Blacklist of schools

Read the subbing forum. Some right jokers advertising @ less than 300 per hour Kindie subbing

No one who’s been here for any measure of time would take something like that. The worry is that newbs will, and in so doing scew us all.
It’ll be the end of the road if foreigners are getting 300/hour, because who knows what the poor local teachers will be getting then.

The Giraffe School by Taipei 101 is horrible. On top of ridiculous demands they will take your taxes and not pay them to the government. They try to not pay your labor insurance and “forget” to register you for health insurance. They will have you work in two buildings but only one is listed on your work permit, which is illegal if you have an ARC through work with them. They will also try to get you to work for free. The boss “Teacher Tony” treats his Chinese staff like crap yelling screaming etc… They do pay on time but that was the only thing they did right. Stay away. You could lose a lot of money especially if you don’t know what they are doing with your tax money and don’t know how to survive in Taiwan.

Giraffe English in the zhuangjing district of Kaohsiung.

Boss called me on the phone and offered to hire me, with a “internship period” of 3 months where I would make 35,000 a month, after which I’d be full time making 500/hr teaching 300/hr other hours. After I agreed and worked there for a week, I was informed my pay for the first 3 months would be 20,000, 25,000 and 30,000 accordingly.

Happy Marian, Shulin City, Taipei County.

After you sign the contract and agree what you will do they, change there mind what they said saying that no you have to do this that and the other.

made me stay from 9am, till 8.30 every night of the week.

worked around 80 - 90 hours per week, and only got paid 60 thousand dollars which works out around 400 dollars per hour i think.

Always shouting at you. Telling you your a bad teacher, a certain co teacher wants you to do everything her way, if you don’t she goes crazy. Saying my accent is not real English.

Don’t give you any advice on what to do, tell you nothing about the class just expect you to know what books go with what classes. All they do is give you a schedule and expect you to get on with it, then complain when things go wrong.

They wouldn’t get me any health insurance, and messed up my visa. They also tried to not pay me when I left.

I would advise anyone against working there, if anyone wants anymore details let me know and I can tell you everything.

Oh and when I demanded my money they threatened to get he police to come for me.

Another school to stay away from is Maple Splendor Academy in Jhubei city, Hsinchu County.
The owner (Jennifer) pretends to be nice, when in fact talks behind your back.
I was promised an ARC when I arrived, turns out they are not a registered school and cannot sponsor a teacher, SOOOO, no ARC, I had to renew my visa a couple of times, while she kept promising that she would start my ARC paperwork anytime, all lies!!!. (The teacher before me had the same problem)
There is no C.T to help you out.
If she sees the opportunity to schedule another class and make more money, she will do so without notifying you, she will just tell you that you have a new class and that “you have to work late tonight.”
Only good thing about the school is that she pays on time, that’s about it.

[quote=“Dr Jellyfish”]Sorry… I watched the ‘Hulk 2’ a few days ago and have been waiting for the right opportunity to use that quote…

I’ve worked with a very angry and frustrated Taiwanese manageress before and can sympathise with anyone who has been subject to random bouts of abuse.

1.Here was my first conversation with the said manageress:

Me: Hi Kerry, can you tell me where the text book are please?
Kerry: Oh Teacher! I told you many times before, why you don’t remember? Stop asking stupid questions!

2.Before I marked the kids exam papers:

Me: Could I please use your calculator so I can work out the grades?
Kerry: No!
Me: Erm… but if I can’t use a calculator then I won’t have the grades ready for class. (It was 45 mins before hand)
Kerry: Last teacher stole my calculator, you wanna use it then you sit there and use it! (Right next to her ~ :aiyo: )

3.One more:

Kerry: Why Junior don’t know the past perfect!!!??? (this was blasted at me)
Me: Because he’s only 6 and it’s not even on the course syllabus!

There were many more (these were just some of the shorter examples). The strange this was that whenever I complained about her to the western management, I always came out worse!? More senior teachers suggested that I just pretend that nothing happened… Actually, one Australian teacher had a really novel way of dealing with her, he just repeated the last few words of what she just said while smiling and nodding his head in contemplation ~ it seemed to work.[/quote]
That reminds me of my current boss. And I would very much like to leave the school now… Just signed my second year contract 1 month ago… but now I’m regretting… So ass backwards

Because we are reading the whole thread and come across it… some decide to ask. I ignored… hahaha

Because we are reading the whole thread and come across it… some decide to ask. I ignored… hahaha[/quote]

I think it’s one of the faults with this type of BBS . Sorry I love Forumosa, but when you enter a conversation you’ve never read before, you get the 1st page and very first string of responses. The buxiban.com link is in the 2nd or 3rd response, where I too also clicked on it.

