Foreign teachers well-paid?

I mostly agree.

I completely agree about taking the rankings with a grain of salt.

So often when I look at the rankings and costs of various cities I am amazed.

Remember that they are usually made for expats and business travelers.

The chart makes it look as though Taipei is only 10% cheaper than New York City; it might be for the business traveler who needs to stay at the Far Eastern and eat on the 85th floor of Taipei 101.

I think thats a bit of an exaggeration. I came here to see what it would be like to work inside a computer hardware / manufacturing company since they are now non-existant in Australia. Not only that but I get to learn to deal with Asian management in an asian country. I should point out that this is near impossible in Japan, and could be counter-productive in China. Although the hours are longer (9-10/day) the pay is much better than teaching english, and everything taken into account i save more than living in Australia. From my perspective, doing this in Taiwan will glow on my resume.

I thought I’d just throw this in as food for thought since there seem to be:
a) an oversupply of underpaid english teachers
b) a shortage of native english speakers working in marketing / technical writing for taiwanese companies.

Everyone I know here who works in technical writing / marketing had little to no experience (maybe a generalization) and earns more than they would teaching english. I don’t know if I’ve let the cat out of the bag on this one - but maybe some of you guys should consider trying something new, so you don’t fall into GuyInTaiwan’s 99% useless skills back home / black hole on resume trap.

To be honest, I think it’s pretty easy to make quite a bit of money a month if you’re willing to put the work in. There are loads of people out there looking for private English tutors, editors, models, or voice talent. I was making quite a bit of money on salary at my English teaching job ($100,000 NT/month when I quit), so I wasn’t too bothered about seeking other sources of income. I also had no time as I was at my school 60-70 hours a week 6 days a week. There are jobs like mine out there, but you have to deal with horrific management and terrible hours. Looking back, I wish I had worked for a nice school, making 60-70K a month, and supplementing that with privates and other things on the side where I control the schedule. A few of my friends were doing just that, and they were making close to what I was every month and much happier for it.

I think thats a bit of an exaggeration. I came here to see what it would be like to work inside a computer hardware / manufacturing company since they are now non-existant in Australia. Not only that but I get to learn to deal with Asian management in an asian country. I should point out that this is near impossible in Japan, and could be counter-productive in China. Although the hours are longer (9-10/day) the pay is much better than teaching english, and everything taken into account i save more than living in Australia. From my perspective, doing this in Taiwan will glow on my resume.

I thought I’d just throw this in as food for thought since there seem to be:
a) an oversupply of underpaid english teachers
b) a shortage of native english speakers working in marketing / technical writing for taiwanese companies.

Everyone I know here who works in technical writing / marketing had little to no experience (maybe a generalization) and earns more than they would teaching english. I don’t know if I’ve let the cat out of the bag on this one - but maybe some of you guys should consider trying something new, so you don’t fall into GuyInTaiwan’s 99% useless skills back home / black hole on resume trap.[/quote]

I think Guy’s point is that English teaching, or editing and writing in Taipei is not much use ‘back home’. If you got your job in Taiwan because you speak and/or write your own language and not because of anything tangible that would be saleable in your own country, you’ll have problems when you go back. Most people speak English ‘back home’.

I guess it depends how old you are and what your future plans are.

[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“itakitez”]
OK, so its not a great salary, but compared to McDs (110 an hour) of local english teacher (300 without overseas exp, 4-500 with), those on 800 an hour have nothing to winge about, unless they feel like underpaid prostitutes, who Im guessing make more, what other profession equal 800 an hour?[/quote]

A waitress, in my country. ‘underpaid prostitute’ sums up my feelings about teaching in Taiwan. :laughing:

The hourly rate has barely moved in ten years yet Taipei is getting more and more expensive. Any flip around TEIT shows that conditions for teachers are far inferior to most other countries. Poor work environment, stagnant pay. Why bother, unless you have family ties or something?[/quote]

That’s basically it. When I was teaching 12 years ago I was making in real dollars what the top 10% of earners in Canada were making: about Can$70,000 after taxes. But then the canadian dollar appreciate, taxes were lowered (in Canada), teaching wages stagnated, morning hours were harder to find, and so on. I’m glad my teaching days are long behind me. You could make a killing at it once, but no longer. Not here.

