Shiliu

Shiliu Education Review

Shiliu Education <—- (Click here to Apply) hires native English speakers (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, or Ireland) to teach Chinese students aged 9 – 18. Teachers must have two years of experience (online ESL experience is preferred), a TEFL certificate and a bachelor’s degree in English or a related subject from a university ranked in the top 200 in the world. This is probably why they pay so much. Each class lasts 60 to 90 minutes and has 3 to 5 students. These courses go for 2 to 3 months. Shiliu pays a starting rate of $20 USD per hour and teachers can make as much as $58 per hour with bonuses for the amount of students taught $58 per hour is a lot so we would love to hear from anyone who works for this company to see if it is true or not.  

 

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  • Is this company still in business? I have applied on their website portal (which promises a response - even if it's a rejection - within 2 weeks, and followed up at their email, but no response for over a month and no further information available about how to reach them. Would love to hear from someone who has interacted with them within the last month and can verify that they're still operational.

  • I work for this company, and I really love it. The pay is really not so much per hour, but per class, and yes, it's accurate. The more experience and education you have, the more you will be paid. The classes are 60 minutes (more pay for 90 minute classes.) I get additional funds for planning, creating material (because they don't have a program for you to teach) and evaluating homework. However, I spend a lot of time creating lessons (because I am kinda ocd about my lessons!) and this additional pay is pretty low at $8 per class. That's a downfall. I like creating my own lessons, though, and not being pigeon-holed into a lesson plan someone else wrote, so it's not that big of a deal for me that the pay isn't good in that area. Teachers are used to not getting paid for planning, right? And honestly, I like the freedom of making instructional decisions on what I want to teach, so I prefer it this way. I'd say if I average the class pay including planning, creating lessons and grading, the pay is about $35 per hour. Each course is 8 classes. I can teach the course again and the hourly rate will be more since I've already created the materials- so I won't spend so much time doing that when I retract the course. One positive is that you get a teacher assistant who uploads the materials and communicates with parents and students so I never have to do any of that. The TA stays in the class to support students who may have tech issues- another thing I don't have to deal with. She also supports me if I need tech assistance. If a student is not paying attention, the TA desks with that, too. So all the crapola about teaching is not my problem, leaving me to focus solely on instruction- the part of teaching I love. Also, the job is not teaching Chinese students English. It's teaching North American-style English novel studies to Chinese students. Yes, they are second-language learners, but learning English isn't the focus. Learning to comprehend and decide is the focus. The ages of the students are from 6-18 (1st grade to 12th) depending on your educational background. I did not graduate from a top 20 university, but I do have several degrees in education. If you do not, you are not likely to be hired because they want educators who are or have been licensed and who can create novel studies that focus on critical thinking and literacy strategies. My classes all have 4 students. Any students over 3 will earn extra money per class. The best part of teaching for Shiliu is that the kids are top-notch and amazing. They are motivated and really respectful. It's a very small company, about 6 years old and still growing. I highly recommend the company if you like creating your own lessons but not so concerned about the fact that you won't get paid much, want steady students who are motivated and smart, and want to earn a decent amount per hour working remotely.

    • Question about working for Shiliu - what was your ratio of scheduled classes to cancelled classes? I've been working for them for almost a year and they have cancelled far more classes than they've filled, and are unable to provide a consistent schedule for me; they can't even manage to keep up one class per week. I've talked to them about their marketing strategies and what they're doing to attract students, and other than using WeChat and trying to recruit students individually from international schools, they don't do much, and seem to be unwilling to try other methods. It's a great company otherwise but they just can't seem to fill the classes. I'm wondering if others have had this experience.

      • I teach anywhere from 4 classes to 8 classes per week depending on the time of year. Only once was a class cancelled, but I was given plenty of notice beforehand. I'm not sure what their marketing strategies are, I've never discussed that with anyone at Shiliu, but I do have quite a few repeat students, so my classes are usually 4 students each, sometimes only 3, and very rarely less than that. Certain times of the year (when students are taking exams or the Chinese New Year) not as many students take classes, but more take them in the summer. I'm American but live in Australia, so that's fine with me because it's winter here when it's summer there. There's not much to do here in the winter! I hope you start getting more classes. Perhaps ask if there are any suggestions they have to make your courses more marketable? (Not saying they aren't good, but they would know more what Chinese students/parents' expectations would be for course materials.). Just a thought. Good luck!