Show 6 - Understanding Online Teaching with Daniel Villareal
We talk about getting into teaching online and how to leverage that to overcome low incomes.
8/31/202322 min read
Show Links
Contact Daniel: InterpreterMan@aol.com
LinkedIn: Daniel Steve Villarreal Ph.D.
Monterey Institute of International Studies (Now the Middlebury Institute)
I recommend that you look up your own area Translator and Interpreter Association if you're interested.
Show Transcript
Daniel
You know sometimes to avoid scheduling online teaching too close to my quitting time um because as we all know you know from the uh from the classroom from the schoolyard uh that's when there's the you know the parent that comes in uh the principal that announces the emergency meeting um you know the the kid whose parents didn't pick them up and you're stuck with little Johnny until Mommy shows up uh so um you want to you want to schedule it carefully you really do you want to you know your your full-time job is one that's paying your rent so uh you you do not want to show those people the back of your middle finger anytime soon.
Shaun
Welcome to the Teacher Money Show the podcast dedicated to helping Educators like yourself navigate your unique Financial challenges and unlock your financial superpowers. I'm your host Shaun Morgan a full-time teacher and entrepreneur and I'm here to help teachers navigate everything related to your money. Whether you have questions about budgeting on a teacher's salary managing student loans increasing your income or making the most of your benefits I'm here to make money less confusing, more empowering, and a tool you can use to focus on what matters most. So whether you're a seasoned teacher looking for fresh insights or a new educator navigating your first paycheck this podcast is your go-to resource for all things money related. So if you're ready to have a richer wallet classroom and life let's Dive In.
The contents of this podcast are informational in nature and are not legal or tax advice and neither I nor my guests are engaged in the provision of legal tax or any other advice. You should not act upon this information without first seeking appropriate advice from an accountant, financial planner, lawyer or other professional.
Welcome to the Teacher Money Show! I'm so excited to have uh Daniel Villarreal here with me uh and this is just a really you know fun story I I send out emails to people who want to get them and uh uh Daniel reached out to me and he he told me a uh uh play on words in Spanish that he thought I I would find quite funny. I'll actually I asked him to tell tell the play on words because he'll probably be better at it than I am um but you know it's this the Spanish play on words from a guy named Daniel Villarreal who teaches English in Taiwan. I was immediately intrigued by this this guy's just got so many great things happening um it's just it's hilarious for me that that we live in a world where that's even possible uh but you know he he told me that he helps Educators uh teach online to supplement their income so that just that just said that's the topic that we should talk about. So I'm excited to have Daniel on the show today Daniel how you doing?
Daniel
I'm doing great I'm doing great Shaun thank you uh distant handshake all the way from across the Pacific and half a continent yeah good to meet you it's typhoon weather here I'm stuck inside my home watching heavy rain and uh and horrific winds but I'm in I'm in my home I don't care/
Shaun
Oh I'm glad you're staying safe out there we're uh bone dry here and have been for for weeks so we got a different weather going on for sure.
Daniel
Good for you.
Shaun
So with with that introduction first of all I'd love for you to tell everyone the wonderful play on words you you told us and then especially I'm immensely curious how did you get where you are I'd love to hear your story just a a brief overview of everything you've done in in uh in language and education and so forth.
