Global Village Organization (地球村美日語中心)

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
161

[quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]
I had some serious qualms about this when I started. They offered me 450, I said no way, they came back with 500, I said no way, they said they’d raise me to 550 after a month, and I took it. I’ve since strong-armed a few more raises - it isn’t easy and probably helps that I live in an area where they fear they won’t readily find replacement teachers (although that’s changing). [/quote]

So you did better than almost everyone else there and you were still making under 600 per hour, which was the rate I started at 12 years ago.

Most kiddie jobs don’t require that much extra work. At KOJEN there was about 10% added on. Plus most kiddie jobs give bulk hours.

Adult teaching gigs should start at 700NT. My minimum now is 800, and I often get more. If these bosses get it into their heads that foreigners will work for 450 or 500 per hour, you can bet the cost down frenzy will begin. Then it will just be newbies here for a short time who take this on. Who will benefit? Not the teachers with loads of experience, and hence not the students.

Bottom line for fair teacher pay in Taipei:
Full time: 60k per month.
Hourly: 600 kids / 700 adults

Anything less than that is quality and price deflation, as if Taiwan needs cheaper, worse cram schools than it already has!

162

[quote=“BigJohn”][quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]
I had some serious qualms about this when I started. They offered me 450, I said no way, they came back with 500, I said no way, they said they’d raise me to 550 after a month, and I took it. I’ve since strong-armed a few more raises - it isn’t easy and probably helps that I live in an area where they fear they won’t readily find replacement teachers (although that’s changing). [/quote]

So you did better than almost everyone else there and you were still making under 600 per hour, which was the rate I started at 12 years ago.

Most kiddie jobs don’t require that much extra work. At KOJEN there was about 10% added on. Plus most kiddie jobs give bulk hours.

Adult teaching gigs should start at 700NT. My minimum now is 800, and I often get more. If these bosses get it into their heads that foreigners will work for 450 or 500 per hour, you can bet the cost down frenzy will begin. Then it will just be newbies here for a short time who take this on. Who will benefit? Not the teachers with loads of experience, and hence not the students.

Bottom line for fair teacher pay in Taipei:
Full time: 60k per month.
Hourly: 600 kids / 700 adults

Anything less than that is quality and price deflation, as if Taiwan needs cheaper, worse cram schools than it already has![/quote]

In theory I completely agree with you— in practice, I did what was best for me at the time, took the minimum hours possible at GVO, and loaded up on 1000+ gigs on the side.

:whistle: I suppose I’d be the one being spat upon by the unioners as I walked toward the doors of the sweatshop. :blush:

Edit: They do pay for it though- most teachers at GVO want the minimum hours to get an ARC, none of us want to sub, and they don’t hold on to good teachers (well, I consider myself a decent teacher but I only stayed because I don’t care much about money). Also, Gjun just opened a branch nearby and I wonder what that will do to teachers/students. Hopefully it will up the quality for everyone.

163

[quote=“BigJohn”][quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]
I had some serious qualms about this when I started. They offered me 450, I said no way, they came back with 500, I said no way, they said they’d raise me to 550 after a month, and I took it. I’ve since strong-armed a few more raises - it isn’t easy and probably helps that I live in an area where they fear they won’t readily find replacement teachers (although that’s changing). [/quote]

So you did better than almost everyone else there and you were still making under 600 per hour, which was the rate I started at 12 years ago.

Most kiddie jobs don’t require that much extra work. At KOJEN there was about 10% added on. Plus most kiddie jobs give bulk hours.

Adult teaching gigs should start at 700NT. My minimum now is 800, and I often get more. If these bosses get it into their heads that foreigners will work for 450 or 500 per hour, you can bet the cost down frenzy will begin. Then it will just be newbies here for a short time who take this on. Who will benefit? Not the teachers with loads of experience, and hence not the students.

