hey the school i work for is paying more than Hess, we are next door (actually just down the street)
check it out “Our School”
i’m also from TO
Hess is a chain school. This means practices are varied and so is management style and payment. I met one teacher, while I was living in Taichung county who worked 9 teaching hours but had to be in the office from 1pm to 9pm as he was salaried and another who was paid hourly at a lower rate than most would take. As it is a chain its difficult to say what it would be like without personal experience and then that varies from person to person here.
From what I’ve heard, the benefit of working for Hess is that they take care of everything for you. Find you a job, help with housing, orientation, etc…
Hess teachers also like that they aren’t going in “cold”. They train you and have a curriculum.
The downside that I’ve heard of are basically when a Hess job is contrasted with jobs that people find on their own. You can get a lot more money for less hours at other schools. You can shape your schedule more to your liking, you meet people other than Hess staff (Hess teachers tend to flock and have “Hess” parties, etc…).
Kind of depends whether you want to turn up and do it yourself and get yourself the best possible NT$ for your time or have everything arranged for you in advance and work for less.
Hope this second-hand info. helps!
rooftop
p.s. What part of Toronto? In the 90’s, I lived in Cabbagetown for 4 years.
haha… hess parties? thats something i’d avoid like the plague unless of course they were all really great people. something tells me people that would have exclusive “hess” parties on a regular basis wouldn’t necessarilly be all that great though.
thanks for the info everybody… i guess i’ve largely applied with them for all the reasons everyone mentioned… the security, the curriculum (the fact that other than having my political science degree, which isn’t exactly training for teaching english, i have no training whatsoever)
i always kindof thought that there might be much better deals out there at other schools, but i didn’t want to risk coming there completely unpreparred and without a job… i feel like i’ll have enough stresses to deal with at first, finding a job would be too much.
i’m not sure of the actual address of the school so far, they’ve only told me that i’ll be in taoyuan. it seems like an ok place, at least the rent is pretty cheap compared to taipei… or toronto! 
currently im living in etobicoke, near the lakeshore… i used to live up by york university though in north york
God, how pathetic! Imagine if we did that at Forumosa … 
yea
I’ve heard of hess. they make after market FNFal recievers for the civilian market in the usa. they appear to be cast steel and of dubious quality. they’ve recently been making ar15-m16 recievers and they are cast aluminum and prone to excessive wear around the front pivot pin leading to a loose upper and lower reciever fit.
I cant say that ive heard of them in taiwan though.
sounds like a catchy name for a school.
[
size=9]
disclaimer
just so i dont get in trouble, they are a chain of schools in taiwan and another company by the same name sells weapon parts and rifles in america[/size]
It’s a nice starting point, I guess. 
Get your feet wet, learn how to swim, and then find a better pool (with higher pay).
Actually, Hess should think about using that as their slogan.
[quote=“ImaniOU”]It’s a nice starting point, I guess.
Get your feet wet, learn how to swim, and then find a better pool (with higher pay).
Actually, Hess should think about using that as their slogan.[/quote]
Can’t you just feel the love for Hess in this thread? 
bwahaha
SO much love
no regrets… can’t possibly be worse than my current employer…starbucks.
somewhat off-topic, but did anyone know that literally half of the people working for starbucks in toronto have university degrees? damn thats depressing
Chewycorns might have something to say about that, given his view on the worth of a Canadian Ph.D.
Hey, Hess is just a big company. They just opened a school in Singapore, too. I’m a Hesser. I figured, I didn’t come to Taiwan to make money, and if I’m going to have a job where I speak English, I might as well stay with good old Hess.
The pay ceiling right now is 730 NT an hour. It’s lower than most, but once you got the Hess method down, you just breeze through the classes and it’s all good.
They have parties to welcome the newbies. The only people who go are the newbies, their trainers, and their future managers. You might meet some trippy people - more than 50 percent of whom will leave Hess super fast.
It’s a growing company.
The cool thing is, if you like it, you can transfer to different cities in Taiwan for your next contract. My best times were in Taichung. Now I’m in Taipei, and it’s cool, but I still miss Taichung…
Gong-Yi, Mei-Cun branches rock!
I graded homework in tea shops. Taichung has all these cool tea shops with big, giant mugs of iced green tea and awesome wooden retro decor.
I just got the big giant mug of tea, listened to the Taiwanese pop music and graded my homework (saved it all and did it on Wednesdays and Sundays). Then I’d order another tea and study Chinese. Life is good.
What Taiwanese pop music do you listen to Mr. Sir? :bouncy:
What do they do for the newbies in the parties Mr.Sir? :bouncy:
Hum excuse me Mr Sir, You get paid by the hour, not even a high pay then you work for free marking homework, preparing lessons, buying your own drinks, listening to crap pop music.
Are you on an hourly wage or are you full time employed with a fix wage per month? If your hourly paid have you actually divided all the time you spend doing school stuff then found your hourly wage? Or are you smoking something in that tea shop with the lovely wooden walls?
[quote=“bigal”]Hum excuse me Mr Sir, You get paid by the hour, not even a high pay then you work for free marking homework, preparing lessons, buying your own drinks, listening to crap pop music.
Are you on an hourly wage or are you full time employed with a fix wage per month? If your hourly paid have you actually divided all the time you spend doing school stuff then found your hourly wage? Or are you smoking something in that tea shop with the lovely wooden walls?[/quote]
Checking homework is part of the job in many cases. I think Mr. Sir has found a way to make it seem less so. Hourly wage isn’t everything. As a teacher, I find that grading homework helps you focus more on what the students are missing and allows you to focus more on their weak points. Money isn’t everything–to some of us.
