Hey everyone,
Just wondering if anyone knows anything about “Uncle Sam’s American School” (山姆叔叔美國學校) in Banqiao.
Thanks,
James
I used to work at the Uncle Sam’s American School in Sanshia, but quit for many reasons. Here are the main three.
- They’re a small school thats main goal is to become like a Hess or Kojen, but they aren’t willing to put in any resources to make this happen. Horrible books, making your own lesson plans and props, and constant micro-managing are just a few of the headaches that stem from this.
- They have you work both kindergarten and bushiban classes. At first this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but after working all day teaching kindergarten (8:30-4) the last thing you want to do is teach another two hours for minimum pay ($500nt) with an unpaid mandatory break in-between.
- There is no discipline for the students. The only thing that your allowed to do is write a note in a students contact book that won’t be translated into Chinese. The main goal at Uncle Sam’s is to keep the students happy no matter their behavior and keep the parents in the dark about their child’s behavior. This creates a difficult teaching environment.
From what I know the school in Banqiao is even worse than Sanshia.
I know this might sound like common Taiwan school gripes, but now that I’m at another school I know it’s possible to work somewhere that you actually enjoy.
I worked there as a part-timer in Sanxia for a short time. I’d agree with all the points made by the previous poster. Banqiao is suppose to be worse, but I got that only from heresay.
The most important thing is how well you get on with your co-teacher. If they like you, you are set and if they don’t, go find another job.
[quote=“Jamesj20”]Hey everyone,
Just wondering if anyone knows anything about “Uncle Sam’s American School” in Banqiao.
Thanks,
James[/quote]
Stay away from both branches!!! Seriously! I worked for the one in Sanxia and I know someone who just quit the one in Banqiao. Teaching there is pretty much a joke, they will try to scare you into doing things, the pay is not the greatest, you have security cameras on you around every corner and the co-teachers like to tattle over stupid things. These are just a few of my gripes. I’m guessing you heard about the position from a recruiter. I would advise you to keep looking for another job.
Here you can find out what I went through working for them…
http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=80552
Yes, it’s true that life is a lot easier at Uncle Sam when you get along with your co-teacher/Chinese teacher.
But as stated before I would just stay away from this school anyway.
I deleted this post because I feel it was imflammatory. I was upset at the time I wrote it and regret some of the things I said. My apologies to any who were upset by it.
All I really wanted to say is that, in my opinion, Uncle Sam is a good starter school for someone who wants to get some teaching experience and spend some time abroad. Yes there may be better-paying gigs out there, but AFAIK most of them want experienced teachers.
I believe a lot of it is about perspective. I could write pages upon pages of complaints (from this very forum) about Hess, for example, yet I know a guy who worked there for two years and said it was “excellent”.
There’s the problem…
A WHOLE $500/hr? I can’t believe people aren’t jumping at the opportunity to make that kind of money! 
C’mon… that’s shit and you know it is.
Dude! You’ve been in Taiwan for less than a year! (March 2009 and you’d been here for two WHOLE weeks!) Exactly HOW many schools have you worked for here in that time? How did you get out of your contracts to do so? I mean, you’re obviously so knowledgable about the buxiban system here and the various schools, I’d assume you have worked in at least a half-dozen places in order to have even a tiny shred of credibility. That must have entailed a goodly amount of skilled nagotiations and a whole LOT of guanxi with the immigration department and Education Ministry. 
Okami has a tried and VERY trusted reputation, built up over many years. I’d take his word over that of a still wet-behind-the-ears newbie ANY day of the week!
Liamtoh669,
Please get a year under your belt before you start calling the claims made by a trusted and long time member bogus. It’s just polite.
Now considering that you have been here less than one whole year. I think that stepping back and looking at what posters have said and done in the past is important. I worked for Sanxia about 4 years ago. It was a complete cock up for my situation and I didn’t feel the need to air dirty laundry publicly, but now that you decided that my claims are bogus, let’s do away with the politeness.
I started working there part time taking over a 2nd grade class mid-semester that had had no previous English instruction from an older guy who had to deal with Mike(Chinese co-teacher) who absolutely hated him. They’d actually argue in class. Everything was completely screwed up, no order, books done all shitty, kids basically did nothing just playing Mike off against the old American. I step into this and the GEPT class on Saturday at the time. I also had to teach them for their graduation show. The kids barely knew it and it barely passed muster. Uncle Sam at the time put on some crazy graduation show. The one class did Willie Wonka with the kids dancing in time to splices of every oompa loompa song and dance routine. Mike gets fired the week before the show. The old American guy had been transferred to another class. I’m trying to figure out which is more important; teach the kids to catch them up or teach them the show. In hindsight I should of focused on the show. They put on a crazy long show that was one of the best I had ever seen. The GEPT kids had books that were too hard for them, barely spoke, and were practically illiterate for all intents and purposes. I had been promised this great class and I got handed shit. I’ve since learned that this is the norm for GEPT classes and Junior high school students.
Now I was a fall guy the guy who comes in and cleans up the mess so that the class can continue till it can be sorted out with a new semester. I got to drop the anchingban class at the end of the semester and was finally let go from the GEPT class without notice. I was happy to leave. I thought it was a complete cock-up.
If you are going to work there drop everything for the shows and focus on putting out a great show and don’t bother with teaching for the 2 months before the show. The pay is shit. They hire people overseas for a reason.
If the owner gives you some sob story ask him if his BMW is a stick or automatic.
[quote=“liamtoh669”]Hello,
I know Skyfae and can vouch that she indeed did work here and did have some significant problems. I can also say with confidence that after she left, the school made some major changes to the way it handles new teachers to prevent making the same mistakes again. Although I can say I never felt “scared” into doing anything here, nor have I ever been ‘tattled on’ (at least not to my knowledge). The security cameras are there to see the kids, not the employees (the images they send are so low-res it’s hard to make out much of anything anyway).
Some of the internally-produced books are not very good, but you teach around it. And making your own lesson plans??? First of all, many subjects have the lesson plans already made and for those that don’t, making lesson plans is an intregal part of being a teacher. As far as micro-managing, on more than one occasion I’ve thought the internally-produced lesson plans were crap, did my own lesson instead, and I never had anyone complain about it. As long as the books and tests get done, everything is correct and checked in the proper place, and no parents complain, they pretty much let you do whatever you want. They might have a comment come performance review time, other than that it’s not that big of a deal.
I should also point out that there are no weekend classes, except for the odd swap day (in Taiwan sometimes they have people work Saturday in lieu of a weekday) and the odd event like Graduation Day, Mother’s Day etc.
This is very misleading. The teacher has the same options at his/her disposal as just about any other private school in Taiwan. Ultimately it is the teacher’s responsibility to control the students. In some classes where discipline is a problem, the school has put in an experience Chinese co-teacher to help control the class.
Although I can’t say 100%, I have a stong suspicion who this ‘unclesamschool’ person is, and I should point out that he did not quit! He is still working at Uncle Sam. If the school is as horrible as he says it is, you’d think he’d have quit already. In fact Skyfae is the last person who quit to go to another school, and that was last June or July IIRC.
Here are the facts:
- In the majority of cases when a foreign teacher leaves Uncle Sam, they go back to their home country, not to another school.
- I know of at least two cases in the time I’ve worked here where someone has shopped around, tried to find a teaching job at another school, only to either resign with Uncle Sam or go back to their home country. This suggests to me that they couldn’t find a better deal elsewhere.
Uncle Sam hires kids who are fresh out of college, have no experience living abroad and limited experience with ANY job, let alone teaching. When they get here, they suddenly realize “Oh shit! Teaching is hard work!” and then they feel resentful that they are not living the dream that their recruiter promised them.
