Magic Ears

Magic Ears Review

Magic Ears is in Beijing and they teach children aged 5-12. Their classes can have up to 4 students. They want native speakers from Canada or the USA with an ESL certificate or teaching experience (although these last two qualifications are not always required). Teaching material is provided by the company and the hours are weekdays: 6:30pm-9pm, weekends and holidays: 10am-11:30am & 6:30pm-9pm (Beijing Time). Booking rate depends on how good the teacher is or if the student likes the teacher. Magic Ears pays a base rate $7.50 per 30 minute class ($15 per hour plus bonuses) to teachers who meet their basic requirements. Teachers who have taught over 1000 hours online OR have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in English or English language training earn $8.50 per 30 minute class ($17 per hour plus bonuses). Lastly teachers who have taught over 1000 hours online AND have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in English or English language training earn $10 per 30 minute class ($20 per hour plus bonuses).  Their bonuses include incentives of $1 for being on time and for having 60 time slots open per month.

Please leave us your comments and reviews of Magic Ears.

View Comments

  • Horrible horrible thieving company. I taught 10
    Classes with them and because of THEIR mistakes, they started to dock my salary and now my account is in debt. All that hard-work for nothing. I hope they go under, as they don't deserve to continue.

    They play constant mind games with you, and Communication is non-existent. Their micro management BS is beyond a joke. Eww, god I hate them!!!

    AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

  • I just interviewed with Magic Ears and it was really a joke. Both the teaching and the process and policies.

    On the teaching side, for prep I watched a full video of a young kids class of 4 students. The teacher was literally preventing the kids from saying anything more than about 8 words. Ask the kid how they are today, 'Happy', and do not ask why, that's not part of the program and just opens a can of worms, then all the kids will want to talk! The teacher was even cutting off the kids at times.

    I suppose ME figures they can tell the parents, your kid is going to learn 5 words today. From my perspective, they are only going to learn 5 words. I did watch a bit of a class at a higher level, with two kids, and that seemed more normal.

    Among their policies: Every student must get between 6-8 trophies per class. 6-8. The parents might get unhappy with the teacher if the kid doesn't have 6. Just shows how they implement dumb features and then require their use. The kids don't even react to the trophies.

    On the interviewing process, it was just as bad. I do not have a TEFL, they ask within their application system, but they still schedule the interview. I even wrote to them I was working on one, I told them clearly that I was a month away from getting it (which, you all know what that means, its really 2 months at best lol). But, schedule the interview because why not.

    The interviewer was nice but he didn't know anything about me, he didn't even know if I had done a live demo class or a recorded one. It was pretty clear that he had done zero prep work for the interview. And don't get me started on their policy of preferring that you record your screen while pretending a kid is there for the demo class. If you feel dumb acting like a dancing monkey with the kids, just try it without the kids.

    So the interview class goes ok, not great, but he was ready to run me in there at least. As it says in some of the comments, they offered 15 bucks an hour, far far away from their claimed 26 bucks. Is that including the basic bonus for showing up? He didn't mention it...actually I think the way it worked was the 15 bucks included that. Anyway he didn't say much about bonuses.

    As far as I understood what the interviewer told me, to get more money you have to have a TEFL or equivalent, AND you have to have some massive number of documented hours of teaching online. Like, what he seemed to be saying was, take a screenshot of your gogokid (or another company) profile page with the proof of the class hours. Pretty easy to fake, how are they going to verify that? Makes me think they will deny whatever evidence you provide, but who knows. And what if your experience isn't documented on a webpage like that? Who knows maybe they will take any kind of proof.

    Anyway that's my experience, it was not very good.

  • When I Googled Magic Ears the review/description said that the company does NOT hire people of color. I am a Black woman and would never even want to work for a company with this disgusting policy or waste my time applying. Would someone honestly tell me if this is true, please? Also, if you believe it is not true, please tell me how you know that for certain. Do you actually know a person of color who teaches for Magic Ears. I really like what I've read about the company, except this, and would like to apply. Currently, I work for another company and am not getting enough bookings. THANK YOU very, very much.

    • Hey Melody,

      I’m a black woman who has worked for this company for four months. So, yes they hire people of color. They require English to be your first language, a BA, a TESOL, and experience working with kids.

      • They hire and fire people of color. If you get the wrong coach, you will be terminated without cause. Myself and another person were recruited by a mentor. We passed the interview, got hired, started teaching. I was asked to have a computer with a faster processor, so I purchased a newer model and began teaching. First, my friend was fired for "not enough passion". I have known her for years and she is a passionate excellent teacher, Then 2 weeks later, they said that I received a parent complaint, although all of the students in the class gave me 5 stars. I couldn't believe it when I saw a termination in my email. No communication, no feedback, just an alleged parent complaint and termination. Please do NOT put all of your eggs in one basket with this company. They use the vague bottomlines as an excuse to terminate for no reason. All they have to say is "not enough passion". I wouldn't waste my time. They are very disciminative.

  • Hello thank you for all the valuable information. Are you still employed by Magic Ears? I am interested on applying ... Have a bless day!

  • Hi there, is it true that to work for magic ears you now need a bachelors and a TEFSL cert? I am only a few credits away from completing my bachelors, plus I have one year of art school, so in total 5 years post secondary education...is there any change I can get hired or will I have to complete those last few credits? thanks

  • This company is full of luff. They do not hold their end of the bargan. I have well over 10 years teaching experience and never got paid what they said. Always an excuse and not paid on time. I have no time to waste on ridiculous wannabe pro companies.
    Also, be careful for those who have referral links, they may not be honest since they get paid an incentive for teachers who sign up.

  • I am an American living in the Philippines. While I have just earned a TEFL certificate, I have only an Associates degree and no English teaching experience. I would like to work online, but really need to earn $15-$20 per hour. I've applied to several of the Chinese companies listed above, but I either get nor response, or the decline me due to lack of experience. For example, Boxfish is now much more selective than indicated above.

    Does anyone have a good suggestion for me? Oh, and it doesn't have to be a Chinese company.

    • They won't even accept you with an associates. My application was automatically rejected because I don't have a BA.

  • I am an American living in the Philippines. While I have just earned a TEFL certificate, I have only an Associates degree and no English teaching experience. I would like to work online, but really need to earn $15-$20 per hour. I've applied to several of the Chinese companies listed above, but I either get nor response, or the decline me due to lack of experience. For example, Boxfish is now much more selective than indicated above.

    Does anyone have a good suggestion for me?

Leave a Comment