Yes, Palfish exists and is still operating. Despite the ban on hiring foreign teachers from overseas to teach kids English in mainland China, teachers continue to conduct Palfish freetalk lessons with adults.
I’ve updated this post Aug. 6th 2023 as I received many messages from current Palfish freetalk teachers. They say Palfish is still going strong, though not hiring currently. (If you are looking for a company hiring now, go here.)
What is Palfish now?
PalFish is the same basic set up ass it was a few years ago. It is still an application for iOS and Android that lets you (the teacher) teach English classes to students directly from your phone or tablet.
PalFish has three main types of teachers:
Free Talk Teacher
Free Talk Teacher is the position available to teachers today. As a free talk teacher, you will primarily teach adults and you set your own rates.
Students choose you from an array of other teachers. You aren’t constrained in any way and you create your own content.
You don’t even need to be a native speaker to be a Free Talk teacher. You should, however, hold some form of teaching certificate.
Palfish Instructor
As a Palfish official teacher, you teach the Palfush curriculum to kids. You are paid $22 USD/hour plus bonuses.
You have to teach a minimum of ten hours a week.
To be hired, you must be a native English speaker and also hold a certification such as the TESOL or TEFL or your country’s Teacher’s certificate (such as a teaching certificate from your state.)
You don’t have to be American! Palfish hires teachers from other English speaking countries such as Canada or New Zealand. Unlike VIPKid, Palfish does not market itself as teaching American-English. In fact, its lessons often use British English. So, feel free to apply from the UK, or even Ireland, or Australia too.
PalFish Filipino Teachers
Palfish hires English teachers from the Philippines to teach their kids courses, even though many other companies consider “non-native” English speakers.*
The Filipino teachers still must have a TESOL, TEFL, or similar license to teach English.
*If you are a Filipino teacher and want to work for Palfish, you should also check out Jason English and read more here. For Filipino teachers, rates vary between 115 pesos per hour to 225 pesos per hour with the opportunity to increase hourly rates.
So, does Palfish exist? Yes, Palfish in all forms is still hiring.
The regulations didn’t affect Palfish because the new regulations were intended to curtail companies profiting from teaching school curriculum subjects. Palfish does not claim to teach school curriculum-level English. It operates in the edutainment field and therefore was not affected by China’s ban on hiring foreign ESL teachers.
