Going rate for French classes

[Ron Avery]

Can anyone tell me the going rate for one to one French classes.

 

I have heard that some English French speakers are asking for and getting 25€ for an hour and 30€ for a couple, is this the norm?

I have a French friend in 12, who is thinking about doing courses to help Les Anglais with their spoken French and real day-to-day problems, other than buying a coffee, booking a hotel or buying a train ticket but insists on not charging more than 15€ an hour.  Is this realistic?

[Alan]

Last year in the Gers French lessons by a French Teacher one to one 9.50 euro per hour, think she charged 4.50 per person if you attended the class. Have heard the english that teach round here charge 15 to 20 euro

[Linnorton]

Done properly teaching is very hard work.  For every hour spent teaching it's easy to spend an hour on lesson preparation and if travel is involved there is the time and expense of getting there.  I pay 10 euros an hour to a French lady for conversation but I go to her and she doesn't have to plan.  On the other hand if I was going to teach English (I have a TESOL cert) I would have to plan a course of lessons, test the potential student, define the objectives, etc. etc.  It wouldn't be cheap but I would expect to deliver measurable results.  It's very much a 'you get what you pay' for situation.  Not to mention the money it costs to get a qualification in the first place which in my case was £2,000.

[hoverfrog]

if you are resident in France and have an attestation de droit de securite sociale (all accents removed due to using my other computer!!) you can have free french lessons by contacting the APP (L'Atelier de Pedagogoe Personnalisee)

[Ron Avery]

APP seems to be aimed at the young and job seekers not Les Anglaise en retraite,  in  addition language classes appear to be part of it, not the whole.   If these classes are widely known about, makes you wonder why is the going rate 30€ an hour for French classes throughout the SW?????, yes that is the case   If you have a retired old French teacher for 9€ an hour a) keep her and b) don't let her find out the REAL going rate for French classes.  

[Bones]

Crikey!

My partner's struggling to find work and even though she's French and gained her degree at Manchester uni (thus perfectly bilingual) she hasn't found a single person interested in learning English in 11. She found one Irish lady whom she helped get through a job interview (succesfully) and after that no interest whatsoever.

This place is a desert!!

[Coco]

Round here (Manche) I know of one French lady (not a teacher, but bilingual) who is charging 15€ an hour, another, who has a degree in English and is a French, French teacher (if you get my drift) but not an English teacher, who charges 10€ an hour for one person or 15€ for two, and a friend in the village here, who is French, speaks very good English, and charges 3€ an hour!!!!!

The local college in Saint Lo runs a course for beginners and intermediaries, one school year, two hours on a Tuesday morning, can't remember  the annual fee (which is what you have to pay to sign up) but it works out at 3€ an hour.

For every hour spent teaching it's easy to spend an hour on lesson preparation and if travel is involved there is the time and expense of getting there. 

WHAT????  So who gets paid for travelling to work??!!  TOUGH.  My God, if I had been paid for the time it used to take me to get into London each day I certainly wouldn't have to earn a living here in France now!

Not to mention the money it costs to get a qualification in the first place which in my case was £2,000.

So what?  That's not the student's problem.  And what does £2000 amount to?  I think most students leaving uni these days would be pretty pleased with a debt of that size.  We all had to train at something at some time but you don't add that onto your charges!  Surely that £2000 was spent as an investment in your future career.

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

3 Euros an hour, crikey, that must be a French record ! I thought I had the record ! as two yrs ago I gave French lessons in my parisian HQ's (my local) to recently-landed aussie folks for 2 months in the summer -at the request of the Patron- and charged 1 Pastis for every 1/4 hour (and a Kir Royal at the beginning of each lesson) but obviously I must lower my demands now. Gosh this foutu world's become so tough.

PS: your 3 euros/hour friend, she wasn't a Polish plumber by any chance, was she ?

[Coco]

Well what a coincidence!!!!!  No, she's not a Polish plumber but her husband is a Swedish plumber and she has also done the course - no longer being able to pursue her career as a ballet dancer.  And she did live in Paris before moving to Normandy!

But I bet on that rate of pay your classes were far from "dry" and stuffy. 

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

See ! at those rates I knew she had to be connected somehow to some sort of Polish plumbing activity, well, she was not Polish, well, what the hell, I'm sure she could have been had she wanted to.

I did not so much teach French to the lads as drum into them some key survival phrases for their time in France, ranging from, 'c'est l'arnaque mon pote' to 'Mais ravi de faire votre connaissance, Mademoiselle', via 'alors, on va chez toi ou on reste dehors ?'

[Linnorton]

Sorry Coco but I don't think your arguments begin to stack up.  It's quality of service and value for money that should dictate the price you pay.  I'm sure your bed and breakfast/gite business or whatever is wonderful but don't you build your investment and running costs into what you charge? If you don't it's a very odd way to run a business.

You may be intested to know that thousands  of people get paid travel time and expenses or if self-employed build the costs into their quotations.  I certainly couldn't get anyone to work for me in the UK if I wasn't paying their travel time and mileage.

[parsac]

we paid 22 euro's an hour for our daughters lesson held in our own home last year, well worth it, very good lesson plans and was the only thing that helped her cope with her year in french school.

[Harvey]

I fully support Linnorton posting. In England I taught Adults on a peripatetic basis.  My hourly rate was calculated to include planning, development, delivery and assessment AND ALSO time travelling between locations.  I was also entitled to claim a mileage allowance. Now I am in France, I am teaching in peoples homes. I ask for, and receive, cost for petrol on top of my hourly rate. For me this is normal and acceptable practice.

