Foresight (FIEC) agency and job offer. What do you think?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
41

By this am I to assume you mean that any “foreigner” deserves the right to earn 600NT plus per hour just because they fit the mold, regardless or in spite of their experience, background, education, etc?

I know that’s sarcastic and I apologize, but I couldn’t help making a note of it. It’s the second time you’ve made mention of how someone “looks” and thus almost as a default, determines that they can (or should) earn more money. At least, this is how I interpret your words to mean.

Yes, I can agree with the last part of this quote. We all want to work in order to afford ourselves more freedom. I think what I am trying to say is that the terms you finalize should simply be that, final. Afterwards, (and in fairness this is what you’re saying, too) the teacher should do what they have promised to do. In this case, observe the hours outlined in the contract, adhere to the curriculum, etc. I don’t think we disagree on this point.

I appreciate your other points as well. I think they make sense. However, I still didn’t see mention of any specifics though. Let me ask a direct question.

If the goal (in your words) is to find a “base” job that offers as little hassle as possible, from which you can build privates, etc. around, what is a scenario that you would deem as acceptable? What kind of ARC position would you recommend someone like Quarters to accept?

The position which started this post offers 60,000NT per month. No evenings. No weekends. Paid government holidays. Allows the teacher time off in summer (albeit without pay, but at least the ARC is carried over - thus offering security), as well as an opportunity to work elsewhere in lucrative summer camps, while still holding an ARC. I understand your point about “the hours”, but isn’t this a good base from which to build? Isn’t 60,000NT a good starting off point, when you consider the other benefits I have outlined?

If we follow your mold, the teacher (in this situation) could surly build on privates, and also have a life, as they aren’t required to work in the evenings or weekends… If you don’t agree, that’s okay, too. However, if that is the case, perhaps you can answer the question above to illuminate which kind of scenario you feel is more acceptable. I would be interested to know.

42

By this am I to assume you mean that any “foreigner” deserves the right to earn 600NT plus per hour just because they fit the mold, regardless or in spite of their experience, background, education, etc?

I know that’s sarcastic and I apologize, but I couldn’t help making a note of it. [color=blue]It’s the second time you’ve made mention of how someone “looks” and thus almost as a default, determines that they can (or should) earn more money. At least, this is how I interpret your words to mean.[/color] [/quote]
:roflmao: Oh yeah, that’s rich.
[color=black]Please. [/color] [color=green]
Pretty please
[/color], [color=indigo]interpret for us all,
these words
.[/color]

Interpret this:[quote=““mash””]Tired of teaching little kids? Well here’s your opportunity to teach Junior High school students! Teaching materials and curriculum provided.

The start date is January 6th and ends in June 23rd. The class runs from 9:30am to 12:30pm on Saturdays! Good block hours and good location too! It’s literally “one” minute walk away from Zhishan station.

Hourly pay is $800NT. Students age range from 15 to 16. There will be around 10 students in the class.

[color=blue]If you’re interested, please send your resume and photo[/color] to fiec_application@yahoo.com

PS. Please write in subject line “SLEP CLASS”.

Thank you for your time.[/quote]

This: [quote=““mash””]
[color=blue]Please send resume and photo[/color] to fiec_application@yahoo.com[/quote]
And this: [quote=““mash””]
Only one position available!~ Hurry and apply!
[color=blue]
Interested applicants please send your resume and recent photo[/color] to fiec_application@yahoo.com
[/quote]

Looks don’t matter, right? So, why’s the company asking?

43

Is the lesson here that quotes can be taken out of context easily, or are you making some insinuation that FIEC as an employer is being two faced?

I’m not sure where the “picture included” in the resume package originated from, as it was always a policy since my employ there, but I can say that it makes for a nice, complete portfolio of the teacher which is thereafter submitted to the school.

I think that it’s quite simply a matter of trying to make an attractive package which look goods. Can you blame FIEC for attempting to standardize their teacher portfolios? If you wish to imply that in some way FIEC discriminates against “race”, I think you better be careful.

