Hi, may I ask what branch offered you that whopping increase. I am located in a small town called Toulio, middle of the island. You and I are very much alike!!!
Not sure- it was my manager in Taipei who was calling to bug me about it. They just wanted me to teach a couple hours a week in TAipei (45 min commute for me) because they wanted a female who had a good teaching rep. It was funny they even got a higher up manager to try to talk to me about it and his tactic was to try to sound shocked when I turned it down 
anyways that was a year ago and no more calls of that kind of nonsense…
Hmmmmm, interesting, the manager in Taipei and I don’t speak, its done by email. I don’t trust them due to past conflicts and they have denied informing me of this or that when we used to speak over the phone, I opted getting them to write to me via email as least I have the written evidence, even now getting them to write to me also proves difficult so we have a lack of communication at the best of times. The only time Taipei would contact me is when THEY wanted something, like for myself to sub an urgent class or the like but I would never accommodate GVO due to all my negative past experiences and ongoing battles over pay issues with them. I DON’T SUB, I DON’T WORK WEEKENDS & NOW I have made my own working schedule which is 1 class 3 evenings a week, take it or leave it.
In the early days of my employment with GVO I would cover all classes they threw at me, I have in fact once worked for 7 days a week for 2 months to help them out, I would cover weekend classes between both countryside branches of Doulio and Chiayi (1hours ride by scooter from my home), however as I became more and more settled and therefore got to know more about GVO I saw their other darkside and their true colours. Its a fact that the more you seem to do the more they demand from you and on the same hourly pay. Now I say screw the lot of you and stick to my own thing but I must add that is not my character to behave like this as I am a helpul, easy-going and amicable person by nature! Its also sad that I am just one small person voicing their real concerns to a big company, I cannot change anything, I just wish that others could write stuff about GVO or adopt different tatics when dealing with them. We teachers ought to stick together really.
I Don’t know about you but my dealings are with someone named Missy up there in Taipei. I have never kissed the managers arse like they love everyone to, I’m a right rebel with them and haven’t had a pay increase for over 2yrs now and yet I can fill student chairs with bodies due to myself being a popular teacher. During one summer vacation I had a mixture of young students and old, 64 in one class!! Here in the gvo branches in the countryside they cannot find teachers, it proves difficult for them and thats why I cannot understand why gvo refuse to accept, appreciate and try to hold on to the long term teachers they have that the students trust and like, namely and purely for the interests of the students. The thing is and I truly believe that GVO don’t have any of the students interests at heart if the truth beknown by what I have witnessed and heard during the 6 years with them!
They offer newbies 400nt but maxium is 480nt per hour, some just take it as they need the job as well as ARC, others walk away feeling disgruntled, its a joke to be honest with you. When I first joined 6 yrs ago they tried that one with me but I stuck my neck out for a whole lot more and even walked away when they rejected it. They contacted me about a month later and said if I was still available then they could offer me the hourly rate I wanted with another pay increase after 6 months lol which didn’t happen. Luckily I do not need to rely on GVO to sponsor me, I have a resident visa based on my marriage so I am able to go where I like.
I would also like to state that GVO hate firing its teachers, they prefer that the teacher quit, if GVO wish you to quit from the countryside branches then they will make life so difficult for the teacher in question, reduce the teachers hours and have that teacher running all over the place to cover one class here, one class there at different branches no matter what time the class schedule begins. GVO Taipei and if your based in Toulio branch due to living close by (countryside) they will have you running to Tainan, Taichung and even Kaohsiung if they want you out, Alll very very nasty practices.
I hope that somehow I can encourage other GVO teachers past and present to write and share their personal experiences here, I think GVO need to be brought down a peg or two from ther high horse.
GVO cant keep screwing people over (students too) and not have repercussion…
huh funny. You feel about GVO the way I feel about Hess. To be perfectly honest GVO was my savior from Hess. I’ve had absolutely zero problems. The biggest thing I love about them is that they leave me alone and let me do whatever I want in the classroom. Hess micro-manages everything you do in the classroom without a care whether your students are actually able to understand the lessons or not.
GVO just leaves me alone so I’m able to tailor the lesson to my students. I love that! True the pay is low, but having subbed for many school’s, I still think they’re a good deal because I don’t have to do any work outside the classroom, and there’s no stress. (I was offered 500 to start, and argued my way up from there.)
I deal with Missy too. Again never had a problem. They never ask me to sub any classes, always give me time off if I want it (even when I asked one day in advance =0) and basically never hassle me. I had to go home for my Grandpa’s funeral a month after I started GVO, and they gave me two weeks off, no problems, totally supportive. I can see some areas that could use improvement (the magazine would be better if they would actually REJECT some of the terrible articles. They’re paying a high enough price for them that they should have their pick and only buy/print quality ones, but instead they promise each writer a certain number of articles per month, regardless of the quality, that’s why the mag sucks. Even a good writer will turn in drivel with no motivation to put in their best effort), but as far as jobs go, this one is pretty chill- when I leave work, I’m done,and while I’m there, it’s fun.
Sorry to contradict you. When people say Hess is okay I think they’re crazy, but guess it depends on the person. But since you stayed for 6 years, they cuoldn’t have been all bad, right? i could only handle hess for 10 months.
It sounds like now that you’re putting your foot down (saying no subbing, only 3 nights a week, etc.), you’re getting what you want. Of course they’ll keep asking you to do ridiculous stuff if you keep saying yes. This is Taiwan!
Best of luck in the future!
[quote]huh funny. You feel about GVO the way I feel about Hess. To be perfectly honest GVO was my savior from Hess. I’ve had absolutely zero problems. The biggest thing I love about them is that they leave me alone and let me do whatever I want in the classroom. Hess micro-manages everything you do in the classroom without a care whether your students are actually able to understand the lessons or not.
GVO just leaves me alone so I’m able to tailor the lesson to my students. I love that! True the pay is low, but having subbed for many school’s, I still think they’re a good deal because I don’t have to do any work outside the classroom, and there’s no stress. (I was offered 500 to start, and argued my way up from there.)
I deal with Missy too. Again never had a problem. They never ask me to sub any classes, always give me time off if I want it (even when I asked one day in advance =0) and basically never hassle me. I had to go home for my Grandpa’s funeral a month after I started GVO, and they gave me two weeks off, no problems, totally supportive. I can see some areas that could use improvement (the magazine would be better if they would actually REJECT some of the terrible articles. They’re paying a high enough price for them that they should have their pick and only buy/print quality ones, but instead they promise each writer a certain number of articles per month, regardless of the quality, that’s why the mag sucks. Even a good writer will turn in drivel with no motivation to put in their best effort), but as far as jobs go, this one is pretty chill- when I leave work, I’m done,and while I’m there, it’s fun.[/quote]
I worked there for one year, yeah pretty chill, but it’s just a place for people to go and kill time. Most students don’t really want to improve much. They do like to be entertained considering a lot of students seemed to have dull daily lives when I was there and some dislike the material too, but would never tell anyone but the teachers when students actually have $$$$ power. They don’t micro manage there, but then again they don’t manage much at all. GVO also has some teachers that treat students like garbage and do a very lame job but few students complain. (Guess the older ones got beat in the 60’s 70’s & 80’s so rude, disrepectful teachers are OK). Some people treat the students like gold. They are flexible at GVO but the “invisible” supervisors are braindead. If you are a warm body you can usually land a job there. I hear from a friend that worked there for 3 years (he just quit) that he had 4 supervisors during that time and they cannot deal with real emergencies and have very poor social skills/leadership (what else is new). All in all it isn’t much of a school, but if you do a decent job and don’t really care that GVO just drifts along and pays squat I guess it is a “nice” place to work.
Does Gobal Village offer a lot of classes teaching adults? I’d like to get into that program. I’m attending NTU for my MBA and find teaching little kids totally unrelated, so was hoping to springboard into teaching business English.
Their classes are almost exclusively adults, with a smattering of teenagers dropping in after school.
Does anyone here know the current situation with Global Village? Specifically:
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Starting wages for someone with no teaching experience.
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Hours per week. Do they guarantee a certain number of hours per week? If not, then how many can I realistically expect?
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How often do they make you run around to different branches?
I tried calling Global Village at both the listed number on their website and at specific branches, but they refused to divulge anything over the phone. All they would say is to come in to fill out a form and they’ll get back to me. I’d like to have an idea of what it’s like to work there beforehand.
Thanks!
[quote=“Amasashi”]I’d like to have an idea of what it’s like to work there beforehand.
Thanks![/quote]
Sorry for sounding snarky, but doesn’t the 9 pages of information posted so far give you a reasonably good idea?
