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LearnTalk Teacher Review – Good Language Teaching Job or Scam?

learntalkWelcome to my LearnTalk review.

If you are looking to make money online as a teacher of a language then LearnTalk is one of your options. You can make up to $15 per hour potentially but there are several different pay-grades. Overall the job isn’t bad and one of the benefits to LearnTalk over other language teaching sites is that it is easier to get hired. However, it pays less than others in some cases. In this review I’ll be going over a few important things to know beforehand.

LearnTalk Review

LearnTalk is an online language teacher/tutor platform where anyone can sign up to learn a language from a real person. It is based around live online classes.

ESL (English as a second language) is their most demanded language of teaching but Spanish can also be taught here and I expect to see others available in the future.

Teachers teach via webcam directly with their students and get paid depending on what level of teacher they are. The requirements for the different levels of teaching are as follows…

Requirements to Become a Teacher

There are 3 different levels of teaching that you can do: Language Tutor, Experienced Instructor, and Professional Teacher. The requirements are as follows…

  • Language Tutor – CEFR level  C1 minimum
  • Experienced Instructor – CEFR level C2 minimum; 2 years teaching experience
  • Professional Teacher – CEFR level C2 minimum; 4 years teaching experience; Accreditation/ certification

There is no requirement that you be a native speaker of the language you want to teach. You just have to be fluent in it and meet these requirements.

You will also have to meet the equipment requirements to actually be able to perform the job online. These include:

  • Computer – Desktop of laptop
  • High speed internet connection – 3mbps broadband
  • Headset
  • Webcam – 5 megapixels
  • Small whiteboard

Applying to LearnTalk

To apply for a teaching job you will first have to fill out some personal information, pass an internet speed test, pass a grammar test, and submit a short 1 minute introduction video for review.

If you pass this you will move on to the training. You will be instructed on how to teach and your final step will be teaching a demo class. Once you pass this you are then ready to teach.

The Job

Teaching sessions are 25 minutes in length. You will be teaching over webcam through comprehensive exercises, role play, and other techniques. Lesson topics could be travel, sports, business, food, technology, anything really. Or a lesson could also just be free-talk where there is no specific topic in mind.

The job is very flexible and in a sense you can work whenever you want to. However you can’t really expect to do this. The times that you can work depends on the demand of the students. Students can login at anytime of the day and get tutoring/teaching. So as a teacher you will have to be available when the demand is there.

You will see students from many places but it seems that many on this site come from Spain.

The Pay

Since the sessions are only 25 minutes in length you don’t actually get paid by the hour. You get paid per session. As I mentioned the rate depends on what level teacher you are…

  • Language Tutor – $2/session
  • Experienced Instructor – $4.50/session
  • Professional Teacher – $6.50/session

So if you are a professional teacher you can make around $15 per hour like they tell you is possible.

Realistic Expectations

This is not a job that you should be expecting full-time hours with. While it is possible it is unlikely, especially if you are new.

Students are able to choose who they want as teachers. They will be able to view your teacher profile, see your short introduction video and make their own choice. Many students will go back to the same teachers and building relationships is what will help you get more work and earn more.

But when you are just starting out you can’t expect much. You will be just another teacher on the list and it is more difficult getting work this way.

Conclusion on LearnTalk – Good Opportunity?

LearnTalk is a good company and there isn’t too much to complain about here. Teaching through them could be a decent job but I would look at it as a side-gig or a form of extra income. Don’t rely on it when you are starting out. Maybe later down the road you can start to rely on it but just starting out you don’t really know what to expect.

They tell you that they pay more than most other ESL teaching platforms around but I don’t really see any proof of this. I would actually say they pay a bit on the lower side compared to others that I’ve looked into, like JiuQu English for example.

Since you are looking an opportunity to work online you might also be interested in seeing how I make a living working online. I work for myself online and enjoy it. You can read how I do it and how I teach others to do the same here.

==> How I Make a Living

Questions, comments? Leave them below in the comment section and I’ll get back to you 🙂

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