They have ABC’s, African Americans and everything else under the sun employed currently or in the past. In addition, this employer does not pay less to ABC’s than to other nationalities, as is a common practice at other cram schools. I am speaking from experience here, rather than simply as an opinionated formumosa member, so these words should carry some weight.

Again, if you’re trying to make the point that quotes can be swayed in many directions, I’ll concede. However, standardized marketing on the part of FIEC doesn’t equal discriminatory practices and as such, you are incorrect to make such a statement, if indeed that is what you’re getting at.

44

Come to Taiwan! We’ll hire you for 6 months and then maybe re-hire you after summer vacation so we can avoid paying you for it! Great job! Yay! Come one, come all.

Come on down!

45

[quote=“j99l88e77”]Come to Taiwan! We’ll hire you for 6 months and then maybe re-hire you after summer vacation so we can avoid paying you for it! Great job! Yay! Come one, come all.

Come on down!

[/quote]

Why don’t you just stay in Korea if you claim its so much better? Why gripe on here like this? It serves no good purpose.

If you are currently in Taiwan and all you can do is jabber on about how the grass is so much greener elsewhere, then your stay here is going to be miserable.

If you are not here yet but plan on coming with that kind of attitude, I give you a little bit of advice…get a refund for your plane ticket and stay in Korea

46

[quote=“jamesdeanwashere”]Is the lesson here that quotes can be taken out of context easily, or are you making some insinuation that FIEC as an employer is being two faced?[/quote]The lesson is that it’s rich to insinuate someone is playing “look at the pretty/handsome foreigners we have/are” games when your company consistently demands the inclusion of photos in the job application package.

[quote=“jamesdeanwashere”]I’m not sure where the “picture included” in the resume package originated from, as it was always a policy since my employ there, but I can say that it makes for a nice, complete portfolio of the teacher which is thereafter submitted to the school.

I think that it’s quite simply a matter of trying to make an attractive package which look goods. Can you blame FIEC for attempting to standardize their teacher portfolios? If you wish to imply that in some way FIEC discriminates against “race”, I think you better be careful.[/quote]An “attractive package.” So, are photos marketing materials, or are they not? I’m not naive, I understand the power of first impressions in landing a position, and of appearing professional. I also understand that whether or not FIEC practices discriminatory hiring–and I have no reason to believe that you are–this “standard practice” appears to be an extension of, or at least to reinforce a similar, though decidedly negative standard practice elsewhere.

[quote=“jamesdeanwashere”]Again, if you’re trying to make the point that quotes can be swayed in many directions, I’ll concede. However, standardized marketing on the part of FIEC doesn’t equal discriminatory practices and as such, you are incorrect to make such a statement, if indeed that is what you’re getting at.[/quote]Mote in thy own eye, that’s the point. People who live in glass houses: another way of making the same point.

Fair enough?

47

[quote=“Quarters”][quote=“j99l88e77”]Come to Taiwan! We’ll hire you for 6 months and then maybe re-hire you after summer vacation so we can avoid paying you for it! Great job! Yay! Come one, come all.

Come on down!

[/quote]

Why don’t you just stay in Korea if you claim its so much better? Why gripe on here like this? It serves no good purpose.

If you are currently in Taiwan and all you can do is jabber on about how the grass is so much greener elsewhere, then your stay here is going to be miserable.

If you are not here yet but plan on coming with that kind of attitude, I give you a little bit of advice…get a refund for your plane ticket and stay in Korea[/quote]

How am I doing anyone a disservice? I’m only helping. Since most here are English teachers in Taiwan, isn’t it better to gripe about poor offers in order to form a collective and therefore strive towards better working conditions?

I am not planning to teach in Taiwan for obvious reasons. I already taught there. As far as English teaching there goes, there are some serious issues with contracts and pay. I’m not saying Korea is a better place to be. People have different reasons for being or going wherever. Some are happy and living well, some don’t care all that much, etc.

48

Oh, for Gawd’s sake.

