I’m a German citizen and native speaker, I have the equivalent of a master’s degree in English ( + theology and a minor in pedagogy, this kind of study course is what future high school teachers take,) near native-speaker English skills, some years of tutoring experience, and a working holiday visa. That visa means I can take jobs for as many hours as I want, but they should be limited to 3 month each. Is there any chance I can teach English at a cram school or the like? Other jobs? I’ve been trying via email and phone to contact schools I found on tealit, no success so far, not even remotely.
Willkommen in Taipeh You are in Taipei, right? What happened with those jobs you tried to get and couldn’t? Were the employers all perfectly clear that you are legally allowed to work here?
You’re allowed to work, so they don’t need to get a work permit for you. So they don’t really need to worry about your nationality, from a legal perspective. (This is only an opinion, but it’s as good as any other in a country where you can be jailed for writing a restaurant review.)
BUT, there are too many people chasing too few jobs. If you’re poorly-informed, and not qualified to tell who has the weird accent and who doesn’t, then why take a chance employing someone who doesn’t fit the normal description? It’s easier to take your pick of desperate Canadians.
I think you’ll find it hard, whatever the legalities, just because you’re not a standard teacher.
On the other hand, you could do private tutoring. Lots of people claim to be interested in learning German. In fact, I know one. Send me a PM.
The problem is not that you are German so much. That you are available for three month only is the problem.
You should be looking for a subbing opportunity and advertise yourself that way.
Since you are surly leaving after three month, you are not posing much of a threat to someone who wishes to take off a couple of month.
[quote=“Loretta”]You’re allowed to work, so they don’t need to get a work permit for you. So they don’t really need to worry about your nationality, from a legal perspective. (This is only an opinion, but it’s as good as any other in a country where you can be jailed for writing a restaurant review.)
BUT, there are too many people chasing too few jobs. If you’re poorly-informed, and not qualified to tell who has the weird accent and who doesn’t, then why take a chance employing someone who doesn’t fit the normal description? It’s easier to take your pick of desperate Canadians.
I think you’ll find it hard, whatever the legalities, just because you’re not a standard teacher.
On the other hand, you could do private tutoring. Lots of people claim to be interested in learning German. In fact, I know one. Send me a PM.[/quote]
I think plenty of schools will be interested in hiring someone that doesn’t need a work permit even if he doesn’t fit the normal description. And since I’m pretty sure everything is paid in cash it’s going to be difficult to prove that he’s work at X buxiban for more than 3 months. It might be hard to find one of the better jobs that offer 20+ hrs but I don’t know how many hours the OP wants to work. I know that there are a lot of schools that have 4-8 hrs available and it’s best for them to hire those studying Chinese since they don’t have to deal with work permits and such. Subbing is also a good option. It might start out slow but if you do a good job you’ll start getting frequent calls from schools/teachers that you’ve worked with before. or even job offers when they see that you are reliable.
about Abacus’ question: I want to work up to 30h per week in order to leave with more money than I came with. I also want to find out if this kind of employment or possibly another kind of employment and / or living Taiwan could become a permanent thing for me.
olm - I’m in Taipei right now, but I will go to Kaohsiung for two months from next week and then return. If I find a job in Taipei in the meantime, I will go back to Taipei earlier, however.
During one call I made the guy (Taiwanese) asked right away if I had an ARC. I told him I got a working holiday visa, but he didn’t seem to understand what that is at all (or to be remotely interested.) When I said I’m from Germany he was laughing and said “impossible” o.O
Well I’ll keep trying… And I’ll make sure they know I have a visa that allows me to work legally (thanks for the advice, olm.)
The problem is that most managers won’t have any idea what you are talking about when you say working holiday visa. And you won’t be able to make them understand. They aren’t the brightest (I said most).
And imo you will be absolutely miserable if you are working 30hrs/wk. There are a few highly competitive jobs that offer 30 hrs/wk (2pm-9pm) but it’s incredibly unlikely you’ll get one of those.
Here are the hours that will be available to you
9:30-11:30am kindy - 5 days/wk - these jobs are illegal for foreigners so they always need teachers. yet they all hire foreigners and their work permit is at another location. This job should be fairly easy to get regardless if you have a working holiday visa.
2-3:30pm - 5 days/wk - it seems like most morning kindy jobs have an afternoon class also - take a kindy job and you should have 17.5 hrs/wk
2-4pm - 4 days/wk - These are for 1st/2nd graders
5-7pm and 7-9pm - 2-3 days/wk - Most of the standard buxibans offer classes M/R and T/F or MWF and TR for 2nd-6th graders. The jobs that will be easy for you to find will be for one of the time blocks and it will be nearly impossible to teach a 2nd class at a different school.
I consider it very unlikely that you’ll be able to work more than 14 hrs/wk at one school unless it’s a kindy. Because that school currently has a nearly unlimited number of true native speaking (passport holding) applicants that will commit for one year. The jobs available to you will be kindy (good hours but spread out) and the evening classes with scheduling conflicts (their current foreign teachers all have a class).
Imo your best bet to work >20 hrs/wk is to take a kindy job (sounds like you would be one of the rare teachers that would actually be legal) and then either teach privates in the evening or teach the odd class (4-6 hrs/wk) in the evenings.
And if you’re working 20 hrs/wk you should be able to leave with more money than you came with.
