Palfish Teacher English Tutor Reviews

I taught for PalFish for 3 years. What was once a beautiful place to work for where you got paid fairly and had good relationships with teacher admins has changed completely. After the Ministry of Education in China changed their rules on foreigners teaching ESL online pay has dropped to an unlivable wage for most people. Teacher and student customer service is almost non-existent because of lack of staff. The company no longer cares about well-being of teachers and I haven’t heard of a successful appeal for real emergencies in about a year. Instead, when my home was in range of a forest fire and I was suddenly evacuated during the night I was told I should have found somewhere to teach that morning (it was impossible- im in a small town. There was nowhere to go and cell service was barely operable and main roads out of town were closed. I was never reimbursed for fines - teachers in the Philippines have been fined for cancelling while there have been serious life threatening typhoons threatening their homes and families. It’s all very sad. If they do pay enough for you to live in your country then great! But, don’t expect to be helped or feel cared about as a teacher when it comes to the company itself. If PalFish ever gets its act back together I’ll happily change this review. Until then, I feel people should be informed while considering to work for them.

Before people start with the excuses saying "Oh they're being picky." "There are a lot of applications right now and they're choosing the best." Let's start with how there are VERY FEW Black teachers on PalFish. It's like every 100 white teachers there's 1 black teacher. If you're black don't even apply. I have wasted money and time. I was told repeatedly to keep trying. I know people are going to invalidate me because I'm not the model minority (I'm black) so when black peoples call out racism we are using the race card or etc blah blah. When in China I have friends who are black that cannot get any shelter due to the Coronavirus and Chinese stores and restaurants in China explicitly banning them. When you're a black person calling out racism you get to be told that "Maybe you're interview just wasn't good enough. Maybe if you were lighter or prettier." The corporation behind PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor is racist. Don't waste your time black people.

The “sound test” will be used for their new children’s program, it’s a pure scam to get native speakers to dub their new app for free. The only way to get paid if you don’t live in China is to sign up for a third party payoneer account which charges you a fee for inactivity, so if you aren’t making money you will lose money. Also, THERE IS NO DELETE BUTTON FOR TEACHERS. Your profile will be up forever, but don’t worry, they promise to keep your information private, after they use your sound test to make money off you forced without paying you the royalties you deserve!!! STAY AWAY, there are much better options out there for teaching English online. Companies like this are why no one trusts anything that comes out of China. Just another stereotype getting confirmed here.

They paid their teachers competitive wages at one point. I was successfully teaching for more than 4 years, and had complete 5k class hours. But the dishonestly along with the pay cuts was not only a factor in my leaving, but an enormous let down that a company I once loved had become what it is now: a complete failure. They are failing their teachers for sure as they pay so little now. However, it -s much worse when you realize they are failing the students as well. Parents and teachers share screenshots of schedules, showing clearly what the teacher thinks they are opening fir availability, is wrong. Deception and bad news with e dry decision they make, concludes a zero recommendation for this company an employer as well as an edu actor.

I used to really like waking up at 4am to teach with PalFish. I worked with them for over three years and was a well established teacher sometimes bringing in over $3500 a month. Even before the changes in China happened things started to go downhill. Pay cuts, fines for silly things, making you watch silly videos on how to teach. Anyway in early 2021 I had to cancel 7 classes as I needed emergency surgery. I appealed with all my documentation and was told sure you will get your money back. Months passed and no money was reimbursed to me. Finally one day 12 months after my appeal I decided to ask again for the money I was owed and in return I was sacked and my account was deactivated!!! Thanks PalFish 👍👍
So if you are thinking about teaching with PalFish my advise would be….don’t RUN, RUN, RUN!!!

Palfish has become a complete joke. I was a teacher here for two years and used to make $30/hr. I really enjoyed teaching the kids and was the #2 ranked teacher in the company in 2019. It was a great job for traveling and working remotely. Recently, I decided to start teaching with them again and unfortunately realized very quickly that the company has become a total scam. They advertise that you will make $11-$17 per hour which is a huge deduction from their previous pay rates. THEN, when you begin teaching, you actually only make $8 per hour ($4 per class). Palfish has gone from being a good, fair company to work for, to a falsely advertised scheme. Also, they are now outsourcing most of their teachers to the Philippines and literally pay them $2 per hour ($1 per class). This is a horrible and unethical company! Do not waste your time with them.

