I Teach, You Learn

So apparently I'm a Spanish tutor now, I stopped tutoring ESL about 2 months ago...mostly because I hated waking up early on Saturday mornings and I didn't feel like I was being effective. But it's the experience that counts. About 2 weeks ago I recieved a random call from someone who had looked my name up in the university database looking for a Spanish tutor. I hadn't been expected to get called mostly because I figured that there must be plenty of able Spanish tutors and there was no reason why they should pick me just from looking at my name in the database. Well, it just so happens that there are only 3 people in the database for Spanish and only one has a spanish-sounding last name- mine. I have one of the most typical names, it's as common as William Smith. I've crossed the line that divides volunteers and non-volunteers. All those months I tutored ESL I did it for free because volunteering is cool. But I get paid to tutor now and I'm having a really tought time accepting money.

I got offered another Spanish tutoring job throught the Office of Indigenous Services at uni and I'm meant to meet the guy on Thursday. I don't know how much I'm getting paid since the tutoring program is government funded. The government can either go all out and spend heaps of $ or be really stingy. I think my case falls in the latter category. I don't care really. I feel better about myself if I get paid next-to-nothing for doing good things. But I feel even better if I get paid heaps to do something really crappy like answer phones or file crap. It's even better if the $ just magically appears in my account instead of in cash.

I'm in the market for a French or Portuguese tutor but can't afford to go through the database at uni because the tutors are expensive on a student budget. Post-graduate students get to charge the most for tutoring...I just thought the amount was absurd and couldn't bring myself to charge my student that much for just talking to him and elaborating on grammatical issues in his speech. Someday real soon I'll charge a proper amount. When I take my tutor training wheels off I'll do it.