# Remote English teaching to China **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 10, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-english-teaching-to-china/855370 "2020-06-10T16:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-english-teaching-to-china/855370/1 "2020-06-10T16:20:27Z")
Has anyone here ever done remote teaching? I would like to work more without changing my current jobs\*, and there are many ads for various companies that have jobs teaching English online to students in China. They don’t require you to speak any language other than English, and I seem to qualify, based on the ads. I’m wary, because this could so easily be a scam. Have you, or do you know anyone that is doing this or has done this? Any advice or suggestions would be welcome. \*One job is at a school, and I will happily return when school starts up again. The other is a private tutoring company, and they are saying they don’t have any students for me right now. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-english-teaching-to-china/855370/2 "2020-06-11T12:46:03Z")
My cousin-in-law does this. She’s a military spouse, and could be anywhere in the world at any time, and so this works out quite well for her. She spent some time over Christmas as an invited guest when her student and family visited Washington state (they paid for her travel from the duty station in the US south). ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-english-teaching-to-china/855370/3 "2020-06-11T21:05:57Z")
Friend did it for awhile, but when all was said and done, she was making about $8.00 an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-english-teaching-to-china/855370/4 "2020-06-13T00:36:38Z")
A friend did this for a while, teaching English remotely to German businessmen who wanted to improve their English. She hated it, among other reasons, because of the time zones. She ended up staying up half the night. Eventually, she moved back to Germany and is now teaching German to Arabs and is happy as a clam. Her native language is German, but she has native fluency in English (and French, for that matter). ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-english-teaching-to-china/855370/5 "2020-06-13T01:44:31Z")
VIP Kids is not a scam. Is that the one you’re looking at? The main “catch” is that you’re at the mercy of Beijing time e.g. best class blocks are at like, 3 or 4 a.m. central time. That means you have to be up - and I mean UP, all peppy and smiling and wearing lipstick and shit - when most people want things dark and quiet and sleepy. The other “catch” right now is the zillions of people who went “OMG gotta WFH” when covid hit, so the hiring pipelines are clogged with candidates and prospective wanna-bes.