Bottom line for fair teacher pay in Taipei:
Full time: 60k per month.
Hourly: 600 kids / 700 adults

Anything less than that is quality and price deflation, as if Taiwan needs cheaper, worse cram schools than it already has![/quote]

The lower pay is ok with me so that I don’t have to teach kids that don’t want to be there in the first place, and having to act like a clown for many hours. Plus in many places there is a lot of prep time required, especially if you are a new teacher with no materials. In addition, a lot of places want you to stay after class or come in early unpaid, which they consider prep time. That is why people are willing to take the $500 an hour. Easy classes, mostly conversation based, and little prep required.

164

I couldn’t find old threads, so if you ‘extrovertedly’ start & seed one with your exp & thoughts, I’ll contribute.

Never took the CELTA. But no, they don’t account for regional, cultural, or linguistic differences, unfortunately… perhaps a lack of demand. CELTA was developed for immigrants in the UK (TESOL): diverse L1s, generally highly motivated, willing to adapt & speak, & immersed in a NES environment. Very unlike TEFL TW conditions. CELTA is exported worldwide unmodified for all learners, trainee teachers, & contexts… and called “standardization”. I have a list of all CELTA threads; I’ll find a place to post. None contain a detailed account of actual training, iirc.

As of 2014, GVO = 25yrs(?), 66 branches; GJun English = 14yrs, 28 branches.
Online student reviews for GJun (巨匠美語評價) are far worse than GVO.
Either way, teachers must survive regardless of market players. Perhaps survive without them.

This is TW. Every employer considers costs & “cheap newbs”. So why do many smaller or mid/higher-tier ones still advertise & staff a certain % of exp teachers with APRC/JFRV? It’s not stupidity or charity. Imagine starting a school; it’d be lunacy to put your fate in the hands of 450-500/hr newbs (even if you could provide hrs & ARCs). They’ll likely destroy your rep, customer base, and business. Only large chains can spread & absorb the high risks & hidden costs of “cheap newbs”.

I’m 100% sure your employers won’t lower your 800/hr (or “encourage” you to quit) due to “GVO legitimizing paying less”. I’ll find an old related thread & post a more thorough response there.

The thread history shows some people did. After reading it & others in TEIT, I’m sure at least +2 Forumosans graduated GVO followed by enough students to self-employ. Not “pathetic”. Rare, though; GVO is still afloat.

Long-term teachers, I think it’s better to aim for teacher self-development, not pay. (Short-termers, the opposite.)
Like any field, individuals differ in their potential development ceilings, so it may not be worth it.
Also depending on individuals, some environments are more conducive than others, but lower paid.
It’s more unpaid time & effort, with no guarantee of success… but ime, can lead to raises of 200/hr.
Not the 20-50/hr one may get for ‘seniority/exp’, which is rather meaningless without results or bums on seats.
Further develop, get a further raise… not necessarily from GVO. Maybe not from any middleman.

GVO might pay manure, but one could use its hands-off mgmt & large, fluid student pool to fertilize teacher self-development, networking, or seeding a business. GL to Milky, Dan, TWVisitor, & all GVOers.

165

No, we wouldn’t spit on you, lass, heavens no! We’d just give you loud raspberries and wolf whistles, while swilling loads of 711 beer on the picket line!

166

The low salary offered by GVO will forever be a source of criticism; I have even heard it brought up by the teachers themselves during their classes. However, is it not possible that time served at GVO is a good stepping stone to move onto better things?

My own personal opinion is that adult teaching experience will always look better on one’s resume compared to cram school kiddie positions. I am sure that universities would look more favourably on a candidate with some experience at GVO, compared to a long-term kiddie teacher. There may also be opportunities to move onto other adult teaching schools etc. I don’t know if GVO experience would count for the three years of experience needed to become an IELTS Examiner, however I know for sure that experience at “Happy Jimmy’s Kid Castle Afternoon Daycare Centre” does not.

I have also found that compared to teaching kids, teaching adults stretches me as a teacher in different ways, and also helps me to improve my own knowledge and wisdom. A famous quote that I like to tell my students is: “A teacher is a person who continues his education in public.” However I don’t know how well this relates to the average Taiwanese student who views a teacher as a source of all wisdom.

Do GVO ever let their foreign teachers teach the test prep or grammar classes? Or are we stuck with the conversational magazine classes forever?

