First time applying for a teaching job. Advice needed please

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

My boring story first. (Rant before the question, skip to the end if it’s too long,)

After being a student of a Chinese language centre, and after one semester deciding to try out another school to study Mandarin at , I find out from a government office (and the person telling me the info wasn’t nice about it either) was that they wont allow me to change schools I study at without a visa run :loco:
I said, so this government doesn’t really want students here, if they insist that I stay at a school I didn’t enjoy… she said, well you can just do a visa run, this was the only option, thus resetting the time i need to get my ARC due to needing a visa run :fume:
So i booked my flight out of country.

Then I find out I have another problem. My new course starts on Feb 16/08. My out of country trip is from dec 5 - 13.
The new school that I want to enroll at says they only give out 180 day student visas… and since their course runs from feb 16 - june 16, im screwed since my visa would run out in may of 2009, requiring another visa run.
Why? Because I would not be eligible for the ARC at that point, even though i am attending class :loco:
You have to wait to be enrolled at least 4 continuous months to get the ARC, then wait another 3 months to get health insurance.
And decide you want to change where you study… visa run again… unbelievable.

So I will look for a job so that I can get a ARC and then study as well, which i had contemplated doing when I came here.

But my question is, are there jobs that offer part time afternoons, or will they insist that I be available all the time?
I have no problems with afternoons, but the morning is when I would need to study.

Also, do schools have an issue with someone studying as well as working?

And where would be the best place to look for work. I tried doing a few cold calls to schools, but no one seems to be hiring right now.
I’m not sure if Kaohsiung living is the best choice (ie reading postings and calling people without knowing what they are about)

Lastly, do schools offer 6 month contracts, or no contracts.
It’s not that I am contemplating leaving early, but because I have heard of many bad experiences when someone needs to break a contract and that the contracts are usually one sided.
I have no experience, this is just from what I have read.

Thanks for the replies.

2

First the bad news:
No contract, no visa -which makes purpose of job moot.
Part time job also gives no visa.
Yes, schools have issues about that, mostly can be worked around/out.

The good news:
Yes, there are only afternoon, evening jobs, not only teaching, but in trading companies, translating firms, publishing companies, etc… Newspapers, job websites are your friends.

Best of luck.

3

Mmm, I didn’t think there were job websites for Taiwan that were in English.
I will have to look into that. I posted on the Jobs forum about that, because I wanted to know if it was even possible to find an insurance job in Taiwan with limited Chinese ability.

As far as part time goes, I heard from someone that I can have a minimum of 12 hours a week and get an ARC. Not sure if this is correct.

If I am required to sign a contract, I guess i need to see if there are any 6 month ones.

Thanks for your reply :sunglasses:

4

It’s 15 hours/week minimum for an ARC. The law also requires a 1-year contract to give you the work permit.

5

Is it? I thought it was 12 also. Regardless, if you find a school that wants you they can work around the minimum hours. But I’d guess if a school is going to do the legwork required to get you a visa/ARC, they will want the most hours they can get.

6

I stand corrected. It’s actually 14hrs/week minimum for an employer to sponsor someone for an ARC.

But as mentioned above, in reality it’s pretty irrelevant. Employers can write whatever they want on the paperwork submitted to the government.