Answer - Neat casual. The Taiwanese judge a lot on dress, so Saturday arvo civvies are definately out of the equasion. Don’t dress too up, for the start the weather is so humid all year round here, you’ll die in your own sweat, and with looking too formal at a buxiban you might be mistaken for a mormon. But if that’s what you like, go for it. Cheers, Amos.
Kojen is a kiddie school. Wear khaki trousers, a cotton knit collared sport shirt, clean shoes, matching belt, and carry a nice book bag. That’s it! If you go for a corporate interview, swap the sport shirt for a button down and a tie, toss on a light sport jacket, and you’re fine! Just remember, it’s starting to get hot now…gag…
so you just don’t want to be sweating like a pig when you meet prospective employers. Light weight and natural.
LJ,
I knew a couple guys who worked for Kojen back in '94. They never wore jeans and were squeeky clean. If you look at the Kojen website it shows some teachers in jeans.
It’s almost ten years later and jeans were not on the list when I recently asked about their dress code. The list I got was what I would describe as business casual in the US. Like a nice pair of khakis and a button down shirt for guys. I doubt that you’d need to wear a tie.
If you’ve never lived in such a climate, I’d also like to suggest that you wear undershirts to help soak up the sweat. Cotton blends are better than pure cotton–less wrinkly. Buy clothing that breathes–Columbia brand has some nice looking stuff.
Also, buy shoes that slip on as you’ll probably be taking them off and putting them on more often than usual. And make sure you have something else for your feet in the rainy season. Leather will mold and rot! I usually wore nice leather slip on shoes to work–no sandals. For some reason people went out of their way to make nice comments on my footwear. Maybe because my feet are so huge and they wanted to make me feel better about them!
Once you get the job and see how others dress, you can make adjustments.
Kojen has a good reputation and you can learn a lot from working with them and using their materials. I’ve been invited to join them in August and can’t wait to get back to Taiwan. Best wishes to you–break a leg! Bet you’re excited.
I’ve already been warned about the weather. My bf just arrived this past week and says the humidity is bad. He’s already complained about it 3 or 4 times. I will definitely be buy cotton/cotton blend clothing.
As for slip-on shoes, I just bought a whole bunch of shoes, and didn’t think of getting that type. I should have known better, as my bf always made me take my shoes off at the door. I always had the devil of a time getting them back on without untying them. Maybe I should start to carry a shoehorn around with me.
I’m used to wearing business casual in my current job, so wearing such in Taiwan won’t be a problem. I will, however, feel a bit uncomfortable going to an interview dressed that way. That is not the accepted way of interviewing in the US. However, when in Taipei…
If it’s little kids, why not wear shorts, T-shirt and sandals? That’s what I wear when I teach and noone cares. I’d hate to work for some facist school who made me put on a shirt and tie or something. Like fack I’m wearing that to work int he middle of summer. If they tried to pull that one I’d just leave a change of clothes at work, never take it home for a wash and see if they started introducing a ‘smell code’.
Are you sure no one cares, or they just don’t confront you?
I worked in one cram school and they said casual is fine, but shorts were out. In my jr/sr high, they told us from the beginning that we shouldn’t wear shorts, but my colleague did and they were just too uncomfortable to confront him.
The best advice is to look around you and see what your co-workers wear. When in Rome…