167

I started at GVO in Tainan a little over a year ago and I have to say I’m still enjoying the experience. I had become burned out on the spoiled buxiban brats, interfering parents etc. GVO is an easy gig, the stress is low, there is no one staring over your shoulder. I have found the office staff to be very friendly as well. The pay is not great but I get a couple of evenings free during the week to pad out with better paying privates. I get plenty of hours and I generally accommodate them when they ask me to sub. Hey, it’s easy money!!!

There are some frustrating elements about the job but I don’t think it pays to get too bogged down by the negatives. Yes, sometimes the material is a bit dry. Find an angle to spice things up a bit. Introduce some idioms. The quiet ones I can usually get them warmed up by fielding comprehension questions from the text. I ask them to use full sentences and explain that it’s simply an exercise in practicing the grammar. Once you get their mouths moving you can try some more open questions.

The important thing is that the students like you and that they feel they are getting something out of your class. It can be difficult sometimes but I think you need to find something you like about your students. Don’t be too confrontational (unless they are up for it). Try to give everyone a chance.

168

I just came up with something else I’m doing in class and it’s worked out really nicely so far.

I got an old postcard and wrote the following on the back:
Have you heard of this before? Where? When? Was it presented in the same way, or was there a different emphasis?

On another:

Quiz your classmates: Think of two questions about the article, and ask those questions to your classmates. Make sure they can find the answer in the text.

On another:

In 100 years, will anyone care about the subject of this article? Who will? Who won’t? Why or why not?

On another:

If you had to guess, would you guess that the author feels positive, negative or neutral about this subject? Try to read between the lines and show examples from the text to support your opinion.
(this one would be more appropriate for advanced or superior classes)

On another:
What would your great-grandparents think of this article?

On another:
Ask your classmates a question about this article.

On another:
What does this article remind you of?

On another:
What would your great grand-children think of this article?

On another:
Ask your teacher a question about this article.

I fanned the cards out just before we began reading the article and had each student pick one. I had them read them and asked if they understood and had any questions (this lead to some good discussions about “reading between the lines” etc. When I write materials for my students I usually don’t simplify too much because I want them to hear natural language and I want them to ask questions when they don’t understand). Then I said they were responsible for doing whatever was on the card and when we finished the article I would be asking them to do it. I reminded them a couple of times as we were reading the article. At the end, I gave them a few minutes to think about what they wanted to say (if the class was quiet/struggling, I might even have them practice with their partner) and then I chose a stronger student to start. We didn’t have time for everyone but it lead to some REALLY good discussion. Wish I’d thought of this earlier.

If you’re struggling with student participation just give the students some responsibility. Then they understand that they, too, are responsible for the outcome of the class.

I’ve got another idea I’m working on, I’ll post it here when I’ve got it finished.

169

[quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]I just came up with something else I’m doing in class and it’s worked out really nicely so far.

I got an old postcard and wrote the following on the back:
Have you heard of this before? Where? When? Was it presented in the same way, or was there a different emphasis?

On another:

Quiz your classmates: Think of two questions about the article, and ask those questions to your classmates. Make sure they can find the answer in the text.

On another:

In 100 years, will anyone care about the subject of this article? Who will? Who won’t? Why or why not?

On another:

If you had to guess, would you guess that the author feels positive, negative or neutral about this subject? Try to read between the lines and show examples from the text to support your opinion.
(this one would be more appropriate for advanced or superior classes)

On another:
What would your great-grandparents think of this article?

On another:
Ask your classmates a question about this article.

On another:
What does this article remind you of?

On another:
What would your great grand-children think of this article?

On another:
Ask your teacher a question about this article.

I fanned the cards out just before we began reading the article and had each student pick one. I had them read them and asked if they understood and had any questions (this lead to some good discussions about “reading between the lines” etc. When I write materials for my students I usually don’t simplify too much because I want them to hear natural language and I want them to ask questions when they don’t understand). Then I said they were responsible for doing whatever was on the card and when we finished the article I would be asking them to do it. I reminded them a couple of times as we were reading the article. At the end, I gave them a few minutes to think about what they wanted to say (if the class was quiet/struggling, I might even have them practice with their partner) and then I chose a stronger student to start. We didn’t have time for everyone but it lead to some REALLY good discussion. Wish I’d thought of this earlier.

