I Found the Way to Easy Money for People Who Love Talking
Only for the daring, desperate, and people whose voices can melt hearts
I’m a community tutor on italki. Elbert — from the Philippines, wanted to book me for an English conversation lesson. His request, however, caught me off guard. He wanted to do the lesson through me sending voice notes and him replying via text.
Voice notes? Weird.
Now, if you’re a woman on any language learning app, you know that it’s crawling with creeps. (I can’t speak on behalf of other genders.) There are instances where teachers start a lesson only to be met with a ‘student’ sitting in a dark room jerking off. (Should I be *trigger warning* this?)
“Why?” I dug deeper.
Elbert replied that he lives in a shared home with too many distractions, noise, and no privacy. Fair enough, I thought.
He needed someone to practice English with, and I needed the cash. It was $7 for 30 minutes of voice notes. (That’s about RM30, easy money). Plus, a lesson through voice notes meant that I was able to multitask. It’s a total win.
We swiftly scheduled a time and a date. I start to look for some common ground and topics for the lesson.
“I like listening to podcasts,” Elbert tells me.
Okay cool. “Do you have any recommendations?” I asked.
This is where things actually started to turn uncomfortable.
Elbert replied, “Yeah, one of them is The Aha Podcast, the other one is Your Own Magic.”
He continues, “The female hosts have a really soft voice. When I listen to these podcasts, I get a… personal situation, a secret.”
Hold up. Is this a voice fetish? What is he trying to say? Is he talking about having an erection? Being aroused?
“What type of secret?” I ask, hoping that Elbert wasn’t planning to use my voice messages as audio porn.
He dodged my question and replied with, “I don’t have any female friends in real life. I wish I had some for some reason.” Poor Elbert.
It was never outright like “Hey, I have a kink for voices.” But little red flags add up, and the fact that he booked the lesson for 1:30 AM was concerning too.
Now I don’t know if my alarms went off for the right reasons, but not taking on this lesson gave me a much better peace of mind. If you, reader, are up for it. Know that there’s a market for it.
The thing with languages is that there’s always a possibility of miscommunication. Sometimes we give them the benefit of the doubt.
Side note: Once, I was doing a language exchange with this middle-aged Japanese guy. We were talking about yoga, and he asked me if I had a “soft body.” I ended the call within the next 10 seconds. A few weeks later, I finally realized what he meant was “flexible.” In the Japanese language, 柔らかい (yawarakai) all mean flexible, soft, and tender. Easily lost in translation.
Anyway, if you’re in fact the Elbert who messaged me on italki, and you’re reading this, hi! If I’ve completely misunderstood your intentions, that’s… too bad.
*Names are changed for obvious reasons. I never confronted him about it. I only reported him under possible harassment and misuse of the platform.
Hello! If you’ve made it to the end of the page, thank you so much. I truly appreciate it. Leave me a comment, and I’ll return the favour! — by Ashley.