Daniel
Yeah absolutely uh I was uh several years ago I was working in San Antonio Texas working for the county of Behar County um as uh as a staff interpreter uh I was school trained as an interpreter at a place called The Monterey Institute of international studies. If you look it up the name has been changed but you know the website will flip over uh to the whatever the current name is Middlebury Institute or something like that. Um anyway of a school trained as a as a court interpreter uh now how I got into that was interesting I was attending a Spanish-speaking church I was uh teaching uh at a uh private sector federally funded school that taught Mexican Farm Workers in Salinas California uh they had a layoff I got caught in a layoff and um my Spanish-speaking pastor and his wife took me out to dinner and uh this is a heck of a story and they said well you know you speak Spanish you speak English have you considered being an interpreter and I said well I don't really think about it and they said okay look go to the Salinas courthouse tomorrow and you will see uh go go where they have all the docket sheets listed in the lobby and you'll see people the state of California versus Villarreal people in the state of California versus coverarubias and so forth. Uh long story short I was trained to be an interpreter Monterey Institute uh got my Advanced Spanish training at the Nam UNAM Branch National autonomous University of Texas in San Antonio and found myself employed full-time as a court interpreter uh part-time I was getting more advanced Spanish training than I pursued a master's degree at the local University and there I did an independent study in Mexico. You know I rode the bus I made I made contact with the uh uh with a uh uh State congresswoman from uh the state of Jalisco Guadalajara you know big Mexican hats right um and um and she connected me to be able to uh interview several people about the Mexican education system which is quite fascinating. Um and uh anyway one of the teachers told me the term pobresor now pobre p-o-b-r-e means poor and profesor profesor with One S is Professor so the whole thing pobresor uh I've translated since to poorfessor. It's uh Mexican slang and Mexican humor uh that uh refers to how how little educators are paid. Uh you know because I met Educators there that um their schools had an AM shift and a PM shift they both were full-time jobs right I met people like a married couple it's like he and she both worked the am shift he and she both worked the PM shift one lady was a was a teacher in the PM and the principal in the AM and then I saw other Mexican teachers who were dancing uh at a Mexican restaurant my uh my hostess there told me uh yeah those are teachers up there you know they're Moonlighting. Okay so I took that poorfessor thing to heart and now that I live in Taiwan I um I almost every year I present and it present at and attend the um ETA-Roc edu um uh English Teachers Association republic of China convention and I will typically present on uh some topic uh to help people uh not be a poorfessor to climb out of Poorfessor status and maybe at least be uh not poor Professor or richfessor or some kind of fessor besides or one uh so that's how the whole poorfessor thing gets started. Um I teach at times I I have what I consider a portfolio career I teach at um uh Taiwanese universities I've taught at some high schools and some private sector schools but on the side uh I do um online teaching I do some copy editing which for the people commonly say proofreading but for all you teachers out there when you correct a student's paper that's what I'm doing but I'm getting paid for it okay um and uh and I'm also available for a Spanish to English translation. Uh and I got to Taiwan I was in my PhD program foreign language education at University of Texas at Austin go longhorns and uh and we got recruited by an fle grad in Taiwan to come teach a special summer program I fell and totally fell in love with the country and I started coming back here uh Christmas and uh Summers for uh language training or part-time work uh etc etc and just to hang out because I really liked it and then I decided to move here I did my research here for my dissertation and I found a part-time work and then a series of uh part-time jobs I'm a permanent resident here now. So that's the long story short.
Shaun
Yeah that is an amazing story I just love how you've been able to uh take your your interest in language and and education and and take it to somewhere you love I think that's just a fantastic show of how uh you can have that freedom there as well just to go where you want to be and do what you want to do with with uh with this online teaching in particular. I think that that's amazing I know that not everything you do is online but you do a lot of online stuff so that that I think that just shows the freedom that you have by doing that.
Daniel
Online is what's happening you know any ways.
Shaun
For sure for sure so we're talking about uh supplementing our teacher incomes by teaching online you've given seminars on it uh but like is it even worth it like should should teachers be pursuing this will teachers make enough money by teaching online?
