Interview: Online Teaching On Preply

Marina is one of my advanced English students that I tutor on the platform Preply. She is 25 and holds a master’s degree in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. When she isn’t practising her English in my class, she is teaching. She has experience in the Spanish education system, but more recently she has been able to teach entirely on Preply. This independent work has become her full-time job. I decided to interview Marina to discuss the practicalities and nature of working online and on Preply in particular. If you are curious about online work, or are considering trying it out for yourself, this interview might prove helpful.

 

But more generally, a huge space is beginning to open within the world of online teaching. Now more than ever students can take control of their learning. They can seek out tutors and use new technologies to transform their educational experience. Such transformation may change the face of traditional education. Now educators have an incredible reach that is not limited to local geography. I believe the popularity of Preply, and newly emerging platforms demonstrate this. I hope to investigate many of these newer platforms in future posts. 

 

The Interview:

 

Could you give readers a quick introduction to you and your educational background? 

 

My name is Marina. I’m 25 years old and I’m from Spain. I studied Spanish Philology and then I did a master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. When I finished my studies, I started teaching Spanish online. Nowadays, I only work on Preply. Before starting online, I taught Spanish literature and syntax to teenagers for three years. I believe this experience helped me to work independently.

How many students do you teach per day?

 

I usually teach 5 or 6 students per day. Monday to Wednesday are my busy days where I teach 6 students but from Thursday onwards I usually teach around 4/5 students per day. Currently, I have a total of 20 students. 

 

What does an average day look like for an online teacher?

 

Every day I start my lessons at around 10 o’clock. Usually, I work from 10 – 2 and then take a break. In the evening I start back at 4 and normally finish at 8. My days are very organised and I have a consistent schedule which I’m able to create for myself. 

 

Yes, I think it’s good that preply allows you to select your availability. You don’t have to be free to teach all of the time.

 

Do you ever get bored of being at home? How do you deal with that?

 

It depends on the day. Most of the time I feel I’m lucky because I’m able to work from home and be independent. I’m allowed to wake up later and sometimes I even have breakfast with my students. We have coffee and talk informally for some particular lessons. But in general, I do miss socializing more often. Your students are still your students, and the relationship is not one of friendship where you can just talk about anything.

 

 

What is your favourite part of online teaching? 

 

I get to meet lots of different people from different countries and I’m learning so much about their culture for example. It’s mainly a positive experience and an interesting part of teaching online.

 

I also think it’s good to teach students of different ages. I discovered I really like to teach adults. In the beginning, I taught my favourite students to teach were teenagers. Nowadays I prefer, by far, to teach adults.

 

This is a great point. I think many people think that teaching usually consists of teaching kids but actually there is a huge market of adult learners.

 

What do you think would make Preply better as a platform?

 

I think they need to improve their commission structure. For example, you could teach for 100 hours and you will still be deducted 25%. It’s just too high and they need a wider range of commission based on work done. For example, when you start teaching the commission is so high (33%) and you have to teach for an extremely low prices to get students. Preply have to give better incentives to their teachers and lower the commission.

 

Yes, I think many professional teachers will not accept the commission rates and simply go somewhere else as a result.

 

As I’m also a student on this platform I discovered that you pay commission too. For each lesson, the student has to pay 20 cents more. It adds up and sometimes I even have students asking me to have our lessons outside of preply because they don’t like to pay this extra money. 

 

Where do most of your students come from? And what is the age range?

 

Most of my students are from England. I have a mix of students but most of them are adults. Currently, I only have 3 teenagers from 12 to 16. I have adults from 20 to 70. Usually, the older students are travelling and I also teach them about Spanish culture. For example, one of my students is travelling around Spain and our lessons are from different cities in Spain. I prepare the class so he will learn about the culture of the city, important landmarks and food. So I’m also learning new things about Spain too.

 

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