[quote=“wipt”][quote=“bigal”]Hum excuse me Mr Sir, You get paid by the hour, not even a high pay then you work for free marking homework, preparing lessons, buying your own drinks, listening to crap pop music.
Are you on an hourly wage or are you full time employed with a fix wage per month? If your hourly paid have you actually divided all the time you spend doing school stuff then found your hourly wage? Or are you smoking something in that tea shop with the lovely wooden walls?[/quote]
Checking homework is part of the job in many cases. I think Mr. Sir has found a way to make it seem less so. Hourly wage isn’t everything. As a teacher, I find that grading homework helps you focus more on what the students are missing and allows you to focus more on their weak points. Money isn’t everything–to some of us.[/quote]
That’s right.
I don’t have any time for those “teachers” that just show up for class and leave without even thinking about the class. These kind of people don’t prepare and never will, because they only do what they are getting paid for. Yeah, I’ve been there and done that, so I know. Cowboy types give us all a bad name.
Then why are we paid by hour. If they want the full works then they should give the full works. This was my point that maybe everything we do like marking homework, preparing lessons, meetings Saturday and Sunday, trips, eat lunch or dinner with the children. If you put me in the hour to pay bracket then you should get that. The plumber gets paid by the hour he comes he fixes he does not wash the dishes. You want more you pay for more. this goes for any other job if you pay for an hour you get an hour. I mark homework and prepare tests just the same as MrSir but is it right when we are on an hourly wage. I enjoy my work and help the children but maybe the managers know this and while the full times have their red envelopes, bonuses parties, vacation pay, sick pay without having to find a replacement. It goes on. Hey have ago but don’t discredit my work as this was about hourly wage and what you should have to do. And whether it is right for an hourly paid person. maybe by doing everything we are pushing our own wage down. Example: If I have a class of 100 children and I have to mark all their books it takes me about three hours. That is a lot of green tea. Not everybody teaches 10 children in a class with a yes or no question but some have full essays to mark. Which I mark, sit and talk to the kids on my own time. I know, change jobs for an easier one. But then I would be a cowboy like Bassman is implying. For every hour I put in without pay I lose it somewhere else. Actually if you don’t care about the money and it is just about the kids then do it for free. But I believe it is always about money as it is a job. You are working, you work for money. Your telling me Mr Sir does it for the love of the Children. Then obviously MrSir gets free green tea in his lovely big mug because if they asked you to pour it, wash the cup and serve the person next door and for that you pay them. Well hi ho silver and a way you go, becasue I am sure he pays for it from the money he earns at HESS.
Bigal, there are plenty of jobs out there that do pay a monthly salary which is inclusive of all teaching and the extras that come with it. Many of these pay around NTD60,000-65,000 for about 30-40 hours a week, which when you work it out per hour that you are there isn’t very much. The real killer though is that you are committed to that job 8 hours a day which leaves you very little freedom to pick up any extra money with a second job or privates. Teachers working for an hourly rate, whether it is high or low, have a chance to work extra hard to earn extra bucks, or just take it easy and earn the minimum.
I don’t think comparing tradespeople with foreign English teachers is a very accurate comparison to make. Most tradespeople come and do a job and then leave. They supply their own tools, experience, and materials. Add to that their costs of travel, insurance, advertising, and licencing. There is no guarantee of ongoing work hence the hit and miss pricing. Tradespeople who work full time for a company, which all legal English teachers here do, generally earn a salary and not hourly rates.
I don’t know if the schools are really asking for more. In most cases the good schools will outline very clearly upfront what your responsibilities will be before you sign up. If you then sign up in agreement then these duties are not MORE but rather part of the job.
I previously worked for a large chain that paid hourly. Classes ran for 50 minutes so the smart teachers would get their lesson plans etc. completed in the 10 minute breaks between classes, and were therefore getting paid for the preparation in my opinion. Some couldn’t see this and claimed that they were being asked to do this work on their own time, but it is clear that they were actually being paid for this 10 minutes of their time.
You have 100 kids in one class!!! The reality is that most teachers working in buxibans have class sizes ranging from about 5 to 25 students. If you encounter a school that really does cram 100 students into a class then I would encourage you to find another school. Surely you would notice this upfront though and not even contemplate signing on in the first place.
I agree entirely that if you work then you should be paid for it. Buxibans are businesses and therefore the better you teach then the more the school can earn. Smart teachers work this to their advantage, and in my experience these teachers are the ones who accept that giving something small can lead to something better. In the case of HESS this would no doubt be the teachers that are earning hourly rates far in access of the starting rate, or those that are offered work outside of the classroom. They overcome the apparent ‘unfairness’ in a mature manner and benefit from the results. I give full credit to Mr Sir for his attitude in this regard, and am sure that he is the sort of person that will soon find how to get Taiwan to work for him rather than him working for Taiwan.
If you are confident that you as a teacher make the school then go for it and tell your boss that you will no longer do the extra work without pay (provided that this extra work isn’t outlined in the contract - otherwise you would be in breach). If on the otherhand you aren’t the best teacher at your school, aren’t overly experienced, nor overly qualified, then you might want to just keep your head down and do your job, or you may find yourself jobless.