I have been working for Landi for a year (start date: 29th October 2017) and been very much part of the Facebook teacher’s community ever since. Landi English is one of the leading online real-time language course providers in China but I feel it doesn’t get enough attention on Facebook in the online English groups so I decided to dedicate a whole blog to Landi. I am not a recruiter and will not be earning any money unless you sign up to be a teacher through my referral link which I would appreciate (only citizens from Britain, Canada, USA with a TEFL /TESOL certificate). SIGN UP HERE.
I have worked for and tried out many online companies (more than 10: check out my other blog: Review of English Online Companies) but Landi has been my favourite out of all the companies. I earn the most with Landi and I have felt the most supported here. There is a great support network of teachers on Facebook and also on Dingtalk, you are welcome to ask questions and not feel like you are dumb for asking (this has been a rare experience in my online teaching career). They organise games and competitions where teachers receive gift cards, I have won quite a few of these games since I have been with Landi.
Teaching Hours
You teach two classes an hour and the classes are 25 minutes long. The teaching hours are between 18:00-22:00 BJT weekdays and 9am-12, 13:00-17:00, 18:00-22:00 weekends. The peak hours are between 18:30pm-21:30 daily. Most of the time you will be teaching 2 students.
Landi is based on a fixed schedule and you have to offer a minimum of 12 hours as an EXP teacher and 18 hours as a REG teacher. You are able to change your schedule once per contract (6 months) although they don’t mind it if you want to be adding more hours.
You can become an Experience or a Regular teacher, Exp teachers only teach trial classes for new students and REG teachers will teach regular students but occasionally may be able to teach EXP classes when there is a demand.
All teachers have their own personal operators who become their supervisors. I have had 2 in a year and my operator just been changed recently so she is the third one.
Time Off
You are allowed to take 14 days off per contract, in case of emergencies if you have to take time off when you already have bookings, there are serious penalties but you can use two overrides a month if you have a doctor’s note for example. I did have to teach once when I had a very bad sore throat as I didn’t want to have the penalties and did not have a doctor’s note. One other time I had to go to the hospital but was able to prove with a note and had no penalties at all. Just like all other companies, they do have penalties and expect teachers to be reliable and professional.
Penalties
For 1 Contract Period (6 months)
Leave Restrain 0.5 warning (per day, after 14 days)
Incomplete Lesson 0.5 warning issued (per instance)
Emergency Leave 1 warnings issued (per instance)
No Call No Show 2.5 warnings issued (per instance)
AWOL 2 warnings issued (per instance)
Fail to clock in 2 warning issued (per instance)
Negative Comment Rate (Benchmark: NCR within last 20%) 1 warning issued (per month)
Class Rules 0.5 warning issued (if violated) Management Rules and Regulations 0.5 warning issued (if violated)
There are teachers who complain about the penalties and the constant changes but I have never had a penalty and I think if you are punctual, organised and a great teacher with good feedback it’s pretty unlikely that you will receive penalties or you will be able to use an override. Landi has changed a lot since I have started and it continues to improve, it can be hard to deal with the changes at times but personally I appreciate that they are always aiming to become even better although sometimes their communication could be a lot better for sure, I would appreciate to be consulted a bit more before they introduce a change.
There are two platforms, Landi 1 and Landi 2. I only used to teach on Landi 1 a year ago, Landi 2 has been operational since about May 2018. The majority of my lessons are on Landi 1 but you will have the most bookings if you are trained to be able to teach on both platforms.
There are Bonus Systems in Place:
Negative Comments Rate ≤ 0.7%
# of Finished Slots Range Associated Bonus
231+ $ 500 211-230 $ 400 181-210 $ 300 151-180 $ 200 111-150 $ 120 70-110 $ 80
& Full Attendance Reward
- Do not have any leave record for the month (including standard leave)
- Have no cancellations for the month
- Have a nil attendance issues record for the month (No late starts, early finishes or incomplete memos)
- Log in to the teaching platform and enter the first lesson of the day 5 minutes before the scheduled start
time, for each teaching day of the month.
Award Bonus: 1 USD for per finished slot
There is also something called the professionalism bonus but this didn’t exist when I started and I count it as part of my pay as it was when I started working for Landi and I have never not received it. There is a potential for a raise every 6 months but their raise system needs working on, you need to be in the top 10-20% every month to get a raise and for that you would need to work more than the minimum hours which I have only started doing so I have not had a raise for a year.
EXP Teachers
You need to offer at least 12 hours a week and 10 must be at peak hours. EXP teachers get conversion bonuses per student converted. You don’t get paid for your slots that don’t get booked by students but you get a fixed slot rate depending on how many EXP classes you teach whether your slot gets booked or not. If the students don’t turn up after 5 minutes, you will not get paid, will only receive your slot rate.
