Teaching English online: Palfish
As of May 2025, PalFish is actively hiring online English teachers.
I suggest Teaching for Palfish if you want an easy, fun, part-time gig you can do from anywhere.
It isn’t the highest-paid platform, but it is one of the most convenient because you can do it from your phone.
Official Kids courses pay $12 an hour.
Palfish is a great fit for someone who wants flexibility because they let you teach from your phone or your tablet.
The company lets you teach using a Wifi connection from anywhere in the world, so this is an excellent opportunity for a digital nomad. If you want to travel and explore the world, Palfish is a good fit. If you want a higher paying company, I suggest looking here.
This post is geared towards native English speakers who want to teach kids classes. If you are a non-native speaker and interested in setting your own rates via Freetalk, click here.
What students do I teach on Palfish?
The students on Palfish are usually Chinese kids from 3 to 12 years old. In my experience, students tend to be quite young. You will excel at this platform if you can entertain and teach phonics (sing the ABCs, teach basic reading) to a five-year-old for 25 minutes with fun stuffed animals and stickers. Make sure you have a fun classroom backdrop!
Woof!
Woof!
Hello!
Palfish will give you 100 Yuan (around $20) once you’ve been approved to be an Official Kids Course Teacher. This money is for you to go spend on props. You can absolutely buy all the props you need with this, as a simple stuffed animal, whiteboard, and whiteboard marker, and some stickers are enough for you to get started. You can buy all this at a Dollar store for probably less than ten dollars if you are located in the USA.
Palfish hires people to teach two kinds of classes.
- Freetalk classes are conversation classes with adults. You do not need to be a native speaker for these! You set your own pay. Learn more here.
- Official Kids Classes are courses for children.
See below for more information on pay and incentive rates.
You can also teach LIVE stream classes, called LIVES. You set your own rate, and students purchase your LIVES.
Palfish Pay
Palfish pays you per 25-minute lesson. The pay depends on how many points you make each month.
You get points for each lesson taught during Peak Times, for no lateness, for no absences, and so on. The more classes you teach and finish with on-time grading, the higher your points will be each month. This is an incentive pay.
Teacher requirements
Requirements for the Official Kids Course on Palfish
- You need to be a native English speaker
- You need a TEFL or TESOL certificate
- (from the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand). You need the citizenship/nationality of one of these countries to pass the online check of your requirements
You do not need:
- You do NOT need a degree.
- You do NOT need teaching experience (but it is welcome).
What time do I teach on Palfish?
To be successful at Palfish and get lots of booked classes, you should be available during Peak Teaching Times in Beijing (PTT Beijing Time).
- Monday – Friday: 5:30 pm – 9 pm
- Saturday – Sunday 9 am – 9 pm
Minimum hour requirement to teach
- 4 hours a week during peak hours
How to Apply
Step 1
If you don’t have it, you should get your TEFL or TESOL certificate. Either one is fine and you can read here about the difference between the two. This costs about 30 dollars and can be done online. Click here to learn more.
Step 2
Sign up to the Palfish app on phone with your phone number.
The phone number you use to apply can be from any country. I am American and have a US number but I applied while I was in Romania. I signed up with my Romanian phone number, and it was fine.
Step 3
Set up your Palfish Profile
Username, name, and upload pictures of your teaching certificate and work experience and write a lovely profile.
Step 4
Schedule an online demo class. The interview is easy. You teach a lesson and interact with them as if a child waster. There won’t be a child there! You have to pretend you are teaching a kid.
Be sure to mount your phone or Palfish on something!
Hot tip for phone mounts for Palfish: for free, you can take an egg carton and cut it in half to make a phone mount.
Here are some tips for practicing for the Palfish demo class and for making your Palfish classes more engaging for your students.
SUCCESS!
That’s it! You are all set up and ready to be booked for classes!
If you don’t immediately get booked, then here are some tips for how to increase booking on Palfish.
For great reward ideas, check out my Palfish Reward Blog Post where you can download reward systems straight from my site.
Every day our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. We should tread softly.
Ken Robinson
Also, you can check out other online ESL companies by scrolling through my handy ESL company comparison chart.
