Maybe something more subtle.
Learning Seed School in Miaoli county is coming around in a good way.
I had the chance to read though what Pubba wrote back in 2010 about him being abruptly fired and believe every word of it. The schools track record with hiring and firing is not great at all and the boss who runs the show does not speak a word of English and is pretty confused on the basics of what makes a school work and thrive (ie, not ruling the Taiwanese staff with an iron fist and showing up in her Mercedes every other week). However, with all that said, my fiancĆ© and I signed on initially at Learning Seed for a six month stint and stayed for two years and we were not the exception either, several of the other teachers at the school signees milti-year extensions as we were leaving the school. The school is gorgeous with a sister campus in the technology park of Zhunan simply exploding in recent years, the local staff is incredibly hard working and the kids were always great. Sure there were parents wondering why their 3 year old wasnāt fluent after a month in āimmersionā, but nothing out of the ordinary. Our days were long: from 0730 - 1830, but we never were required to work weekends or special holidays. We were paid promptly every month and negotiated salary increases a couple times. The school (owner) will take a yard if you give them an inch at times but if youāre willing to stand your ground and keep disputes objective then there wonāt be problems. Overall, the school is great and the staff is FANTASTIC. The owner can be touch and go but is easily manageable.
Just wants sto give the good and the bad. PM me or reply if anybody has any comments or questions. No trolls please.
Oh, and we left the school to return to the states to get our masters. No shady business.
I have recently had serious problems with King Arthur School in Guting. (Around the corner from Roxy99) I have worked there since March in the AM for some extra cash and Iām still waiting to be paid from early April. They are typically tight fisted when it comes to paying up for work done and despite continued dialogue have yet to pay me.
I am only owed about 12,500 so I guess It could be a lot worse, but nonetheless it is my money, Iāve earned it and I should be paid it. Iāve heard multiple excuses that result in them telling me I will be paid the next day. This has happened for about 2 weeks. As it stands I should be paid on Monday, but I have no reason to believe I will. Due to this, I have served my two weeks notice as of today and will not work there again.
Iām not going to give up on being paid yet though. Does anyone have any advice for how best to escalate this issue. Police? CLA? etc. Thanks.
When you say you worked there in the AM, does this mean you were teaching kindergarten classes? If this is the case, Iād be wary of bringing in the police or the CLA as for most foreigners on regular ARCās this would be illegal work and you may find yourself in a spot of hot water.
Note to reader: Most schools in Taiwan have little to offer in the form of education. Letās be realistic. The students in Taiwan are under the illusion that they have to learn English. It may help if they go to a Western country or conduct business with the West, but most of the children here will simply work in manufacturing. It is not clear how long jobs will even last in Taiwan because it has failed to reinvent itself over the last two decades. To open a cram school, the license is only $300,000 NT with an annual fee of $10,000 NT. There are no education requirements for owners or schools. The public school system here has so many problems that most parents are at a loss. The reality is that if a family immigrates to a Western country their children are obligated to go through language classes for over a year regardless of their linguistic abilities. The training at most of the language schools on the Island is absolutely hysterically. The people putting on the training have little knowledge of ELL pedagogy, hold degrees from institutions meeting little standardized criteria or do not have degrees at all, and are generally some of the worst teachers and have just been moved to administration positions because a school owner has made a mistake by hiring someone related to them. The whole situation here is hysterical. I am surprised more teachers are not running to Africa and the Middle East. Maybe they are?
[quote=āBattery9ā]I have heard of a lot of people complaining about schools. their deposits being taken, deposits being ASKED in the first place.
I have been lucky. My schools have been great.
Do you guys have stories to share? I would love to hear if anyone else worked at Julia American School in Szwei Road. Teachers having to put out fires, NT$ 10 000 depositsā¦being fired for having an opinionā¦
So far I have 3 people whose lives were almost ruined by that school![/quote]
OPs post
This school is now called Julia language Institute. And yes they just tried to fuck me.
[quote=ābrianā]Not wanting to knock the value of such a thread on this forum, but such lists already exist.
A blacklist of bad schools, and more importantly a greenlist of good schools can be found at buxiban.com[/quote]
That website does not seem to be online anymore, only someone trying to sell it.
Yeah, itās been down for a long time.
Yeah, it appears to have been parked by July of 2009.
American Eagle Tianmu Branch
Worst school Iāve ever worked for. Awful management when I was there. They have no people skills and try and treat you like crap.
There is mountains of unpaid work so you work about double the hours youāre paid for. They even tried to get me to do extra weekly classes for no pay.
The kids are wild and totally uncontrollable. There is no support from anyone and you cannot punish them or communicate anything negative to the parents. Report cards and communication books are censored if you say anything remotely critical.
Most telling of all is the huge staff turnover rate. I was only there a few months and it was a carousel of new faces in and out every week. The staff who remained clearly hated their jobs and lives.
[quote=āzenoā]American Eagle Tianmu Branch
The kids are wild and totally uncontrollable. There is no support from anyone and you cannot punish them or communicate anything negative to the parents. Report cards and communication books are censored if you say anything remotely critical.
[/quote]
Par for the course at most cram schools in Taiwan. Hope you find a better place to work soon.
Deleted
Anyone got updated info on ITI Hsinchu campus please? Iām thinking about applying for a job there.
I have been at ITI in Hsinchu for nearly 14 years. If you would like to send me an e-mail with specific questions, I will try to answer then honestly and objectively.
My e-mail address is: opilec@yahoo.co.uk
Regards
Charlie Warth
Does anyone have up to date info on the AGKsion Language School or Columbia English Language Institute? Iām thinking of applying and canāt seem to find any info online.
Apologies if this information is already on this thread, I did a quick scan back to about 2010 but didnāt see anything.
Thanks!
Has anyone heard anything about Korrnell Academy? They offered me a job, but due to some research, I declined. Can anyone confirm or deny the credibility of this school?
This thread has plenty to say: https://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=71147
āCredibilityā is a tough word. If credible is legal, yeah, sure. But if credible is well-run with a curriculum based on educational theory or set up in a way where they really give a crap about their studentsā¦ thatās stretching it.
If youāre a licensed teacher, I suggest working for Hsinchu County Public Schools. (Unfortunately) you have to be hired through Dewey, but your interaction with that awful agency is limited to be honest.
If youāre not a licensed teacher, there are plenty of buxiban and private school jobs (American Eagle comes to mind) that involve a much better working environment and less smoke blowing up your butt either in the beginning or end of your employment.
ā¦
nfrared_dwarf - Thanks!