Chinese Tutor â åæ, Primary to Secondary
Most of our students speak English at home. The Mandarin you teach has to be built from the ground up â åŽå and įåūä―æ at Primary, all the way to Higher Chinese in upper Secondary.
Apply to tutor Chinese- S$35 â S$85 per hour
- Part-time contract
- Islandwide across Singapore, or online
Chinese runs on a different clock from the rest of a Singapore student's timetable. The speaking and listening components are taken ahead of the written papers, so a Mother Tongue tutor's year folds into two jobs. The first is all voice â reading a passage aloud for tone, holding a conversation off a video clip, catching meaning at speaking speed with nothing to rewind. The second is paper: composition and comprehension, where the grade is settled. Eduprime matches Chinese tutors to Primary and Secondary students who understand far more åæ than they can produce â children who freeze in the oral room, and whose compositions read like English translated character by character, because the language stopped living in the house a generation ago. In the run-in the two groups pull apart. A standard-paper student is holding a band and keeping the aggregate intact; a Primary pupil offering Higher Chinese is carrying an extra paper on top of the standard one, and needs a tutor who can move from įæŪĩįžĐå to a straightforward įåūä―æ in the same afternoon. The work is bilingual on purpose â explain a æčŊ in English when that is the only door in, then withdraw the scaffolding before the paper does it for you.
Why tutors stay on this subject
- Mother Tongue is compulsory through to O-Level, and the language is cumulative â the vocabulary a child banks this term is the vocabulary they are expected to deploy next term. Families rarely stop after one block of lessons, so the same student often stays with you across levels, and your rate moves up as the level does.
- A teacher with a full class cannot hand every child sustained talking time each week. An hour of one-to-one is built for exactly that, and the two components that decide the speaking marks â reading aloud and the video-stimulus conversation â can only be rehearsed one person at a time.
- For a child from an English-speaking household, the tutor is often the only adult who speaks Mandarin with them all week outside school. That changes what the hour is for: it becomes the one place the language is actually used, and the child hears it fail and correct itself in real time.
- Higher Chinese lifts the ceiling. HCL at O-Level (syllabus 1116) still earns bonus points toward JC posting, and families invest accordingly â tutors who can carry įæŪĩįžĐå and į åĨæđæĢ are matched to assignments at the top of the range.
The role
What the hour actually contains
- Work out which of three things is broken before you plan a term: the child cannot recall the character, cannot retrieve the word fast enough to say it, or knows both and will not open their mouth. Each one is a different term of work.
- Run the speaking block properly â æčŊŧ for tone, initials and finals, then the video-stimulus conversation across all three turns: describe what you saw, connect it to your own experience, offer a view and hold it.
- Train listening at speaking speed. The recording sets the pace, and a student who is still translating in their head falls a sentence behind and never catches up.
- Hold the characters up under éŧå with spaced revisiting, including the student who can pick the right character off a phone's prediction list and cannot produce it on paper.
- Mark composition against the MOE band descriptors and explain the band, so the student knows which band they are writing in â įåūä―æ at Primary, functional writing plus the longer composition at Secondary.
- Build comprehension stamina for the Secondary language paper â cloze, į åĨæđæĢ, the two comprehension levels, and summary writing inside a hard character limit.
- Tell the family where the student actually sits and what the next stretch should target, in plain language.
What we verify before matching you
- Strong command of written and spoken Mandarin, together with a Singapore-standard grasp of the local syllabus â simplified characters, Hanyu Pinyin, and MOE examination terminology. A China or Taiwan curriculum background on its own leaves gaps, and screening will ask you about them.
- Enough English to teach through it. Many of your students think in English first, and a tutor who cannot bridge into Mandarin will lose them in the first month.
- Evidence of your own results or teaching record in the subject â your O-Level or A-Level Chinese and Higher Chinese grades, a degree in Chinese Studies or Chinese Language Education, or a track record with Primary and Secondary students.
- Pronunciation clean enough to model. Yours is the voice a child copies for æčŊŧ â tones, initials and finals, and the pace an examiner expects â so we ask about your own oral background alongside your written qualifications.
- NIE-trained tutors and MOE ex-teachers are preferred and are placed at the upper end of the range, particularly for Higher Chinese and upper-Secondary students.
- Reliability with schedule and reporting. Chinese is a habit subject; a tutor who cancels breaks the routine the whole approach depends on.
- Right to work in Singapore, and willingness to travel to a student's home or teach online.
Pay
What Chinese tutors earn here
S$35 â S$85 per hour
Paid hourly in SGD, on time. Where you sit in the range depends on level and credentials: Primary Chinese sits nearer the base, upper-Secondary and Higher Chinese 1116 near the ceiling, and NIE-trained tutors and MOE ex-teachers are placed at the upper end. Rates are agreed before your first lesson, and we do not adjust them behind your back.
How it works
From enquiry to your first éŧå
- 01
Send us your details
Apply through the contact form on this site. Tell us the levels you can teach, whether you take Higher Chinese, and whether you are comfortable teaching bilingually.
- 02
We check you out
Our team screens your background and verifies the subjects and experience you have listed â your Chinese qualifications, your teaching history, and the levels you have actually taught.
- 03
We find your students
You are matched by subject and area, so the P5 oral student and the Sec 3 Higher Chinese student we send you are ones you can genuinely teach, and close enough to reach.
- 04
You agree the routine and begin
Settle the schedule directly with the family and start. Chinese needs weekly rhythm to work, and our team stays reachable if the arrangement or the student's needs change.
By area
Prefer students near you?
This role is available island-wide. Browse tutor jobs by region.
All locations
Every region and town
ViewCentral Singapore
High demand across PSLE, O-Level, A-Level and IP-track subjects.
ViewEast Singapore
Steady demand for primary, secondary and JC tuition, with strong PSLE and O-Level interest.
ViewNorth Singapore
Growing demand for primary and lower-secondary tuition.
ViewNorth-East Singapore
Broad demand from primary through JC, with high PSLE and Secondary volume.
ViewWest Singapore
Strong demand across all levels; close to major universities for tutor supply.
ViewQuestions
Questions Chinese tutors ask us
I grew up in China and Mandarin is my first language. Is that enough?
It is a strong start, and screening asks for more than fluency. Singapore's Mother Tongue papers run on their own vocabulary lists, their own composition band descriptors, and an oral format built around a video stimulus that mainland examinations do not use. There is also the bilingual side of the job: a good part of the hour goes into explaining Mandarin in English to a child who thinks in English. Tutors arriving from a China or Taiwan background usually need a term to map their fluency onto the local syllabus, and we will ask how far along that mapping you already are.
The oral is behind us. Is there still work in that student?
Yes. Once speaking is done the hours move to the written papers, and that is where the grade is settled â composition, comprehension, summary. Families also come to us at exactly that point, having watched how the oral went and decided the written stretch needs help.
Can I take Higher Chinese students?
Yes, if your own record supports it. Higher Chinese at O-Level (1116) asks for summary writing inside a strict character count, error correction, and argumentative composition. The students carrying it are usually strong performers already, which changes the job: the work is precision â trimming a summary to fit, tightening an argument that sprawls â where a standard-paper student needs the ground floor rebuilt. Tell us your HCL background when you apply. These assignments sit at the top of the pay range.
Most of my students speak English at home. How much English do I use in lessons?
As much as it takes to get them in, then steadily less, and deliberately so. Explaining an unfamiliar æčŊ or grammar pattern in English is fair when that is the only way the child will understand it. What matters is the withdrawal: by the run-in, instructions, corrections and the conversation itself should be running in Mandarin. A tutor who never uses English loses the beginner in the first month; a tutor who never stops has left the child exactly where they were found.
Do you only match NIE-trained tutors?
No. NIE-trained tutors and MOE ex-teachers are preferred and earn at the upper end. We also match undergraduates with strong Higher Chinese results and private tutors with a real record in Primary Chinese. What we avoid is placing a tutor at a level they cannot hold â a Sec 4 Higher Chinese student will expose that inside two lessons.
Can you promise how many students I will get?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Chinese assignments arrive through the year in two visible waves, because the speaking components are examined ahead of the written ones â enquiries climb before the oral, ease off, then climb again for composition and comprehension. Tutors who take both Primary and Secondary levels, and who teach online as well as in person, get matched more often.
Is small-group teaching an option, or only one-to-one?
Both formats exist here. One-to-one is the norm for oral rehearsal and composition marking, where the feedback has to be individual. Small groups suit vocabulary and comprehension drilling, and some families arrange them among siblings or neighbours. The rate is agreed before the arrangement starts.
More roles
Other tutor roles we are hiring
One application covers any role that fits you.
Maths Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewEnglish Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewScience Tutor
Primary & Lower Secondary
ViewPhysics Tutor
O-Level & A-Level
ViewChemistry Tutor
O-Level & A-Level
ViewBiology Tutor
O-Level & A-Level
ViewEconomics Tutor
A-Level
ViewGeneral Paper Tutor
A-Level
ViewPSLE Preparation Tutor
Upper Primary
ViewO-Level Preparation Tutor
Secondary
ViewA-Level Preparation Tutor
Junior College
ViewIB Tutor
IB Diploma Programme
ViewIGCSE Tutor
International curriculum
ViewChinese Enrichment Tutor
Young learners
ViewMalay Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewTamil Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewGeography Tutor
Secondary to JC
ViewHistory Tutor
Secondary to JC
ViewLiterature Tutor
Secondary to JC
ViewPrinciples of Accounts Tutor
Secondary to JC
ViewSocial Studies Tutor
Secondary
ViewCombined Science Tutor
Secondary
ViewArt Tutor
Secondary to JC
ViewMusic Tutor
Secondary to JC
ViewHome Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewOnline Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewPart-Time Tutor
Primary to JC
ViewTeach the paper Singapore households cannot help with
If you can get a child talking before the oral and writing before the papers, there are families across the island looking for you.