 

[bizzyliz]

I too heartily agree with Linnorton and Harvey. A tutor travelling to a student's house usually does so for a session lasting only one hour, then goes on to another student for just one hour, and so on....... Travel costs would be prohibitive if an allowance was not made for them. In addition there is obviously the amount of time involved. The situation is not at all comparable to a commuter travelling to London for seven or eight hours work.

[Gooliegumdrop]

Hi everyone

I am a qualified language tutor and translator based in the UK www.francoservices.com (where of course rates may be different to those charged the other side of the Channel), but I would like to outline some of the reasons why you are likely to be charged what you may feel are 'excessive' rates for 1 to 1 language tuition.

My own private tuition rates are as follows: £18/hour during the day, or £20/hr evening or weekend (This does not include travelling time, as students come to my own home).

I charge per hour of my time so will get the same rate regardless of whether I'm teaching one person, a couple, or a whole family.

There is a considerable amount of preparation involved - on average, each hour of lesson time requires approximately 30 minutes of lesson planning. It is not simply a case of the student arriving to a 'what shall we do today then?' The lesson would be very unproductive if I was to work on that basis!

I do also have many other overheads to include in my price structure, i.e. computer, telephone, printing costs, language textbooks and materials, administration costs etc.

Remember that qualified linguists are professionals, which means that they've usually spent 3-4 years obtaining a first degree, and then a further 1-4 years obtaining post graduate qualifications relevant to teaching, translating or both. Not to mention the continual CPD (continual professional development) that individuals in any profession are obliged to undergo in order to stay ahead in their field. You would not expect a lawyer or accountant to work for £5/hr would you? Well if you do, do not expect to receive much quality of service!

Of course, you may find a cheaper alternative in finding someone who just happens to speak both English and French, but who is not a qualified teacher. Again, if this is the case, do not expect to get the same quality of tuition as you would from someone with the relevant qualifications.

Another cost effective alternative is to join a class, where you would probably expect to pay around £2-3 per hour. This is fine, indeed I myself teach a couple of classes a week for Norfolk Adult Education Service (where, by the way, I receive a higher hourly rate than for private tuition), But because you are in a class environment you will obviously not get the same benefits as with 1-to-1 tuition (as explained on my website www.francoservices.com/lessons).

Basically, when it comes down to it, as with most things, you get what you pay for!

Thanks for reading!

Julie.

 

 

 

[YCCMB]

...Out of curiosity, why is this topic devoid of any of the usual moans about people working "on the black", siret numbers, etc., etc?

Presumably, if someone's willing to help you learn the language (and better still, is prepared to do it for less than minimum wage) then that's OK, is it?

As a couple of posters have already pointed out, teaching a language (properly, at any rate) is a job, just like any other.

Seems as though there's a bit of a double standard going on here - have seen threads where posters have been given dire warnings about letting a friend come over and fix their guttering in exchange for a free holiday, taking the bread out of the mouths of honest tradesmen, yet on this thread it seems people are being encouraged/congratulated for finding someone who'll teach them the language for the cost of a couple of baguettes and a croissant!! I'll bet you'd have trouble finding a cleaner for some of the rates being mentioned on this thread!

OK, Vraititi's "lessons" in the bar are one thing, but if you're looking for tuition in a class or 1:1, then why don't you expect to pay a reasonable rate for the job?

Jane

[Richard BrittanyFresh veggies from the garden]

I've just started teaching French to local English people in Brittany. I do not work on the black for obvious reasons and have registered legally and now have my siret number. With all the charges and tax to pay on earnings, if I were to charge ten euros an hour I would only actually earn in the end about four euros. This would make the venture impossible! With the lesson preparation time and the time spent travelling, not to mention the expense of diesel and producing material for the lessons I would actually be making a complete loss of about 3 euros on average!!

Richard

[Quantum]

Dear lovers and loathers of the French language everywhere.

It appears that most Brits want something for nothing, yet we all generally agree that in this life you get what you pay for.

I'm now in my 5th year of teaching French to the expat population in the South Vienne and as I am fully registered in France, I simply could not do my group lessons for any cheaper than 12€ per hour and a half class - this includes refreshments, worksheet photocopying and resource printing. Given my hours of prep and research I feel that this is a fair price and so do my pupils. Never more than 6 per class - 12 is way too large for the proper teaching of French Brits.

In fact more and more of my students are opting for the 1:1 option, for which I unashamedly charge 30€ per hour. And I still never earn enough to start repaying my student loans for my 1st degree and post grad teacher training which were now over 10 years ago!

My students will NOT need French lessons for the rest of their lives. Even after just 1 term, they will be equipped with the essential tools to progress with the language on their own.

What do you really get for your 3€ conversation class? Normally unprepared, piecemeal provision where learners get lots of practice at hearing other Brits speak bad French. And most disturbingly, this actually puts people off bothering to learn French, when after a year or so they wonder why they haven't really moved forward.

I'm not knocking these efforts, as a top up - great. But don't expect miracles. The answer is "Back to basics" and crack on with some good old fashioned but vital grammar. And insist on having this explained in English - total target language teaching is not the most effective method for the average adult Anglophone. If after a course of lessons, you still haven't got a handle on your French DON'T think it's your fault - rather the teaching methods aren't suited to you.

Just want to make the world a better place and making your French skills work for you really isn't rocket science.

Sincerely

Quantum

[email protected]

 

[Gooliegumdrop]

''The answer is "Back to basics" and crack on with some good old fashioned but vital grammar. And insist on having this explained in English - total target language teaching is not the most effective method for the average adult Anglophone. If after a course of lessons, you still haven't got a handle on your French DON'T think it's your fault - rather the teaching methods aren't suited to you.''

 

I couldn't agree more Quantum. Grammar is vital to second language acquisition (as an adult). With the correct teaching methods, this need not be as ominous as it first seems.

Julie

www.francoservices.com