Well, I worked at Shane, on 620NT an hour, paid 4000NT in rent and had loads to play with. At no point did I ever struggle financially in Taiwan, but long term, staying in Taiwan would have been foolish; I’d never earn enough money for a home or retirement in my own country. That’s fine if you are married with kids in Taiwan and plan to stay, but for a single woman, getting older, I had to improve my career prospects and earning power. and take responsibility for my future.

Now of course it’s not impossible to do that in Taiwan; there are plenty of successful people on forumosa.com who are single people, but they are driven, entrepreneurial, and savvy and I just really didn’t have what it took to start my own company.

Teachers are getting squeezed more and more. You can survive and even have fun on the salary, but worth giving up my family and the chance do other work for? No way …

Even 100 000NT a month only equates to about £18000 a year in the UK; that’s a lowish graduate entry salary. I earned more than that within three weeks of arriving back here.

Anyway. The argument is not that useful. We don’t choose where we live for financial reasons, mostly. And salaries are going to suddenly improve for reasons which have been outlined 100s of times on forumosa. You should never work for money.

[quote=“Buttercup”]Even 100 000NT a month only equates to about £18000 a year in the UK; that’s a lowish graduate entry salary. I earned more than that within three weeks of arriving back here.
[/quote]How many month you count for a year? :slight_smile:
Today 18000 GBP = 979430 TWD / 12 = ~81619 TWD.

[quote=“Buttercup”]
Anyway. The argument is not that useful. We don’t choose where we live for financial reasons, mostly. And salaries are going to suddenly improve for reasons which have been outlined 100s of times on forumosa. You should never work for money.[/quote]True. And it actually depends where and how you live.
I eat out every day in Taiwan. I pay 13% taxes, I have a big apartment, still I can save £1000 every month!
I have 0 debts or mortgages to pay. That’s enough for retirement I think?
Besides driving my scooter to work every day is just nice and beats every European mass transport system in Europe in cost (unless you ride a bike).
I don’t think I’d have that much in London due to rental costs, welfare, taxes (on the other hand I don’t live in Taipei either, which is surely much more expensive)…
I’m from Germany so you can imagine this is scary for me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Incom … ountry.svg

The original question is “are ESL teachers well paid?” Therefore, comparison with other professions is totally acceptable and, in comparison with minimum wage, other teachers in Taiwan and other professionals, ESL teachers come out top or high with very little experience, not much more than an undergrad degree and zero experience.

Also, the top schools here must be better than the shit schools in the west. I work with many engineers and scientists and their subject knowledge is good to excellent. I would much rather hire an NTU science grad than a Manchester Metropolitan grad. Therefore, the fact these guys are making less than the ESL teachers with pitiful grammar and degrees in “photography” is pretty shameful, so yes, ESL teachers are well paid.

Political science I wouldnt know about.

In regard to driving a black BM, well the question was never “are you going to retain a top 2% salary teaching english?” Note that “old money” is different from “new money”, which is again another comparison for which wise investments and lucky inheritance is required. My neighbor works a shit job but rents out a factory that his dad owned, makes over 100k a month from that alone so doesnt need to earn more.

[quote]True. And it actually depends where and how you live.
I eat out every day in Taiwan. I pay 13% taxes, I have a big apartment, still I can save £1000 every month!
I have 0 debts or mortgages to pay. That’s enough for retirement I think?
Besides driving my scooter to work every day is just nice and beats every European mass transport system in Europe in cost (unless you ride a bike).
I don’t think I’d have that much in London due to rental costs, welfare, taxes (on the other hand I don’t live in Taipei either, which is surely much more expensive)…
I’m from Germany so you can imagine this is scary for me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Incom … ountry.svg[/quote]

Yes, Buttercup is like a broken record.

Furthermore there is no guarantee that government pensions in Europe will still exist when we retire.

[quote=“itakitez”]The original question is “are ESL teachers well paid?” Therefore, comparison with other professions is totally acceptable and, in comparison with minimum wage, other teachers in Taiwan and other professionals, ESL teachers come out top or high with very little experience, not much more than an undergrad degree and zero experience.

Also, the top schools here must be better than the shit schools in the west. I work with many engineers and scientists and their subject knowledge is good to excellent. I would much rather hire an NTU science grad than a Manchester Metropolitan grad. Therefore, the fact these guys are making less than the ESL teachers with pitiful grammar and degrees in “photography” is pretty shameful, so yes, ESL teachers are well paid.

Political science I wouldnt know about.

