Need advice about my career

Your are pretty much right about this. I knew many ABCs and CBCs while teaching adults. Most were very successful. It doesn’t happen so much with the kids.
It has been said earlier in this post that Taiwan doesn’t have anti-discrimination laws. I think they need them. In the case of buxibans, it will be the case that a local owner, who knows 75% of the language, will be criticizing the speaking abilities of CBCs, ABCs, African Americans (although I think things are getting better for them), and older teachers. I feel like I am experiencing some discrimination because of my age. They take the view that the newer 24 year-old is more outgoing, energetic, and fun for the kids than an older person. It is simply not true :cry: .

It really seems that the OP would be best off pursuing adult tutoring or translation (the law translation is a good one).

Buxiban managers/owners are going to have demographic hiring practices because that is what the parents want. And typically the only interaction that a parent has with a foreign teacher is watching from outside the classroom at the end of class. Or seeing the teacher walk to the next class. And with the current oversupply of teachers it’s relatively easy to find a similarly qualified young, white face. And I do mean young since we had an older, overweight, grumpy (looking) teacher apply a week or two before a teacher quit. And in a rare circumstance finding a new teacher was brought up and discussed. He was dismissed simply because he didn’t look the part. And tbh I wouldn’t have hired him either for that type of buxiban (fun and games) and I didn’t even see his resume.

He shouls lose the grumpy part and you should at least look at his resume.

He shouls lose the grumpy part and you should at least look at his resume.[/quote]

That’s the high road but it’s not reality. If I were a hiring manager at a Taiwanese buxiban then I have to be interested in happy kids and parents. And a 50+, overweight, broken down man isn’t going to help my enrollment numbers even if he is an incredibly good teacher. You can say that it sucks all that you want but buxibans (typical ones) are for profit first and education second. And in this job market a hiring manager can easily find a pool of ideal demographic candidates and hire. Does it suck? You’re damn right it does but that’s the reality of the Taiwanese buxiban system.

And that is the issue that hiring managers face with native English speaking Asians. The parents are paying for a native English speaker and they think that a school might be cheating them if they see an Asian face in the classroom. And if it comes down 5 white inexperienced teachers and 1 inexperienced Asian teacher then it’s pretty likely that one of the white teachers will get the job.

If I were to give the OP advice then I would absolutely advise against entering TEFL. going from a law degree to the absolute bottom of the ladder in a crowded TEFL market is a very questionable career move.

The parents need to learn English themselves, so they can know good teaching when they see it. If it continues this way, Taiwan will continue to lag behind other countries in English language skills.

I agree with you here, unfortunately :s .

Even if Taiwan brought in anti-discrimination laws, I don’t think it would matter. It’s not just a matter of laws. It’s a matter of enforcement. Obviously, they have tons and tons of laws here that don’t get enforced in all sorts of areas of life.

I would go further than to advise ABCs against entering TEFL. I would advise most people to avoid entering this field, unless their job prospects straight out of college in the U.S. are really that bad or they can get into a particular niche. Things have changed radically in the (almost) four years I’ve been here. The pay was better then and you could more or less walk right out of one buxiban job into another. Just what I’ve been reading on here in terms of pay and conditions over the past year has me somewhat mortified. I really don’t know how you guys do it. As much as I bitch and moan about my job or my students, I am in a little idyllic bubble where I am compared to what many people experience at buxibans.

Whole Lotta Lotta: You, I, and plenty of others know Taiwan will lag behind other countries in terms of English, but that assumes that Taiwan and its citizens really have the same ultimate goal as us. They don’t. Even when they know it’s bullshit, most are just trying to get through the tests. My wife’s cousin told me she was aware that her kids weren’t really learning to use English in any practical way, but when I told her about the time and money involved, and that in the short term, her kids wouldn’t do so well on the tests, she opted to send her kids to a buxiban that would prepare them for the tests. She told me that she couldn’t afford to take a chance/long-term view when her kids had exams within a couple of years and would fall behind their peers. Obviously, if everyone bucked that trend, then the system could change, but who wants to be the first person to do so and risk turning their kid into a failed social experiment?

If/when the testing culture changes, everything else will change almost overnight. It’s hard to say what the impetus for that will be and whether it will be top down or bottom up. I’d almost have to think it would be necessary for it to be top down, but then there’s a certain amount of sclerosis in any bureaucracy, not to mention all of the vested interests involved.

Exactly! You learn English in junior high school so that you can get through the national senior high school entrance exams. In senior high school you study English so that you can get through the national university entrance examinations. In university you study English so that you can get through an exit examination such as GEPT Intermediate level.

Then you forget everything you ever learned, since is was never much use in helping you communcate anyway.

Might as well teach them Ancient Greek or Sanskrit etc. The practical result would be pretty much the same.

OK, I might be being a tad cynical, but for many students the way I’ve described it is pretty close to the reality.

adikarmika: I agree 100%. Today, I am super tired. I really don’t have the energy to face my ninth grade students this afternoon. I really hope I don’t have to teach them.

