It seems, dear reader, that the dream is gone. Covid19 had a couple of advantages for me over the last few weeks. Every VIPKid slot that I opened booked. And I was opening from 8 AM until 2 PM. The money was quite nice. Alas, no longer. It looks like the Chinese government has restricted certain segments of the population but the kids are now starting to go outside. As a result, I have seen a drop in bookings. For example, on Sunday I only taught eight classes out of twelve opened. And while it was nice to be done at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I kind of wish that I was able to get some short notice bookings. Oh well, better the certainty of $11 for a class versus the uncertainty of $13 for a class because if it doesn’t book that you get no money at all.short notice. If it books it’s $13, but if not it’s $0. So better a certain $11 than an uncertain $13.
Covid19 has changed my IRL classes as well. My Monday morning clients are switching to Skype, but my Amstelveen client wants to suspend until April 6. I was going to start teaching a second pre-intermediate English class starting today, but that has been postponed to next Tuesday and has transitioned to online. That means less VIPKid time. Which lessens that chance of a penalty if my internet goes out. I have been lucky so far that it has gone out in the evening and not while I was teaching. I have been taking the percussion to restart the modem every morning before teaching I’ve decided that I don’t really love being forced to stay in the house. And though the Netherlands was fairly copicetic, they have now locked down the country. Only grocery stores and essential stores are open.
My former students are always on my radar and I periodically check in to see if they want lessons or even just to hang out. That is easy to do with your adult clients then it is to do with your kid clients. However, Katya’s mom in Poland actually gave me a really good Facebook recommendation for English lessons and I have gotten a couple of responses for that. We’ll see if it pans out into anything, and I think I’m going to have to set my prices at VIP kid level payment prices because it is a Polish customer and they might not have as much money to spend on lessons but we will have to see.
Lastly, as a result of Covid19, I have taken the heretofore unprecedented step of canceling the writer group for the moment. We have turned into a WhatsApp only group and have decided to meet online until April. It’s a shame really that the virus is causing such turmoil in the world, particularly in the Netherlands where the sun has started to shine after six months of darkness. It’s a big screw you from mother nature. I am off to wander through the park.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 