If you’re struggling with student participation just give the students some responsibility. Then they understand that they, too, are responsible for the outcome of the class.

I’ve got another idea I’m working on, I’ll post it here when I’ve got it finished.[/quote]

Thanks for the post. TBH I am still working a very teacher centred approach and have yet to get the students to do any pairwork/ groupwork. When I first started at GVO about a month ago I got a lot of feedback from the old-hands to make my lessons very teacher centred. However following on from your posts I think I can start to speed things up on the article and get some more activities, tasks in my lessons.

Once again, thanks for your post.

170

[quote=“Milkybar_Kid”][quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]I just came up with something else I’m doing in class and it’s worked out really nicely so far.

I got an old postcard and wrote the following on the back:
Have you heard of this before? Where? When? Was it presented in the same way, or was there a different emphasis?

On another:

Quiz your classmates: Think of two questions about the article, and ask those questions to your classmates. Make sure they can find the answer in the text.

On another:

In 100 years, will anyone care about the subject of this article? Who will? Who won’t? Why or why not?

On another:

If you had to guess, would you guess that the author feels positive, negative or neutral about this subject? Try to read between the lines and show examples from the text to support your opinion.
(this one would be more appropriate for advanced or superior classes)

On another:
What would your great-grandparents think of this article?

On another:
Ask your classmates a question about this article.

On another:
What does this article remind you of?

On another:
What would your great grand-children think of this article?

On another:
Ask your teacher a question about this article.

I fanned the cards out just before we began reading the article and had each student pick one. I had them read them and asked if they understood and had any questions (this lead to some good discussions about “reading between the lines” etc. When I write materials for my students I usually don’t simplify too much because I want them to hear natural language and I want them to ask questions when they don’t understand). Then I said they were responsible for doing whatever was on the card and when we finished the article I would be asking them to do it. I reminded them a couple of times as we were reading the article. At the end, I gave them a few minutes to think about what they wanted to say (if the class was quiet/struggling, I might even have them practice with their partner) and then I chose a stronger student to start. We didn’t have time for everyone but it lead to some REALLY good discussion. Wish I’d thought of this earlier.

If you’re struggling with student participation just give the students some responsibility. Then they understand that they, too, are responsible for the outcome of the class.

I’ve got another idea I’m working on, I’ll post it here when I’ve got it finished.[/quote]

Thanks for the post. TBH I am still working a very teacher centred approach and have yet to get the students to do any pairwork/ groupwork. When I first started at GVO about a month ago I got a lot of feedback from the old-hands to make my lessons very teacher centred. However following on from your posts I think I can start to speed things up on the article and get some more activities, tasks in my lessons.

Once again, thanks for your post.[/quote]

I really think that the time has come for me to start implementing some of the above ideas as my current method is getting really old, really fast.

Recently I have found my classes really boring. Even I, in my role as teacher of the class, have found the environment very staid. I have also noticed a drop in the number of students who attend my class. When I first started teaching at GVO around five months ago I could regularly pull in around 25-30 punters, however now I am down to around 10. I work at three different locations, so I guess that it’s not an individual branch related problem. I still have a few of my regulars left (the type of students that will go to any class - even the classes that are taught by the verbally aggressive and mildly insane teacher), but even their numbers have started to decline.

It could also be down to the fact that I am not an overly extroverted person. However, sometimes it feels that even I know more about what is going on in Taiwan compared to my Taiwanese students. I try to read the newspaper every day to keep abreast of current events so that I can talk about them in class. Sadly, it is often the case that no one knows what I am talking about and everyone has to take out their smartphones to get up to speed.

It’s time to switch it up a gear. I will go over this thread one more time over the weekend and try to pick out some of the suggestions to implement in my classes over the following week. However, I am a little bit nervous about how it will turn out.