There have been plenty of examples on this board of schools that “will not accept” people who are not white with a North American accent. While I personally believe there are many other varieties of English that are equally acceptable, at least (the very least!) asking for a given accent is linguistically based and could be vaguely related to what the student learns.

Anybody who thinks the order of consideration in hiring 99% of the English teachers in Taiwan is not 1) appearance 2) accent or passport nationality (“perceived accent”) 3) experience and 4) ability, in that order, should probably be careful about raids by the drug squad.

I did not say that any one particular agency was responsible for this. However, it is a fact in my experience in Taiwan.

And your claim that NT$60,000 for a base job that keeps you off the market 9 to 5:30 daily (plus travel time, of course, but I digress) is a good deal because you still have your nights and weekends to teach privately and make money – well, I disagree. The whole point of finding a visa job (if you are looking for a job as the base of your “entrepreneurial pyramid”, if you will) is to find one with minimum hours that supplies the Big Two Benefits: ARC and insurance. The reason for minimum hours is simply that most salaried jobs do not pay over NT$600 (or if they do, there are not such a lot of hours per week) and your time is more economically spent elsewhere teaching privates or side jobs.

Let’s do a quick comparison. Let’s assume that the teacher looking for a job wants to earn lots of money, but does not want to work more than 40 hours a week.

Job A = 42.5 hours a week @ 60K
Job B = 15 hours a week x 4 weeks = 60 hrs @ 550/hr = 33K plus 27.5 x 4 = 110 extra hours free per month (rounding off here to 4 weeks per month). Total work time with privates under the Entrepreneurial Pyramid Plan™: 15 hours + 18 hrs of privates(rounding up) = 33 hours per week.

If you got privates at NT$750 an hour, and taught them for, say, 70 hours per month, you are still working 30 hours less per month, and taking home 33K plus 52.5K = 85.5K, versus 60K and no flexibility in base job A.

The possible advantage of Job A would be that the school might not require much in the line of rigorous preparation. But then again, you will be drafted to judge English speech contests/correct faculty writing in English/write test questions/go to meetings held in Chinese which you may or may not understand / etc. etc.

It’s about two factors: how much money you have at the end of the month, and how much time you have. In a place like Taiwan, time has value for foreigners, either to sell at higher rates for private students or to just relax a little and realize that you have no mortgage, no heating bill, no need to cook your own food, and the leisure time to read, study, or do whatever you like. Most people have to trade money for that. Taiwan’s English teachers, once they are established, are in the enviable position of not having to choose.

The best visa job I ever had in Taiwan was doing English teaching on the radio as a broadcaster. We recorded two days a month. Bam. Visa and insurance and lots of free time to do other things. But admittedly that kind of plum job is hard to come by, and I only got it after five or six years in Taiwan. However, if you have a firm plan in mind it is certainly possible to arrange your life so as to maximize either money or time, your choice. (Again, without reference to government regulations or hopes as to behavior. By Year Three, half your privates will be government employees anyway. :smiley: )

49

Thanks Ironlady for your feedback. I think it’s constructive to hear this kind of point of view, rather than mere griping from a pool of complainers. I don’t totally agree with all your points, but I respect your well laid out opinions. Your practical example has merit, there’s no denying that. :bravo:

Likewise Jaboney, I understand your point of view. I guess you’re saying, “look who’s calling the kettle black” essentially. From my point of view, I don’t necessarily believe that the practice of “providing a photo” is evil, but naivety aside, there is truth to what you’re saying regarding “first impressions, discrimination, etc.” :wink:

That is not to say that I concede to the notion that FIEC practices discrimination. It is clear they do not, as Jaboney himself should be able to attest to based on his personal experience with them.

I’d like to say thanks to those people who worked with FIEC in the past and expressed their satisfaction, or even indifference to their experience with them. I would suggest that there was more good than bad being said, so that should rebuke any naysayer.

Jaboney concluded his reply by saying “fair enough?”, and I would reiterate those words, "Yes, indeed. Fair enough!” :notworthy:

50

Just saw this one, and weighing in a bit late, and sort of off-topic, but still relevant. If you’re still reading, well done.

I started here teaching at Hua Hsing and had a decent time there. Kenneth, who was in charge of us, was reasonable enough. The other staf were friendly, the kids were tolerable (and some of the Senior High very motivated) and the atmosphere generally positive. I only applied for another job because a position came up with the chance to use my experience as a CELTA/Trinity trainer, otherwise I’d still be there.

xx

51

While what IL says makes sense, and I wouldn’t do the job offered for exactly the reasons given, she’s rather projecting herself into the OP’s shoes.

He’s basically a newbie, and he doesn’t need a visa. If he doesn’t need a visa, and he doesn’t have a lot of hours elsewhere (as he stated), then why doesn’t he just get all those private classes then? Why waste time with a proper job at all?

Could it be that it’s because he’s a newbie? Or that he doesn’t have the right sort of personality to go out and find them? These boards are full of posts by Quarters asking for advice about almost everything, so my opinion is that he’s just one of those people who needs someone else to do all the background stuff - leaving him to get on with teaching English. Perhaps he needs the experience. (Get his feet wet, quack!)

Also, he’s married. Perhaps he wants to spend his free time with his wife, and would rather only teach during the hours she’s at work? Not a lot of private work available at those times. Some, but not many, and privates are often unreliable.

A steady 60K a month wouldn’t be so bad in those circumstances. Personally, I’m no good with small kids. I would rather spend my days at a high school than in a kindy. And the money is comparable to most of the, for instance, writing jobs advertised out there - and they all require experience. Go to Hess, go to Studio Classroom, you’re not going to get any more than is on the table right now. It’s simple a matter of finding a gig that you’re temperamentally suited to.

And as for the photo thing, I always include a pic when sending a CV or advertising. There’s a photo on my profile at MYU. If people apply for jobs that I’ve advertised I usually look at a) the cover letter, b) the photo, c) any sample material, and d) the CV almost as an afterthought. Like it or not, personality counts for a lot in this game and the students are going to make pretty instant decisions about you based on how you look. If you have tattoos all over your face and a bog fat joint in your mouth then this is probably the wrong position for you.

(Not to imply that there aren’t some jobs where you would be perfect!)

And I can confirm that I’ve worked with black, ABC, and other non-white teachers who have been hired by Foresight on exactly the same package as their more ‘acceptable’ colleagues.

52

In re the racism/photo thing, please keep in mind that I am talking about agencies in general and *jobs * in general, not specifically jobs with this agency. And I’m willing to bet that even this agency has clients to which it only sends certain kinds of teachers. The ultimate problem is with the school-clients, although the agencies (from one perspective) play along in many cases, instead of insisting on race-blind hiring or recommendations of teachers backed up (the important part) by education of the clients.

The OP is in Taipei…lots of lucrative lunchtime tutoring going on with working folks. I’m not saying he might or might not want to limit his work hours to 9 to 5ish, but even if he did, it should be possible to set up a lot of good one on ones even during those hours. Office workers get breaks, companies run classes (very lucrative, generally), college students need help, people need to take exams (or re-take them)…not everyone is locked into getting one on ones on Sundays, Saturdays and evenings.

One important point about any job selection process, though, is how long you plan to be in Taiwan. If you are short-timer, then you would take the quick money and/or the jobs that didn’t requre too much waiting. If you know you plan to stay several years, it would be worthwhile to think longer-term in your planning so as to see your income increase each year (and not just by a NT$25 per hour re-signing raise).

Personally, I view the OP’s asking a lot of questions as smart. Why re-invent the wheel? By getting many opinions from many different people, he can probably cut a year off the whole process of “moving up”. Going totally freelance does require a certain amount of get up and go, fair enough, but then again packing up and moving to Taiwan does, too. I think he’ll be fine.

53

[quote=“ironlady”]Oh, for Gawd’s sake.

There have been plenty of examples on this board of schools that “will not accept” people who are not white with a North American accent. While I personally believe there are many other varieties of English that are equally acceptable, at least (the very least!) asking for a given accent is linguistically based and could be vaguely related to what the student learns.

Anybody who thinks the order of consideration in hiring 99% of the English teachers in Taiwan is not 1) appearance 2) accent or passport nationality (“perceived accent”) 3) experience and 4) ability, in that order, should probably be careful about raids by the drug squad.

I did not say that any one particular agency was responsible for this. However, it is a fact in my experience in Taiwan.

And your claim that NT$60,000 for a base job that keeps you off the market 9 to 5:30 daily (plus travel time, of course, but I digress) is a good deal because you still have your nights and weekends to teach privately and make money – well, I disagree. The whole point of finding a visa job (if you are looking for a job as the base of your “entrepreneurial pyramid”, if you will) is to find one with minimum hours that supplies the Big Two Benefits: ARC and insurance. The reason for minimum hours is simply that most salaried jobs do not pay over NT$600 (or if they do, there are not such a lot of hours per week) and your time is more economically spent elsewhere teaching privates or side jobs.

Let’s do a quick comparison. Let’s assume that the teacher looking for a job wants to earn lots of money, but does not want to work more than 40 hours a week.

Job A = 42.5 hours a week @ 60K
Job B = 15 hours a week x 4 weeks = 60 hrs @ 550/hr = 33K plus 27.5 x 4 = 110 extra hours free per month (rounding off here to 4 weeks per month). Total work time with privates under the Entrepreneurial Pyramid Plan™: 15 hours + 18 hrs of privates(rounding up) = 33 hours per week.

If you got privates at NT$750 an hour, and taught them for, say, 70 hours per month, you are still working 30 hours less per month, and taking home 33K plus 52.5K = 85.5K, versus 60K and no flexibility in base job A.

The possible advantage of Job A would be that the school might not require much in the line of rigorous preparation. But then again, you will be drafted to judge English speech contests/correct faculty writing in English/write test questions/go to meetings held in Chinese which you may or may not understand / etc. etc.

It’s about two factors: how much money you have at the end of the month, and how much time you have. In a place like Taiwan, time has value for foreigners, either to sell at higher rates for private students or to just relax a little and realize that you have no mortgage, no heating bill, no need to cook your own food, and the leisure time to read, study, or do whatever you like. Most people have to trade money for that. Taiwan’s English teachers, once they are established, are in the enviable position of not having to choose.

The best visa job I ever had in Taiwan was doing English teaching on the radio as a broadcaster. We recorded two days a month. Bam. Visa and insurance and lots of free time to do other things. But admittedly that kind of plum job is hard to come by, and I only got it after five or six years in Taiwan. However, if you have a firm plan in mind it is certainly possible to arrange your life so as to maximize either money or time, your choice. (Again, without reference to government regulations or hopes as to behavior. By Year Three, half your privates will be government employees anyway. :smiley: )[/quote]

May I suggest that this post either be given its own thread or made into a sticky? Ironlady has provided succinct, right-on-the-money advice for people who haven’t yet figured out how to live comfortably while employed as an English teacher. More people should see this.

54

Firstly, may I second Tomas’ motion in requesting the posts by tmwc/ironlady are put nto a seperate thread, maybe entitled something motivating like “80,000+ pcm, make the myth a reality.”

Since both revelaed two distinct methods to attain this goal.

Secondly, in relation to the ‘looks’ quesion, I would like to chip in that of course looks are important, but its your choice as a job-hunter to weight the employers decision on how important that is. If you are the ‘ideal look for the company’ / ie american, blond, female, good bmi, smart dress and pleasant voice/accent then of course big this up with a nice colour photo and bias your cv to this. Say however, you are all the above but australian, are you going to make a big thing of your Australianess???!!??!?!