I’ve read all 9 pages, but there wasn’t much that specifically addressed my questions regarding current wages and hours per week.
This post is fairly recent and addresses pay and hours, among other things:
[quote=“Terry2011”]I have been working for GVO for 6 years, nothing has really changed from its early days. For newcomers wishing to come to Taiwan to teach, GVO is one school best to avoid, I have seen another website which GVO is blacklisted on along with many other schools here in Taiwan.
High turnaround of teachers, starting pay for new teachers is around $400nt. I find the salary to be just too low to encourage newcomers. The schedule I had at one time was exhausting and prevented me from pursuing interests or being social (classes sometimes across a 12 hour time period). The schedules offered to newcomers seems more than adequate when first speaking with the lying receptionists at GVO branches, they do paint a rosey picture of this school, however once you have signed your name on the dotted line and receive your real faxed working schedule from Taipei, its like 14hrs a week & you will be lucky to make over 18,000nt, too late to cry, GVO have got you! No such thing as incentives for all the hard work we do, pay increases, simply forget it!! GVO give you sod all, but want want want always.
There are some western teachers who are strongly against anyone working for GVO, as doing so puts competitive pressure on other companies to pay as little as they do. In effect, some believe that working for GVO can drag down pay and conditions for all westerners in Taiwan. Hard to disagree with that.
GVO views people as expendable. Don’t be surprised if they say nothing. I strongly dislike the company culture. I find the atmosphere to be increasingly toxic, though I liked certain people. I always have a feeling that I am completely on my own, unlikely to be supported by the company if anything happened. One coworker had a female stalker and the company did nothing to help him.
I also feel they seem to spend a lot of money on frills that have little to do with language learning.
The pay is probably the single largest issue. Many teachers would prefer to teach only adults and GVO takes full advantage of this. The pay is nearly 200nt per hour lower than basic children’s classes. I accepted that at first but, as time goes along, I’m starting to feel abused at such a low level of pay. In order to make a decent total salary, one has to work a lot of hours. GVO will also change your working schedule as the deem fit and without asking you, I feel rules are made up as they go along.
Related to pay, is the issue of working hours. This summer, I taught classes from 10-11:30am, 1:30pm-3:00pm, 3:30pm-5:00pm and 7pm-9:00pm. The schedule keeps me effectively tied up for nearly 12 hours per day, 5 days per week. Some teachers even work 6 days per week. The pay is nowhere near worth the amount of time the job takes up in my life. I have very little time for friends, hobbies or classes and it is starting to bother me. I came to GVO for a relaxing change, but it hasn’t really been that. Plus, if I’d worked these kinds of hours anywhere else, I’d be making 100,000nt per month.
Then we have the teaching. I used to like the easy-going approach GVO uses. Lately, it is bothering me. Classes have no goals, anyone can attend any class at any time; I do not know who will come to any particular class. Often classes are a weird mix of ages and levels that makes it impossible or me to be much use to anyone.
This brings me to the magazines. They are so poor, it’s almost funny. I would laugh, but I sometimes have to get through 2-hour classes with the crap they write. The high-intermediate magazine is almost useable sometimes, but the advanced/superior one is just terrible. Both writers should be fired. Apart from the obvious factual errors, the writers are obviously just trying to fill the space so they get paid. The quality is so poor and the topics so boring, that it actually annoys me to read it aloud to students. lol.
The GVO mangers in Taipei whom are supposed to take care of western teachers problems are basically useless, they also have a high turnaround as it seems pressure prevails.
There is virtually no quality control, the teaching materials are bad, and the set-up (a membership system where students come and go as they please) is a recipe for disaster.
I could go on but perhaps I will leave all other negatives as to why one should avoid GVO for others to comment on.[/quote]
Thanks.
I was just hoping for more people to weigh in on the issue because I’ve heard it’s different with every branch.
Guess I’ll just have to go in and see for myself 
That’s the best policy, always. YMMV, but from my experience the plusses are: Easy work, that at times feels like you are being paid to hang out and chat with people; all adult classes, all the time.; relative freedom to teach how you want. Main minusses: LOW pay, low quality teaching materials and schedules that can leave you with little in the way of a private life.