171

Hey Kid, I don’t think there’s a prize at GVO for the most students. Don’t let it get you down. I find 10 students better than 25 any day.

172

sadly, GVO is a popularity contest, and I found that my popularity allowed me to make demands (better working hours, better pay) that I otherwise couldn’t have made. Take care of your popularity at GVO, and everything else will take care of itself (I am under no illusions that this means I’m a “good” teacher :laughing: though I would argue that if you can get their butts in the chairs, any sort of INTERESTING exposure to English will do them a world of good.)

I think step #1 is to find out why your students are there. I found that retired students generally want a social hour (which they can justify by saying “I’m learning English”) high school students want a party as well, and then there’s that crazy subset range of 20-25 year olds who say, “I’m re-taking a test in 2 months and I want my score to go up 5000000 points. I’m willing to study 26 hours a day and I’m going to blame GVO if I don’t pass!”
(I always try to calmly and gently explain to them that learning a language is a cumulative thing and while exposure is important, time is perhaps more important. It takes time for the brain to lay a solid foundation.)
Anyways if you find out why they are there, you can go from there. I think many can’t quite verbalize this, but they’re really at GVO because they’ve realized that after years of English lessons they’re unable to have a normal conversation at a party or the water cooler. I focused on a lot of small talk/expressing opinions for this reason and met plenty of resistance (but this is a CLASS, we should have our noses in the BOOKS, you need to teach us the GRAMMAR) but I had a very convincing speech that i could launch into at a moment’s notice, and I tell you, I had them in the palm of my hand after that speech. Maybe I’ll try to transcribe it here.

Anyways I myself am done with GVO- they were excellent employers for 5 years but now I’ve got the APRC- onwards and upwards my friends!!!

173

Here’s a good one.

It was time for me to sign my new contract for the year with GVO and since I’d been there for 4 years I decided to press for a raise in pay. I was hired at 500 an hour and every year I’ve asked for an increase which was ignored without explanation. I’ve let it slide because I don’t have huge overhead and I love my classes with a core group of 6-8 regulars daytime and 10-15 night (I’m in a smallish town so those are good numbers). I’ve also convinced students who were at the end of their memberships to re-sign up for more. I was popular at the school and students from neighbouring schools either came to my classes or requested that I teach close to where they are, toot toot. Also, this year I don’t need an ARC with them so I said to myself, “what the hay, ask for a raise. I’m saving them time and money anyway”. After asking for a raise, not 50 or 100, a raise, a mere token of appreciation would be nice, the lady at head office informs me that they have been paying me too much already so I should be happy with 480/hr for daytime classes but they would pay me 520 for night. Now I’m no rocket surgeon but I teach mostly daytime classes and the math seems to suggest that I would be taking a cut in pay. I kept my cool while on the phone with the gal and suggested that that was a little insulting. I said I wanted 550/hr or I would have to seek employment elsewhere. That was yesterday. Today I went in to the school and had a conversation with said gal at head office who then dithered with, “my manager isn’t open to discussion.”. I don’t take sick days, I’m there 10 minutes early for every class, I took 8 days holidays, for my wedding, this year, and I wear a clean shirt every day. What would you do? I walked. I walked out the door and have an interview with another school tomorrow morning. I’m going to miss the students who consider me a friend but in this country of face I felt I was losing mine if i stayed.

GVO makes their money and they don’t care how they do it.

174

[quote=“flatlandr”]Here’s a good one.

It was time for me to sign my new contract for the year with GVO and since I’d been there for 4 years I decided to press for a raise in pay. I was hired at 500 an hour and every year I’ve asked for an increase which was ignored without explanation. I’ve let it slide because I don’t have huge overhead and I love my classes with a core group of 6-8 regulars daytime and 10-15 night (I’m in a smallish town so those are good numbers). I’ve also convinced students who were at the end of their memberships to re-sign up for more. I was popular at the school and students from neighbouring schools either came to my classes or requested that I teach close to where they are, toot toot. Also, this year I don’t need an ARC with them so I said to myself, “what the hay, ask for a raise. I’m saving them time and money anyway”. After asking for a raise, not 50 or 100, a raise, a mere token of appreciation would be nice, the lady at head office informs me that they have been paying me too much already so I should be happy with 480/hr for daytime classes but they would pay me 520 for night. Now I’m no rocket surgeon but I teach mostly daytime classes and the math seems to suggest that I would be taking a cut in pay. I kept my cool while on the phone with the gal and suggested that that was a little insulting. I said I wanted 550/hr or I would have to seek employment elsewhere. That was yesterday. Today I went in to the school and had a conversation with said gal at head office who then dithered with, “my manager isn’t open to discussion.”. I don’t take sick days, I’m there 10 minutes early for every class, I took 8 days holidays, for my wedding, this year, and I wear a clean shirt every day. What would you do? I walked. I walked out the door and have an interview with another school tomorrow morning. I’m going to miss the students who consider me a friend but in this country of face I felt I was losing mine if i stayed.

GVO makes their money and they don’t care how they do it.[/quote]

This really is a difficult one.

I am in a similar situation to you - I am also pretty popular and can usually pull in the punters. Although I haven’t yet been at GVO long enough to start requesting raises I can still see how difficult it would be to pull even an extra $5NT p/h out of them. The long-term teachers that I know all say that GVO are really tight.

Being ignored is also par for the course. I requested to transfer one of my classes from one branch to another as the commuting time was over 40 minutes each way. I was ignored for about two months until I finally requested to drop the class. They asked that I keep teaching the class but I just said sod it - it really wasn’t worth it. They found a replacement teacher pretty easily so no-one really lost out. This is also part of the problem - a lot of people want to work at GVO. After all, if you don’t want to be stuck teaching teens and kids, and also don’t want to be bogged down in prep work which drags your hourly salary down to NT$300 p/h what other choices are there apart from GVO?

175

GVO is an easy ride. I felt guilty some days for even taking that 750 per class. I hung up the gloves because I was free to.

176

[quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]
Anyways, add it all up and I think I’ve made more “per hour” during my tenure at GVO than most teachers do in Taiwan (unless they’ve got a real sweet gig). I’m offered a lot of side gigs but generally won’t take them unless they pay double what I’m making at GVO because they’ll invariably require more of my time in preparation, communication with management, transportation, etc.

Bottom line: I care more about free time and low stress than I do about money.

Oh and it’s worth mentioning again that management just leaves me alone. Management never bothers you [/quote]

This is bang on the money. At most children’s buxibans, they tell you the hourly rate is NT$600 but neglect to tell you about at least one hour of prep every day, preparing and marking tests, dealing with parents, teaching assistants, the manager, the owner, and bratty kids (although some of the kids are great).

In the end, most buxiban teachers earn their money in spades dealing with extra requirements and if they added up all the unpaid hours they did every month, they would probably be earning less than the average GVO teacher who deals with none of the above.

Plus, most of the GVO classrooms are well-appointed and clean. You just can’t say that for most children’s buxibans.

I’ll take GVO any day over teaching children. :bow:

177

I am coming close to the end of my first year at GVO and have been given the piece of paper to sign on for another year. I guess this means that they like me :laughing: . It’s not surprising considering I have a pretty good reputation, am able to get bums on seats and always help out with subbing as and when needed.

However, the salary is still on the low end and I do have other offers on the side that I could take. The question is: how likely is it that GVO will give me a raise to keep me? I am currently on NT$500 per hour :blush:

Thanks

178

A story about one of the teachers at GVO made the papers this weekend.

I don’t have time to do a complete translation of the story so I’ll just pick out the key points about one of GVO’s finest.

[quote]A teacher at one of the branches of GVO in Taipei showed a pornographic video clip and proclaimed that he has a 25 cm schlong to a 25-year-old student whilst discussing the Japanese porn star MRT card controversy. When asked by the student if he was afraid of being caught, the teacher replied that he was watching the surrounding areas and then proceded to take out his penis and force the student to stroke it. The teacher then rubbed up the student and spouted lewd comments until another student came into the classroom. After being humiliated in this way the student confided in a friend and immediately applied for a refund at GVO. The student then received numerous calls from the teacher who repeatedly asked her to hook up with him, eventually leading her to report the case to the police.