EVERYBODY bigs up what is available to them, and even if youre quasimodo, you can still get work, just get a low quality grainy b/w image of yourself and integrate that on your resume instead - and when you get to interview blow them away with the other skills that you can bring the company - experience, qualifications, languages, manner… and if that still doesnt work, then go for less cosmetic companies where these skills are valued

However, I believe the OP asked ‘should I take this job’… he has since rejected this position, but maybe it would be best to restate that question so helping the agent, agent’s school and their students in the next semester get a teacher and most importantly help that teacher get to what they want.

[quote=“Quarters”]Foresight International Education Center

[b]- 22 teaching hours a week

  • Expected to be on campus 8:00 to 17:30
  • Grades 7, 8, & 10 (co-ed)
  • Classes consist of conversation (core), reading and club classes.
  • Curriculum and a basic syllabus is provided.
  • The salary for this position is 60,000NT. [/b]
    The contract would run from March until July. Afterwards, FIEC offers a summer camp program and an option to resign. Included in the contract is a re-signing bonus of 30,000NT, which is payable upon completion of the second contract.

Is this a good offer? Too low pay, just right, or higher than average?[/url][/quote]

Positives:

  1. compared to those hours in KOJEN/HESS… you are earning more and have free weekends/evenings
  2. you can use a high school position to gain great expereince when building a cv
  3. its a good introduction to taiwan, with a variety of classes to different levels - you may find out what you do dont like
  4. Its a guarenteed rolling contract - ask the agent if he has held 50% of his teachers over 3 years and you’ll find out the answer to this - if they stay they must a. be happy, b. be renewed for doing a good job ==>
  5. ARC and healthcare provided
  6. There’s lots of free time to plan privates/lessons
  7. its not your ideal job, but can you use it as a main job and get a second arc to get more experience is the field you want?

Is it close to your house?

Negative:

  1. Compared to having privates, the pay is low
  2. youre in school a lot (but maybe you can sleep :wink:
  3. are you planning to stay for 2 years to get 30,000 flight bonus?

Possible candidates

  1. rookie teacher, CELTA but no experience - :help:
  2. new in taiwan - both of the above can use the school for arc and health to get a foot in on the market here, get into the good schools/dream jobs and build their cv for the following year :s
  3. learning mandarin - hey youve got loads of free time to study :laughing:
  4. forumosa addict! (see above) :bravo:
  5. parent of young family who wants to be at home when the kids are awake and not at school or
    5b. one of two teaching parents, this allows one parent to be with the kids all day (as the other goes out to teach buxiban at night) but they dont see much of each other… double bonus!!! :smiley:
  6. highly slack and unmotivated teacher who just wants to get some cash in as easily as possible and guarenteed hours to keep their weekends alive! :loco:

any more to add?

55

[quote=“itakitez”][quote=“Quarters”]Foresight International Education Center

[b]- 22 teaching hours a week

  • Expected to be on campus 8:00 to 17:30
  • Grades 7, 8, & 10 (co-ed)
  • Classes consist of conversation (core), reading and club classes.
  • Curriculum and a basic syllabus is provided.
  • The salary for this position is 60,000NT. [/b]
    The contract would run from March until July. Afterwards, FIEC offers a summer camp program and an option to resign. Included in the contract is a re-signing bonus of 30,000NT, which is payable upon completion of the second contract.

Is this a good offer? Too low pay, just right, or higher than average?[/url][/quote]

Positives:

  1. compared to those hours in KOJEN/HESS… you are earning more and have free weekends/evenings[/quote]
    Except you would never GET those hours at a Kojen or a Hess, unless you were somehow hired to be an office worker, not a teacher. So that’s pretty much a wash.