In regard to driving a black BM, well the question was never “are you going to retain a top 2% salary teaching english?” Note that “old money” is different from “new money”, which is again another comparison for which wise investments and lucky inheritance is required. My neighbor works a shit job but rents out a factory that his dad owned, makes over 100k a month from that alone so doesnt need to earn more.[/quote]

Your replies are full of so many fallacious arguments and contradictions, it is almost impossible to respond to any of it.

I am pretty sure no one is saying EFL teachers are getting peanuts, but most would agree that while a single person can live in relative comfort, the pay is far from fantastic.

You talk in generalizations and offer no solid support. I will show some numbers to try and explain the situation.

If you want to look at a one vs. one scenario, I can show you a comparison between a local EFL teacher and a foreign one. This example come from a private elementary school.

Local Teacher: 4-year English Education Degree from a Taiwanese university taught by Taiwanese Profs. A 1-year (insert and random English related course) MA from (insert random British Uni). = 1 year of post high school education in English under the supervision of native speakers.

No job experience (except a PT non-teaching job while in uni)

Salary was 40k/month (+ 2400 pension) = 42400 month.

Bonus was 1 1/2 months salary = 60k (however, the first year you only get half, and you won’t get the full amount until your second year).

other notes 1. could claim “being tired” as an excuse to dodge non-teaching duties 2. more local teachers meant less individual material creation (share with the other 10 teachers who are all teaching the same beginner level class) 3. HW grading consists of checking neatness on writing the alphabet, and checking multiple choice questions 5. unless you spit on the admins and defecate their desks in front of others, your contract renewal is all but guaranteed, thus making it possible to get your full bonus 6. Oh, and “talent show” and “mini-book” is always acceptable when asked for a holiday event

Foreign Teacher: 16 years of education in an all English environment. 4 of those years are spent in a western university that teaches you how to think, not copy.

Every single foreign teacher had EFL teaching experience

Salary was 60k/month (no pension) = 60000 month.

Bonus was 1 1/2 months salary = 90k (however, the first year you only get half, and you won’t get the full amount until your second year [almost impossible]).

other notes 1. could not claim “being tired” as an excuse to dodge non-teaching duties 2. less foreign teachers meant more individual material creation (and higher levels were more spread out, so maybe only 50% of your classes materials could be shared, if you were lucky) 3. HW grading consists of checking essays and Q and A work 5. unless you bend over your desk for the admins in front of others, your contract renewal is all but impossible, thus making it impossible to get your full bonus 6. Oh, and “talent show” and “mini-book” are never acceptable when asked for a holiday even

EDIT: I almost forgot, for those that stayed a second year, regardless of whether local or foreign, they got a 1000NT/month raise. (For a foreigner that would be a 1.7% raise, but for a local that would be a 2.5% raise, and you can see that while they both are not great, inflation is outpacing the foreign teachers’ salary:

in.reuters.com/article/asiaCompa … 8220090105

[I would also like to add that those who studied education in Taiwanese unis almost always gave completely contradictory advice for things like classroom management and language acquisition compared to those who studied education is a western uni]

Now, as you can see, a foreign teacher in a private school was paid more then their local counterpart, but frankly, they were required to do more, and had more relative experience and education.

Buxiban is not entirely different, but there are some differences. One is the fact that while local teachers often get screwed with having to put in more office hours, they also teach maybe 1/3 the amount of time a foreigners. I cannot recount to amount of times I heard “Oh, Lisa can’t cover that class on Friday because that would mean she has to teach 4 hours that day. That is too much.” Um, what?

The biggest screw over to locals in the buxiban setting though is the parents, and that’s where they really get the raw deal. That however, doesn’t suddenly mean that foreign teachers are well-paid.

[quote=“timmyjames”][quote=“itakitez”]The original question is “are ESL teachers well paid?” Therefore, comparison with other professions is totally acceptable and, in comparison with minimum wage, other teachers in Taiwan and other professionals, ESL teachers come out top or high with very little experience, not much more than an undergrad degree and zero experience.

[/quote]

Your replies are full of so many fallacious arguments and contradictions, it is almost impossible to respond to any of it.

Now, as you can see, a foreign teacher in a private school was paid more then their local counterpart, but frankly, they were required to do more, and had more relative experience and education.

[/quote]

My arguments are full of contradictions, but here you clearly state that the foreign teacher gets paid more than the local, yet the foreign teacher is NOT “well paid”… :eh:

Also you generalise about how easy the work is for Taiwanese, but dismiss their additional duties as “easy”. Seems like you know you guys are well paid and you are just whinging for more money because you heard one guy who works somewhere who earns, or used to earn more.