Your are pretty much right about this. I knew many ABCs and CBCs while teaching adults. Most were very successful. It doesn’t happen so much with the kids.
It has been said earlier in this post that Taiwan doesn’t have anti-discrimination laws. I think they need them. In the case of buxibans, it will be the case that a local owner, who knows 75% of the language, will be criticizing the speaking abilities of CBCs, ABCs, African Americans (although I think things are getting better for them), and older teachers. I feel like I am experiencing some discrimination because of my age. They take the view that the newer 24 year-old is more outgoing, energetic, and fun for the kids than an older person. It is simply not true :cry: .[/quote]

You can always find a job here teaching adults. I’ve worked at Wells before. However, there are many drawbacks. Because of this, I wouldn’t consider it even a real job here. First of all, the pay is BS. You get less pay working there than working at a real school. Second, they don’t give ARC’s, so that’s why they are willing to hire our kind. No foreigner is willing to work there. Third, the hours suck. You work when nobody else is working.

Honestly, it’s not even the parents. I’ve taught many kids who have idiots for parents. They think they know what’s best for their kids, always monitor their work, and really strict jerks with money. I’ve never had a problem teaching their kids, and I’m an ABC. It’s these idiot business owners who don’t know a damn thing about running a business. For them, it’s okay to steal, cheat, and lie. And then they think they know how to run a school. I haven’t been to many schools that are run properly, where the kids are really learning English instead of some BS curriculum.

And if you guys really want to know why I talk all this crap and still stay here, it’s because I’m sort of stuck here for personal reasons. If I had a choice right now, I would choose to live back home in California. I wouldn’t recommend teaching English as a job in Taiwan to anyone, not even to my worst enemies. It’s a BS job.

[color=#0040FF]Okay, guys. I need a little help with the acronym soup:

ABC = American Born Chinese

What about:
SABC =
CBCs =

And the other acronmyns used for residents married to Taiwanese?

Thanks![/color]

I don’t think that they are technically acronyms. A minor quibble, though.

South African Born Chinese
Canadian Born Chinese?

problem no. 1: you have a law degree. that makes you a loser. you’ve a foreign law degree in Taiwan and your English is half-ass. double trouble. see ironlady’s post.

no. 2 - problem solved - bleach your hair, whiten your skin (or make it super dark) and wear coloured contacts. that will confuse potential employers. when they ask, tell them you are mixed or completely not Chinese, but something like Tajik, Tartar, or Turk. Deny you are Chinese.

no. 3 - go do what ABCs are good for - math and stuff, be a banker or financier then come back and laugh at us. It would be your god-given right as one who makes 7-figure salary.

Go East young man, go east!

Worked fine for me. Now I’m making mo money, got a house and boat with fly 6 ft women at my side. Tom Vu, thank you!

Go east? What the hell is east of Taiwan? I live below the Tropic of Cancer. The next thing east is Mexico, I think. I might just bump into Hawaii.

well, when you’re in a large boat full of half-naked wimmin, it really don’t matter which direction you go or if there’s land ahoy. Spent last summer in Croatia. never mind that I didn’t speak a word of unvoweled “Slavic”. My tongue was otherwise good enuf.

There was a chick here from America. She’s of Asian descent. She also had a teaching degree, a real teacher. The buxibans laughed at her, and gave the job to some white guy who had a degree in a different field. People don’t care here.

wrong post.

[quote=“enn”][color=#0040FF]Okay, guys. I need a little help with the acronym soup:

CBCs =

Thanks![/color][/quote]
CBC = Croatian Born Croatian … duh!

You are welcome! :smiley:

Well, to start, stay away from these shady little buxibans. Whenever you deal those types of people feelings get hurt and you don’t get paid. These people at these little schools who want “white” faces are only interested in hiring white clowns to baby-sit toddlers so that they can show the children’s “ignorant/unthinking/racist”(you pick as it varies) parents that they are learning “real” English. Of course they are not learning anything and the parents are getting duped. If you apply to a school that is actually interested in teaching the children then the way you look won’t be an issue. I am also an American who isn’t white and after being run around by a couple of English speaker run(go figure) places, and a couple of Taiwanese run places(this island has mental illness, I’m not kidding) I was snatched up by a bilingual school here in Taipei. No baby sitting, no clown work, and the pay is way more than one of these kindergartens and still more than adequate for actually having to teach any subject, in my opinion. There are jobs here working for companies who make English teaching materials such as books and posters. I would take a day to make some translation samples or dig up some old college papers and tweak them to act as a portfolio.These companies aren’t making money off of duping parents into giving them free money, so the odds of finding employment not requiring any sort of “skin test” in this area are pretty good. You speak Mandarin fluently and English. Freelance pay would include placing an ad on Tealit or anywhere and act as an teacher of Mandarin or an interpreter for hire helping people get cars, cellphones, housing, understanding leases and more. There are also websites in Chinese like “104人力銀行” that has plenty of options.
Don’t believe any hype about white preference not getting you a job,blah blah blah. That applies to jobs that require you to be a kindergarten clown or if the person doing the hiring is a racist( which happens often in unspoken form in more financially developed countries). There is a ton of racism/mental illness/backwards thinking here but if you keep your focus on getting paid and not getting deported you should be as fine as any other unemployed person looking for work.

I hope this advice helps, just repeat this mantra …Ohhm…“Stay focused, get paid.” “Stay focused, get paid.”“Stay focused, get paid”…Ohhm… :slight_smile: