapid Review of English Grammar, go look on English tips dot org if it's still up with all this silliness.