*NOTE* DaDaABC is no longer hiring and has gone out of business. For more opportunities to teach English online, check out these helpful guides:
» Best Companies to Teach English Online
» Platforms to Teach English Online to Korean Students
» Platforms to Teach English Online to Japanese Students
As of the end of July 2021, changes have come to affect DaDaABC and all online tutoring companies based in China because of recent laws affecting China’s after-school tutoring industry. The primary changes include decreased demand/open teaching hours, pay cuts and the loss of jobs for foreign-based teachers (teachers that live outside of China).
Essentially, China has outlawed the employment of foreign tutors/teachers who do not reside in China. I believe this means a complete end to online English teaching jobs from companies based in China, like DaDaABC. But some are trying to pivot to an international market to work with students outside of China.
For example, PalFish is supposedly hiring again, as stated in a post on their official PalFish Facebook dated from December 2021. However, from what I can tell, no movement has actually been made to begin hiring teachers again.
If you’re still interested in teaching English online, I recommend checking out these other opportunities that aren’t based in China:
There’s little information about the fate of these once popular tutoring jobs on the internet, causing a lot of confusion amongst aspiring teachers. So I’ve left this guide up to provide this heads up/update to those still searching. Thanks!
Written by Eddie Kingswell
I started teaching English online with DaDaABC in 2018. It was the first paid English teaching job I ever got and it has allowed me the flexibility to work from the road (quite literally as I teach from our van). Here’s my honest DaDaABC review and guide for teaching online with DaDa.
What Is DaDaABC? Is DaDaABC Legit?
Yes! DaDaABC is an online English language school for Chinese students between the ages of four and sixteen. It’s an extracurricular course for children taken after regular school hours. DaDaABC is based in Shanghai, China, and students are (almost) exclusively based in China too.
Classes with DaDaABC are one-to-one, providing optimal conditions for teaching and learning. Furthermore, you teach the same students week to week, allowing you to develop a deeper relationship with students.
DaDaABC uses its own online teaching platform, which allows for video conferencing with your student and the ability for teachers and students to interact with pre-loaded lesson materials provided by DaDaABC. The provided lessons contain all the required material, questions, and exercises for each class and guide you through the lesson with your student. This means that teachers are not required to prepare their own materials. Lessons run for 30 minutes allowing younger children to stay engaged for the whole class.
For teachers, DaDaABC provides the stability of a fixed schedule and the flexibility of a one hundred percent remote role. The job is popular as a supplementary job for traditional classroom teachers, part-time work for university students (who already have one degree under their belt), and of course as remote work for travelers like myself.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, if you click my links and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Learn more on my disclosure page. Thank you for your support!
DaDaABC Teacher Requirements
DaDaABC requirements for applicants are:
- You must be a native English speaker
- You need a college degree
- You must have a TEFL certificate
- You need to have a clean background check
- and prior teaching experience is preferred
Firstly, applicants must be native English speakers. DaDaABC has been know to accept teachers from these countries; U.S., U.K, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and South Africa.
The second requirement for applicants is that they’re required to have a bachelor’s degree (in any field). This is a strict requirement at DaDaABC which they say allows them to provide the high standard of education their clients demand.
No degree? No problem. Peep these companies that hire online English teachers without a degree.
English teachers also need a ‘teaching English as a foreign language’ qualification (TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, etc). These qualifications are readily available online or as classroom-based courses.
TEFL courses range in quality and price. There are relaxed online courses to more expensive in-person classes. Affordable online courses are totally acceptable as long as it’s at least a 120-hour TEFL. In-person classes are also fantastic, but more geared towards teachers who wish to pursue English teaching as a career in an international school.
A fourth requirement for DaDaABC applicants is a criminal background check. This background check has to be provided by the applicant before they are able to begin teaching.
Prior experience teaching English will certainly give you a leg up in the application process however it is not essential. Rather, DaDaABC aims to select the best candidates through an interview and mock class. Preparing well for this stage of the application process is the most important step in securing a job offer.
Need a TEFL certificate?
iTTT TEFL is a fantastic TEFL provider who’s been in the biz for years. They offer a ton of course options, at affordable prices. All of their courses are accredited and because they’ve been around for so long, they’re a name that schools know and trust. Learn more via Brit’s iTTT review and save 20% when you apply via life of brit’s link!
