Michael English School says that give 15 days paid holiday. Is this for real?
If true, that’s pretty damn good. The Labour Standards Law allows for no paid holidays for the first year of service, with seven days in the second year, and an additional day per year after that.
Yes, we pay our teacher’s for Chinese NY
I work at a high school and am paid a monthly salary. I’m back in Canada enjoying a break while my monthly pay is going into my bank account today!! (Not bragging, you understand :!: )
If you are paid by the hour for each hour of teaching, then it’s difficult to see how you could get monthly pay!
Kenneth
If you get paid for holidays you must be doing alot of extra things for the school. Ain’t nobody cheaper than a Taiwanese boss.
Elementary and High Schools would probably pay for the holiday. My old one did.
Ken-That’s no true. It’s standard practice to pay a salary for a certain number of hours, than an hourly overtime rate after that.
I have my beefs about teaching English as well, but honestly, unreasonable whinning about local bosses and bad working conditions makes me uncomfortable. It may just be that there are good jobs out ther, but you can’t get them.
I’m on a monthly salary. I don’t receive an hourly wage. I do work 23 hours a week. I get paid for holidays. That’s it. I also have 36 to 55 students in my classes. I’m challenged to find ways to teach them that work. Maybe that’s why I’m paid so much. Who knows, but it’s the most gratifying job I’ve had in Taiwan yet. As per other posts, it has also been extremely frustrating and exhausting at times. It’s not perfect 'cause I have to make sacrifices such as getting up at 5:00 a.m. to catch the bus.
Grasshopper…that comment about cheap Taiwanese bosses doesn’t sit well with me. I try not to make blanket statements about anyone in any race and I hope they don’t make any about me either.
I’m glad ‘you’ like it Autumn and are getting satisfaction from it. I worked in an Elementary School for almost 4 years before leaving last semester for greener pastures. What I’ve since found is that I honestly didn’t realise how hard I was getting it at Elementary School until I changed positions. Less kids = better quality control and job satisfaction for me. Our School, with hours of 8 to 4:30 paid $NT72 000 with a TEFL plus another $NT10 000 if you wanted to work an extra hour a day for the month. I don’t consider that good money, but everyone to her own. Happy Lunar New Year 
Sorry if this touched a nerve. In almost 4 years of working here this is what I see. Now I could be wrong but with Taiwanese school owners it’s 100% about the money. Why would they pay you for holidays the owners are not making anything off of you for 1-2 weeks so why should you?
Asia is late-19th robber-baronism capitalism, with no restraints or regulations by civilized society. They’re going through the same phase in Taiwan that we in the West went through a century ago. So of course most of the bosses are pricks only concerned about the bottom line. So was Henry Ford.
I’d really like to put in another year at least at the high school but really, I’m so tired some days, I think it will be enough to get through the next 4 1/2 months. I may be looking for greener pastures in some way next year too. What kind of work are you doing now? 
Any openings for September?
Sorry if this touched a nerve. In almost 4 years of working here this is what I see. Now I could be wrong but with Taiwanese school owners it’s 100% about the money. Why would they pay you for holidays the owners are not making anything off of you for 1-2 weeks so why should you?[/quote]
Dont sweat it. I’ve seen the same thing and I know that Mod Lang is right but call me the eternal optimist. I always hope that around the next corner is a laoban who considers the meiguoren (foreigner, right?). Now, in my case, I work for a cram school that has a contract with the private high school. They are billed by the cram school and perhaps agreed to the wage conditions because they really really need an ESL teacher! I’m just quessing because I know that their bottom line is critically important too.
It’s an irresponsible boss who doesn’t care about the bottom line. REally, because if he doesn’t (or she), then ordinary people like you and me get HURT when the firing letters get sent out.
And if you think I’m joking. Look at Enron: thousands fired because the bosses didn’t care about the bottom line enough. Look at the many formerly grand British enterprises that didn’t care enough before they were forced out of businesses. Losses: Millions of jobs.
Come on, guys. Give the bosses a break.
Kenneth
Wow, Autumn, that’s a lot of students. My preschool groups are smaller than 4 children (I decided that) and my afternoon 4th grade class has 12 children…one of the largest classes in my school. If you get paid by salary, you are more likely to get paid holidays than if you are working by the hour, but if you sit down and calculate how much you make per hour during a regular month, you might cry.
Of course, if you get two weeks off for CNY, it’s like you’re making twice as much money per hour…
:mrgreen:
Sometimes, I dream about having small classes again. Depends on the participants as to how interesting the class is. If they’re all shy, the time can really drag on by. I’ve got a handle on how to teach these large classes and it’s working. I put them all into the Language Lab. That eliminated the chit chats in Chinese as I mark them while they’re practicing with their partners. Got 'em scared of getting low marks! It’s neat 'cause now they actually try. They’re guaranteed a minimum of 60% just for trying.
My hourly rate isn’t too bad at NT700/contact hour for 23 hours. I give of my own time of course but really enjoy it there and like the Chinese teachers a lot too. The rewards are more than monetary.
Michael English School sounds negativly familiar. Who is the boss? Are you sure it’s not an agent?
[quote=“KenTaiwan98”]It’s an irresponsible boss who doesn’t care about the bottom line. REally, because if he doesn’t (or she), then ordinary people like you and me get HURT when the firing letters get sent out.
And if you think I’m joking. Look at Enron: thousands fired because the bosses didn’t care about the bottom line enough. Look at the many formerly grand British enterprises that didn’t care enough before they were forced out of businesses. Losses: Millions of jobs.
Come on, guys. Give the bosses a break.
Kenneth[/quote]
Oh yeah, it is most certainly about the bottom line. The bosses didn’t open the school so that foreign teachers have a place to work, they opened up a school to make loot.