Cuz somewhere up thread I brought up that Fulbright ETAs are part of the reason pay will forever remain at poverty wages for all foreign teachers, since they’re willing to work long hours for NT$40,000/ month and no other benefits. And Fulbright is a captive audience because the ETAs don’t know how little they’ll be paid or how very much they’ll be exploited until after they’ve signed a contract that requires them to pay back all money spent on travel, training, and salary if they quit.
Ok, I am willing to accept that. The ETAs I have met have all come off as “old money” to me and most of them spent all their time complaining about everything about Taiwan and had nothing good to say about this country. Every time I’ve met ETAs, it’s taken me about two minutes worth of conversation to wonder why they came to this country in the first place. The 40 or so ETAs I have met over the years might be a bad sample size; I don’t know how many people are in the program or have filtered through over the years.
From what I’ve heard of complaints over the past 5 years of interacting with ETAs, I’m actually kind of surprised the ETAs haven’t taken to the press or even law enforcement and forced Fulbright to follow their own rules. It’s not fair to the ETAs to be paid slave wages to do more work than the local teachers, who are often paid overtime to help you (while doing nothing but taking a bigger pay check). It’s also not fair to the students, who deserve teachers who have been trained to teach, and not college grads who come in and teach the kids how to color or play SuperSimple Songs for 40 minutes. And, why I have such beef with Fulbright, it’s unfair to the other foreign teachers, who have put in the time and money to become qualified teachers, only to be passed over for unqualified ETAs because you’re willing to work for zero pay.