Equipment Needed to Teach English Online With DaDaABC
Technical DaDaABC requirements for teachers are fairly straight forward. Firstly, teachers require a computer with a webcam. Secondly, they need a headset with a microphone. Thirdly, teachers will need to download DaDaABC’s software or use Google Chrome to access the web portal.
The final technical requirement is access to a stable web connection (wired is preferred). DaDaABC will check the connection as part of the application process. They may also ask to test the teacher’s internet connection during the course of employment, particularly if a student makes a complaint about a teacher’s internet stability.
I have been able to carry out this job for two years without any major issues using only the mobile hotspot internet connection on my (entry-level) smartphone. Granted some forward planning may be necessary when on the road to make sure I always have good phone reception for classes. Traveling Australia, for example, we use a mobile signal repeater to boost weak signal in remote areas.
What Are Peak DaDaABC Teaching Hours?
DaDaABC is based in Shanghai, which means peak teaching hours are after school between 6 pm and 9 pm Shanghai Time (GMT +8) Monday to Friday. Classes are also run on weekends between 9 am and 9 pm Saturdays and Sundays. DaDaABC hours can fluctuate, and the platform regularly opens time slots as demand increases during, for example, school holidays.
Teachers are required to commit to at least two days per week, and a minimum of 10 hours per month so students can access more lessons with the same teacher each week.
Generally, you can open up as many hours as you like within these teaching periods. And from time to time more slots open up to cater to extra demand.
Once you have opened up timeslots you will be allocated trial classes which can be converted into regular students. When you start, it may take some time to develop a stable roster of regular students. This will depend on whatever is happening with supply and demand behind the scenes (an aspect of DaDaABC which is frustratingly ambiguous for teachers) and a teacher’s ability to convert trial classes into regular students.
During my time at DaDa there have been periods where many more hours have been made available and all time slots have been full. With COVID, the platform saw a ton of demand because students were home while the schools were closed.
And now, students seem to be hard to come by as students have returned to school and DaDaABC has started offering unstructured language exchange courses to students at a cheaper price. But for the majority of my time at DaDa, my capacity has fluctuated somewhere between 50% and 80% timeslots booked.
What Does DaDaABC Pay: $15 – $23/hour
Online English teachers often find that their DaDaABC salary can vary quite a lot. I’ve earned as much as $23 USD per hour and as little as $15 USD per hour teaching for DaDaABC. One baffling and frustrating part of teaching English with DaDaABC is the frequent and complex restructuring of pay schemes.
As a teacher, there is little option but to accept new contract terms as they are rolled out. Right now, presumably as a response to COVID-19, less student demand, and greater number of displaced teachers and other workers applying for online teaching positions, DaDaABC has lowered the base pay for all their current teachers to $15 USD per hour, prorated.
It’s important to note that teachers with DaDa are considered independent contractors, so no tax is taken out of your pay. You will need to pay taxes yourself in accordance with your local tax laws.
DaDaABC Bonuses + Pay Scale
There are, however, a few ways teachers can earn bonuses. When a student purchases a course after their trial class with you, you can earn $7 per converted student. There are also bonus levels which are paid as you teach more hours, called step bonuses. Step bonuses increase in steps between +$1 per hour for 0-20 hours per week up to +$5 per hour above 60 hours.
A ‘stability factor’ is applied to the pay rate based on the number of regular students (0.95 – 1.03). On the other hand, there are also harsh penalties in place. Pay is significantly reduced if a student cancels class, if the teacher is late or if the teacher needs to cancel the class.
You can also earn a pay bonus for recruiting other teachers to teach with DaDaABC. This bonus is paid out when a teacher signs up with DaDa using your special code, and then successfully passes the interview.
DaDaABC Payment – How Do Teachers Get Paid?
Payments are sent out on the 15th of each month and typically made through private bank transfer. But DaDaABC also has the capacity to make payments using Payoneer, which is the same type of platform as Paypal.
My original contract was negotiated in Chinese Yuan, but more recently pay rates have been set to US Dollars. Payments are made in US dollars too.