As an EXP teacher, the memos (feedback for students) are very short and can be done while you are teaching so you have 5 minutes free time between lessons. As you teach the same classes every day, there is no need to prepare although it can become a little boring after a while to teach the same classes. You are teaching different students in every class. The potential Landi students are put into different pools when they sign up for a trial class, you will get more reliable students who are more likely to turn up to class if you are liked by students and convert more students.
At the moment I don’t recommend to be an EXP teacher unless you are exceptionally good at converting students and you stand out as a teacher because of the unreliability of not being paid if students don’t show up but they are collecting feedback at the moment and working on their pay structure for EXP teachers and will hopefully be changing it in the near future. However, some teachers love being EXP teachers and would not want to be REG teachers. If I had a choice, I would like to do both permanently.
REG Teachers
Your schedule is set by 6am (BJT) on Monday for the week ahead but you can choose to be a replacement teacher, which would be different. This would mean that you can get a class 5 minutes up to your given availability but you would get an extra $2/slot for extra bookings. You get paid for your booked slots even if the student doesn’t show. I offer 48 slots a week and usually more than 90% of them are booked every week.
You need to prepare for all your classes but you will be teaching the same class a few times a week, I teach the same classes on Mondays, Tuesdays and then a new class on Thursdays, I teach many different classes on Wednesdays and Fridays which require more prep work.
Writing the memos take longer as you have to write an individual feedback to all of your students, I am able to do this between classes but it means that I don’t get a break at all which can be pretty draining and eating between classes is not easy, pretty much impossible.
I am a regular teacher so I teach the same students every week. I have built a great relationship with my students and most of them are adorable and cute. Most of them are really hard working and after a year of teaching them, I am able to have short conversations with them, I have a few students who are a bit more challenging but most of them are little stars.
Landi has started more and more new initiatives to get teachers involved in other ways not just teaching like becoming mentors and editors. I am also a proofreader now and will be a mentor from the end of December as well.
My Visit to Landi HQ
I was very lucky to be invited to take part in a promotional video shoot and was able to meet Landi’s CEO, staff members and even one of my students in September 2018. So in the following, I will explain what I have learnt from this experience.
On the 29th October, 2018 Landi officially became the first internet education strategic partner of CCTV-1 (1.2 billion viewers), I am also in the CCTV video which I will post on here once I have the link.
LANDI Stands for Learn and Discover
Landi’s HQ is based in Hangzhou, China and has been operating for 2 years. Landi grew out of ABC 360 but the main difference between the two is that Landi only employs native speakers while ABC 360 employs non-native teachers as well. Landi has many employees and many teachers around the world.
The CEO is lovely and his vision is to prioritise not only the students but also the teachers. Many other online companies put the students first and forget about the teachers and don’t show their appreciation, Landi is different. He wants every Landi teacher to be happy and he would love to know that more teachers see their job as a career other than just a part-time job. He would like to develop more opportunities for them so that Landi may become a full- time job for some. He is very happy to receive feedback and continuously seeks to improve the company, he is a down to earth, friendly man and has a lovely family, 2 of his boys are Landi students.
Most online companies start with a grant from the Chinese government. Many online companies in China are not prioritising their budgets well and spend way too much money on for example branding and instead of making a profit they are losing money. Landi is wiser with their budgets and they have started to make profit because of their peer model.
Most Chinese parents will spend 20-30% of their family income on extra curriculum activities for their children. To be able to study with Landi comes with a high cost so most students come from upper-class families. Education is very important to Chinese parents and Chinese children pretty much study all day then take extra classes in the evenings, they are tired by the time you get to see them in your class.
We were also fortunate to meet Harvard Professor Eric Mazur who designed the main strategy that Landi is based on which is peer study. Compared with the 1-on-1 class, peer study improves students sense of competition and improves the efficiency of cooperative learning.
Landi Teachers Tip:
- Make sure that you download Manycam, it’s a great tool to use to make your lessons more fun especially if you are not able to have a creative background.
- Use props for engaging the students visually.
- Don’t cancel booked classes unless you really have to.
- If you are an EXP teacher, you can become famous at Landi HQ which would mean a lot more bookings if you are different like you could play the ukulele or think about other creative ways of standing out.
- Get to know each of your students so that you know their likes and how they learn the best.
- If you are a REG teacher, make sure that you review whether the students have practiced the previous lesson/s, I do this by showing pictures/flashcards on my tablet at the beginning of the class.
- Be active and get the students to interact physically so that they stay awake.
- Be energetic and enthusiastic but keep a balance with being a professional teacher, always correct the child’s pronunciation mistakes and if the student doesn’t take part or misbehaves, make sure that you note it in the memo so that the parents know, they are paying for these classes.
- Set up a Transferwise account if you want to have better exchange rates and less foreign transaction charge.
Sign up to become an Online English Teacher with Landi.
[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tOTFm63QZs&t=181s” ]
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