With the end of Conversation Playground, at least for now, my Tuesdays have opened up to my other platforms. I can also open up my schedule to VIPKid but that is not as appealing. I have been feeling for quite a long time that teachers who have been on the VIPKid platform for a long time, are being disrespected . In the first place, you all know that I believe that VIPKid is actively encouraging parents to go with teachers who receive a lower pay rate. That accounts for the 60% fall in my bookings over the last year and a half. The other piece of the puzzle for me is that I’m not sure that I want to keep on with VIPKid any longer. Sure, the kids are cute, and the work is easy because I don’t have to prepare, but I’m also not challenged and it feels like drudgery. On the other hand, I do get bookings for prime time and so I’m able to make a little bit of money. It’s not the $3000 a month that I was making in summers past, but it’s something. I have also noticed that I am not getting invited for new certifications and am being given the run-around when I call them on it.
The English Center has picked up for me. I now have five clients with them. And it’s been interesting trying to figure out scheduling each week. Most of them want evenings so it doesn’t really affect my day but I have a new client starting tomorrow who wants mornings and evenings, which means that I cannot open for VIPKid with any certainty on a Sunday evening. in time for the frenzy Such was my dilemma over the weekend. Because the problem is that if I open for VIPKid short notice, I may only get one or two classes. Whereas if I open on Sunday evenings for the Monday frenzy I get a few more. I am hopeful that I’ll be able to set the schedule for the nine lessons of the package tomorrow with this new client and be able to figure everything else out week to week.
George and Jerry jumped back on my schedule on Sundays and I have asked them to switch times to my 10 AM on Sunday mornings so that I can be finished teaching by 11:30 AM. The reason for this is Karolina wants to move her lessons to during the week which is actually better for me. I am contemplating trying to move everybody into the week so that I can take weekends off especially as Jasper and I have a lot of work to do at his house in preparation for renovations and eventual rental. But knowing Jasper, that’s going to happen in 2026. The man just cannot move quickly enough. If it was me, the house would’ve been renovated and rented by now. Ideally it would be nice to shift everybody off of the weekend. The added benefit of that is that I can give up some VIPKid time to my private clients and not have to work as much VIP. But the schedule shuffle is going to take some getting used to at least on the client side. For example, on Sunday, George and Jerry’s mom forgot that we had a lesson and the were quite late. My Lingueo client booked a class for today ay 10:30-12:00 that I can not teach and I had to cancel. I am a bit worried that I have lost her as a client as she is not longer responsive to my What’s App telling her my availability. So yesterday, I closed off my Lingueo schedule in the mornings.
I also submitted an application to iTalki, which is another one of those set your own read platforms. Unlike Preply, which has a commission structure that is rather exorbitant, iTalki charges a flat rate of 15% per class. I sent the application on Saturday using a video that I already pre-recorded. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the video has no sound. And I’m not sure how to fix it because when I uploaded it to other places it did have sound. Rather than record another video, I took a look at my Preply video which was filmed on Vimeo, to see if the video was platform specific. It wasn’t and so I sent the link to iTalki with a message asking if I could upload this one instead. Unfortunately, I was not able to change the application so I am waiting to see if I get rejected. They did say that I could reapply if that happened.
In writing news, the writers group met at The Hoxton, and while we love the hotel, they are not the best location for us because they are first come first serve and it was really nerve-racking trying to figure out who was coming to the meeting. Apparently, The Hoxton was no all that keen on having us in the venue either, because when my friend Nico, who is also a writing group member, and I, went for a drink on Sunday afternoon they had taken the big table away from the lobby. So my solution for the moment is to offer my house as the venue until we can find another solution. That will begin with this Thursday’s session and continue until I leave for Greece. What we’re going to do while I’m away, is anybody’s guess.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there’s more to come.
Inkreadable 