Ringle Review Summary

Ringle only hires ‘native-level’ tutors from leading US/UK universities, though it requires no TEFL/TESOL certificate or teaching experience. They offer reasonable pay, one-on-one adult classes, lesson materials, and schedule flexibility, though bookings can take time and their screening process is strict.

Ringle Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Flexible schedule
• No minimum hours requirement
• No TEFL/TESOL/CELTA required
• No teaching background required
• Other paid opportunities available in Content Creation, once established with the company

Cons:

• Strict and competitive application process
• Must have attended an elite US or UK university
• Need to demonstrate some professional experience relevant to their students
• Can take time to attract regular student bookings
• Adult students only, will suit some but not those who enjoy teaching children

What Is Ringle Tutoring and Is Ringle Legit?

Ringle is a legitimate English tutoring company founded in 2015. They are based in South Korea and their students are adult professionals working across Asia. Ringle prefers hiring teachers who have attended elite/Ivy-League universities in the US or UK, with 60% of its 400+ tutors coming from Harvard alone. Once you’re established with them, Ringle also offers paid opportunities to create content as a Lesson Packet Writer, Lesson Audio Recorder and Webinar Tutor.

How Much Does Ringle Pay?

Ringle tutor pay is US$9 for each 20-minute lesson and $15 per 40-minute lesson. As unpaid written feedback time follows each class, the corresponding hourly base rate amounts to $15-18 per hour, though with promotion this can increase to $20-21.

You can be promoted from Level 0 to 5, with each level bringing a pay rise of $1 per 40-minute lesson ($0.60 per 20-minute lesson). Promotion points are earned for each lesson you deliver, student reviews of your lessons, and student ratings of your feedback reports. You will lose promotion points for tutor cancelations (of less than 24-hours notice), no-shows (over 2/3 minutes late for a 20/40-minute lesson), late feedback, and low student ratings. Here is how many promotion points you need to reach each level:

• Level 0: 0-30 Promotion Points
• Level 1: 30-300 Promotion Points
• Level 2: 300-900 Promotion Points
• Level 3: 900-1800 Promotion Points
• Level 4: 1800-10000 Promotion Points

Ringle payments are sent weekly via PayPal. US tutors have to pay a transfer fee of $0.25, whereas Non-US tutors are charged 4.4% plus a currency conversion rate of 3% above the base exchange rate (though for the latter, Ringle will cover half/2.2% of the transaction fee). You must earn a minimum of $90 before requesting a withdrawal.

Ringle Bonuses/Incentives

Ringle offers a $20 bonus to new hires if they conduct 10 lessons within 2 weeks of completing orientation.

You can qualify for other bonuses once you reach level 1. Incentive Type A (worth an extra 5% on top of your weekly earnings) is earned by maintaining an average rating of 4.5 or more and completing 10 lessons in a week. Incentive Type B (another 5%) is earned simply by teaching 20 lessons per week.

There are also one-off incentives; for example, once you hit 400 promotion points you’ll receive a $50 bonus.

How Do I Become a Tutor on Ringle?

Ringle Requirements

To apply, Ringle tutors must have:

• Recently graduated​ from or be enrolled in a degree at an elite US or UK university
• Native-level fluency in the English language
• Great communication skills including an ability to facilitate discussions, hold conversations, and be attentive towards speech

Teaching experience and a TEFL/TESOL/CELTA certificate are NOT required.

Not mentioned on their website, but appearing on Glassdoor, is Ringle’s position that ‘Although we do take an applicant’s school & degree into account to an extent, we are more interested in their professional experience: many of our students are looking to work in Western companies & actively seek out tutors with experience in their industry.’ Ringle lists the following companies as employers of their students, so if you can demonstrate some related work experience in these sectors it would be beneficial to your application:

Ringle Tutor Application

There are three stages to the Ringle tutor application, which can take around 2 weeks to complete:

1. Submit an application (10 minutes)
2. Schedule a mock session (20 minutes)
3. Attend an orientation session (40 minutes)

Begin by signing up on the Ringle website with your name, email address and password, or by linking your Facebook or Google account. You’ll then be asked to provide the following information regarding your educational and professional background:

• School (college/university)
• Major (degree subject)
• Expected graduation year
• Proof of Education (degree certificate or enrollment letter)
• Resume (Your uploaded file size should be below 8mb)

You should receive a decision within 2 business days of submission. If your initial application passes their review, you’ll be invited to schedule a Ringle Mock Session.