Daniel
Well now here's here's where uh the audience gets to uh see just what a two-faced hypocrite I really am uh I'm gonna say yes and no and maybe and it depends. Um you know okay uh because you know everybody's circumstances are different okay um you know if you've got a very time consuming full-time job I'm not going to say that um online is not for you but you may want to ease into it on a very part-time basis get good at it um you know and then maybe jump into it uh full time later. Now here's my situation I'm uh I'm planning to retire uh a year from now with American Social Security and um and that um that will uh you know I've done the math and that should support me here in Taiwan uh with my my current standard of living. At the same time I've made a uh I hate to sound really too woo-woo but I made a goal and it wrote it down of adding one student per month from January 2023 to July 2024. So far I'm on I'm on Pace um and uh it's like the secret or something uh the students kind of keep coming and I'm maybe a little bit ahead um in my situation again everybody's different um either the online teaching or the Social Security uh will support me easily. In the meantime I'm working I'm not giving up uh uh work uh but now say this I used to work for a VIP kid that you may have heard of uh big company Chinese company. Um the Chinese government long story short no longer wanted uh American and Canadian teachers from outside the country teaching their kids but when I was there um the money was good uh they were open from 8 A.M until uh initially 10 p.m then it was like 9 00 p.m. There were some teachers that worked seven days a week all those hours uh you could pick the hours you wanted um I I didn't. You know I did evenings after work and um you know weekends for my money making time you know Sunday after church 2 p.m until until uh VIP kids no longer available and so um if you find something that's a plan platform and you can fill those hours um here's where I say it depends maybe and so forth uh depending on your you know where you live your standard of living how much you pay in rent and all this kind of stuff uh you may well make a go of it even with these uh platforms that pay like 10 bucks an hour um you know I've I had one part-time situation after the Chinese government said no more teaching after nine um somebody turned me on to this other company that's now defunct um but they were uh they're paying about ten dollars an hour it's not much but it's uh that kind of adds up you know if you and I are hanging out at Starbucks and then you reach across the table and say hey Dan here's 10 bucks I'm gonna say Shaun don't leave yet okay? Um so it it adds up uh I think it's well worth it uh what I advise teachers to do is get into it don't give up your day job and just say here's my middle finger I'm going online I don't think that's a smart move okay? Um you know make your make your daytime gig your base and ease your way into it uh get some get some instruction on how this stuff works you know vipkid um you know I'll you know if you like Robert Kiyosaki uh Rich Dad Poor Dad um you know he says um work to learn not to earn and vipkid along with some good money they taught me the skills of online teaching uh you know how how to be comfortable talking to the camera how to have uh you know adequate lighting and uh you know and and all that kind of stuff um there are a lot of sources out there. So you know learn the skill and ease into it um you know like I said I'm doing uh uh teaching uh a copy editing and I'm available for translating Spanish to English um and I don't know how many bilinguals are out there but I would suggest pick one one area and get good at it uh for most classroom teachers that would be teaching you know because that's what you do eight hours a day five days a week. Um there's certainly the chance to make uh good money at it you know you you've um you've got to get comfortable with charging what you're worth.
Shaun
Yeah so we're talking about platforms but also you also getting your own students so would you recommend maybe starting with a platform and then moving on towards uh getting your own students or do you think that getting your own students is better or is it depend on your situation?
Daniel
Well it kind of it does depend on your situation but what worked very well for me was teaching for a couple of platforms first you know learn the skill get um you know get accustomed to it uh I've still got um I've still got uh I had two now I'm down to one former VIP kid student uh that I teach and I met that kid through through vipkid. So uh especially if you've never done this before uh you know the platforms will teach you the they'll teach you the trade you know. So yeah start with the platform uh I've not tried cambly but I've heard good things about it c-a-m-b-l-y and there are probably a few others I found vipkid by just doing a Google search uh something like uh ESL online teaching or something you know?
Shaun
I'm not sure if there is any teacher who hasn't found VIP kid with the online search they were pretty aggressive there for a while trying to recruit people. They were they were everywhere it seemed like.
Daniel
They were and they they were killing it.
Shaun
How did you um you said pay your worth uh like charge what you're worth I guess what do you mean by that can you explain that?