In actuality, it OUR oWN faults because we really should be reading through ALL of the responses before CLICKING links. Human Nature, I guess…

I am very curious about your situation because I was considering taking the position you had. But the ad I responded to was for a substitute for three months from early June until September. I already had another contract, so I couldn’t do the whole three months. Here are my questions:

  1. What happened to the Native speaker that I was to sub for? He’s the one I actually interviewed with. Did he wind up leaving? He was the one who was coming up with the curriculum. I also met one of the Chinese teachers. She was the co-teacher of the NST that I interviewed with. This was supposed to be an anqinban as well as an English school. The hours were to be from 1:30 to 7:00. I was told there was only going to be one teacher to start, and that I was it. Since the majority of the communication was to be in Chinese, I wasn’t expected to do office hours either. What were you told?

  2. The school was poaching students and teachers from another school. My understanding was the owner had in fact just recently resigned from the school he was poaching kids from. The total number of students I was told I was going to teach was around 30. I was actually given a schedule of the classes I was to teach. I was always going to be hourly. Why did you agree to a salary? Did they offer you something else?

  3. Were they sponsoring you or was your other job sponsoring you?

I am not trying to be difficult, but something drastically changed between the time I rejected the offer and you starting. At the time I spoke with the owner he told me he was the only one in charge. This was his dream to have his own school. Interestingly, Kindergarten classes were never mentioned either. I didn’t know anything about extra buxiban classes because I was only concerned with the three months I was there, and there weren’t going to be any-- or so I was told.

Finally, the NST I spoke with and the Chinese teacher I spoke with both said they had a good working relationship going back a few years with the owner. He was an area director(or whatever the title for manager of managers of several branches is) for whatever school they all worked at.

Having been put through the ringer at a different chain school, I was wary of all buxibans. After speaking with everyone, I actually thought this one might be different. What surprised me most was that you never mentioned any other Westerner at I-kids. I now wonder if the whole thing was a big lie.[/quote]

Ok, old post. I just saw this after months. So, hopefully this will help someone considering taking that lame position. The native speaker was not the one coming up with the curriculum. He has interest in the school also. So, I would not trust him either. I was lied to about many things with the job. Alan made it sound nice and sweet in the beginning, and then changes things on you. First, it’s 22 hours of teaching a week, with office hours, for a total of 40. Then, it becomes 30 hours, and then he tried to make me quit my other night job teaching adults. He was fully aware that I had another job prior to starting. He promised me that I would be ok, and that he would work around my other job. A month later, he told me to quit that job, and to work more and more. All for the same pay. Plus, they tried to make me go on some overnight outing with the school, just to teach English, still without extra pay. And, of course they had a good working relationship together. They poached students together in the end. If they would screw a company they worked for, what makes you think they wouldn’t screw you too? In the end, all they care about is what goes into their pockets, not what happens to you or what they promised you. Everyone in that lame school has interest in part of the school, except for that “one” teacher. That school is completely funded by one of the student’s mom. Even she has interest in the school. Altogether, there are 6 or 7 “owners” taking part in their share. So, they have to split profits between all of them. That’s why they screw all the teachers there. Not enought profit for everyone.

I would like to respond to the comments made here about Ivy League English School. I am a Canadian teacher who worked at Ivy League for 3.5 years during my 6 years in Taiwan. I am shocked to read the comments posted here as they in no way were reflective of my experience.

The owners of the school were not only terrific bosses, but they also become some of my most cherished friends. They treated me with respect, helped me develop as a teacher, welcome me into their home during holidays and were genuinely concerned with my well being. The school is professionally run, the pay is competitive and the children are great. As well, teachers are free to run their classrooms as they liked, but were given guidance when it was asked for. The apartment provided was spacious and modern, I lived there happily for 3+ years.

I have since left Taiwan but remain in close contact with the school. It makes me sad to read the comments here and I can’t understand why anyone would seek to tarnish the reputation of this school and its owners. I would urge anyone who reads these comments and is interested in the school to visit the school and decide for themselves rather than be influenced by the negative comments presented here. I am sure you will find Ivy League as lovely a place to work as I did.

My time in Taiwan was deeply influenced by experience at Ivy League. I highly recommend it as a place to work. In fact, anyone with questions about the school can feel free to contact me directly at mreeder16@hotmail.com.

[quote=“mreeder16”]I would like to respond to the comments made here about Ivy League English School. I am a Canadian teacher who worked at Ivy League for 3.5 years during my 6 years in Taiwan. I am shocked to read the comments posted here as they in no way were reflective of my experience.

The owners of the school were not only terrific bosses, but they also become some of my most cherished friends. They treated me with respect, helped me develop as a teacher, welcome me into their home during holidays and were genuinely concerned with my well being. The school is professionally run, the pay is competitive and the children are great. As well, teachers are free to run their classrooms as they liked, but were given guidance when it was asked for. The apartment provided was spacious and modern, I lived there happily for 3+ years.

I have since left Taiwan but remain in close contact with the school. It makes me sad to read the comments here and I can’t understand why anyone would seek to tarnish the reputation of this school and its owners. I would urge anyone who reads these comments and is interested in the school to visit the school and decide for themselves rather than be influenced by the negative comments presented here. I am sure you will find Ivy League as lovely a place to work as I did.

My time in Taiwan was deeply influenced by experience at Ivy League. I highly recommend it as a place to work. In fact, anyone with questions about the school can feel free to contact me directly at mreeder16@hotmail.com.[/quote]

I’m going to call “entire pasture of huge, stinking piles of bullshit” on this poster being a Canadian because of the Chinglish throughout this post. I’d almost put money on this guy being one of the owners.

Googling the email address suggests differently …

:idunno:

Look at those verb conjugations! Grief! Is that what the Canadian education system is producing these days?

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”][quote=“mreeder16”]I would like to respond to the comments made here about Ivy League English School. I am a Canadian teacher who worked at Ivy League for 3.5 years during my 6 years in Taiwan. I am shocked to read the comments posted here as they in no way were reflective of my experience.

The owners of the school were not only terrific bosses, but they also become some of my most cherished friends. They treated me with respect, helped me develop as a teacher, welcome me into their home during holidays and were genuinely concerned with my well being. The school is professionally run, the pay is competitive and the children are great. As well, teachers are free to run their classrooms as they liked, but were given guidance when it was asked for. The apartment provided was spacious and modern, I lived there happily for 3+ years.

I have since left Taiwan but remain in close contact with the school. It makes me sad to read the comments here and I can’t understand why anyone would seek to tarnish the reputation of this school and its owners. I would urge anyone who reads these comments and is interested in the school to visit the school and decide for themselves rather than be influenced by the negative comments presented here. I am sure you will find Ivy League as lovely a place to work as I did.

My time in Taiwan was deeply influenced by experience at Ivy League. I highly recommend it as a place to work. In fact, anyone with questions about the school can feel free to contact me directly at mreeder16@hotmail.com.[/quote]
I’m going to call “entire pasture of huge, stinking piles of bullshit” on this poster being a Canadian because of the Chinglish throughout this post. I’d almost put money on this guy being one of the owners.[/quote]

Here’s the Ivy League School in Yilan.

Scorecard: Lost Teacher Report English Village BO AI Elementary School Tainan

Semester 1, 6 Teachers hired–5 Lost, 83% Loss

Semester 2, 6 Teachers hired–4 Lost, 75% Loss

Semester 3, 6 Teachers hired–4 Lost 4 in first month! 75% Loss so far!

Now which part of this information is difficult to understand?
Admin should finally admit that the fault lies not IN their foreign teachers (stars), but in their own actions.

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”] Yikes! That is a very impressive strike rate. When I worked at the EV in Taoyuan, of eight teachers, eight teachers (not all of them, so some “desks” turned over more than once) left or didn’t have their contracts renewed in the first year. Ten left in the second year. Your third semester was quite possibly a trump card though!

We should have a kind of award, like the Darwin Awards, for the school in Taiwan that has the greatest attrition rate![/quote]

Really, GuyinTaiwan! And Tainan’s EV scenarios are serious doodoo when compared to other EV’s. Students could have built better.

The problem is the head man doesn’t get involved when problems arise. He waits and waits, till the problem festers and then he acts.
He could have replaced a certain person when she lost 5 teachers at the end of the first semester, but no.

Remember, contracts are 1 year and she drove away 5 teachers by the end of the first semester then turned around and blamed it on a particular teacher. I met him and listened to his tirade. He didn’t seem to be that much of a trouble maker. When the manager loses 5 out of 6 employees, the head man gets rid of the manager, DUH!

The end of the first semester was the time for the head man and the manager to confront the problem face to face, straight on by looking nowhere else but in the mirror! Head man should have dumped her as soon as he found out, but no, he dithered because of town politics. It would have upset mutual friends.

So what does head man do? He waits till the end of the second semester and dumps the recruiter!
He made it known just after the December 1st meeting that all the problems were caused by the recruiter!

Well the second shoe finally fell when he hired a new recruiter from Taipei who hired 4 new teachers who had no government-issued teaching certificates! Public schools require government-issued teacher certificates. Language schools require TESOL certificates. And never the Twain shall meet.

She thought she’d pull a slick one and mixed apples and oranges. The GOV said “Who are you trying to kid?”
So the head man has now ended up worse off with the new recruiter than he was with the old recruiter!
Is it mirror-looking time again, Mr. Head man?

I’ve worked now for two EV’s. What’s the quintessential difference between the two?
This Head man just doesn’t care. As long as he can find someone to blame, he really doesn’t care what happens at EV. He really doesn’t and I can say that I know him fairly well.

I just received an email requesting that I suffer for them, because I wouldn’t call it working or teaching, from the infamous L H high school for some reason built far outside of Jhongli Chongli whatever! They built it there and I don’t drive a scooter, nor do I wish to pay big money to support the taxi union.
This is my response:

[color=#FF0000]I’m going to say something to you now that I say from the heart.

There are only 2 schools in Taiwan that I would never work at and yours is one of them.

I went to your school about 15 months ago. I saw the behavior of the students and it reminded me of Baltimore City schools.

I would rather live on the street starving than to work at LH. Why is it that your school is always losing and hiring ESL teachers? And I mean always!

Your school administration needs to decide who is in charge. Who is the boss of your school? The teachers or the students?

I think you really should sit down and discuss these questions with your administrators.[/color]

I just apologized to the administrator who asked me to teach at L L. I don’t know why. The text is an accurate description of what I saw when I visited the school and my suggestion to have a sit down at the school and to decide who’s in charge, although facil in its logic, would be a good starting point.
What occured to me is that foreign teachers in TW have much less authority than foreign teachers in the States. I’ve worked side by side by teachers from Mexico, India, England. Admin never told them they have less authority than the US teachers. A cultural difference?

I just read the L L administrator’s comments to my suggestions. She really thinks it’s possible for me just to walk in and teach the month of June. What about work permits and ARCs? She offers to cancel all ‘bad behavior ESL classes.’ What would the parents of those students think? They’ve paid for their children to take ESL classes, despite all of the really BAD behavior. She’d like me to teach only the English Conversation Special Classes.

I can’t deal with this because I’m on a 60 day renewable and wouldn’t give it up for anything less than a fair to middlin’ one year contract at a school that is neither private, because the kids are spoiled, nor a cram school, nor a buxiban.

[color=#FF0000]If you know anyone who’d like to teach June and possibly the rest of his/her life at L L near Jhongli, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the administrator there who contacted me. [/color]

Hi!

I am not going to claim that none above never happened, as I wasn’t employed by Ivy League at that time. All I can say is concerning me and 2011. This means none of these refer to others 2ish years ago.

I have been working for Ivy League Yilan (buxiban and kindergarten) since the beginning of this year. I can honestly say I have never experienced any abusive behavior from anyone, including the school management.

I have always received my payment in full and on time. I have never been asked to do anything out of what we agreed when discussing the job conditions. When I was suggested how to improve my teaching skills, I was told in private and in a friendly manner. I have never heard about any physical or other abuse from Ann or Kenny or anyone else in Ivy League.

I was told there are other schools that might perhaps offer slightly better conditions in some ways. But I got this job in this school, so that’s where I am. I asked about pretty lot of things during the interview. I was told how things work - that’s what we did agree on and so that’s what I’m getting. As I do not live in accommodation provided by Ivy League and I have never seen it, I cannot really say whether previous comments describe anything close to current state.

Again, I cannot speak for guys above but knowing Ann and Kenny so far, it is very difficult to believe situations described above.

Based on my personal experience from working in Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, UK and Taiwan I can suggest anyone dealing anything out of the native culture environment:

  1. Make sure you understand all conditions before signing any contract, ask even about things you would find silly to ask on interview back at home.
  2. Do not assume - ask.
  3. When you treat people with respect and talk calmly when dealing with problems, they are very likely to treat you in the same way.

Right now, based on my current experience, I have no hesitation to say that I would be happy to carry on working for this school if I plan to stay in education.

Lukas

This doesn’t necessarily mean he personally made the post.

[quote=“enn”]Scorecard: Lost Teacher Report English Village BO AI Elementary School Tainan

Semester 1, 6 Teachers hired–5 Lost, 83% Loss

Semester 2, 6 Teachers hired–4 Lost, 75% Loss

Semester 3, 6 Teachers hired–4 Lost 4 in first month! 75% Loss so far![/quote]
Looks like I dodged a bullet there. I went for an interview, but they never called me back (after promising they would whether I got the position or not). Few weeks later I get a call via the recruiter asking me to sub for a few weeks (until the end of the semester) and then take up a permanent position (one year contract). I felt they weren’t quite honest the first time round, had made me wait and wasted my time before the interview (I waited 2 hours), and so I declined.

I shudder to think what you think about my online writing… :astonished: