600 TWD an hour to teach 8 year old kids in Taipei <- is this ok?
Just wondering if I’m getting a fair deal.
Another question, I have a C2/CPE from Cambridge. When I got it they told me it was good enough for teaching.
But now I see most jobs require something more:
https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/teaching-qualifications/
Can you tell me the quickest way to obtain one of these: CELTA/DELTA/TKT and which one should I pick?
Is it okay to you? I certainly wouldn’t. Depends on your level of experience and qualifications. It’s about the average (or even a little below) for an entry-level buxiban gig. It’s nothing outrageously bad, but not exactly great either.
Maybe consider getting a TEFL or TESOL? Or degree plus teaching qualification?
Decent rate.
Unless you have open work rights you need a minimum of a bachelor’s, or an associate degree + CELTA (or equivalent). You also need to be from a country that has English as an official language or is considered by the MOE to be an English speaking country.
A C2 in the CPE is an amazing level of English and allows you to teach in the UK and many other countries. But in Taiwan it’s only an indication of your English proficiency. Adding a CELTA won’t help in Taiwan.
What country is your passport and what’s your highest current academic qualification?
That’s the problem with Taiwan’s requirement. It’s based on having any bachelors degree (which isn’t hard to get now), and being from “english speaking countries”. That means some guy from the Deep South who speaks bad English could teach English in Taiwan even though his qualification consists of some degree mill.
You would think having actual qualifications regardless of your passport country would matter… but not in Taiwan.
Everyone’s throwing the deep South under the bus these days! I I will say that in my decade or so in Taiwan, I never met a deep southian with bad English. Aside from myself, of course. But maybe there has been an exodus 
I don’t have recent experience teaching in Taiwan but have been tracking rates out of curiosity. As others have said, $600 per hour seems to be on the low end of the scale for a starting teacher, but not outrageously so. Not sure what other factors you might need to consider.
I think 600NT an hour for an entry-level gig is perfectly normal, not on the “low side” at all. My first English teaching job was 550NT an hour, but I did plenty of overtime. Also, that was about 10 years ago, but I’ve heard the pay hasn’t gone up since then.
Like Bill Clinton?
Thank you for the answers guys. Im taking the position. Im thinking I should keep looking for other jobs. I live near Nangang. Should Igo directly to english schools in this area?
What other jobs I could get? Im studying during the day, with a flexible schedule.
I’m assuming you already know about tealit.
Many, many jobs aren’t posted online. If you see an English school, just walk in and ask if they are hiring.
EDIT: Even if it’s not an “English” school, it doesn’t hurt to ask.
A few years ago, I was visiting schools because I was looking for somewhere to send my kids during the day. I was deliberately looking for a place that didn’t advertise bilingual language instruction because back then, I wanted my kids to improve their Chinese. I visited a lot of schools, but found very little openings for my kids… but I got three job offers. (BTW, they were all around $600nt/hour. I tried to decline and tell them I already have a job. Many of them forced me to take their pamphlets with job benefits just in case I changed my mind.)
I imagine if you’re actually looking for a job, you could get even more (and perhaps better?) offers.
Good luck with the job!
If you have to ask, yes, especially now.
Chain schools, specifically Shane and Hess, raised their starting pay to $620/hr a couple of years ago, $630 if you have a TEFL. $600/hr is bottom of the barrel now. Schools now realize that’s the lowest they can get away with paying you these days for no experience teachers.
Well, at least we should expect. But when schools become day cares, they certainly do provide. My place of origin has a.djfferent and yet similar issue with beaurocracy and doctors. As such, we dont have enough and the public suffers due to note recognizing foreign skill. Much in the samew ay taiwan suffers from a dumbing of the population due to shotty schools and a migration of skill to certain centers that take knowledge half serious.
Op.
600 seems doable if youre studying or doing other things. Or you have full time hours.
But a quick break down makes it not awesome. After costs. if you have a vehicle, eat decent food (buy groceries) and use ac, the pay check here disappears pretty quick. Taiwan is actually rather expensive in certain ways if you expect a certain level of quality or have certain habits/preferences. Food especially. however, taiwan also has so many options to live cheap. It is great that way. Seriously though, have a long term plan before your organs rot out after 30 years of fried rice, night market food and chemical flavored syrup drinks!
Yeah, I thought everyone knew that, but if you have to ask, that’s probably good enough.
well, 600 isn’t a lot but for any Taiwanese that’s very high level pay. Taiwanese had been working at a wage of less than 100 an hour for a very long time before the current administration bumped it up. Still there’s lots of people working under the table at less than minimum wage. Just imagine how much can the average Taiwanese enjoy any Western food except once a year…
Yep, therein lies the problem. But if a person has skills and knowledge, they can certainly make far more than that.
Lots are making 100 an hour now. Many living with their families or in a container on the job. Few are probably actually satisfied dealing with either their family life or their boss. Those that are, wonderful. Most probably hope for better situations. But that all said, the cheap life is available. I have worked for what averaged out to about 45/hour for a decent stretch. it sucked and pushed me towards today. I think a lot of business owners in taiwan get that if they were the one who started the company.
Youre right, 600 is high for the general masses here, much like $25/hour in the states is good enough. But people who want it, can push for higher very easily here. Easily meaning opportunity is possible. 600 and continue lookig for more opportunities sounds like exactly the right attitude
I find in Taiwan the only reliable way to make above 300nt an hour is be an entrepreneur. Taiwan offers few barriers to that too, so if you really wanted to move forward in life it’s easy. Whereas in the states it’s hard to be an entrepreneur because of all kinds of legal barriers there.
The only other way is to have specialized skills companies really want. Or be extremely lucky.
Ask for 650, do not accept 600NT$ unless you are close to starvation , they will then most of the time offer 620 to 650. Take 620, then after one year look for other jobs if you get another offer then ask for a raise.
Another way to look at it is if you like the school and the kids then 600 is better at a school you like than 650 at one you do not. Do not compare with Taiwanese wages, that is totally irrelevant. They can sometimes get huge bonuses which you will not. Last lunar year a Taiwanese engineer friend gets 40,000 NTD per month which is less than most teachers and way more hours. At lunar new year he got a 1,000,000 NTD bonus, another engineer I know makes about 45NTD a month, she got 3 bonuses this year roughly 150KNTD each not including lunar new year. Cops and Postal workers also get huge Lunar New Year bonuses.(plus special mortgage deals , big pensions…)