Buttercup is right that compared to other countries, the rates are not that good, especially if they haven’t moved up in a decade but the cost of living has. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, live in Taipei. People will compare different places. That’s precisely why I didn’t go to Japan, despite having a much greater desire in other respects (such as having spent a lot of time doing Japanese martial arts). The saving rate and general quality of life would have been far too low. There must be other people making the same assessments about Taiwan, especially qualified teachers. Once again, it’s a case of Taiwan’s loss because other than those who end up with some connection (usually marriage) to Taiwan, it’s simply not worth sticking around if you’re a decent, let alone great, teacher.
What Craig said was also correct. People do end up spending a lot of time travelling unless they’re at the same location for the entire day and they do end up losing money every time there’s a typhoon, national holiday, or even if they’re sick. Our work penalises us if we’re sick, which means sure, we’re there 100% in body (to infect everyone else), but not in spirit. It’s really, really, really short-sighted. Furthermore, this notion of unpaid holidays also means that some people can’t afford to take holidays, which means they never get to recharge, which means the quality of their teaching goes down. Again, very short-sighted.
In Australia, in the public education system, if you’re a casual relief teacher (sub), the annual rate gets divided by approximately 200 (40 school weeks x 5 days) instead of 365, to build the holidays, sick days, etc. into your pay that you would normally get. Of course, very few such teachers end up working the full 200 days because there are times of the year when there aren’t many people taking time off due to illness, PD seminars, etc., but in principle, it’s the same. It’s a way of acknowledging the fact that these people are teachers too, but also, at a practical level, it means there are such teachers available because they haven’t all been driven to other professions due to poverty, although it’s still quite seasonal work.
I know some people here don’t approve of mavericks doing their own thing outside the quasi-legal system, but the only way to get it all above board is to either really start enforcing the laws seriously (which would drive wages up naturally) or to pay teachers more voluntarily or through higher enforced minimum wages, or both. People (such as me) are not going to sit around for too long watching their laobans (who admittedly have overheads, but still) nickle and diming them over an odd typhoon day or sick day, whilst simultaneously collecting 3,000-4,000NT/hour whilst paying them 600-700NT/hour. Once more people really wake up to this, we’re either going to see a mass exodus or the whole industry going really black market, unless there are stronger counter-acting forces. I really think things are going to have to change, though not necessarily for the better (well, that depends upon whose angle you’re looking from). It might even be possible that everyone would lose.
Likewise, at some point, the parents have to really take a step back and look at their role in the whole thing – they’re paying peanuts, and they’re getting monkeys. Now, at some level, that’s what they want (because many really do judge a buxiban by the cute characters on the sign or how well the foreign teachers grin, regardless of teaching quality), but at another, it’s completely absurd that they put their kids in situations where many of their teachers will be well-intentioned, yet unqualified, underpaid, overstressed and sick, and others will just figure that they’re not paid enough to truly give a shit, but it pays for the next night’s drinking. It’s a really false economy to be saving yourself a few coins and getting all that, but it seems to be the same mentality of people who ride on scooters with kids (helmets or not), run red lights and buy knock off goods from night markets. Everyone thinks they’re getting a great deal, but they’re screwing everyone, including themselves. Really, if the parents paid an extra 50NT/hour each, and even if the foreign teacher only got half of that, it would actually mean that you could get a much better system overall – there’d be a higher calibre of teacher to begin with, the teachers would be more dedicated, and you’d see a much higher retention rate. Of course, you might even see better results in English.
TaiDa is National Taiwan University. What university were you referring to?
