Did Taiwan ever have a program like JET (Japan) or EPIK (Korea)?

I don’t think so, but who knows.
I also wonder if there has ever been serious talk of Taiwan having such a program.

Does the Fulbright thingy achieve a similar goal?

My understanding was Fulbright (based on my experience in Thailand) is usually a university-level thing, and that Teach for Taiwan was something like JET…

Isn’t Teach for Taiwan all about getting foreign English teachers into the local school system?

I’m not sure, I thought JET was about getting NES teaching assistants. Teach for Taiwan is a private company, isn’t it? FET might be more similar, although they recruit licensed teachers. @nz should know if she’s reading this.

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teach for Taiwan is a NPO. You might be confusing it with Teach Taiwan.

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@BiggusDickus Fulbright is a US government “soft diplomacy” organization that has different programs in Taiwan (and across the globe). There’s research grants for people with PhD’s that is pretty legit (usually) and then there’s the ETA (English Teaching Assistant) program, which is for absolutely anyone with a US passport, a pulse, and a college diploma. Rumor has it they actively deny people with teaching experience or goals, as they want people who will before famous and have “the Fulbright stamp” on their resume. (heaven forbid teachers make a difference in a child’s life). Considering they’ve run out of waitlisted candidates every year for the past 8 years and even called up people were straight up not accepted (as late as July 23rd for an Aug 1 start), it’s really impossible not to get in. But I can list all the ways that they really are a cult, checking ALL the boxes for the “am I in a cult?” test.

FET is the “Foreign English Teacher” Program. Any licensed foreigner teaching in a public school in Taiwan is given an FET contract, even if they go through recruiters. I feel like I’ve posted the link a few times in the past few weeks, but here it is: https://tfetp.epa.ntnu.edu.tw/en/tfetp/web/home
Apparently they are now “TFETP”, not “FET”. Way to change the name. Since they no longer have the contract on the website, just an FYI, starting salary for an FET with no (official and while licensed) teaching experience in a proper school is NT62,720/mo + 5-10k/mo for housing + 40,000 each way x 2 people for airfare (160,000 total airfare, from home country to TW and back). I say this because I saw a contract once that said 56,000 and that’s called a scam. The salary goes up a little less than 2,000/mo with each year. Masters degrees get about 7,000 more and a PhD gets another 7,000 more (ish, I’ve posted the chart elsewhere on this site).

Apparently FET (TFETP???) now has a program for unlicensed people to be “assistants”, pay NT45,000/mo. That’s better than Fulbright at least, and you won’t be gas lit each time you call them out for telling you to break the law, but it’s not great pay. For 20 hour weeks, you’re better off at HESS or any other chain cram school probably.

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JET was (and is) a soft power program, established in the 1980s I think through Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (education was an afterthought) to try to improve Japan’s image internationally. Perhaps oldsters in the US can remember unemployed auto workers in the US smashing Toyotas with baseball bats? It was not a good scene, and JET was one attempt by the Japanese state to change the narrative.

Taiwan, as far as I can see, has not had any program remotely like this.

Guy

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I think I remember a thread about their alleged cultiness a few years ago, but now you’ve got me curious: is there a “master list” of cult questions that’s currently accepted as standard textbook material? Where is it? (I’m too lazy to use a search engine… plus Discobot told me not to, and I wouldn’t dare defy the God-Emperor.)

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This one?

BITE model

https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/

Idk which checklist I checked it against, but that one looks about right

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That one has a lot more details (such as dictating what you can eat), so my statement about Fulbright checking “all the boxes” for a cult would be an exaggeration ;).

But cults don’t need to check every box to be a cult. It’s the gaslighting and the “you’re better than everyone else because you’re a member of this group, which the US and TW government say is the most necessary thing for the future of TW, which makes you more special than anyone else in this country, even more special than diplomats” and “don’t believe what you’ve read about how what you’re doing is illegal, even if you’re reading it directly on TW government law websites because the people saying that don’t understand what we’re doing and the importance of what we do”. Oh, and telling them that “all the other foreign teachers are Christian missionaries, and they’re kinda crazy. None of them went to college” (sometimes true, but rarely). And the fact that any number of people are allowed to just go into their apartments without asking/being told they’re going in or being accompanied by the people who live there, they’re not given individual keys to their own bedrooms, they must live with other people from the program or pay double rent, (talk about no privacy). Not attending all activities planned by the program is considering “missing work” and pay will be docked if you miss too much, even though by law they can’t work because they’re students. Leaving the program early requires payback of all stipends, training costs and airfare. Asking to leave the program early due to mental health crises leads to more gaslighting. Cases of rape not being brought to the authorities because “it’s clearly just a misunderstanding” (gaslighting). And the worship of the “coordinators”, which goes beyond “they’re really helpful and I appreciate them for helping me fix my leaky toilet or show me where to buy groceries” and absolutely into “they are god and nothing they do or say is wrong, even when they break the law (embezzling money or stealing from apartments that they have keys to) or telling me I need to break the law (teaching classes alone, doing unpaid volunteer work that clearly falls under the category of “work that a local could be paid to do”). The list goes on…