Daniel
Well you know like I said that one company was paying ten dollars an hour okay uh that's not much for a professional teacher you know you got the degrees you got the credentials you got the experience it was okay for that circumstance though uh you know I don't have to go find the students the students are sent to me by the company and like I say you know these were adult Learners they're very easy to work with and it's just like you and I are hanging out at Starbucks you can hand me 10 bucks hey that was cool you know yeah uh but you're not going to pay an American Mortgage with that.
Shaun
Right so if you have like a private student you're going to want to charge a higher dollar value which is you have to figure that out but you're not going to charge ten dollars an hour for a private student.
Daniel
You're not yeah I'm gonna say you you wanna you know the the low I mean I hate to you know cite specific rates and stuff with the the lowest I think an online teacher should be charging is uh 20 or 30 for an hour and and many are charging much more.
Shaun
I I definitely agree. Uh yeah there's you know tutoring you can make a killing act uh so just be aware that you know there there's a wide range where you can do online teaching wise and you can charge quite a bit for it if you if you know what you're doing which if you're teaching every day you probably should know what you're doing. Uh let's say that you're you're trying to get the most money you can by doing this what are the most in-demand skills or subjects Maybe?
Daniel
Uh well you know if you look at um some of the people who who talk about this a lot in on YouTube uh they they talk about finding yourself a niche or uh uh or you're I think are you I think our British friends say Niche okay? Find yourself a niche or a niche pick one of the two and um and be very very good at that um but some things that are um some things that are very good are uh Young Learners okay if you're you know good with kids. Uh the advantage of Young Learners is that they tend to stay with you for a long long time. You know I've taught this kid this VIP kid kid and the one I was teaching before him as well um I've taught them for a long time uh I was teaching um in person at a home here in Taipei um I taught these kids from when they were you know the daughter was a kid just a little kid up until they both ended up going off to college you know they tend to keep you along a lot longer um for teaching Young Learners. Uh adults they often are interested in things like test preparation if you're good at teaching uh s-a-t g-r-e uh tests of interest is foreign language the disadvantage with those is um it's kind of a one-night stand you know they come they get their uh they get their training and then unless they are just dying to um uh to keep improving their English for example uh then they're gone okay? Uh so if...
Shaun
You're really good at marketing if you're if you're doing you know someone who's just going to be with you for three six nine months because you have to keep finding more and more clients instead of having a client that comes back to you year after year after year.
Daniel
Yeah you know one of my one of my secrets uh there is a free newsletter called um breaking news English I don't know if you know that newsletter but it's written by a a guy in Britain in fact I think his name is Sean s-e-a-n um and um that has got a remarkable articles tons of games and activities it's got the answer sheet um it's got recordings in American and British English you can listen to I get a lot of mileage um with adults that simply want conversation and they tend to stick around for a while you know because..
Shaun
They stick around to practice or English is that what you're saying?
Daniel
Yeah yeah English is a foreign language uh adult Learners that want uh you know adults they they tend to want one or two things they want uh they have a specific need like interviewing skills test prep skills or they simply want conversation I want to improve by English I want to talk to a native speaker and uh breaking news English is the greatest um subscriptions are free if you uh if you subscribe uh tell uh tell Sean uh you you can send him a little bit of cash if you want to you don't have to but uh you can tell him that the American guy who sent him twenty dollars and eleven cents uh sent you uh and where where what is that? Um my PhD I earned it in the year 2011. so I I sent Sean a one-time twenty dollars and eleven cents with a note saying thank you Sean uh you know your excellent newsletter is enabling me to uh make good use of my foreign language education degree from 2011 so he'll emember me.
Shaun
Yeah I'm sure it's very very memorable donation okay so let's say we've convinced some teachers here to teach online that they want to go for it uh how do you go about you know balancing like say you have a full-time job but then you're also want to teach online how do you handle that?