GVO starting pay is around 480 -500, when you first approach them they inform you of a guarantee of 15hrs plus a week but in most cases thats a lie. They have u running between branches, moreso if you work at one of the countryside branches. GVO are one shcool best to avoid. Nothing in return, no pay rises for the last 3yrs, no benefits, no paid holidays and will tie you up working 7 days a week if they can. Long breaks of 4hrs between classes also which is tiring. In short they USE you to their own advantage and when you want something in return, suddenly it falls on deaf ears or sorry I don’t understand your English.
GVO will never inform you of anything over the telephone, you have to visit the branch itself, and you are sweet-talked with bullshit by the ladies in pink.
Most Teachers complain about the Material as it sucks, full of mistakes and the PAY is the biggest issue as well as working hrs. Mixed classes of all ages too, anyone can attend at any given time and most so called ‘adult’ classes contain school kids or the like. GVO’s policy to allow this to avoid paying the teacher kids hourly rates.
I’ll just weigh in one more time- I guess it’s branch-dependent because I’ve had a great experience- never been paid less than 550 (which I started at- low but worth it because the work is far easier and I don’t have to spend time outside of work doing work stuff) I’ve never had to work at more than one branch (I’m not in Taipei) and I’ve always had a schedule that I love. The teaching materials can be pretty bad but I use it to my advantage (last night a line was missing from the text and I had the students fill it in with what they thought it should say- then looked the quote up on the internet to see who was closest) I just use the teaching materials as a jumping off point to further discussions.
Anyways, if you’re going to work for GVO, maybe take a hard line when you start- tell them exactly what you’re willing to put up with, and if they don’t agree, walk away. If enough teachers demand good working conditions, they’ll have to comply.
Tell me WHAT county are you teaching? 550 per hr? How long have you been with GVO? All branches are controlled by Taipei so I am alarmed that you are on an hourly rate that even someone who has been with GVO for over 10yrs is unable to get…
[quote=“Terry2011”]… Nothing in return, no pay rises for the last 3yrs, no benefits, no paid holidays and will tie you up working 7 days a week if they can. Long breaks of 4hrs between classes also which is tiring. In short they USE you to their own advantage and when you want something in return, suddenly it falls on deaf ears or sorry I don’t understand your English.
GVO will never inform you of anything over the telephone, you have to visit the branch itself, and you are sweet-talked with bullshit by the ladies in pink.
Most Teachers complain about the Material as it sucks, full of mistakes and the PAY is the biggest issue as well as working hrs. Mixed classes of all ages too, anyone can attend at any given time and most so called ‘adult’ classes contain school kids or the like. GVO’s policy to allow this to avoid paying the teacher kids hourly rates.[/quote]
And this is different from the majority of other language schools in Taiwan…how?
What NonTocareLeTete said.
Perhaps if you are a teacher worth retaining, saying ‘no’ to GVO is not a problem for them. I work at one branch that is close to my home and that is where all my hours are. I was told to go to another branch for the hours I wanted and when I balked I got what I wanted.
I enjoy pretty much every class I teach at GVO. I get food brought to me, my students tell me they enjoy the class, I get constructive criticism from students and the time friggin flies by. Sure the pay is less but none of my students throw shit at me, I don’t live in fear of spoiled little crybabies, I never have a passive aggressive boss telling me to eat shite in order to please prince and princess smellofpiss and I definitely don’t have to say “shuddup, siddown” every two minutes nor do I hear “play game, play game” every 5.
The other day I subbed a group of GVO students who told me every teacher they had pissed and moaned about their lot in life and I outright laughed. Those same piss n moaners will be clambering like rats for the chance to work there once the buxiban ship starts take on more water.
I never pissed and complained when I worked there I enjoyed the students and dealt with the nonsense. But what others have said here is true. I have worked at 4 schools and while each had drawbacks GVO do a lot of things which are just dumb and even some good teachers are disrespected, I saw them do it to people. They have some really bad communication, what, you say that is normal in Taiwan? No multiply it by 3. It works because the students can come and go anytime and there are branches everywhere. The students complained about the material more than I ever did, so I came up with other things to do very often. The place is a mess, but you can work there if you are happy with the very hands off management style and the way it drifts along like an empty ship at sea with no direction. Of course it isn’t like a kids school…but then again sometimes I think I was teaching people that needed kids games. 
They are offering me 320 an hour at Neihu for 2 hours on monday and 2 hours on wednesday. I guess there’s your labor market for you. Or wages for ABC’s, I don’t know. I have a TEFL certification too, plus a Taiwanese ID.
Must be a huge premium for white people.