Are you a native English speaker looking for a low-key way to make some extra money? Then chatting with someone who wants to improve their English may be the perfect side gig for you.
There are a lot of people who want to become fluent English speakers. They may want to work on improving pronunciation, expanding vocabulary, or removing undesired accents from their speech.
Many recognize that simply having real conversations with native speakers can dramatically help with all of these things and they are willing to pay native English speakers who offer this service.
That’s where you can come in. Don’t know how to get started? No worries, I have collected 5 legit ways that you can get paid to simply chat with people who want to learn English.
Let’s get into it!
Cambly
Cambly is a leading and well-known company offering conversational English services to its clients.
As a tutor for Cambly you will get paid weekly (every Monday) via Paypal. The rates are $10.20 per hour for chatting with adults and $12 per hour for chatting with adults. One of the best things about this service is its complete flexibility – you can work from anywhere and (unlike some other services) there is no minimum number of hours you must work.
As far as qualifications go, you don’t need a teaching certificate, bachelor’s degree or any prior teaching experience. Again, this sets them apart from many English tutoring services.
Sounds like the perfect side gig to get you started.
Preply
Preply is one of the most popular online teaching platforms. They offer tutoring in a wide range of subjects, including languages, school and university subjects, hobbies, and art. Of course, what we care about is English and Preply delivers there too. Through Preply you can offer online conversational English tutoring.
They offer some nice benefits, including the ability to set your own rate and work whenever and wherever you want. You can get paid using Paypal, Payoneer, Skrill or Transferwise. They take a 100% commission for trial lessons and then 33% after that (although it decreases to 18% based on how many hours you have taught on the platform). Preply states that most popular tutors can earn up to $550 per week. Source
Best of all, you do not need any specific certifications or teaching experience, so it’s a great option if you are just starting out in this area.
Fiverr and Upwork
We live in a gig ecomony and these two powerhouses are among the leading freelance sites out there.
If you want to make money chatting with people in English all you have to do is offer this service through Fiverr or Upwork. The best thing about using these sites is that you have 100% flexibility on what you will offer, how much you charge, how much you will work, etc. Also, you don’t need any teaching credentials.
Just provide a great service and people will give you high marks. This will land you more clients and ultimately make you more money.
How do you attract students?
The value proposition is simple: Tell people you will help them improve their English conversational skills. You can highlight areas that you can assist them in like accent correction, turns of phrase, pronunciation, and vocabulary expansion through natural language learning. Sell them on the fact that you won’t be using boring study guides – emphasize the fun factor and the cultural benefits you can offer too due to your familiarity with an English speaking culture.
As far as mechanics go, you can offer to chat via skype, which seems to be a common way that folks are offering these online tutoring services.
Spoken English Practice
Like Cambly, Spoken English Practice is a well-established company offering conversational English tutoring.
They 100% agree with the philosophy that the only way to become fluent in English is to have real conversations with native speakers. So they only hire native US or UK speakers to hold conversations in English with their students. All lessons are via Skype and are 1 on 1.
They business model seems to be successful – they claim that their classes have helped over 1 million students improve their English. Source
Their teachers come from a variety of backgrounds, including PhDs, scuba divers, single dads, fashion designers, marine biologists, world travelers, economists, journalists, social workers, pastry chefs, software engineers, race car drivers and many more. Most have some experience teaching English and some of them have English teaching qualifications like TEFL and CELTA, but all are native English speakers, which seems to be the key.
Palfish
Palfish is an app that people can use to chat with students online who want to learn English. If you are on the go, but want to squeeze in some chat time and make money, this is the option for you.
The app is available on both iOS and Android phones and is geared toward helping Chinese students connect with English speakers (you’ll notice that the interface is in English and Chinese).
Basically, Palfish allows these students to phone you when the app shows that you’re online. You can squeeze a short lesson during that using slides that they provide you or you can simply have an informal chat with the student. Palfish Freetalk is the chat option with adults and seems to provide the most flexibility in terms of not having to follow a lesson plan, etc.
There are options for one on one instruction or even group chats.
You get to set your own rates, but the average seems to range between $10 and $18 per hour. Palfish takes 20% of your rate as its payment. You use Payoneer to get paid (it’s like Paypal, but less well known). As with the prior options, you have complete flexibility to work when you want, but Palfish does require at least a 4 hour commitment per week.
It is important to note that Palfish requires teachers have a TEFL or TESOL certificate.
Conclusion
So there you have it – 5 great ways to get paid to chat in English. Hope you have found this helpful and best of luck chatting your way to some easy extra cash!
Interested in other great ways to make easy money without much work or money required? Check out my article on 15 ways to make truly passive income with no money.