Daniel
Well the way I handle it is uh I'm I'm uh you know I've got my teaching schedule and I'm very careful uh to uh you know sometimes to avoid scheduling online teaching too close to my quitting time um because uh as we all know you know from the uh from the classroom from the schoolyard uh that's when there's the you know the parent that comes in uh the principal that announces the emergency meeting um you know the the kid whose parents didn't pick them up and you're stuck with little Johnny until Mommy shows up uh so um you want to you want to schedule it carefully you really do you want to you know your your full-time job is one that's paying your rent so uh you you do not want to show those people the back of your middle finger anytime soon. Uh you want to treat them well. Uh so you know definitely make it part-time and then maybe in the summer you can go kind of crazy you know easy you know ease into it. And another thing I advise you to think about um if you're not familiar with the term vesting I I was not for many years when you work with a certain employer for so many years you're entitled to a pension okay uh so uh in your uh at your company and your state Etc. find out when you best uh don't find that uh you know teachers and XYZ State vest at four years and you quit at the three and a half year mark to go online you know finish that fourth year that eighth year whatever qualify for that pension because your older self will thank you for it you know.
Shaun
Some very good advice.
Daniel
Yeah and something similar with Social Security you know get those quarters in you know.
Shaun
Yeah I love how you said go crazy during the summer because I love how this is something that you can ramp up during the summer or maybe if you're working with like a you know a platform I don't know I haven't done them but maybe you can when you have a two-week break for Christmas you can you know take on some more responsibility or something anything because because teachers have time you know we talk about we don't make time that's because during the school year our time is just like crazy uh but then during the summer we have time during the summer If we're honest about it. So we can really use that to ramp up our our income uh by online teaching and maybe you know find enough clients that after that vesting period or you know if we if we decide we want to go online we can use that I think that that's a a really great tip. Alright so uh we're starting to wind down this this awesome conversation we're having um are there any just misconceptions or myths about teaching online that are what listeners should be aware of?
Daniel
Um yeah there's the uh there's the misconception that it is um you know a total Cake Walk um you know? I mean it's I love it it's it's great uh COVID uh COVID now my position is not or people died hooray I'm so happy that's not it but COVID uh forced me as a guy who grew up with manual typewriters dating myself right uh to um to learn how to do things like share screen I didn't know how to do that before okay um you know so uh you know so I've I've got an easier life when I go online however unlike the brick and mortar world where the work comes to you uh you've got to go out and um and go you know kill it and drag it to the cave yourself uh that that's tough you know and students come and go they come and go and come and go uh so you you know you want to build up your financial base the best way you can uh you know save some money have some money save before you go uh full-time uh ease into full-time um uh you know um because like I say students come and go uh unlike your semester job you know they issue you 20 students at the beginning of the year and you're you know you get paid x-hour dollars an hour unless commit a crime or something and you've got that contract for the whole year.
Shaun
Yeah that's a huge Point like the the thing about entrepreneurship going out on your own is that it's all on you right the buck stops here there's no one else doing it for you so you have to be aware of that be prepared for that thank you.
Daniel
And you have no uh you have no control over you know if the parent says well uh you know we really love your teaching but uh Johnny is quite busy with this extracurriculars now so we're gonna have to drop it.
Shaun
Yeah yeah there's very little control in that regard thank you okay so uh do you have any suggestions for for where to go for more information if someone's like I want to do this but where's like a good starting point for someone who wants to start teaching online?
