Buxiban job market and salary

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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1

Hi everyone,

I would like to know what the job market is like right now for buxibans in Taiwan and what the salary is like at the moment

Thanks

2

60k average.

Always teachings leaving so they need to fill positions in.

3

What are the usual schedule? Only evenings and weekends? What is the hourly rate? When you say 60K, is that at 40 hour per week full time?

4

I heard it’s easy to get a girlfriend in Taiwan. Is that true? How easy on a scale of one to easy?

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5

Definitely not anywhere close to 60 000. You’re highballing it there. Let’s say he works 18 hours a week if he is lucky…

Standard buxiban salary per hour is 600 NTD an hour. 600 x 18 hours a week = 10, 800 x 4 weeks = 43 200. Before tax sum: 43, 200

43 200

  • tax (18%) (7776)
  • rent (lowball estimate for rent Taipei single bedroom) 10 000

= 25 424 take home pay. And that’s before you deduct money for food, provisions, entertainment etc.

Buxiban hours are mostly evening work with a few afternoons. Realistically, you’ll be lucky to get over 18 hours a week, which is enough to survive on but not enough to save good money.

Buxibans jobs are plentiful but be careful if you take one in Taipei as the cost of living is high there. Also, if you’re going to come then don’t come now. If you’ve been in Taiwan for less than 183 days in a calender year you’ll be taxed a base rate of 18%. It adds up, trust me.

I recommend going private or getting a cushy public school gig. But buxiban is good if you want a lot of free time to travel and enjoy Taiwan. Depends on what you’re here for.

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6

I worked for HESS and they have a minimum of 20 hours per week, they loved to give as many hours as possible. 28-32 average.

I dono… everyone I know who works or worked at a cram school made about 60k minimum.

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And I can give you a few examples of people who worked two jobs because they could only get 14 hours or less in their buxiban. Better to prepare OP for the worst case scenario than the best one, right? Too many come here thinking it’ll be the land of milk and honey. Of course, every situation is different.

Is it true buxibans must pay for a minimum of 14 hours a week regardless of how many actual hours worked?

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While we have an active “Buxiban for beginners” thread… I’m looking at Hess now, there’s a lot of info on here but some quite old and some a bit incomplete/vague.
People recently seem to say Hess is stressful but ok until you find ‘something better’. Does that just mean another Buxiban with better pay, or is everyone trying to get a school position?
Also, anyone know how to tell which branches are good? It sounds like people’s experience at chains come down mostly to the branch management, I don’t want to leave that completely to chance if I don’t have to.

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Well, I have a bachelor degree in economics and an Australian passport. Also I’m married to a Taiwanese national. Can get the JFRV.

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Not judging anybody here but some of the people on this forum have been here for 10 years or longer. Buxiban system was very different back in the day to now! I’m giving a perspective no older than 2 years.

Most people see buxibans as a good way of finding your feet in Taiwan. Doing it for a year and then moving on to better is a common rite of passage for newbies here.

11

You have no idea what kind of branch you will get.

I had one good one and one shitty one. The shitty one micro managed everything and were very pedantic.

It can be stressful if you have a shitty manager, or co-teachers who won’t help you or don’t give a shit about you.

HESS picks you up at the airport, trains you while you stay at the hotel and you meet a lot of people straight off the bat.

However, you are rolling the dice with what you will get. I have had friends come here and get a 7pm to 9pm slot four times a week, and every morning he was teaching kindy 9am to 12 with more classes after that. He was tired a lot of the time.

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If you’re only making 43 k NTD at your job you’re getting ripped off. That number is the extreme low range for teachers here.

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According to YouTube and the media , all girls here are easy.
Was I misled?

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Earth girls are easy.

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Absolutely agree. However, it’s been known to happen. Obviously not many people like to admit to it but it certainly can happen. However, it’s all a matter of perspective. Blue collar workers get half of that and work 60 hours a week. To them a buxiban salary is a great job.

You can survive on 43, 000 but that’s about it. It’s a bad situation to be in for sure, so it’s better to give OP an alternative take on buxibans when it goes wrong

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A lot of the adult buxibans here give very low hours , like 15 to 20 a week if your lucky.

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Thanks Zap, I’m already here with an ARC so I was thinking of working at a school. I interviewed for one and they said “Yeah we’d like you to teach science, drama, language arts and probably something else, 26 lessons a week, the teachers who work here 8am -5pm still usually take marking home. Does that sound good?”
And I thought nah, buxiban sounds relatively good all of a sudden…

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Funny how that “Taiwan girls are easy” stereotype has even manifested in Taiwanese now. I’ve had Taiwanese student’s and working professionals tell me “Oh, it’s so easy for foreigners to get girls in Taiwan.”

I ask them where they heard this and they just say it’s what they think. YouTube and Taiwan news I reckon.

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A good job will let you get all your marking done within 8am to 5pm.

26 lessons a week is the norm in a real school. Those are prob 45min lessons?

So you will teach maximum 5 lessons a day. That is about 4 hours of teaching a day. In HESS I would typically do 9-12, 2-3.30, 4.40-6.30 and twice a week 6.40-8.30. It was a shit load, and then still mark homework and prep for lessons and fill in homebooks and all sorts of shit. Man…buxiban teaches you how to work hard but you will burn out. Tuesday was a “chill day” 9-12 and 2-3.30 then done.

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20

I think the lessons were 50 minutes, it’s a five day week so it’d average just over 5 lessons a day. Still, the teaching time was fine but that prep sounded pretty involved and it seemed like there were quite a few other duties (admin tasks and helping with extra-curricular activities and so on).
Your HESS job sounds incredibly hectic, I was hoping to get a 20 hours per week contract with them and try to pick up a little extra work here and there. That would already have me at the same pay as the school was offering (low 60’s per month), with more straightforward prep and marking and very few other duties, but admittedly without paid holidays.
The consensus from the old hands seems to be that school positions are better though, hey.