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Sounds like its run by Mormons,.Brothers and Sisters from another Mother?

I’m just most annoyed that these people aren’t remotely qualified to teach English nor have any English teaching experience I guess !
Then schools claim they have English teachers.

Who pays them, US government or Taiwan ?

I know Fulbright is funded in large part by the US government, but I think TW counties pitch in some. Kinmen, for example, gives Fulbright about 3x more money than the total cost of the ETAs there (as in, after they pay for ETA “stipends”, health care, airfare, training, etc., Fulbright still has a profit of 2x more than their total costs. Maybe that goes into funding the program in other counties, but I doubt it. I think the Taitung program is funded almost entirely by Formosa Plastics, which means Fulbright gives absolutely no :poop: about the environment).

But if you’re a US citizen, congrats, you’re paying for unqualified cult members’ post-college gap year wherein they try to pretend to teach English for a year! Oh, and whatever legal payments they owe people in the rare case of Fulbright actually getting into legal trouble…

As far as I know, Fulbright is not a Taiwan thing remotely comparable to JET or EPIK. Rather, it is a US university student-and-recent-grad-exchange program.

Teach Taiwan is the (quite literally the) agency tied to the FET program. That’s the closest thing (again – AFAIK) Taiwan has to JET or EPIK, but even then, isn’t the same. For one, it’s not as centralized; every city is under its own jurisdiction and set of contracts. As such, in even convenient North Taiwan-but-not-Taipei-cities, schools can be wildly different not just city-to-city, but school-to-school in one city. In addition, I know JET hires teacher assistants (you can have zero education/ teaching experience) while all public school teachers here in TW must have home-country teaching certs/ licenses. The only national real factor about them I can think of is the pay-grade system and that the agency interview can potentially connect you across the country.

As posted somewhere in this thread, Taiwan FTE Program now hire teacher assistants for 45000 NTD/month, without teaching licenses.

BTW, they are still hiring.

https://tfetp.epa.ntnu.edu.tw/en/tfetp/web/apply_now

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Fulbright is a US government thing for recent college grads to chill out in foreign countries, I mean, go on meaningful exchanges to be full time teacher slaves, for one year. It’s only open to US citizens and it’s basically open to any US citizen with a pulse and a college degree (for the TW program, seriously, you won’t not be accepted, barring COVID cancelling the year)

No, I’ve been hired directly by public schools and the contract comes from the county, which comes from the national education bureau and is tweaked accordingly. Generally, the contracts have some variation between counties (maybe you can’t leave the school during lunch or you start at 8:30 and go til 5:30 in some places but it’s 8-4 in others, but they aren’t huge differences and you can negotiate with the principal of the school if you don’t like it).
In many cases, any public school in TW can apply for money to hire an FET, but people are lazy and don’t speak English well enough to interview foreigners, so they rely on recruiters like Teach Taiwan, which advertises for ESL teachers even though they need EFL teachers.

As @tando said, quoting me, there is a program for people who just have a college diploma. Pay is 45k/mo compared to the starting salary of 62k+ housing + airfare x2 + monthly bonus (total pay for 12 months, 3 months off) that you get if you have a license, but the option is there and it’s better pay than Fulbright (40k/mo x10 mo), which makes you work actual should-be payed jobs for no pay as a “volunteer” on your weekends on top of your 30 classes/wk teaching load. (FET contracts limit to 22 class/wk)

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Fulbright seems remotely comparable to JET if you can get hired with no teaching experience for both. Or am I misunderstanding you?

Were you a Fulbright ETA before? (just curious) You have a lot of information about the program.

Thank you to you and @tando for the useful information! Do either of you know the average amount of hours per week one works in the FTE program as an assistant? I read 22 class a week limitation in the contract? Perhaps I am missing something already said.