The Complete Guide to Teaching Online with Landi

With so many online ESL companies to choose from, finding the right company for your needs can be hard. That’s why ESL Authority has created a series of guides to tell you everything you need to know about the most popular ESL companies to choose from. 

In this guide, you can find out all about Landi English, a Chinese ESL company that offers peer study lessons to children aged 5-10. Keep reading to find out more about Landi English and how you can become a Landi teacher. 

About Landi

Landi is an online English teaching platform designed for children aged 5-10. Based in China, Landi helps children to learn English through peer study and specialized English lessons based on subjects including Math, Science, and Language arts. 

Landi was established in 2017 and has since become a popular choice among online English teachers. Let’s take a deeper look at Landi and find out more about what the company pays, what’s expected of teachers, and what working for Landi is actually like. 

What are the requirements to teach for Landi?

Landi’s English teacher requirements are very similar to many other Chinese companies with one main difference: they don’t require teachers to speak English to a native level. 

The official Landi teacher requirements are: 

• Teachers must have a neutral accent
• Teachers must speak English at an idiomatic level
• Teachers must hold a Bachelor’s degree or above
• Teachers must hold a TEFL/TESOL/CELTA or an official teaching certificate
• Teachers with experience are preferred
• Teachers should be creative and energetic
• Teachers should have excellent communication skills

Usually, when a company is open to hiring teachers that are non-native English speakers, this usually has a negative impact on the pay rate. However, this isn’t the case with Landi. Let’s take a look at what Landi pays its teachers. 

What does Landi pay?

Landi’s pay rates are fairly average when compared with similar companies. However, they do have quite a wide pay scale, and if you get offered a rate at the lower end of it, you may not be too happy with what you take home. 

Landi teachers can be offered anywhere between $12 and $21 USD per hour and there may be an opportunity for teachers to climb the pay scale the longer you work for the company. 

Teachers will be offered their starting rate during the interview process, so you can either accept that rate or try to negotiate for higher if you think that your qualifications and experience warrant it.

What is the interview process for Landi?

In order to apply to become a Landi ESL teacher, you will first need to prepare an ESL  resume or CV that highlights your relevant qualifications and teaching experience. Then you can head to the Landi website and follow these steps. 

Step one – Submit your CV for review 

Your CV will then be screened by Landi staff to ensure that you meet the minimum teacher and tech requirements 

Step two – Interview 

If your CV passes the screening stage, you’ll be invited to a virtual interview with a Landi staff member. They will ask you some general interview questions and discuss the contract and pay rates with you. 

Step three – Training and trial class

Once you’ve signed a contract you’ll then work through some training in which you will learn all about the Landi platform and how to use it. At the end of the training period, you’ll be asked to complete a mock class to showcase what you’ve learned. 

Step four – Orientation and profile completion

If all goes to plan in the mock class you can then take some time to complete the Landi orientation and complete your teacher profile. This is what your students will see when they are looking for a new teacher. 

After all those steps are complete, you can officially start teaching classes. With Landi, the teaching staff arranges classes for you based on your availability, so all you will need to do is sit back and wait for your first classes to be assigned. 

Want more details?  Check out this video from Landi:

What’s it like teaching for Landi?

So, now you know a little about what Landi pays and what the interview process is like, let’s take a closer look at what you can expect when teaching for Landi, starting with…

Landi teaching platform 

Like many online ESL companies, Landi has a custom teaching platform that teachers use to manage their schedules, conduct classes and interact with the admin staff and other teachers. 

Within the platform, teachers are provided with slide-based lesson plans for each class. If you’re not a fan of planning, this is a good thing. However, many teachers online complain that Landi lesson plans are uninspired and painfully repetitive. If you’ve worked as an online teacher for another company before, you’ll know that this is a trait of most online ESL companies. 

Landi also runs a chatroom called DingTalk which allows teachers and admin to interact and ask questions about the job role. 

Landi Schedule

Since Landi is aimed at Chinese children aged 5-10, most classes take place between 6:30 PM and 9 PM Beijing time Monday-Sunday. There may also be some hours available during the day on the weekend, but I can’t find this officially listed on the Landi website. 

Teachers are expected to commit to at least 3 hours, 4 days a week or 12 hours across the week in total. As far as I can tell, these hours are decided in the interview stage, however, you may be able to change them upon request.

Landi Classes

All Landi classes will be with students less than 10 years of age. Unlike some other leading ESL companies, Landi classes are always 1-to-2 and not 1-to-1 as they use a teaching method known as ‘peer study’ which argues that students learn more when they have another student to share ideas with.

Landi English reviews

Landi is one of the most popular companies to work for after SayABC and VIPKid, but if you’re thinking about applying it’s worth taking into account what other teachers think about the company. Below is an overview of Landi English reviews from past and present teachers. 

The Good 

There are tons of good reviews online about Landi. Some teachers have had very positive experiences with Landi claiming that the company and the staff do well to support aspiring ESL teachers. One teacher wrote “ Many great reviews about the support and HR team, great support, open-minded, positive, character-building within the company and very sufficient by meeting protocols and standards. 

Training within the company is incredibly good and fixed by the schedule. They’ll help you with everything from using the teaching platform to know your students, from child development to ESL teaching methodology.”

Some teachers also praised the pay rates and the speedy interview process.

The Bad

Despite having a few good reviews online, Landi also gets quite a lot of negativity from teachers. In fact, Landi only scores 3.2 out of 5 on Glassdoor, which is quite low for a company of this kind. Many teachers complain that the company often changes its policies, terms and even pay rates. 

One teacher wrote “All of the teachers have been told to either agree with the new policies or leave. The pay dropped substantially.” Another teacher also reported “constant changes in the contract.”

Overall, it seems that Landi teachers all have different experiences, but prospective teachers should look out for changes to their pay rate and check their contracts carefully before signing. 

Resources & FAQs

If you want to learn more about Landi, you should check out the company website to confirm any official information that you’re looking for. If you want to find tips and guidance on how to get hired at Landi, there are tons of YouTube videos on the subject. Landi English has it’s own YouTube channel and creators like Teacher Alisha also give some good advice. 

If you’re still looking for the answers to some key questions, the FAQ section below might help you. If not, feel free to drop us a comment and we’ll help you out if we can. 

Can you teach without a degree?

Unfortunately, you can’t teach for Landi if you don’t hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in any field 

Do you have to be a native speaker? 

No, not necessarily. Landi only requires that its teachers have a neutral English accent and speak English to an idiomatic level.

Do you need a TEFL? 

Yes, you are required to hold a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA certificate or a teaching certificate from your home state.