Thanks, I guess my ideas were a bit unrealistic. I’ll give the kindy thing a try, though I don’t think I’m legal either. I may have a valid work permit, but I still don’t have a license for nursery work (or whatever is required to work in a kindy legally.)
Most buxiban bosses will never have heard of a Working Holiday Visa, and won’t believe you if you try to explain. That’s why the one laughed when you said you had a German passport - as far as he knows, to be legal the foreign teacher needs to have a passport from the USA, Canada, the UK, etc. - native language is irrelevant.
Maybe try to get some official-looking description, in Chinese, of what the Working Holiday Visa is and how someone with one can be employed legally, and the steps the boss will have to take to employ such a person legally.
Me neither for countries other than Australia and NZ. Just googled it and Germany joined the list in October 2010. I think that the OP is going to have a very tough time convincing buxiban bosses that it’s kosha. Illegal (is it or is it not? Who knows for sure) kindy looks like the only way. A lot of them close for a few weeks during the summer, though.
OP - are you CELTA (or equivalent - I’m thinking about the ‘minor in pedagogy’) qualifed with 2+ years post-CELTA (or equivalent) teaching experience? If so, you could chance your arm with the British Council summer camps. You’ll have to be quick, though.
I don’t have the experience, unfortunately. My degree is for teachers, so I have studied some pedagogy, but that was rather theoretical stuff. To become a teacher in my home country, I would have to undergo 18 more months of on-the-job training (most of which is actually just abused for cheap labor) and seminars. I have learned how to plan classes and taught during internships as well, but not for two years or anything near that.
The CELTA thing sounds interesting - would it be worth getting that? About how much would it cost? The website says that there is no school for that in Taiwan, though…
[quote=“bababa”]Most buxiban bosses will never have heard of a Working Holiday Visa, and won’t believe you if you try to explain. That’s why the one laughed when you said you had a German passport - as far as he knows, to be legal the foreign teacher needs to have a passport from the USA, Canada, the UK, etc. - native language is irrelevant.
Maybe try to get some official-looking description, in Chinese, of what the Working Holiday Visa is and how someone with one can be employed legally, and the steps the boss will have to take to employ such a person legally.[/quote]
Maybe the info from teh Taiwanese ‘embassy’ website would be enough? It sure is official… But not sure if it is available in Chinese (I mean the conditions for Germans going to Taiwan) as the info is directed at German people. I’ll check it out.
I doubt the CELTA will begin to pay for itself in one year. It might be good training though.
I doubt it’s going to matter if the managers understand the working holiday visa. The important words that they’ll understand is that you don’t need an ARC and they don’t have to pay for the work permit, NHI or anything else. Because I doubt you’re going to be working at the good jobs (unfortunately). You’ll probably be working kindy and/or several part-time jobs where schools are used to working around the law. The good thing for you is that you can’t be deported (from what I understand) for working in a buxiban or kindy w/o a work permit if the authorities come.
Is that true? Actually, it kind of makes sense in a twisted logic kind of way. I can figure out how that situation came to be; perhaps I’ve been here too long .
Is that true? Actually, it kind of makes sense in a twisted logic kind of way. I can figure out how that situation came to be; perhaps I’ve been here too long .[/quote]
I don’t really know that much about the working holiday visa but it sounds like you can work just about anywhere you want. But it can only be for 3 months (how would they know though). Maybe someone with working holiday visa experience can shed some light on any restrictions regarding the working holiday visa and kindy.
That’s about it. At least, that’s what the Taiwanese “embassy”'s website says. You can take on any kind of job, with a few exceptions - the only one explicitly mentioned is working in night clubs, would be interesting to know if kindy is on the list - working as many hours per week as you like, but each employment should be no longer than three months. And it says something like the focus of your stay should be on holidays, not work. But I mean that’s vaguer than vague. I’m thinking that if I get a new contract every three months, that rule wouldn’t even be a problem. I could just say I didn’t work before I took this job or something.
Well, like I said, there is no definite list of forbidden jobs/employers to be found. So kindy might in fact be a no-no, they just don’t mention it because they need more teachers / want to collect more fees for illegal working I just sent an email to the Taiwan office in Frankfurt asking about that list. I doubt that they will answer, however. Even if teaching preschool kids were allowed by the visa, I would probably still be working illegally because I don’t have a proper license for that.
Well, like I said, there is no definite list of forbidden jobs/employers to be found. So kindy might in fact be a no-no, they just don’t mention it because they need more teachers / want to collect more fees for illegal working I just sent an email to the Taiwan office in Frankfurt asking about that list. I doubt that they will answer, however. Even if teaching preschool kids were allowed by the visa, I would probably still be working illegally because I don’t have a proper license for that.[/quote]
Your Taiwanese co-workers likely won’t have a license either. And it’s a private business regardless.
Thought I might share this: I’ve found work after all, subbing at several schools. Altogether it’s just 11h/week though, plus a bit of tutoring. I’m pretty sure I could only get work because I already have some years of experience as a sub. If I had an ARC I’m sure I could find a decent job now, but unfortunately that’s not possible because I don’t have the right passport.
You are in Taipei, right? What happened with those jobs you tried to get and couldn’t? Were the employers all perfectly clear that you are legally allowed to work here?
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I just sent an email to the Taiwan office in Frankfurt asking about that list. I doubt that they will answer, however. Even if teaching preschool kids were allowed by the visa, I would probably still be working illegally because I don’t have a proper license for that.