Yes there are better paying gigs out there, but most of them want experienced teachers who are already living in Taiwan. If you’re a new teacher living abroad, who wants to come to Taiwan and get some teaching experience, as well as experience living abroad, you could do far, far worse than working at Uncle Sam. And there are plenty of horror stories on this website that prove it.[/quote]
I wasn’t going to comment on this because I strongly suspect this isn’t an actual teacher at USAS and instead it’s someone from one of their recruiters but I will comment anyway. If it is actually someone at USAS I can only think of two people that maybe would post this and even with them it’s questionable because from what I hear most people are still very unhappy at the school. I don’t think significant changes were put into place. I left the school in August.
The cameras are there to spy on you. They want to make sure you are always jumping up and down like a clown and entertaining the children. Don’t pause to let students spend some quiet time with creative writing, you WILL have one of the ladies from management speeding into your class to check what you are doing. There is no freedom in teaching there. How can there be? If one of your CT’s doesn’t like what you are doing, they will tell management and you will be given suggestions to change. I felt that the students there viewed the CT’s as the real teachers and the FT’s as the entertainment.
The FT’s are very limited on what they can say regarding a students progress. Everyone must do well because the parents must be kept happy. It doesn’t matter if a child is tearing up your room or failing miserably at everything, he/she still must get a good grade. However, I do think that this one fact seems to be normal at many buxibans in Taiwan.
My current school is an exception.
Most people probably go back home after teaching at USAS not because they can’t find a better job (there ARE tons out there) but because the job leaves a bad taste in their mouths and they grow to resent Taiwan in general.
There IS a lot of outside UNPAID work a staff member at USAS must do. The monthly birthday parties are also annoying…you are forced to be MC and do all the extra work. I admit that I hated this fact because I don’t like being the center of attention; however it’s just another thing to be stressed out about while working there.
I highly doubt the school has changed much. If it has, that’s great.
However, from my experience the demands there are extreme and the environment is stressful to work in. I’m not a “fresh out of college” kid either. I’ve had lots of work experience and I have to say that USAS was one of the most uncomfortable places I’ve ever had to work. I recall one day when another teacher came into the office, visibly upset because of a problem student in her classroom. The child had serious learning disabilities and my coworker was trying to vent her frustration to one of the managers. What did the manager do? She laughed.
As I said a moment ago, there are much better schools out there. I know because I found one. I am treated like family and my students are allowed to express themselves in creative ways. I am not looked at as the entertainment but instead as an educator.
No you cannot. You have virtually NO experience of living and working in Taiwan, while one of those you are attempting to rebut has many, many years of experience and a deep and intimate knowledge of what he’s talking about.
You simply sound like a knee-jerk apologist or a shill. You mentioned someone being “bogus?” Someone here sure is, and it sure 'aint Okami. 
Okami -> Forgive my rudeness. All I meant to say that if you did indeed work there, it was likely a long time ago, and that the school may have changed considerably since that time.
Everyone -> I’m not trying to ‘sell’ the school per se, I just want to offer a) my own alternate viewpoint, as someone who is currently working there and b) set the record straight on a couple of things that this ‘Uncle Sam’ character wrote. Anyway, you have pointed out, I am indeed a newb, so if you don’t mind, please answer these questions honestly:
-
You’re a recent university graduate. You have no experience in education, but after a 30-minute Skype interview, you are hired by a recruiter to work full-time day shift as a teacher in a K school/cram school in Taiwan. In this situation, what kind of salary should you reasonably expect? (And if the wage is substantially high and they are hiring, please PM me ^_^)
-
Aside from expecting the teacher to control the classroom, or perhaps placing a Chinese teacher in the classroom, what other disclinary measures are in effect, at other schools? At other schools, is there any sort of ‘penalty box’ or ‘principal’s office’ that the kids can be sent to?
-
If I’m allowed to analyze a bit, an underlying criticism of the school seems to be that at times the school is more concerned about keeping the parents/kids happy then they are about academic learning. How is this different from other, similar schools in Taiwan?
