[quote=“grayson”]One of these days someone over at the MOE will have an epiphany and hire some people (with a clue) to actually check the info of the ARC applicants. It would make the teacher market rather interesting. Better in the long run IMHO.
It’s not that hard for a quick confirmation with the university to see if there was a John Doe who graduated with a BS/BA in the year XXXX. Universities really don’t like it when people misrepresent their school.[/quote]
They have one guy whose job it is to do this and I have met him. PM me if you want his name and contact details at the MOE…he is an idiot…extremely good looking, charming…but doesn’t have the slightest clue as to how to go about double-checking on these degrees. So if your degree is fake, you can take a deep breath. There is no chance that you will be found out unless someone makes a direct complaint…and you know what? The gov. of Taiwan probably likes to approve as many ARCs as possible for English teachers. It is good for the economy and it is great for the English learners of Taiwan. Right now I live in Japan and no one…NO ONE…can speak English here…and getting a tutor is next to impossible. In fact, quite a few of the Japanese students who are studying ‘Chinese’ in Taipei are also taking English lessons because they can’t get over how cheap it is (read: ample supply of teachers compared to Japan). From an economics perspective, I agree with the policy of approving everybody and then just deporting the freaks after they get caught shoplifting Wisbee.
So how come the salaries of foreign English teachers in Japan don’t reflect the low supply/high demand? English teachers in Japan make less than native teachers. Truck drivers and construction workers make more money than English teachers in Japan.
Because in the mindset of the Japanese, any foreigner who is allowed to live and work here legally should be making LESS than the majority of Japanese…as in a lower salary…and they will be reminded daily of how lucky they are to be here…and any foreigner who STAYS in Japan, except for those posted here by investment houses, the US military, or multinational corps…must be insane. Cuz you will always be inferior and you will always be paid less…AND…you will always have to pay more for everything!!
Side note: supply and demand does NOT and I repeat does not affect the price of anything in Japan. Witness huge numbers of vacant apartments and a general over-supply of housing, but the basic price of an apartment holds steady no matter what…you can walk down a street with 5 vacany signs for a 2DK and how much is that aparto? It’s 600 US per month, just like all the rest of them…and they’ve all been vacant for years.// And what about the cost of mobile phones? The market is completely saturated, but do you think the price of getting a mobile or an account has gone down? Nope. Holding steady at about 60 US per month.
People I have spoken to who have made good coin teaching English in Japan did it all with privates…in Osaka or Tokyo. Your basic salary and ARC is still going to be around 260 000 yen per month no matter where you are. But I have met people who made over 700 000 yen per month when you added in the privates. That is impossible to do in the country.
I am literally counting the hours until my contract is finished.
Slip out in conversation? Dude, I’m 38 years old and most of my friends are not fresh out of university. We just don’t sit around talking about that stuff. We have years of real life and wide-ranging current interests to talk about instead. Stories about what you did when you were 20 are a) just like everyone else’s and b) pretty boring for that reason.
The time I spent at university was largely wasted, but without that piece of paper you can’t get your work permit here - or that working holiday visa for Australia. If someone chose to spend a few years doing something more useful, and is able to put together a convincing fake then more power to them. I’m not going to waste my time trying to ‘spot’ them. Either someone can do the job or they can’t, but I’ve met too many incompetents with real degrees to put any faith in a mere piece of paper.
Someone else summed up this argument recently by saying that everyone pays their dues. A degree is not the only route to competence, but it is supposed to be a verifiable guarantee. Judging from the quality of some genuine degree-holders, and the number of ‘genuine’ degrees available for a small payment, a degree is neither a guarantee nor really verifiable.
Can you spot someone who hasn’t ‘paid their dues’? That’s the important question.
Ha ha! Nice one. And no-one else passed your test!
I used to know a guy who had a sign over his desk reminding him to do things properly. It read “Pay attention to delait!”
If you have a degree and the applicant doesn’t have one and you can’t tell during the interview or shortly soon after then it really doesn’t matter.
( please no remarks about my run on sentence. I have a degree in heating and air conditioning)
[quote=“dix2111”]If you have a degree and the applicant doesn’t have one and you can’t tell during the interview or shortly soon after then it really doesn’t matter.
( please no remarks about my run on sentence. I have a degree in heating and air conditioning)[/quote]
Yeah, exactly. If you can’t tell that the person is question hasn’t completed university…then why does it matter?
You could argue that in the case of finding children’s teachers, it does matter to find people who are honest, as those who come into contact with children should be of sound character. Oh! And of course you might want to know if your teacher’s degree is fake so that you are aware that he/she might possibly be deported…but those are the only 2 valid reasons I can think of.
That’s bollocks. I’ve known people here for years and no-one has ever found me out.
Erh… I used to issue working holiday visas for Australia, no need for a degree… don’t know where you got that educated guess from… 