That is not a contradiction. Foreign teachers get paid more because their position dictates it (as well as the market). I stated this, but you conveniently disregarded that part of my overall argument for your reply.

I know what the additional duties were, and they were easy. Also, as I stated in my argument, but yet another point you simply ignore, was the fact their duties were easily sidestepped by claiming fatigue (or confusion, or just simply not doing it).

Another reason foreigners get paid more (which IS NOT THE SAME AS WELL-PAID) is because we don’t teach things like:

[and these are true examples]

  1. He makes me laughed yesterday.

  2. I amn’t eating candy.

  3. (listening test sample) “I read [pronounced as present tense] the book yesterday.”

And, to reiterate the point I made before the example, paid more =/= well-paid.

[quote=“timmyjames”]
And, to reiterate the point I made before the example, paid more =/= well-paid.[/quote]

So, what is well paid?

You stated that 90,000/mth is not well paid, but that relates to almost 1650 pounds a month, which is 19-20,000 pounds a year. An NQT in the UK earns 16,000 and pays comething like 25% tax. Therefore, these earning are higher than a comparable position in the UK so they are definietly “higher paid” than the UK

Local AVERAGE salary here is 37,000/month (including eanring from bonus and other incomes) then miniumum wage accounts to something like 19,000

Therefore 4x minimum wage and 2x average is “well paid” in my book

[quote=“steelersman”][

Yes, Buttercup is like a broken record.

Furthermore there is no guarantee that government pensions in Europe will still exist when we retire.[/quote]

Don’t be so rude. I don’t see you answering any questions in TEIT. You get the right to bitch when you contribute something. And maybe the answer is repetitive because people keep asking the same questions?

OK, so my pension fund might disappear. Is that a good reason to not save? Or should I just get a piggy bank? Really, I’m not a financial genius; what would you suggest?


Engerim, I see your points, and they may be true for you, but after nearly two years back ‘home,’ I’m far ‘wealthier’ in the UK.

[quote]True. And it actually depends where and how you live.
I eat out every day in Taiwan. I pay 13% taxes, I have a big apartment, still I can save £1000 every month!
I have 0 debts or mortgages to pay. That’s enough for retirement I think?[/quote]

Really? That’s cool. I didn’t ever buy an apartment in Taipei for a few reasons so do with credit and residency status; I just chucked away cash on fairly high rental. If you own your own home, things are always different and I’m working on that in the UK. I don’t have debts either.

[quote]How many month you count for a year? :slight_smile:
Today 18000 GBP = 979430 TWD / 12 = ~81619 TWD.
[/quote]

I was thinking of the exchange rate the time I left Taiwan. I don’t earn that, anyway; that’s a child’s salary.

[quote]I eat out every day in Taiwan. I pay 13% taxes, I have a big apartment, still I can save £1000 every month!
[/quote]

£1000 Really? That would be difficult in Taipei, where I lived. I save in the UK, on a pretty average salary. Again, my personal situation is different from yours, but I spent quite a lot of money on flying to England every year.

The only the point I agree with. Not that I’d ever ride a scooter, but I see your point. :laughing: Transport is grim. Mind you, Taipei buses are horrible too.

I understand why people might jump on a post from someone saying she has a better life elsewhere. What may be true for me may not be true for you. I’m not trying to persuade anyone. And besides, I arrived back in the UK before the economic crashback hear; the opportunities aren’t as good as they were eighteen months ago.

To anyone who is having fun and supporting themselves; good luck to you! I’m sharing my experiences, not telling you yours are wrong. There’s always this stupid to and fro every time this Q is posted. The only sane answer is; if you feel underpaid, try your luck elsewhere; if you can get more cash and you prefer the work, then you were. If you can’t and/or you love teaching, then you weren’t. That’s not hard, is it? It’s your life; don’t waste it feeling sad and exploited. There’s a whole world out there. Move to Chile, sell TV systems, go and work in the library in the town where you were born.