I guess what all I meant to say is that not everyone who works here is unhappy. From my perspective, the school I work for is fine if you’re new to teaching and want to get some experience in front of the kids and pay your dues. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but everyone has to start somewhere.
OR
‘It’s just as shit as every other buxiban in Taiwan!’
And there are far, far better places to do it. But kudos to you for your humility. I hope you get shot of those jokers soon and find yourself a decent place to work. It sounds like you just might deserve it. Peace.
Here’s a tip: I’m a bastard. An unharmonious, underqualified, cantankerous shit of the highest order. Yet I pull down around NT$150k per month, give or take, for basically sitting on my fat bloated arse taking the piss out of fellow flobbers. And the only person’s arse I have to wipe is my own. But then, I’m nobbut an economic migrant who couldn’t hack it in his “own” country (and is laughing all the way to the bank.)
[quote=“liamtoh669”]Okami -> Forgive my rudeness. All I meant to say that if you did indeed work there, it was likely a long time ago, and that the school may have changed considerably since that time.
Everyone -> I’m not trying to ‘sell’ the school per se, I just want to offer a) my own alternate viewpoint, as someone who is currently working there and b) set the record straight on a couple of things that this ‘Uncle Sam’ character wrote. Anyway, you have pointed out, I am indeed a newb, so if you don’t mind, please answer these questions honestly:
-
You’re a recent university graduate. You have no experience in education, but after a 30-minute Skype interview, you are hired by a recruiter to work full-time day shift as a teacher in a K school/cram school in Taiwan. In this situation, what kind of salary should you reasonably expect? (And if the wage is substantially high and they are hiring, please PM me ^_^)
-
Aside from expecting the teacher to control the classroom, or perhaps placing a Chinese teacher in the classroom, what other disclinary measures are in effect, at other schools? At other schools, is there any sort of ‘penalty box’ or ‘principal’s office’ that the kids can be sent to?
-
If I’m allowed to analyze a bit, an underlying criticism of the school seems to be that at times the school is more concerned about keeping the parents/kids happy then they are about academic learning. How is this different from other, similar schools in Taiwan?
I guess what all I meant to say is that not everyone who works here is unhappy. From my perspective, the school I work for is fine if you’re new to teaching and want to get some experience in front of the kids and pay your dues. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but everyone has to start somewhere.[/quote]
First off don’t call me a liar when I say you work for 500NT after school. I obviously meant that it was 500NT per hour and my point was it isn’t a fair wage. Sorry I didn’t convey my point correctly, but to jump to the conclusion that I was lying is insulting and unprofessional.
Moving onto your points. Yes, you are offering an alternative viewpoint, but it is obviously skewed with bias. You clearly are not just a teacher at Uncle Sam, but part of the administration or higher-ups. No teacher at Uncle Sam, foreign or local, would back this school without being in the administration. I still know teachers at Uncle Sam and none, and I can say this with the utmost confidence, none of them enjoy their jobs. Calling them “kids” because they are younger than you and saying they’ve never worked hard is ridiculous and completely condescending. They are all college graduates who are adults and by calling them kids you are trying to dismiss valid points. Can you also tell us why you think they’ve never worked hard? It sounds to me that you’ve confused hard work with bad work. You expect the Uncle Sam administration to poop on the teachers heads and the teachers to say, “thanks for the hat”. People work hard for a reason. Please give me a reason to work hard at Uncle Sam. The school doesn’t care about the children and the school owner only cares about getting more money in his pockets. This doesn’t sound like a place that I would want to work hard for.
This whole topic was started when someone asked if they should work for Uncle Sam. The answer is clearly NO. Even from your own statements you can come only to the conclusion that Uncle Sam isn’t a great place to work. You are defending the school by saying that it’s just as bad as others.
Moving onto your numbered points.
-
You ask what kind of salary should I reasonably expect?
