5 days a week or 6 working days?!?!

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

I’m curious to know how many days a week people are working out there. I worked for 6 days 2 years in a row and then flat out STOPPED! I would only work 5. I know in Taiwan some teachers need the $$$$! I didn’t need any more. Just wanted free time for exercise, hanging out, rest the voice etc. It was better for my mind and body! But as many of you know in Taiwan free time is a bad word for some of these workaholics! “4 days off monthly, pretty good”. … student once told me! :loco:

I used to have people falling asleep in adult night classes, and not because it was boring I assure you! They were so damn tired, you could see it, the kids too! How do all of you handle it. Anyone who likes working 6?

By they way I am now living in Italy and work 4.5 five days a week. Pay is less, but my life is more relaxed and I make enough(Plus saved all that NT in Taiwan!!!) I’m telling though people here don’t look “beat to death” like in Taipei!

Ciao!

2

work = bad
freetime = good
long hours = bad
beer = good

so work = long hours, freetime = beer

3

5.5 days a week

M - F = 13 hours a day
Sat = 8am - 12pm

4

I’ve just rejigged my schedule so that all my classroom time is between 2pm on Monday and 9pm on Thursday.

I have other stuff to do too, but can plan my time to suit my lifestyle goals. All I have to do now is clear the backlog of stuff to do, and life should get a hell of a lot easier.

5

I’m working 6 days a week (M-S), but only M-W are really full days. I have most of Thurs and Fri off, so it works out great for me.

6

The last 3 years have been the first since I was 10 that I haven’t worked on Saturdays.

When I was 10, I started working Saturdays at my Dad’s store. Five days at school, then 8:30 to 4:30 at my Dad’s store on Saturday. i.e. no weekend sports at school, no lying in late on Saturdays etc. And I mean REAL work; my Dad was a wholesaler, so everything was in bulk. Carry these 25 kg bales of sugar out to the customer’s car. Carry these crates of 8 X 1.5 litre GLASS Coke bottles etc etc. (Howcome I still ended up so scrawny??? :frowning: )

That continued here in Taiwan as I worked at a buxiban (well, minus the physical labour, I guess, unless picking 6 year olds up so they could write on the whiteboard counts). 25-27 hours a week, often to 5 pm on a Saturday afternoon (I taught Adult writing class from 2-5 on Sat. afternons), with 7 hours on a Saturday and 4 hours each of the other 5 weekdays. No Friday night partying, and too exhausted on Saturday night to do much. 36 hours a week in summer, with my maximum weekly load at 42 hours in my first week of summer here (at which time I promptly developed asthma and was reduced to about 35).

Then, the joys of a university job in China. Maximum 14 hours a week of teaching (OK, it was for only NT$13,000 a month+ free housing). No Saturdays. Three months of vacation a year. And SARS, which cut off all but 2 hours a week of classes.

Now back in Taiwan, I work for the government, so, once again, no weekends, and a reasonable amount of paid vacation time, but not quite like in Beijing. But hey, it’s for more than NT$13,000 a month, too. :smiley:

7

Teachers here sometimes work 6 day weeks if they work in cram schools. If a school is open Mon-Sat, it is sometimes hard to avoid working that schedule as that is school’s need. If a teacher is lucky enough to work for a place that doesn’t have Saturday classes, or has enough staff to accomodate different schedules, then two day weekends are possible. Myself, I work 5 days per week now. At my previous employer I worked 6 days until I requested to work five and took Mondays off (they were large enough to accomodate). My current employer has no Saturday classes, so the weekend isn’t an issue.

8

Bassman, 13hrs a day :noway: !!!

I guess it depends on what you want. I just always felt that I wanted to have more time to read, workout, socialize, see some of Taiwan and just veg out in front of the TV on rainy days, instead of teaching ALL THE TIME! It just made me more energetic anyway. I was never burnt out after working less!

I believe this is the reason I found that so many Taiwanse people I met and taught,(grade school-adult) had or have no REAL interests. No time to develop any. Deep inside many of them long for more freedom/less work! I heard this from adult students over n over.

DSN you said it: No sports on Saturday, or anything else I guess! Cause I for one did not sit in the bed on Sat in the USA. Sports, fishing, short trips, festivals, helping paint our house etc. I’m better for it.

Example:(Real conversation in class with one of my nicer students in 2003!)

Moi: Sally what kind of music do you like?

Sally: I like jazz.

Moi: Really like who or what kind?

Sally: Mmmm…Ah… Stan Ge… and… don’t know the English names.

Moi Stan Getz? Know any one’s name in Chinese?(Head shake from her).

Moi: Thats Ok, you have any CDs or see any shows, read any books?

Sally: I went to a show 1 time in 2001 and I have 3 CDs. (class laughs).

She did like jazz, but not an “interest” nor any real knowledge or passion. Sally worked 6 days a week. 9 hours M-F and Sat 4 hrs. Sunday usually TV. I encountered this often. I realized like Taipei folk, I myself was working too much and not enjoying other things as were some of my expat buddies. Now I feel my life is fuller and I still work hard, when I work.

To each their own!