All across China, Chinese speaking students seek help learning English as a second language — or ESL.
English curriculum is built into Chinese K-12 education, but many students are seeking additional outlets to speed up the learning process and get ahead of their peers.
Recently, one-on-one online education has started to take off.
Now Chinese speaking students have access to English teachers from across the globe at any time of day.
If you have a Bachelor’s degree, teaching English online is a great way to make money on the side while maintaining a flexible work schedule.
Today we’re going to go over Gogokid — an online ESL teaching platform — to show you how it works, how much you can earn, and how you can start teaching English online.
What Is Gogokid?
Gogokid is an online ESL learning solution that Chinese speaking students use to learn English.
The platform connects children in China who are eager to learn with educated and fluent English teachers.
Gogokids uses an interactive online platform where teachers can engage with their students one-on-one.
The service offers teachers great pay, a flexible work schedule, and classes that require little preparation.
Recently launched out of Beijing by the company Bytedance, Gogokid is one of the newest online ESL platforms that has hit the scene.
Online teaching companies and startups like VIPKid, Qkids, and DaDa have been experiencing tremendous exponential growth within the booming ESL market — and now Gogokids wants a piece of the pie.
Is Gogokid a Scam?
Since Gogokid is such a new company, it’s difficult to find much information across the web.
This may make some wary, but you don’t need to be.
It’s a legit option for teaching online.
Based on extensive reviews from across the web, English teachers who have already jumped on board seem to give it rave reviews compared to competitors like VipKid.
The user base is still low compared to other platforms, but it’s a great option if you’re looking for an English teaching job.
If anything, you could use it as an addition to your current gig to fill the holes in your current schedule.
How Much Can You Earn?
Gogokid states that you can make $14-$25 an hour, depending on your performance, attendance, and in-class participation.
The better you teach, the more bonuses you’ll be able to receive and the closer to $25 per hour you’ll be.
The payment structure for Gogokid is based on a participation score.
You’ll always start with your base pay, which is determined by your interview and experience when you’re first signing up.
You’ll then be rewarded percentage bonuses based on a performance scale.
For example, you may receive an additional 25% bump for each class you teach if you maximize your performance bonuses.
Gogokid doesn’t go into detail about the requirements for their performance bonuses, but competitive platforms like VipKid reward you for showing up to class on time, teaching the class according to schedule, receiving positive reviews, and booking and teaching a certain number of classes per month.
To give you an idea, here’s the Gogokid payment information laid out:
- Base pay: $7-$10
- Performance score over 110: ($7-$10) * 110%
- Performance score over 120: ($7-$10) * 125%
- Total per hour (two classes per hour): $14-$25
Not too shabby, but Gogokid doesn’t let just anyone walk in the door and start teaching.
Let’s go over the teacher requirements.
Teacher Requirements
In order to teach for Gogokid, you must be able to meet a set of educational and location requirements and have adequate technical equipment to use the online platform
Educational and Location Requirements
If you want to teach for Gogokid, you need at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Gogokid states that it promises its students and their parents a top-notch learning experience.
This means that all teachers must possess higher education and be native English speakers.
Unfortunately, there will be absolutely no exceptions to this rule.
You must also be able to commit to a six-month teaching contract as an independent contractor.
This contract will be subject to review before being renewed.
A nice thing about Gogokid is that they allow you to teach from wherever you want.
You just need to have a stable internet connection, which leads us to our next point: the technical requirements.
Technical Requirements
In order to use the teaching platform without any difficulties or interruptions, you must be able to provide the following equipment.
- Computer: At least 4GB RAM and an Intel Core i3 or above
- Mac: Mac OS 10.8 or higher
- PC: Windows 7, 8, 10, or higher
- Camera: HD External camera or HD integrated camera
- Headset: Headset with a microphone and stable output and input
- Network: Wired DSL internet connection with at least 20 Mbps
- Recommended browser: Google Chrome
If you’re missing any of the above equipment, then you should get properly set up before applying.