Sign up with Payoneer via this link and receive a $25 reward after your first $1,000 in payments.
Pros of Teaching Online with DaDaABC
With DaDaABC, I’ve been able to teach from places all over the world using nothing but my mobile phone hotspot and laptop (a practice not strictly endorsed by the company but so far I have had few complaints). Most of the time I teach from the back of my van. I have taught English online from the beaches of Mexico, the jungles of Peru, and some of the most remote regions in Australia.
The integrated platform with lesson materials and interactive tools like drawing tools makes teaching a breeze and means there is no extra work preparing lessons outside of teaching hours.
Teaching one-to-one is wonderful. It allows for a great learning environment for students. It also fosters a deeper connection between teacher and student which can be a more rewarding experience for teachers and promote better learning outcomes for students. That being said, if you do get a particularly unenthused student it can be challenging to try to engage them every week!
Cons of Teaching Online with DaDaABC
One negative aspect to working with DaDaABC is the lack of teacher support. DaDaABC is a large company which works with large volumes of students and teachers. While this can sometimes work in your favor, getting help or support can be challenging if not impossible and most queries are answered with a template email.
The frequent changes to salary and pay schemes are something many people from English speaking countries may not be accustomed to. Rules and pay scales are often and seemingly arbitrarily changed without much recourse for teachers.
The only guaranteed timeslots Monday to Friday are between 6 pm and 9 pm Shanghai time. To get regular students, it’s essential to be available during these times. Depending on what part of the world you are in, this can create an extra challenge if those times fall late at night or very early in the morning.
Check out more common pros and cons of teaching English online.
How to Apply to DaDaABC: Application Process
Once you have met the minimum requirements, the application process is straightforward.
First you fill in a brief online application form and upload your supporting material.
If you’re successful, you’ll be invited to have an online interview with a recruiter. The interview will include a mock class. This is the most important part of the DaDaABC application process, and proper preparation for your mock class can help you secure a job offer.
If you’re offered a position, there is a short onboarding process that is mostly conducted through online learning modules.
You can apply to DaDaABC online here*.
My Honest DaDaABC Review: Do I recommend DaDaABC?
Yes, and no.
This is an honest DaDaABC review, so sadly I must share that recently job conditions have deteriorated. There have been a few pay restructures that have negatively impacted the English teachers who’ve been with DaDaABC for a number of years, which is truly a shame. There are also less time slots available and new bookings have been pretty infrequent.
Although a downturn is probably something affecting most sectors globally at the moment, it’s still a tough pill to swallow for teachers who’ve been loyally teaching for DaDa for years. Compounding the recent slip in working conditions is a lack of communication and support which is unfortunately normal for this school.
Despite recent developments, if you’re looking for an entry-level online teaching job, this is an opportunity to get your foot in the door with a company that still offers relatively competitive pay and good working conditions. The workload is also pretty light since DaDa provides all course material so all you need to do is show up and teach. The one-to-one classes are also a pleasant experience so you can get to know your students better and have less classroom management to cope with.
With Dada online teaching, you can provide a meaningful learning experience for young Chinese students, while enjoying the benefits of a remote working arrangement, and it’s still one of the best companies to teach English online. But you can check out places like Indeed for even more DaDaABC reviews to see if it’s right for you.
*This is my personal referral code! If you apply to teach English online with DaDaABC using this link, I receive a small recruitment bonus. As thanks for using my code to apply, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about the interview process or the job in general. Just email me at [email protected].
Author
Eddie has traveled through his home country, Australia, a large swathe of Asia, Russia, Europe, and extensively through South, Central, and North America. His style of travel is, at best, flexible, instinctive, and adaptable. At worst, a crapshoot that often ends in disaster. His long history of missing flights, getting lost, medical emergencies, getting robbed, getting poisoned, and other near-death experiences have left him with a long list of pitfalls to avoid and things to watch for in exotic places all over the world. Now he travels overland in a converted van with his partner and fellow travel addict Kelli. They record their experiences through their blog, The Vanabond Tales.
Follow on Pinterest and Instagram
Thanks for the other resources. I taught with DADA and it was a fairly good experience.
Best to you!