AmazingTalker
AmazingTalker Review
AmazingTalker is a Chinese company that lets you set your own rate. You don’t have to be a native speaker, but non-native speakers have to have an English degree. Their teachers offer classes in 46 different languages, including Spanish, Italian, French and German. Most classes are in English and there are many exam preparation classes being offered. Classes are either 25 or 50 minutes.
Please leave a comment or a review of AmazingTalker.
10 Comments
Gonzalo
Amazing Talker is from TAIWAN, not China.
iTalki, on the other hand, is from CHINA.
As a pro-CCP company, iTalki censors the flag of Taiwanese students and teachers (you’ll notice their profiles are the only ones without a flag) and lists Taiwan as “Taiwan, China.” Many Hong Kong students don’t feel safe using the iTalki classroom and often request to use Skype instead.
Anonymous
This kind of greedy profile based platform is causing a huge amount of harm to the professional online teaching industry. There is no interview process, they don’t even check your ID let alone your qualifications. Basically anyone can set up a profile within minutes and become a ‘teacher’. So, of course, this platform is saturated with unqualified chancers looking to make a quick buck online, and the students are unaware of this and think that they are part of a legitimate teaching platform. As a professional teacher, you can only set your base rate to around $14 to attract students, and then ‘Amazing Scam’ takes around 50% of this for their various hidden fees and charges. If you pay tax on this in your resident country, expect to earn around $4 per hour. If you look at their website it is like a giant sales pitch. These companies are destroying the online teaching industry and regardless of the pathetic pay scheme and greedy fees, should be boycotted by any self-respecting teacher. The only way to use this platform is as a way of acquiring private clients, do the trial class, get the clients email and then explain to them what a scam this platform is and offer private classes instead. AVOID as a legitimate teaching platform.
Karen
Yes, Amazing Talker should be renamed Amazing Taker!
On top of all the commission and taxes, they also deduct the discount coupons, which are mandatory from the teachers income!!!! This can be up to USD 1 per lesson. And they don’t disclose this when you apply to teach with them.
anonymous
Can you say USARY? This company charges 30% and then charges another fee on top of that. Usary is 33%. I was there for training and never got out. It’s a nightmare. If you love teaching English without getting paid, or “amor al arte”, then this is the place for you.
Oh. I suppose the big thing is that you have to bring your own materials. Yes! The format is 1 v 1 and you can only teach group classes when you earn $2000. What a scam.
Anthony Sinclair
I tried calling the number listed on https://www.dot.gov.tw/ (Taxation Administration Ministry of Finance, ROC) without success about any Taiwanese taxes I’m liable for. I couldn’t get through several times so I called the number on https://www.ntbt.gov.tw/English (National Taxation Bureau of Taipei, Ministry of Finance).
The lady told me even though I’ve never been to Taiwan and I live in Australia I still need to pay Taiwan a flat rate of 18% tax on my earnings.
I asked Amazing Talker about this and they advised me to look at their page on how we are paid.
Bit confused!
Christine
I’m pretty sure AmazingTalker is Taiwanese. This might make a difference to some teachers.
Andy
Yes they are a Taiwanese company, not Chinese as the description states. As for the sales tax, as far as I can tell, if one is not a tax resident of Taiwan, they needn’t pay this tax. I’d guess they are stealing this 5% from their contractors.
Furthermore, as cool a place to hangout as it may be, the rent is ridiculously high. In short, they gouge big-time. They add a 10% student fee on top of whatever the teacher’s rate may be. Then on payday, they charge the teacher a 3% ‘collection’ fee, in addition to the dubious sales tax amount and the regular platform fees.
They’ve just introduced a new commission structure. If a teacher earns $3000+ per month, the fee is waived. Great. Who earns that much teaching English?
The long and the short of it is that for every dollar generated by the average teacher, that teacher will receive 41%. Pay your taxes on top of that in your country of residence and it amounts to quite the burn really.
Andy
Sorry – the company will receive 41%. The teacher ends up with 59%.
Cecilia
Hi Anon. Are you working with them?
Anon
Amazingtalker.com is a confusing platform. Difficult to navigate, although they do have some good features. They have a sliding fee. You earn 100 bucks or less, you pay 15% to earning $1500 or a month 0 fee. In addition, and here’s the but, all tutors need to pay a total of 8% Taiwan taxes (they are based in Taiwan) But, I checked with local authorities and they told me that such a platform is hiring independent contractors just like any other platform. Of course, these contractors don’t live in Taiwan and therefore are not subject to taxes. When I asked AmazingTalker about this, they did not reply at all. So, tutors are being ripped off for 8% of their earnings.