Ringle Mock Session (Ringle Interview)

If your application passes the company’s review, you will be invited to deliver a 20-minute Ringle Mock Session to an interviewer who will pretend to be one of their students. They will offer you advice and tips to improve, and you will have an opportunity at the end to ask any questions about the company and the platform. Expect to be asked about your work and educational experience, and why you applied/want to become a Ringle tutor.

To help you prepare for the Mock Session, Ringle provides access to teaching resources on their site. They also offer the following 5 tips to be successful:

1. Teach in a quiet and private location to minimize distracting background noises and disturbances.
2. Use a fast and stable internet connection (connect with a wired ethernet cable instead of wi-fi).
3. Ask your student for feedback throughout the session with questions like “Does this make sense?”, “Are these the sort of corrections you wanted?” and “Would you like to change the lesson style at all?” This gives you a better understanding of your student’s needs and goals, builds rapport and helps the student feel acknowledged.
4. Provide constructive and honest feedback. More than positive affirmation, Ringle students are looking to better understand their linguistic weaknesses and want practical advice on how to improve them. Avoid being overly critical or personal by instead critiquing the language and not the student, e.g. “This phrase sounded unnatural,” rather than “You sounded unnatural.”
5. Be yourself and show your enthusiasm for teaching the English language.

In addition, be prepared to provide paraphrasing suggestions, as reported by several interviewees, as Ringle says its ‘students are primarily looking for alternative phrases and language that help them to sound more sophisticated and advanced’.

The most common reasons why candidates are unsuccessful, according to Ringle, are:

1. a lack of strong corrections and paraphrased sentences during the Mock Session
2. a lack of evidenced professional experience in the resume
3. a highly competitive applicant pool

Furthermore, in response to a Glassdoor review and why that particular applicant was turned down, Ringle states that they are ‘interested in their [candidate’s] professional experience: many of our students are looking to work in Western companies & actively seek out tutors with experience in their industry.’

If you do pass the Ringle Mock Session, you will be sent an email providing access to the site’s Orientation process.

Ringle Orientation Session

The final stage is the Ringle Orientation Session, where you will have to watch three short videos which introduce you to the site, their students, and teaching with the company. Pay attention as you will be tested afterwards through a short quiz. You should complete everything within 40 minutes, after which you will be able to set up your tutor profile and begin teaching.

The first two weeks of teaching serve as a ‘grace period’ where any strikes are wiped out as you learn the Ringle way, while older, supportive students are invited to book lessons with ‘Rookie Tutors’ to help provide constructive feedback.

Working for Ringle

Ringle online teaching is carried out one-on-one through 20 or 40-minute lessons over Zoom.

There are no minimum hours and teachers schedule their own availability. Students can either book specific tutors or request to be assigned to one by Ringle. You can also agree to take on ‘unassigned classes’ (last-minute cancelations).

Ringle students are professional adults working in a variety of industries in Asia. Being mature students, they tend to be dedicated, aspirational and keen to engage and learn.

Teaching materials (‘packets’) are provided for Ringle English lessons. 20-minute classes will be discussion-based around debate and conversation. For 40-minute lessons, students can choose to focus either on discussion or correction.

To avoid penalties, feedback reports must be submitted within 24 hours of the lesson’s scheduled start-time (150 words for a 20-minute class, 250 words for 40 minutes).

Here is a recorded extract from a Ringle English lesson:

Ringle Reviews

The Ringle Glassdoor page gives the company an average rating of 3.7 out of 5 (at the time of writing), with 74% of reviewers willing to recommend them to a friend. Most of the positive reviews there are fairly short and tend to highlight the flexible schedule, minimal prep, and incentives that are available.

The most comprehensive, and negative, Ringle review on Glassdoor criticizes the company’s punitive strike and rating system which sides with students over their tutors (accommodating student tardiness whilst upholding unfair student reviews), the rate of pay, lack of formal training, and unresponsiveness to tutor concerns. To this last point, and in fairness to Ringle, they took the time to fully respond to this and every other review on Glassdoor (which few companies bother doing), and they claim they have appointed a Tutor Relations Manager to address many of these concerns. Here is the review in full, along with Ringle’s reply:

Conclusion – Is Ringle Worth It?

As there are fewer online ESL companies catering for adult students, Ringle has to be considered if you prefer this type of teaching, so long as you have gone to a leading US or UK university (if not, look elsewhere). The pay is above average, and their incentives and PayPal subsidy also help. While schedule flexibility and no minimum hours are advantages, they also don’t guarantee high booking rates. Ringle’s relative transparency is refreshing, however, in what can at times appear like a clandestine industry, and their willingness to engage with tutor concerns makes them worth considering.

You can apply to Ringle here.

A full list of other online teaching companies can be found here.