My friend got 22000 and she isn’t NQT yet. 16000 sounds odd, especially for shortage subjects. I think that’s an accepatble though low salary for a college grad. The thing is, if the NQT works in the school system for ten years, she’ll have a teaching career. If she goes to the Taiwan for ten years, working in the buxiban sector, and then goes back, she’ll be considerably less well off in terms of finances and career development; she will have no verifiable experience, and will have earned a grad salary for ten years. Of course, she’ll probably get back in, but she won’t be able to buy a house in the uk, or take on a management role for many years. In her 30s as a teacher, there’d be considerably more money in the pot that 16000. And that’s the thing; there’s a cap on it for the majority. Unless you figure out a new business model and then create the conditions for this, then you will never get far above 100 000 in Taiwan, which is decreasing, year by year.

That’s not to say that she shouldn’t do it if she wants to, but to argue that you’d go to Taiwan for the money doesn’t add up at all.

[quote=“itakitez”][quote=“timmyjames”]
And, to reiterate the point I made before the example, paid more =/= well-paid.[/quote]

So, what is well paid?

You stated that 90,000/mth is not well paid, but that relates to almost 1650 pounds a month, which is 19-20,000 pounds a year. An NQT in the UK earns 16,000 and pays comething like 25% tax. Therefore, these earning are higher than a comparable position in the UK so they are definietly “higher paid” than the UK

Local AVERAGE salary here is 37,000/month (including eanring from bonus and other incomes) then miniumum wage accounts to something like 19,000

Therefore 4x minimum wage and 2x average is “well paid” in my book[/quote]

Read more carefully.

[quote=“Buttercup”]

Really :slight_smile: But I’m not a teacher and my company (which is Taiwanese) is giving me a “home leave” ticket every year (I insisted on it when making the contract). Anyways all my customers are in the EU…[quote=“Buttercup”]To anyone who is having fun and supporting themselves; good luck to you! I’m sharing my experiences, not telling you yours are wrong. There’s always this stupid to and fro every time this Q is posted. The only sane answer is; if you feel underpaid, try your luck elsewhere; if you can get more cash and you prefer the work, then you were. If you can’t and/or you love teaching, then you weren’t. That’s not hard, is it? It’s your life; don’t waste it feeling sad and exploited. There’s a whole world out there. Move to Chile, sell TV systems, go and work in the library in the town where you were born.
[/quote] Well said. It gives me the creeps sometimes seeing documentaries in “Social Europe” where you have the 45 year truck driver that has 80000 euro in debts who only complains about “Eastern Europeans stealing his job” and lives from his unemployment wage. When asking if he wants a new job the answer is “No” cause he’s a “truck driver” and there are no more jobs for that. :unamused:

I guess its because he has nothing left to loose. My mother actually works for the state (social allowance checking) since 20 years in small city, and she once told me she’s still seeing the exact same persons she saw at the start… which tells everything.

Life is what you make of it.

http://targetjobs.co.uk/teaching-and-education/articleview-39s_32a_3450.aspx

my bad, not NQT, but “qualifying teachers”

[quote]Pay for unqualified teachers
A six-point pay scale operates for unqualified teachers; those on a work-based route may be paid on this scale. It ranges from £15,113 to £23,903 (£19,007 to £27,794 in inner London).
[/quote]

This is exactly within the pay range quoted still.

ie, local 568800 ntpa
foreign 810000 ntpa ~ 16200 GBPpa

This is also a very low figure for a foreign teacher, you should be on at least 80kpm ~ 960000 ~19 GBPpa

Further, the UK estimate for taiwan according to the student loans coy is copied herebelow

http://www.slc.co.uk/thresholds/index.html

[quote]
Country of residence Your Earning Threshold, in Pounds Sterling (£GBP)
Taiwan 6,000 [/quote]

ie, this is the equivalent earnings in Taiwan to maintain a standard of living equivalent to a UK graduate on 15,000. Therefore, the figures above should be weighted by 15/6 (2.5) to give an accurate earning forecast

(divide by 50 [current exchange rate] x2.5 to give conversion and weighting)

ie, local 568800 ntpa ~ 28440 GBPpa(equiv)
foreign 810000 ntpa ~ 40500 GBPpa (equiv)
normal foreign teacher 80kpm ~ 960000 NTpa ~ 48000

Further, the “convergence” of local salary to the foreign salary, ie, 1000 nt pay rise per month per year is very reasonable per the following table, wherein Y = year, N= number years speaking english and S = salary (per your argument above) *

Y Nf Sf Nl Sl
1 16 60 1 40
5 21 65 6 45
10 26 70 11 50
20 36 80 21 60

ie, it takes a local an extra 5 years of “english contact” to and 22 years teaching experience to get the salary you walk into

Therefore, as I argued before without the evidence you required, you ARE well paid (not rich, but well paid)

  • your data

[quote]
Local Teacher: 4-year English Education Degree from a Taiwanese university taught by Taiwanese Profs. A 1-year (insert and random English related course) MA from (insert random British Uni). = 1 year of post high school education in English under the supervision of native speakers.