How about the average going rate of a new foreign teacher which is about 55,000 - 65,000 NT. Also the going rate per hour is 600NT at the very least. Most schools that pay less than this are considered jokes, and the only other foreign teacher that we’ve met personally in Taiwan that works for less than this works at Hess- which most forumosa readers should know to steer clear of. Every other FT we’ve met makes the salary I mentioned above or more. -
How to control the classroom?
At Uncle Sam they give you no help in controlling a classroom. You yourself said that they hire teachers with no experience, but expect them to know how to control a classroom of 16 children. You aren’t allowed to send students out of the classroom if they are acting up. All you can do is yell at the children and this becomes tiresome everyday. There is no structure of punishment and after awhile the students know that they can get away with anything with no consequences. You should be able to send a note home to tell the parents, but you can’t because the school is too scared that the parent will become angry with the school and take their child out. In fact, it was suggested to me at one point that I write a note, but even my mildly worded letter was changed so much that it became completely unrecognizable to what I originally wanted to say. My point was the school doesn’t care about the classroom environment. They just want to keep the parents happy so they can continue to make tons of cash. Sorry if you have a hard time accepting these harsh realities, but if you have any substantial points as to how the school helpfully handles these situations, feel free to share. -
How is it different from any other school in Taiwan?
Once again you are saying that Uncle Sam is bad, but so are other schools. I’m sorry, but have you ever worked for another school? NO. I have, and everyone else on here posting has, and they all say Uncle Sam is significantly worse. I don’t know why someone who has been in Taiwan for less than a year and has only worked at one school thinks they know how every school is run in Taiwan. Other schools at least try to keep their teachers happy (Skyfae is a perfect example of this). Uncle Sam’s doesn’t try because they simply don’t care. They know they can get someone off a 30 minute skype interview to replace a teacher if they leave. FT’s are treated as completely dispensable.
3b. People who leave Uncle Sam go home, not to other schools.
Maybe because they are newbies and the illegal contract at Uncle Sam scares them into thinking they can’t go anywhere else but home. Maybe these teachers got such a bad experience at Uncle Sam that they think all the schools in Taiwan are like this and would rather go home.
Once again, you haven’t been in Taiwan long enough to make assumptions. Maybe you are stuck in this crappy job and feel the need to justify your actions to make yourself feel better. Or maybe your used to working in a crappy job and expect everyone else to, too. Even on a completely anonymous website, you feel the need to go out of your way to defend a bad school. When one of your main points is "it’s just as bad as other schools you should know you have a problem. Sometimes people are too lazy to go out and find a better job or work as the school administration, so instead focus all their energy on justifying the horrible school they work in. There is a reason why this school can rarely get people to stay longer than a year. The owner of the school depends on the hard work of others to lift him to the status he wants. He walks around the school in his stupid little sweaters dressed to a T and takes money away from his Chinese teachers if a student leaves his school. In his mind, it is somehow the Chinese teacher’s fault that a student leaves his horrible institution. This is just one of the many things that CT’s can get their pay taken away for. All he does is walk around looking at monitors taking notes and yelling at the head Chinese teachers. This directly trickles down to the FT’s in useless “meetings” that are pretty much just excuses to hand out more policies, rules, regulations, and punishments.
So can you yourself say that working at Uncle Sam would be a good choice for a new teacher, or could you say that maybe, JUST MAYBE, there are better schools to look for and they shouldn’t settle? Please answer honestly, not as PR rep.
Ok, I work at Uncle Sam in Banqiao and I am satisfied with the school. I didn’t really want to get involved in this, but I think there is some misinformation being spread. As far as the camera issue, I am personally glad they have the cameras. I don’t know why anyone would have problems with being filmed while they are paid to work. It creates an atmosphere of accountability and responsibility. I think anyone reading this thread should read "Idontwork4UncleSam"s posts with a grain of salt. He/she originally had an alias of just “Uncle Sam” and is using a logo that is similar to the one that uncle sam uses. Someone else questioned his/her credibility too, and I think misrepresenting yourself is sleazy. I really don’t want to get involved in a flame war over this because I think this forum is read by management and recruiters. This “Idontwork4unclesam” person is exaggerating the problems at this school. I don’t know why they don’t just post on this forum from a real alias. If this school is so bad for you, just move on and get a life. Living well is the best revenge. Alas, if anyone thinks I am some sort of sock puppet for the school, I am a one year poster on this forum.
