Monster: I’m actually not trying to improve my teaching at all, especially in the sense of having a better technical knowledge of English. Sure, occasionally, I do look stuff up, but it’s in no way an objective of mine to become a better teacher because I don’t see the profession (and I use the term loosely) as being at the centre of my life or as something that gives me some warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
From my own ability to earn money as a teacher in Taiwan, improving my technical knowledge is unlikely to pay out what I would put into it in time (and possibly money) and I’d also have a huge opportunity cost either directly through lost time that could have been spent earning or indirectly through lost leisure time, which would adversely affect my mood. In practical terms, someone with a PhD in anything vaguely language related does not have a hugely increased earning potential (at least in the private sector), if any at all. At the end of the day, our value to most buxibans is to do with our white, grinning faces and our accents. This may be a bitter pill to swallow, but basically, we’re not there for the grammar instruction, and anyone who says we are (except for very advanced classes) has a screwy business model.
It simply doesn’t make any sense to pay one person twice (or more) as much as another (a Taiwanese person) for the same thing. In the vast majority of cases, it’s much better to outsource the grammar instruction, marking and preparation to someone with lower labour costs. Have a very formulaic system that allows foreign teachers to go in cold and get the job done at the required level (which in most cases is not a high level), and set up the post-class work so that it can be churned through by anyone with university level English for 100NT/hour. This either leaves the foreign teacher in a much happier mood overall (which satisfies the basic requirement of a white face with a big grin) or frees the teacher up to teach more (and thus make you more money in your business). It’s the same reason you don’t have your best heart surgeon taking people’s temperatures in the waiting room.
With all that in mind, my focus is how I can really add value to an employer whilst minimising my opportunity costs and stress from having to grind through something practically anyone could do, which requires a better understanding of the business model of English teaching, not a better understanding of grammar or how to teach it. Better yet, my focus is on how I can be the one making the lion’s share of the money whilst still reducing the costs for the students by cutting out the laoban/middleman as much as possible.
This is especially apparent at kindergarten which isn’t even a legal, secure job. One of my friends runs eight private kindergarten classes for six kids at a time and gets 200NT/child/hour (yes, he makes almost 10,000NT in one day). It’s way more than he would get working at someone else’s kindergarten, and for much less hassle. From the parents’ point of view, they’re probably paying a lot less than they would at one of the big chain kindergartens and their kids are in much, much smaller classes. If he were really enterprising, he’d set up more classes and sub-contract them out.
Anyway, that’s just my take on it, but I think most foreigners are barking up the wrong tree and not realising that they’re being taken for a row of houses (to mix my metaphors) in the process. I think those who are daring enough can rip the guts out of every buxiban or kindergarten within a fifteen minute walk of their apartment. I’d love to see how that would mix things up.
It’s easy; all about routines. That’s why it’s hard if you sub or get a new class. I loved it but didn’t want to work illegally.