No job experience (except a PT non-teaching job while in uni)

Salary was 40k/month (+ 2400 pension) = 42400 month.

Bonus was 1 1/2 months salary = 60k (however, the first year you only get half, and you won’t get the full amount until your second year).

Foreign Teacher: 16 years of education in an all English environment. 4 of those years are spent in a western university that teaches you how to think, not copy.

Every single foreign teacher had EFL teaching experience

Salary was 60k/month (no pension) = 60000 month. [/quote]

16000-27000. I’m not saying you are lying, just that I never met a teacher who was offered less than 22000, or more for science or languages. For me, the issue was that I wasn’t moving forward in Taiwan. I was capped at about 100 000NT. That would never really improve. If the cash is there for you, you should definitely do what’s best for you.

When I left, the exchange rate was far worse than that … Bah. I guess it’s harder in the UK now, with the wreckage of the pound.

Grads on 15000 would be very unusual, but then again unemployment is up, so we could see a change.

Really, there’s no point in comparing to a local’s salary. We are never going to be Taiwanese, unless we all turn Satellite TV. Just compare it with what you could earn. If you teach until you are 35 in Taiwan, your salary won’t be much different than 25, maybe even lower. That wouldn’t be the case if you taught, or did another job in the UK from 25-35. But if you are happy, and fulfilling your own financial needs (housing, savings, etc), then it’s irrelevant.

Well, that’s the thing. These benefits all add up. If you spend 200000NT a year on travel (no, it’s NOT a luxury), then that reduces your overall cash stock. Glad you got it in your contract! :slight_smile:

but many people here are ESL teachers, so this isnt a natural comparison, its why I took the bottom of the market since Im assuming these guys would be in the international school league if they were “certified”

again, the question is ESL well paid, coming back to this topic, since we know teaching is not a “top 2% pay profession” and that people chose ESL for some of the following reasons

  1. felexibility (bankers dont choose which country they work in and cant quit at a weeks notice to become a dive master in the maldeves)

  2. travel (bankers generally specialise in one region or country, ESL teachers can easily do 6 continents in 6 years)

  3. holiday times (bankers get 7-14 days off a year compared to 2 months at a uni or more “between contracts”, yes this is optional and unpaid, but see point 1)

  4. easy (bankers work 80-120 hr weeks, require top schooling and a very competative recruitment process then train their balls of for 3 years without seeing the sun before they start having a minute chance of a secondment overseas)

i chose bankers because bankers chose their job PURELY for MONEY, this is the one thing for which you would never select ESL (or even teaching in general)

So who is a “fair” comparison for “well paid”? This is the crux of the argument and the fulcrum on which the debate pivots.

I suggested
4x “local” minumum wage - rejected
2x average "local’ salary - rejected
same range as similarly qualified UK teacher- rejected
2x adjusted rate of qualified UK teacher - rejected
2x local professional
equal to “local” air traffic control
half “local salary” of VP of major manufacturing coy

The other guy compared to 50% more than local teacher, but “with conditions” that I reject and find culturally patronizing.

In sum, ESL is well paid for what you could and must have expected and those who do not accept this should quit their whinging (as you buttercup suggested, “try somewhere new”) and open their eyes to that which surrounds them.

So equivalent to what a search engine can tell you, this is what an ESL teacher can expect.

Also, in response to this

I already said teachers in my wife’s school didnt know what a preposition was.

Other mistakes from native ESL teachers I have witnessed

pronunciation

  1. /v/ intead of /th/
  2. /pronounc’i’ation

grammar

  1. preposition definition
  2. past perfect vs present (use)
  3. passives in general
  4. explaning conditionals

classroom management

  1. drunk (as you mentioned above)
  2. not marking homework
  3. shouting at local teacher
  4. blaming local teacher for faults and lack of planning (of themselves)
    5. having sex with students

This final one being for me the ultimate teaching sin, I even heard about a few uni professors (foreign) here doing this… tsk tsk tsk GROSS PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT. Compared to this, the occasional “I amn’t” is foregivable, especially if picked up and aided by the native speaker