In the early days of this Forum, I would often get criticized by the 90210 crowd as being anti-teacher.
Coming from a family of professors with tenure (old joke on this forum–search “have you got tenure yet”), it could be the furthest from the truth. I am just pro-certified teacher. But teaching in Taiwan is not certified teaching–it is PT Barnum circus handling…Enjoy the craziness of it but don’t expect logic to come into the equation. In some ways, that backwater craziness has made it a place I look back at really fondly and the expats were fucking diverse.
But making it professional, certified, higher salaries etc.? I have been for this for decades…there would be downsides… The expat culture would lose part of its Wild East charm but be better educationally for the kids…for such reforms to happen though you need a logical customer base. That will take centuries.
and actual people who have experience with education opening schools would help. Unfortunately the only expertise you need to open a school is knowing how to cook taxes and having the right guanxi on who to bribe at the government building.
The school I’m at just hired two Asian Americans. They tried to explain to me all the ways the Asian American hires were qualified to be considered English speakers, only to realize I really didn’t care, since the Asian Americans were replacing a Russian and a French dude and I just want coteachers who know what they’re doing; I couldn’t care less what their race is.
I’m working at public school (started in November but quarantine ended near December 1). So it hasn’t been very long. But it’s already 100x less toxic than working at cram school. They pay is less (assuming you can negotiate to those 1,000 Ntd per hour gigs) and there is more regulation (like following the stupid tax code of taxing 18% until you’ve been in the country 183 days in a calendar year very literally. They say it resets every year until I’ve been in the country 183 days. So every January I’ll suddenly get reversed to 18% and every June I get 5% again and have to claim the returns during every tax period. It’s ludicrous) but so far as far as mental health goes it’s a breath of fresh air.
All the problems I’ve had so far lie with the MOE and not the school at all. I love working for the public school. But I am damn pissed at the MOE.
I read this again and you saying socially awkward hit me. The school with the nitpicky boss had a teacher just like this. She was brand new to teaching. Surely a very nice individual with perfect English but she came across as a hermit crab.
I read and present everything with expression. I do this to get attention and laughter from the kids. This demonstrates to the kids how they can get into the characters of the stories they are reading and how they can express themselves.
The Asian lady I am talking about was like stale bread. It doesn’t matter the race or skin color etc… Teachers should have outgoing personalities.
It’s more than just entertaining, it’s important to understand how words should sound like in different contexts. It also helps a lot with comprehension
They also cut my Time off and my bonus because I couldn’t start the contract on time. But I couldn’t start the contract on time because the government wouldn’t let me in due to covid. It took them months to process my special landing permit. So I had to sit unemployed for months waiting, pay my own quarantine, foot the flight upfront and wait for flight reimbursement (tales 4 months after you land) and still get some benefits cut. If I wasn’t moving here to be with my girlfriend I would have jumped ship a long time ago.
But I am extremely happy with the school. The school and the staff are really amazing. It’s the Moe that sucks giant donkey testicles