The married teacher, who has already been in Taiwan for over 10 years, had only been teaching at GVO for a year at the time of the incident, and usually stays at his Taiwanese mother-in-law’s place. After the the case he disappeared before being urged by his wife to report to the police.

GVO stated that they asked the teacher to leave as soon as they were aware of the incident. The teacher has been charged with indecent assault and faces the possibility of being deported after serving his time.[/quote]

Read more here (in Chinese):http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20151004/36815954/

179

More pay rise shenanigans

I recently asked GVO for a pay rise. Considering I regularly pull in a good number of students and have received a lot of positive feedback from the students I that think I deserve a raise. When I came back from my summer holidays I overhead some students talking about how there was a massive drop in student numbers in my magazine classes whilst I was away. All good, or so you would think. However, the written response I received makes me think that I won’t be getting a raise any time soon. See below:

[quote]Due to the fact that we have a few student complaints on your file regarding the fact that you don’t really take your time to prepare for classes (students mentioned it’s a bit dull during your class sessions), we will not be able to provide you with any raises in the next 6 months. Your profile will be placed on probation and another pay rise review MAY be performed around X 2016. That’s if, there are no other complaints filed against you within the next 6 months.

Furthermore, we kindly ask you to stop utilizing our branch computers to watch Chinese shows, please do so at your alone [sic] time but not at the branches. Lastly, please be advised that you shouldn’t be bringing your teaching materials from your other jobs to prepare them over at our branches. Please take care of these businesses at your private time [sic].

We thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Thank you

Sincerely,
XXX
English Department Supervisor[/quote]

This letter has pricked my spidy-senses. Why is there no specific feedback mentioned regarding the student complaints? Saying it’s ‘a bit dull’ does not give any concrete examples about which classes and/or parts are dull.

Everything stated in the second paragraph is 100% true and I can’t refute the points raised. However, the wording used in the second paragraph doesn’t quite match with that used in the first paragraph. It almost looks like the first paragraph is a boilerplate rejection script. Perhaps other GVO teachers have seen something similar before?

As I’ve already received offers from other schools I think I’m going to start slowly dropping the GVO classes to take up positions elsewhere. GVO is a great place with great students, however I can’t pay my mortgage with greatness.

180

[quote=“Milkybar_Kid”]A story about one of the teachers at GVO made the papers this weekend.

I don’t have time to do a complete translation of the story so I’ll just pick out the key points about one of GVO’s finest.

[quote]A teacher at one of the branches of GVO in Taipei showed a pornographic video clip and proclaimed that he has a 25 cm schlong to a 25-year-old student whilst discussing the Japanese porn star MRT card controversy. When asked by the student if he was afraid of being caught, the teacher replied that he was watching the surrounding areas and then proceded to take out his penis and force the student to stroke it. The teacher then rubbed up the student and spouted lewd comments until another student came into the classroom. After being humiliated in this way the student confided in a friend and immediately applied for a refund at GVO. The student then received numerous calls from the teacher who repeatedly asked her to hook up with him, eventually leading her to report the case to the police.

The married teacher, who has already been in Taiwan for over 10 years, had only been teaching at GVO for a year at the time of the incident, and usually stays at his Taiwanese mother-in-law’s place. After the the case he disappeared before being urged by his wife to report to the police.

GVO stated that they asked the teacher to leave as soon as they were aware of the incident. The teacher has been charged with indecent assault and faces the possibility of being deported after serving his time.[/quote]

Read more here (in Chinese):http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20151004/36815954/[/quote]

This isn’t meant to blame the victim- I’m just curious if he somehow barred her from leaving the room, whether by threat of violence or actually physically barring her. I wish they would talk about that in news stories that cover this kind of thing.
When I would help people get a job at my GVO, I would always say, “Please, don’t date the students.”
Although one of the teachers married a student so that was kind of sweet :wink: and he was a good guy.