Increasing Private Lessons

[Seb]

I need some advice from you all veteran language teachers on here.

I don't know how many people that have done private lessons or always been employed but all the money that I currently make come from teaching Swedish privately and smaller group lessons. I need to make more money so I wonder if any of you have advice/tips on how to get more students/putting your name out there. While I can speak English I prefer to teach Swedish only as I am not very good at explaining English grammar and generally lack knowledge at it.

I was thinking of making fliers/business cards and hand them out and asking cafes and the international center and such to let me put them there..

Any ideas? I appreciate anything!

Thank you all!

Seb

[Spevna]

When I opened my school I was pretty lucky because I picked up most of my students from Nova when they went bankrupt.

I did advertise too though. I had fliers printed and put in newspapers. It took around one and a half years before the advertising had paid for itself. I DON'T recommend doing that.

Word of mouth will be the most important form of advertising you'll ever have. The majority of students I have come from the recommendations of others.

The international centre if a good idea. Put up a poster with some fliers underneath for people to take.

[Primarch]

The International Centre in Nagoya has an information centre where you can put up an advert for your lessons. I've used it before (a long time ago) and got a couple of lessons from it.

Word of mouth is ok, but it largely depends on your student's circle of friends and if they know anyone who wants to speak Swedish.

There are various companies/websites out there who will help you promote your lessons, usually the students pay a 'finders fee' to the website if they take your lessons.

I have a question though, what type of Visa do you have? If you are legally allowed to teach/work in Japan, you should try contacting some companies like the one I work for (OTC, Interac, TimeLife to name a few), whilst they dont usually need Swedish teachers, if they do get a student who wants to study it, they will call you up and hire you for 10-20 lessons.

Actually I have another question, why not look for a position with a company? (didn't you use to work in a gym?). Its a lot more reliable than teaching private classes.

http://www.gaijinpot.com/ may be able to give you more advice.

[Seb]

Thanks guys for the solid advice.

I went to the International Center today and it seems that you are not allowed to leave fliers and such for your own lessons anymore, you can however rent a case to put your fliers in for 12.000 yen for 3 months a minimum.

I have a question though, what type of Visa do you have? If you are legally allowed to teach/work in Japan, you should try contacting some companies like the one I work for (OTC, Interac, TimeLife to name a few), whilst they dont usually need Swedish teachers, if they do get a student who wants to study it, they will call you up and hire you for 10-20 lessons.

I have the spouse visa, so I don't have any limits in taking jobs, I should do as you say and try to contact those companies. I thought they only did ALT though.

Actually I have another question, why not look for a position with a company? (didn't you use to work in a gym?). Its a lot more reliable than teaching private classes.

I used to work part time in a gym but had to quit that job when me and my wife suddenly went back to Sweden because of the disaster. And I don't feel like starting a new employment right now because I have no
idea what I want to do. Which is why I am doing what I can do at the moment, teaching Swedish. And recently I discovered how fun sculpting is so I would like to do something with that but I need to get better at it first and see if it is actually profitable or only something I can do as a hobby.

[Primarch]

You should try contacting some companies like the one I work for (OTC, Interac, TimeLife to name a few).

I have the spouse visa, so I don't have any limits in taking jobs, I should do as you say and try to contact those companies. I thought they only did ALT though.

Interac do mainly ALT work, but OTC only teaches business classes for companies who are training their staff for overseas business. I know we (OTC) have teachers working for us teaching German and French from time to time, so it may be possible for people to need Swedish as well. Don't expect the job offers to come pouring in though.

And recently I discovered how fun sculpting is so I would like to do something with that but I need to get better at it first and see if it is actually profitable or only something I can do as a hobby.

I think that is something you'd need to be really good at to make a living doing it solo. There are a lot of good (and bad) sculptors out there with a LOT of experience. I think you also need to be sculpting things that people want, rather than just making what you like personally. This means you either need to be producing goods for other games, or you need to give people a reason to want your models, e.g. create a good game or absolutely gorgeous models. Thats not to say you shouldn't try, just that you will need to work very hard at it. How hard? This hard: http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... f=20&t=833

[Seb]

I think that is something you'd need to be really good at to make a living doing it solo. There are a lot of good (and bad) sculptors out there with a LOT of experience. I think you also need to be sculpting things that people want, rather than just making what you like personally. This means you either need to be producing goods for other games, or you need to give people a reason to want your models, e.g. create a good game or absolutely gorgeous models. Thats not to say you shouldn't try, just that you will need to work very hard at it. How hard? This hard: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=833

Indeed!
Well, I am getting a lot of practise doing the minis I do at the moment. Maybe someday I will be able to sculpt such a gorgeous model myself

[Admiral-Badruck]

[quote="Seb"]I need some advice from you all veteran language teachers on here.

I don't know how many people that have done private lessons or always been employed but all the money that I currently make come from teaching Swedish privately and smaller group lessons. I need to make more money so I wonder if any of you have advice/tips on how to get more students/putting your name out there. While I can speak English I prefer to teach Swedish only as I am not very good at explaining English grammar and generally lack knowledge at it.

You should still teach English man my friend from Netherlands teaches English classes for 5000 yen an hour he is not a native and he keeps getting clients. I really do not see how but he told me it takes time. If I were you I would not worry about you knowledge of English Grammar and how to explain it. Most Japanese people do not want to get better at grammar they just want to be abel to talk.

I work in for 2 companies neither really want me to be a great "English" Teacher they just want me to be Genki and talkative. two Fings Orks de very well...