[quote]2. you can use a high school position to gain great expereince when building a cv
3. its a good introduction to Taiwan, with a variety of classes to different levels - you may find out what you do dont like[/quote]
Agreed. Although don’t necessarily believe that there will be a substantial difference between your 7th graders and your 10th graders…it depends on the quality of the school, and in most school classes you will stiil have the traditional bell curve, with two or three kids who can watch sitcoms straight from the US with no problem, three or four who panic when yoyu ask them “What is your name” and give you that palm-out-waving-the-hand-oh-please-don’t-call-on-me gesture with terror in their eyes, and the rest somewhere in between. And you wouldn’t have the experience of teaching adults, total beginners, small children…I’m not convinced that the job would be wonderful as a touchstone for what kind of teaching you like. It would tell you whether you like high-school level teaching pretty quickly, though. :smiley:

In theory it’s a guaranteed rolling contract…but remember that nothing is really “guaranteed” in Taiwan. There’s always a small chance, especially in the case of a “teacher of non-conforming appearance or accent” that the contract would not be renewed for some reason or other. Reasons for employers not to continue offering employment in Taiwan can be much less logical and supportable – and legal at the same time – than in many other countries where English teachers commonly hail from.

Again, if there is not an ARC and insurance available elsewhere. But it’s good to point out for those not married to Taiwanese or otherwise possessed of work rights that the base job MUST have an ARC and whether you choose a small base job or one job for all your work, it had better have that ARC and insurance for you.

[color=red]BIG RED FLAG[/color]. There may be lots of free time. Or, you may be expected to sit around the English department office all day long welcoming students to “chat” with you, or “chatting” with the teachers, or correcting things they write (including tests, reading passages, whatever), writing test items for “joint” tests with other schools or for national exams, writing plays or skits, and the list goes on and on. The number of teaching hours is not the same as the number of hours the school feels that you are at its disposal to do anything English-related it deems fit. You may be the kind of person who wouldn’t mind that, and that’s okay if you are. On the other hand, some people find life in a Taiwanese office (even an academic departmental office) too much to handle. There is commonly little or no privacy, don’t necessarily expect your own computer or wireless if you bring your own notebook,etc. etc. Think of the “Dao of mountain hiking”: “One is no fun; it’s only good if you have fifty people together.”

If you have no gf/bf and no desire to have a social life, maybe…but those are pretty long hours to be thinking of another job. If you are trying for another field, you would pretty much need to have daytime hours free for most things.

The analysis of possible candidates strikes me as being spot on, though.

Don’t get me wrong. Some people teach in high schools and they love it. Others have a less rewarding experience. What I’m trying to do is to compare this kind of job to all the English teaching jobs available on the island, and leaning a bit more toward the kinds of jobs that a person looking for his first or second job might be offered, to make a comparison. So don’t take my points above as necessarily being a rebuttal or denial of the points offered as plusses; I’m just trying to offer some thoughts from a different perspective. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is doubly true in terms of teaching jobs in Taiwan. And of course this is just my NT$0.66 (approximately US$0.02); your mileage may vary.

56

[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“itakitez”][quote=“Quarters”]Foresight International Education Center

[b]- 22 teaching hours a week

  • Expected to be on campus 8:00 to 17:30
  • Grades 7, 8, & 10 (co-ed)
  • Classes consist of conversation (core), reading and club classes.
  • Curriculum and a basic syllabus is provided.
  • The salary for this position is 60,000NT. [/b]
    The contract would run from March until July. Afterwards, FIEC offers a summer camp program and an option to resign. Included in the contract is a re-signing bonus of 30,000NT, which is payable upon completion of the second contract.

Is this a good offer? Too low pay, just right, or higher than average?[/url][/quote]

Positives:

  1. compared to those hours in KOJEN/HESS… you are earning more and have free weekends/evenings[/quote]
    Except you would never GET those hours at a Kojen or a Hess, unless you were somehow hired to be an office worker, not a teacher. So that’s pretty much a wash.
    [/quote]

I’m going to disagree on that one. At KOJEN I was consistently given / guilt tripped into teaching 30–40+ hours a week. Above that, there were also paid office hours. However, at my school, how many hours you got was determined by how much they liked you and how desperate they were to put a warm-blooded native English speaker into a classroom.

But, at the same time I taught a schedule that I wanted reduced, other teachers were struggling to get by on 10 hours of class per week.

57

Did you work at Huaxing High School?