I haven’t said a word about the cameras, that was another poster. The cameras are simply one point made about Uncle Sam. I feel that I gave several more valid points to my argument about not coming. Yes, take what I have to say with a grain of salt because I am just one person with my own opinion, just like yourself.
My logo is a star and looks nothing like the Uncle Sam logo (two children waving). The Uncle Sam logo has a star in it, but come on you might as well say I was copying the US flag. The logo I picked matched my username, but maybe now I should change it.
About my username (not an alias), I was asked by Forumosa to change it because I’m not a school representative and I agreed. If having a username on the internet that isn’t your first and last name is sleezy then I guess everyone on the internet is sleezy. You say you don’t want to start a “flame war”, but call me sleezy, try to undermine my credibility, tell me to get a life, and say I am exaggerating the problems of the school without any proof of your own. Maybe you should check your own posts for hypocrisy before you try to exploit mine.
I have little knowledge about the Banqiao branch except that one of your teachers recently quit. I didn’t pretend to act like I knew everything about the school. Ask anyone working at the Uncle Sam in Sanshia and you will know that I am not exaggerating. If anything some would say I’m being modest. You can also see that many people have come to defend me on this thread. I could ask the people who work at the school to come on and post, but I’m sure they’ll be afraid of being fired. Maybe after they leave they will back me up.
I am posting all of this not for revenge, but because someone asked if working at Uncle Sam is a good idea and I said no. I basically stayed out of the discussion until liamtoh669 came on and defended the school and I feel that he is probably a school administrator. If he is, he should have said so, otherwise that could be seen as sleezy. I just don’t want people to make the same mistake as me.
You’re joking, right? You’re joking? Seriously, you’re having a laugh?
Taiwan newb teacher Stockholm Syndrome at its finest! :roflmao:
1 Like
I notice they’re ALWAYS hiring. Makes me wonder why. Hmmmm.
My girlfriend and I have worked at Uncle Sam American School in Sanxia for 10 months now. Even though we will finish our year contract with the school I would not recommend the job to anyone. I actually can’t think of anyone who would recommend working there, unless you’re administration or a recruiter. The only reason I’m posting this is because 3 people just quit (before their contract was up) and I know replacements will be looking for information.
I would like to start off by saying that I am offended by liamtoh669’s post. I am not a kid. I am a 26 year old adult who happens to be a former U.S. Marine and I know what real hard work is. I agree with idontwork4UncleSam when they say that Uncle Sam work is “bad work”.
In the 10 months we’ve been working at Uncle Sam we have seen only 3 people finish their year contract, but have seen 8 people quit. The only reason why we are staying is because we only planed on staying in Taiwan for a year and didn’t want to sign on to another school and have to stay longer. That’s not saying that we haven’t thought about quitting several times because of the bad work conditions.
There are a ton of annoying things about the school, but probably the most annoying is how we are treated. They monitor you like a child and force you to teach a specific way. If a student doesn’t perform well somehow it’s all your fault. If you have a problem with the school and tell them about it they will just ignore you. If you really have a problem and want something to get done, be prepared to make a huge deal about it. They expect you to blindly follow their newly made up rules and policies, but when you ask for something you’ll have to schedule meeting after meeting. And chances are even after all that it won’t happen.
If you want to work for a school that treats you like dirt, monitors you like a child, and blames you for anything wrong, then Uncle Sam American School is the school for you. Obviously I have only worked for one school, but I have ears and an internet connection so I know there are better schools out there.