Palfish
Palfish Review
Palfish is an app and a create-a-profile type company but they have recently launched a course for children. In the create-a-profile version teachers set their own rate, typically between $10-$20 USD per hour. For the children’s course they are looking for native speakers who have a ESL certificate and experience teaching children. (It looks like South Africans are welcome to apply, but they prefer native speakers from other countries.) They also want teachers to commit to at least 10 hours per week between 6pm-9pm Beijing time. The base rate is 50 RMB ($8USD) per 25 minute class, but they offer some bonuses and incentives like 5 RMB for every lesson the teacher attends on time. They also offer a bonus if you teach over 150 classes per month you get 60 RMB per lesson or 210 classes you get 65 RMB per lesson and you can earn another of 200 RMB if you can get your student to purchase a lesson package after your trial lesson.
Please leave us your comments and review of Palfish.
10 Comments
Elina
I filled all the information. The next morning there was the answer “we regret to inform you that I AM (!) unable to offer you to this job”. Who is that “I”? manager? HR? or who? Also the payment comes in yuans. 1,5 yuan per minute as standart and 0,8 for trial period. So when it is converted to dollars the payment is much less that it is said to be. Also the app is so weird that it automatically chose only 2 hours on Mondays. And it didn’t allowed me to choose the other working day or time. The rules for application filling were in completely different part of the app, so I had to look for the rules for quite a long time.
stef
Horrible company to work for!
You get penalties for the smallest things like being 1min late for a class and if you are 2mins late they mark you as absent and once you get 6 absentees they kick you out!
Kicks are rude! no communication from staff and constant problems with the app which makes you late for a class and they fine you when its not your fault.
Natasha
If I’m now living in US, can I apply for their online teachers? If yes, is there any tax issue if getting the pay by Payoneer?
goldy
Palfish DOES NOT accept any South Africans for it’s official kids course. Don’t bother applying unless you are from Uk, USA or Canada.
Dawn Fossey
So, despite having over 10 years of experience both in the classroom and online, and holding a CELTA, I was rejected by Palfish before even getting to perform the demo lesson. I can only assume that being native English went against me. Waste of time and resources – making the backdrop to their specification, including their logo.
Elina
I guess they just didn’t have enough money to pay for such a great qualifications))
Gail
Dont waste your time or energy.
I joined with many new teachers in October. You are immediately bombarded with requests to join the official kids course on the promise you will get lots of classes when the reality is you will be given a few classes for a week or so.
There is zero support from the company, instead you have to hope one of the designated teachers from a group you are assigned to will be able to help you out.
There are frequent problems with the app which often affects your ability to do the class. If you dont turn up for a class or dont conduct the full 25 mins they impose heavy penalties. This is tough when its a technical problem. You can appeal the penalty and loss in ranking but you have to pay them to appeal. Not all appeals are successful, even when it is obviously their fault.
Many teachers have lots of open classes and are just sitting waiting and hoping for students.
The most common question that is asked in the conversation threads is how do i get more students. They are told to post more free lessons and moments and read more free books or do chats at a really low rate all of which is great for the company because they get a constant stream of new material but not great for the teacher.
Even though there are lots of teachers without students Palfish continues to add new teachers and the cycle continues with them being told to post more free material on the Palfish site.
Palfish are now adding an extra burden and have told teachers that they will no longer cooperate with teachers who fail to sell the lesson packages.
There are a few people on the site who make money but the vast majority dont and are working 2 or 3 other sites as well.
Jay
I was going to comment on Palfish myself, but almost one year later Gail’s post still describes the problems pretty accurately. Not sure if they still get rid of teachers for not selling packages, but definitely a sinkhole for your time.
Sarah Burton
Very good so far, I applied the official kids course and it’s going great so far
Paul M
I think the PalFish app is the leader in the online ESL space – I’m excited by the possibility of creating a passive income through monetised live streaming and replays. I can use resources I already use in my daily schedule, so prep time is minimal.
I know of one teacher who made US$38k on PalFish in 2018 from teaching the kids course. $US25/hr is attainable.