i don’t know exactly if you’re already here in taiwan yet but the best advice i received before i got here was to wait on deciding your job until you get here. i was offered a job through hess but declined it upon that advice and the job i’ve found through the “normal” channels - speaking with people, and a bit of luck - i presume to be much better, and much better compensated, then i would have had at hess.
you can never know what other options you have available until you get here. and i’d have to say that there’s nothing worse here than knowing of other options but feeling stuck because of a contract you signed from home. you can always apply with hess when you’re here.
Eric posted a question here about the HESS interview (I guess this was pre-interview) on Sept. 09.
On Sept.23, Eric posted on another ESL message board a query about breaking his contract with HESS supposedly after working for them for 6 months. See below:
Hey Eric. Whats up with this man? We all spent a bit of time helping you out and it seems that you may have been jerking us around. Or have I got it all wrong
God there’s a lot of bullshit peopel are talking on that ESL cafe link. Like schools can ban you from getting another ARC, stop you leaving the country etc. What a load of bullocks.
I am sorry Brian but you are a very confused person. I have never posted on Dave’s ESL cafe and nor have I ever worked for Hess before. You have got it all wrong buddy and I am shocked that you can confuse someone who goes by the name of Mozzilla with my internet name Erick Morillo. My enquiries have been completely genuine and I have never worked in Taiwan, I have only been there for four weeks last July to visit my girlfriend. I don’t know what made you jump to this conclusion because I don’t see Mozzilla refer to himself as Erick on the attached link. “Mozzilla” “Erick Morrillo” - How can you confuse these names?
Sorry Erick but I don’t understand this statement -“Vannyel I am sorry but I have to agree with Brian because I believe foreigners are still very fortunate to receive the wages that they do.”
What is fortunate? That I sold everything I owned, bought a plane ticket, relocated to a different country, still struggle to learn the language, and have gotten cheated out of my wages at first two language schools I worked at because I didn’t have any legal rights even though I had the ARC to be here?
Sure for a fresh college graduate with a BA in any subject from a select few countries the pay is great (after you get through repaying the expenses to move here) but for someone with more years under your belt and a MA degree the pay is adequate - not enough to go through the process (or headache) unless you have another reason for coming. Naturally with this attitude I do have other reasons for being here and I love it here so please don’t take my views as a bash on Taiwan. I prefer to think of it as a healthy, realistic view…LOL
Sorry Vannyel I did not mean to upset you. I just find it hard to understand sometimes when teachers continually complain about their working conditions. Although I have yet to begin working in Taiwan I have had experience teaching in Japan and teachers there seem to complain just as much as those teaching in Taiwan do on this website. I am just of the belief that if we are able to earn 60,000NT and upwards per month while Taiwanese graduates are earning on average 35,000NT then I would say we are fairly lucky. Obviously conditions at some schools may not be very good and of course teachers do take risks when they accept a position with a school they know nothing about. I hope your situation improves and I am not denying that some teachers have very legitimate problems with their schools but sometimes a new culture and environment becomes overwhelming for some people and they soon turn into compulsive whingers like some of my former workmates in Japan. I think teaching in Taiwan will be quite a different experience for me because in Japan I was always paid on time and didn’t have to worry about leaving a school before the end of a contract, they seemed quite flexible about that. Of course I only worked for two schools so I can’t speak for the thousands of schools I didn’t work for. I left both schools before the end of my contracts and I didn’t have any problems whatsoever. In Taiwan it seems as though schools are a little more reluctant to let you go and seek employment before your contract expires. Also teachers in Taiwan always seem to gripe about the boss of their school giving them a hard time. At both schools in Japan I never even saw let alone met the boss of the schools I worked at. So I never experienced any problems with bosses in Japan so I guess Taiwan will be a new challenge. All the best and I hope things get better for you, Erick
Thanks for the good wishes Erick.
Perhaps I have just had a run of bad luck with schools, although I feel compelled, even at this late stage, to tell you that when I requested to leave Hess and tried to give two weeks notice the manager at the school kicked me out after extracting the NT$20,000 penalty for breaking the contract. I even offered to work another two weeks or so until they could arrange for a replacement but she was adamant about getting me out of there. So I was waving good-bye to my evening class as they were coming in.
But that was just my experience. Anyway, my life in Taiwan is going great now that I am not teaching and who knows I may go back to it.
Good luck with teaching in Taiwan although I dare say I doubt it will compare to your experiences in Japan.
Theres lots of apologies going on here today and it looks as if I should join the queue.
I think that suggesting that I am ‘a very confused person’ is taking it a bit far, but I may be guilty of jumping to an incorrect conclusion. I certainly didnt pay particularly close attention to the exact spelling of the names. Similiar threads, about the same company, around the same time by two people under similar user names. Apologise if I got it wrong, but I think that your re-post has clarified the situation for everyone.
That’s ok Brian I accept your apology that you made an honest mistake. I also agree that calling you a very confused person is a bit rough. I thought some of your earlier posts indicated to me that you were quite an intelligent, level-headed, sensible person so it came to me as quite a shock that you would make those accusations about my integrity. Anyway I respect the fact that you can admit that you made a mistake but please be more careful in the future and try not to jump to conclusions without first checking simple details. Cheers, Erick
I think that comparing the wages of a local with a foreigner is a red herring. I earn three times what the local staff at my school earn and we all know how much each other earns and it’s fine. It has no bearing on my economic choices or those of any other foreigner I know. It is a matter of supreme irrelevance to me how much anyone else earns. Of what benefit to me could it possibly be to know I earn a certain multiple of the wage of a local English teacher when I have bills and rent to pay ? Will my landlord accept these hypotheses as currency ?
As to the other matter, any advice given here by posters will be available to future visitors, so there is never any need to feel one’s advice was wasted.
Or have I got it all wrong 