After 3 months I've made 0.90 cents. When trying to start your own classes, they barely get approved. If your phone is on silent and someone calls, it still rings and bypasses your silent mode. When you do a class, it's pretty interesting to hear the comments and questions of the Chinese students, who by the way are mainly adults. But, you may easily get banned like many, if your call gets monitored and you answer political questions. I've already caught a lot of sexuality in the forum. So, I also take it, this is some how being used as a dating app more than a make money and teach. Don't have a problem with it as everyone are adults posting on the forums. But, I guess it beats paying a dating service, as here you get payed when contacted and plenty of girls are constantly posting with their accounts clearly stating they want to meet only English speaking men. And guys only want to meet English women. Over all, not to bad, but, you won't make much money. Perhaps you'll make enough to buy a candy bar after a few months of use. Your better of getting a real online teaching job based out of the US, CA or U.K. That way you have an actual class with already assigned students and a guaranteed paycheck that provides an actual living.

I just finished a year of teaching on Palfish. The platform uses Pearson - Big English curriculum. In general, it is not bad curriculum. But some of the modifications that the company makes to it are not very good. The company does not understand what it means to do a proper assessment of the child’s learning level nor do they understand how to properly place a child according to the level. They fail to understand that as teachers we must teach according to the child’s needs. Instead they are insistent that every slide, regardless of its relevance or need, be taught to the student. There is no communication between the platform’s “head teachers” and the English-speaking teacher who is teaching the classes. The company also practices some unethical behavior, such as telling a student that a teacher doesn’t want to teach them anymore so that they can move the student to another teacher. If the head teacher does not like an English teacher they will also file a complaint against the English teacher and say it is from the student’s family. Many teachers who teach on the platform do not have any teaching experience or qualifications. Having a college degree is not required. Teachers are expected to be more entertainers than actual facilitators of learning. Overall I would say it’s one of the poorest platforms for teaching.

PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor is great for beginning teachers. The lesson plans are already made minimizing the amount of work you’ll be required to do. However, there are many bugs and inconsistencies with app, first thing being that it glitches out a lot and causes issues for teachers during lessons. PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor holds teachers responsible, and even though there is an appeal option it costs you money and hardly ever does someone’s claim get approved. Send one thing, parents and students can leave a teacher rating/comment, but you won’t be able to see it unless the student posts it to your main page, so you can have your score lowered and be in the dark as to what improvements need to be made. To add to that you will never see the score someone rated you with. Also some of the slides are racist because it’s Chinese curriculum. So I just don’t recommend using PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor . Use VIPKids or Daadaa

Have a great time being a teacher on here I myself have dyslexia and having a disability where students can except me and understand I’m not perfect but still appreciate what I’m able to offer also learning from the students that I teach they are very understanding and compromising now as far as the platform it has major glitches that can cost you I don’t do this job as a main income anymore due to these glitches that has been very disappointing to try to fix or to explain your case they do not pay you back as quick as they take your money and no matter how many screenshots you have if they feel it’s a time frame within their timeframe of their updates and them fixing their app without giving you a notice or the students a notice and you’re involved with can’t except calls can’t text can’t upload your lessons due to these issues they will not take responsibility so this job is only A good job for those who don’t take money too seriously and just want to have fun teaching and learning Chinese culture from the students this is just my perspective but I hope you have a blast and whatever choice you choose and if you have been a teacher and able to work with these glitches kudos to you and keep up the awesome work alright y’all have a good day

This company has a lot of potential but it’s definitely a hit or miss. There are some teachers that become highly successful but it doesn’t pan out that way for everybody. In the beginning they’ll send you trials but after that it’s up to you to market yourself. Everyone markets themselves the same way, yet everyone gets different results. The lessons are decent and flexibility is great. But there are huge fines for being late or having to cancel a class due to personal emergencies. The goal is to get “regular” students that you teach daily by selling packages, which doesn’t happen that often. I’ve referred people that need extra income. But for me the money wasn’t worth the time, dedication and effort that I put in.

PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor is great for someone who is looking to make some extra cash. I’ve mad 2000 Yuan, $300USD, in just 2 weeks of teaching. It is very easy to use, the lessons are already planned out for you. All you have to do is show up and teach them! My schedule is staying pretty full, on slow days I still teach 2-3 lessons. This is a great opportunity for stay at home parents OR college students. I did take off one star because there is one kind of major con. PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor can be very glitchy. And that can sometimes cause you to lose money. It has only happened to me once, and you can easily appeal the error. But if it happens on a weekend you’re stuck waiting for a few days for your appeal to be approved or rejected. And you also have to pay 25yuan per appeal you file. So it’s a bit of a gamble. Other than that, it is a great app and I highly recommend it !

PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor is a lot of fun, and you absolutely can make money if you put the time in, but it won't be at a rate competitive with typical jobs or even other tutoring jobs. There are strict rules, but they're easy to remember--avoid controversial topics, and don't share social media information. I personally don't mind the pay hit because I see it as a compromise for being able to work from home on my own schedule, whenever I have spare time. I think that's a fair trade ^_-

I’ve been working for PalFish for 8 weeks. The first 3 weeks I only taught freetalk and made over $130. Then I joined the official kids course, and within another 3 weeks I had earned more than $1,500 additional! I know there are some people who earn money doing freetalk exclusively, but my personal experience is that the kids course is where most of the money is at. After my first full month of the kids course (and my third paycheck from PalFish), I will make over $2,100. The best part? I’m making money from home and don’t have to put my daughter in daycare! This is the best job I have ever had!!

I have been using PalFish for over a year and have taught almost 1600 hours. This is my main source of income and my pay has been steady still the beginning. Most people that have issues with PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor are not willing to put in the work. Yes, there is a lot of “unpaid” work...but we are self employed. PalFish provides the platform we teach on. It is up to us to attract students. I see teachers daily bash PalFish, I’ve never had an issue or any problems at all and I teach daily. I love having the freedom to work a few hours a day (early morning) then I’m done until the following day. I have the freedom to choose my own hours, I have the freedom to make as much or as little money I want in a month. This job isn’t for everyone.

PalFish is a great platform for those wanting to teach ESL. Its been so enjoyable for me to share the English language with children in China. With PalFish you need to work to get your students but there’s lots of support from experienced teachers. Some new teachers complain that there’s not enough students, but I’ve been given a steady stream from the Sales Staff. If you’re putting yourself out there and engaging the students, they’ll help you get the students!

Mostly I’m writing because I just read a really negative review of palfish! I started in December. It was slow at first but I quickly was approved for the official kids course. I made $400 in December and $1400 in January. This is just a side gig for me, I work as a full time language teacher during the day. I usually teach for two hours in the morning before school and occasionally I teach evening classes.

I admit that there are some frustrations with PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor , mainly because some of it is in Chinese. It helps to be experienced in learning another language so you know how to navigate a language that you don’t understand.

I would only recommend this job to people who are approachable and experienced in teaching. It is not ideal if you are immediately relying on the income because it takes a while to build up your student base.

I’ve been working with PalFish as an OKC teacher for a month now! In my first three weeks I made $1000! I’m anticipating making almost $1600 in my second month! You have to market yourself and bye a lot of props but ultimately has enabled me to make an income while staying home with my baby!
I live on the East Coast of the USA and peak hours are 5am - 9am on weekdays and the weekends tend to be pretty busy. I really love what I do and I’m so excited to continue this incredible and fulfilling career!

I see someone reviewed PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor and I can see they’re probably just mad. I’ve made $400 in a week, working maybe 2-3 hours a day. You can easily make bonuses. You are comped for cancelled classes, and if there’s a no show, you still get paid the full amount. The children are amazing beings and very smart. I’ve never seen someone talked to wrong. No one asks me wrong questions or anything. I love PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor and the people it comes with

With an ESL teaching background (experience and education), you can do well. I don’t do the official kids course. Downloaded PalfishTeacherEnglishTutor and applied a few days ago. Two days of making myself available and I earned $16. Much easier than marketing myself to international students and immigrants in my city. Talked to a few people that are in different life stages with different abilities. Love the freedom to teach via an app!