1. Not charging too much - I'm just looking for conversation, not formal classroom-like lessons, so I don't want to pay $20 just for a one hour conversation.
2. Availability - I like to work with the same teachers, so it if a teacher, who I like, is rarely available, I probably won't take future lessons with him/her
3. A teacher that I enjoy speaking with. - There are some teachers that are easy and interesting to talk to and time just flies by.
4. Not speaking too much in my native language
5. Correcting my mistakes
6. Being friendly
7. Being patient
8. Being engaged and asking interesting questions
Doesn't matter much if the teacher is a native speaker or not. One advantage of a non-native speaker is that the teacher had to learn the language formally and it would be easier for teacher to explain grammar rules.
Teacher credentials aren't that important for me since I am just looking for conversation practice.
Student reviews aren't important to me since previous students hardly ever say anything negative about a teacher, even when it is warranted. Also, after a few lessons, I know whether I want to keep working with a teacher.
For the English language,
- Price: new teacher = $10 / experienced teacher = $20 or more
- Accent: both = a native speaker from major English speaking countries (the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.)
- Lessons per student: new teacher = don't care / experienced teacher = 5 lessons or more
- Credentials: new teacher = TEFL certificate / experienced teacher = a teaching degree plus real-world teaching experience.
- Behavior: both = don't use bait and switch tactic (offer a super low price for trial lesson and increase the price without any announcement on teaching profile.)
- Lesson planning: both = show that you will prepare something for the lesson.
I always wonder what other people look for in a tutor on Italki, so I will be interested to read the other answers! Here is what I, as an intermediate/advanced student of Spanish, look for on here. I have primarily used conversation tutors on Italki and most of my lessons have been conversation based.
1. Price. I typically use pretty inexpensive tutors but everyone is different and will have different preferences.
2. Professional competencies. I love seeing a list of things they can help with or a list of lesson ideas.
3. Experience with students of my level
4. IInterests in common so that we have something to chat about. I like for them to be somewhat quirky/unique/interesting to talk to.
My answer can be quite irrelevant because i have experience with native speakers and and teacher and those from my own country. I have few indicators that i look at.
1.Video, in your i don't like that fact u're too serious, for me in the introduction video u should show your passion for teaching and something what is important for you. You mentioned something about travels but to be honest for first time i totally forget about it in the end, this information seems irrelevant though if you don't show where you've been to or what experience had impact on your life.
2. Experience- U don't show anything about your experience in teaching, u mentioned in your text presentation that you've been teaching for over 6 years but u didn't mentioned it in your video and I still don't know about your previous students success stories. By that i mean u should show for example ''I've been teaching over 200 students toward fce exam with great success'' Just a little sentence can encourage potential student to give a try.
3.Prices- For beginner teacher it's always better to set prices arround 10 dollars, if u don't have incredible portfolio, your video isn't impressive and u have only few lessons people will choose someone else who is basically cheaper and has good feedbacks.
4.Lesson- student ratio - If i see a teacher who has approximately 10 lessons for one student i will choose him over someone with 2 lesson for one student.
