Cambly. What is it and how did it start?

Updated June 10th ’24

I’ve been with Cambly for just over a year now and this is the question I get asked most often. “Cambly? What’s that?” So in this post I’m going to amswer that question!

Cambly is basically a way to earn money working from home. It’s not a scam, it’s not a con. it’s a company that matches up students that want to learn English, with tutors willling to teach them.  Before I go into how to join Cambly and what you can earn, here’s a little backstory….

How it all started.

Cambly was founded by two former Google engineers in San Francisco, Kevin Law and Sameer Shariff. It is a language learning platform that matches students wanting to learn English with tutors via video call.

While the Cambly name was purchased in late 2010,  it first appeared on the net in early 2013. The following is an extract from Kevin Law’s blog dated Wednesday June 13 2012…

I’ve always liked learning languages. I studied french in middle school, high school, and college. I never had a chance to visit France until after college though. I feel like I learned more french from 8 days in France than I did in a whole semester in college. Before that trip the only conversations I had in the language were with classmates who spoke the language just as poorly as I did. In France, every little mundane conversation I had was a better learning experience than every conversation from all of my classes. Whether I was checking into my hostel or asking for directions, I was constantly being exposed to words and phrases that I didn’t understand. After some confused looks and hand gesturing, we eventually understand each other, and I walk away with a bigger vocabulary.

I want to build something that simulates that experience without requiring the time and money it takes to fly to a country where everyone speaks the language you’re learning.  I’m just getting started, but I’ll post more here as I make progress

You can actually see the very genesis of Cambly in that one blog post. A small idea in 2012 has turned into one of, if not THE largest language learning platforms on the net!

Can anyone join and how much can I earn!

The only stipulation when joining Cambly is that you are a native English speaker. Although to be honest I’ve come across loads of tutors that, while they have good English, are definitely not native speakers! There are no qualifications required and joining is as easy as filling in the online form and then recording a video of you promoting yourself to the students. “Hello, I’m Alice and I’d like to help you learn English….” You’ll usually hear back from Cambly within a week or so, but some tutors I’ve talked to have waited up to a month.

OK, the important bit, money! You’ll earn  $10.20/hour *(£7.24/ €8.45) on Cambly and $12.00/hour (£8.51/€9.93) if you decide to tutor children on ‘Cambly Kids’.  Please note, you are only paid for the time you are on camera. Once you log in, you can take a Priority Hour, (which means you HAVE to be available for that hour), but  if you spend 40 minutes waiting for calls and 20 minutes on camera with various students, you are only paid for 20 minutes. Your money is paid every Tuesday into a Paypal (or other online payment) account. As a side note here, I have always received my money on time and it has alwyas been the correct amount.

How easy is it?

Cambly is a work from home opportunity and it involves being on camera and talking with foreign students that want to practice their English, you just set up your computer, log in and wait for students to call you. A quick word of warning here, while some students  just want to have a  conversation, you will also get students that want to learn grammar  or practice idioms or phrasal verbs. So it will help if you have a basic knowledge of English Language.

While this was a quick start guide, if you want more detail of what tutoring for Cambly actually involves, and some tips for applying check out these posts..  Your first class   Your application video

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment for us in the section below or contact us on Twitter @camblytutors

Until next time. Alice.

“I was just giving myself some good advice”

*Rates correct at date of post.