English Immersion School-foreign teacher wages

There has been a HUGE change in the cirriculum at my school. The foreign teachers are now the main teacher for all subjects (English-speaking, writing, reading, Math, Science, Computers, etc.) We may not even have a chinese teacher in the class with us to help. This is for young, young children (discipline is a concern without the chinese teachers present) We are not allowed to use any chinese in the classroom. Not discipline as in beating the kids…but as in getting them to pay attention, etc.

This is a huge change which not even the chinese teachers are happy about, but the owner is doing it regardless. The foreign teachers are now expected to work more for less money. We already work our butts off and work a 25 teaching hours a week (plus prep time, school activities(not paid), etc.), which will now be increased. We are already at school mon-friday 8:30-5:00. What is the going rate for foreign teachers in this circumstance? What other schools do this in Taiwan?

This change is not what we signed to nor agreed to, but we love the kids and the other chinese teachers are great…just the owners are *%$%^.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. We are pretty flustered at this point with our school.

XieXie.

Well, you already know me, so you already know what I think: too many hours for too little pay. I personally think teaching a single group of kindy age kids all subjects in English, all day, 5 days per is a form of torture. No amount of money would be worth it, IMO. The amount you are currently being paid is a not worth it. You’d do better doing buxiban for the same number of hours, with far fewer responsibilities. The changes your school are proposing are not sustainable. Either they will have to hike the pay significantly, or they’ll have to change back to the old way as neither foreign nor local staff will be content to work under the new rules.

Going rates vary. I think your school is enterring somewhat uncharted territory. The proposed workload sounds like what some teachers in international schools handle, perhaps more because these kids are locals and not English speakers.

600/hour, no less, period

I know a school in Yonghe that gives the teacher $630/hour for similar type hours. And will be needing a replacement teacher for next year as one of the teachers is going back home.

[quote=“CANADIANGIRL”]There has been a HUGE change in the cirriculum at my school. The foreign teachers are now the main teacher for all subjects (English-speaking, writing, reading, Math, Science, Computers, etc.)

XieXie.[/quote]

Your boss is an fucking idiot.

He/she better show you how they teach math in public elementary schools here or your school might have some pissed off parents when these kids hit first grade.

My school teaches math concepts since they spent all of their schooling years from 2-1/2 until kindergarten at our school. We have never fielded complaints from parents. Your hours are very similar to what I was working for the last four years - 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

You need to be there for long stretches of time for immersion to be successful. Not necessarily for 10 hours of contact a day, but the majority of our kids get 6 hours a day in class from the age of 3 until the age of 6 and are able to go into the international schools or go to Chinese school and join our buxiban parogram, which uses a North American language arts program, to maintain their English.