If you checked the box on all of the above, it’s time to sign up.
Sign Up to Teach
Now that you’re ready to sign up, let’s go over the application process.
The application process consists of the following five steps:
- Complete an online application and fill out your basic information
- Schedule your interview
- Attend your orientation
- Submit the required paperwork
- Sign your six-month contract
To begin the application process, you can head to the Gogokid sign up page.
Then you’ll move on to your interview.
Interview Process
Before you can start teaching, Gogokid needs to make sure you’re suited for the job.
This requires completing a 30-minute interview and teaching demonstration.
This will be your opportunity to show how great of a teacher you are.
The interview also determines what your base pay will be, so make sure you nail it.
If you need help preparing, we have you covered.
This Performance Guide for Applicants is the criteria your recruiters will be judging you on.
You can also check out our guide to teaching English online.
Study up and you may be able to lock in that $25 per hour rate.
To schedule your interview, you can sign in on the Gogokid site and find an available time slot on the calendar.
The interview time slots you see are for the next four days and are updated daily.
If you don’t see an available slot, make sure to check back.
You should sign into the class at least 15-minutes early to make sure all of your equipment works and you have a reliable connection.
After you’ve killed it in your interview and gotten the job, you can begin booking class slots.
Booking Class Slots
To book classes, log in to the Gogokid teacher portal and schedule your availability.
Once your availability is set, students can choose to sign up for your class.
Each class will be 25 minutes long but will have an additional 5 minutes added on to account for late students and to serve as a buffer between your classes.
To increase your booking rate, you should make it a habit to set your availability at least 48 hours ahead of time.
You’ll be able to set your availability as far as one month in advance.
The earlier you set your schedule, the better chance you’ll have of students booking your classes.
You can work as many hours as you’d like, as long as you’re able to maintain a high level of performance by showing up to class on time, teaching lessons according to schedule, and obtaining good reviews.
You don’t want to lose out on any of your performance bonuses.
You also have complete control over your schedule — when you work and how many hours you work — however, there are times throughout the week that drive the most demand for teachers.
Gogokid can help you find the peak times in relation to your time zone.
After a student books your class, you can clock in and start teaching.
Teaching Classes
All Gogokid classes are completed through the virtual classroom platform.
Each class you teach will be one-on-one with a Chinese speaking student.
One nice feature of Gogokid that you won’t be required to prepare lesson plans for each class.
You should read through the teaching slides that are provided by Gogokid beforehand so you know what you’ll be covering in class.
Slides are provided to you once you’ve successfully booked a class.
Having some teaching props will also help create an effective teaching environment.
You will also need to provide written feedback for your students and their parents within 12 hours of your class time.
This helps students understand how they can improve and gives parents a progress report on their child’s performance.
You won’t be compensated for this time, however, it should only take you a few minutes to leave adequate feedback.
In regards to your students, you may not have the same students for every single class.
Who takes your class will depend on who signs up — and this could be different students on a daily basis.
If a student likes your teaching style, then they’ll likely book your class again.
If you do an excellent job, you’ll start to accumulate the same recurring students.
After your classes are all said and done, the only thing left to do is get paid.
Getting Paid
Gogokid teachers will be paid once per month before the 15th of the current month.
Each paycheck will reflect your work from the previous calendar month.
All of your payments will come through PayPal.
As mentioned above, your pay rate will depend on your agreed upon base pay, plus any bonuses you receive while teaching.
You should also consider setting money aside for taxes and finding ways you can write things off as a gig worker.
As an independent contractor, you’ll be responsible for filing and paying your taxes at the end of the year.
Get Paid to Teach English
Gogokid offers teachers a flexible source of employment where you can set your own schedule and work as much as you’d like.
It also allows you to be your own boss and pull in a pretty decent paycheck.
If you’re interested, head to the signup page to begin the application process.
If you need any assistance signing up, you can reach out to [email protected].
For those who are looking for a different type of remote work, make sure to look over these online tutoring jobs or check out these 10 online jobs that you can do from anywhere.