Daniel
Yeah you can go to um there's a variety of um uh like um okay uh go to um uh go to YouTube and search for online teacher dude it's a Canadian guy uh who is a former VIP kid teacher himself uh go to esl365 uh go to Lisa's study guides and uh you can um there's also there are also a couple of really good uh uh really good things on uh what is the guy's name Stephen I believe is ph Stephen worldwide um he's got some good tips about how he made I think it was five or six thousand dollars a month teaching in Korea um you know so you can get a lot of free or uh very low cost information. If you're interested in uh translation and interpretation if you're a bilingual you know I went from teaching to TNI back to teaching um and um if you're interested in that I would suggest going to a website ACEBO that's all caps a-c-e-b-o and the uh the owner is Holly Mickelson she was my teacher at the Monterey Institute of international studies um and you know you can get a lot of I think her I think her tab is resources to get uh get that. uh also AATIA a-a-t-i-a all caps Austin Association of translators uh in Austin area translators and interpreters Association and tagit uh t-a-j-i-t Texas Association of Judiciary interpreters and translators and you can also Google I don't remember their current name but Google Monterey Institute of international studies and it'll take you to the current thing and you can read all about TNI so those are some places to go I strongly suggest uh you know do your research get those um uh get those you know get those free uh those free goodies you know they've got some some great free online courses from those uh YouTube YouTubers that I mentioned and then they've got some courses that are they're not too terribly expensive you know so you can learn the online trade uh before you just go jump into it.
Shaun
Alright awesome those are uh that's a long list of resources so I'm gonna make sure I uh post those in our our show notes so if you want to find the show notes you can go to teachermoneyshow.com podcast and find this podcast and you'll find all of the uh the the links to those things there I'll do all the searching for you so you can just go to that one place to find all those those links that uh that Daniel just shared with us okay two more questions for you Daniel what is your number one tip for teachers to have a richer wallet classroom and life?
Daniel
Uh you know um I would um I would pass on information I took uh many years ago when I was living in California I took a a leadership course from the Salinas Chamber of Commerce and um our guest speaker was the sheriff of Monterey County and I'll never forget what he said he said um learn everything you can from every job you've ever held and then take that into the next job and then take that into the next job I've I've lived by that and it's uh it's incredible I I took my um my knowledge from Radio Shack if you remember them uh I was one of their sales people I took that knowledge into my interpreter job and I was a hero because when we had to transcribe tapes I knew how to connect all the little uh chords to the television and the and the VCR uh you know there's some unlikely connections uh you know but that's that's one thing I would strongly advise. Um I mentioned um uh work to learn not to earn uh so attend conferences um volunteer to teach other things you know run extracurriculars uh you know teach something out of your comfort zone learn more subjects more books uh more textbooks and stuff uh because then you'll have um more things to choose from it's good to have a broad base of knowledge um and then to maybe focus on the niche that's going to work for you. And then the other thing would be uh you know Robert kiyosaki's F.o.c.u.s. follow one course until successful don't try to do everything at once um you know focus on the one thing I suggest teaching and I suggest you know picking a niche to start with you can always expand it or change it so there we have it.
Shaun
That is all it's just absolutely amazing advice go back and listen to that again everybody that was that was awesome. Okay last question uh if a teacher wants to get in contact with you how could they do that?
Daniel
Yeah the best uh uh actually my email is easy probably the easiest email in all of Asia to remember. I'm an interpreter I'm a man I'm an American and here I am online right uh capital i n t e r p r e t e r capital m a n interpreter man all one word at AOL.com americanline.com (InterpretorMan@AOL.com) uh you can also reach me um uh I I'm happy to take uh uh LinkedIn connections for anybody that is uh on LinkedIn uh Daniel Steve not Steven but Steve uh v i Double L that's the Spanish letter A Double R uh that's a Spanish letter e a l uh comma big p little H dot Big D dot plus LinkedIn (Daniel Steve Villarreal Ph.D. + LinkedIn) and you can find my LinkedIn profile and I'm happy to take a connection um request and I and I do some writing on LinkedIn you know there might be some stuff that might be of interest to you.
Shaun
Alright I love it thank you so much Daniel it's so great having you on.
Daniel
My pleasure my pleasure thank you Shaun I appreciate it
Shaun
If you'd like to come on the podcast for coaching to share an expert opinion or just to talk about a topic you think is relevant I'd love to talk to you just fill out the form at teachermoneyshow.com/Guest I look forward to talking with you.