Teaching chose me before I chose it. I was the person in every group project who ended up explaining things to everyone else, the one friends called when they needed to write something important in English, the one who stayed after school to help classmates with grammar. After finishing my Education degree, I taught at a private school in Naga for three years. I loved the act of teaching but the salary made it impossible to build the life I wanted.
I found OnlineBestJobs.ph while researching online tutoring options. I was not sure if there was a market for one-on-one ESL tutoring through a general remote work platform, but I posted my profile clearly: TEFL certified, three years classroom experience, specialising in Business English and professional communication for non-native speakers. The enquiries came faster than I expected. My first student was a Japanese business executive preparing for a series of English-language presentations. We worked together twice a week for four months.
He referred me to two colleagues and the referrals have not stopped since. I now teach eighteen hours per week to a roster of ten regular students from Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Brazil — primarily professionals who need English for career advancement. My hourly rate is four times what I earned as a classroom teacher. I design my own curriculum, set my own schedule, and invest in continuous professional development because the income now makes that possible. I still live in Naga, close to my family, doing work I love at a standard of living I once thought was years away.
