I usually find out a day or two before each holiday that there will be a holiday, and that I don’t need to show up for work for the holiday. For example, January 1st there is a holiday. Nobody in Taiwan needs to go to work. And although there was a lot of discussion about the lack of a holiday for Christmas, I didn’t notice on Forumosa a mention that there is a holiday. A day off!
At one of my old schools, there was a board with all 12 holidays listed on it. From time to time, one of the holidays would be moved or changed in some way, but for the most part, that holiday calendar was accurate.
Is there some way to find out about the holidays? Even better, would be an announcement that shows up when you log into Forumosa, that tells you how long it would be until the next scheduled day off. At least that way I could go into work and find out if I am going to be lucky or not. Is there some kind of list like that? I searched “holiday” but I didn’t really find a list.
Forumosa does have a calendar - it’s under Site Map at the bottom of the page at Events Calendar - the problem is that it doesn’t have all the holidays pre-plugged in. Either the Forumosa admins could do that with all the leisure time they have or a volunteer like yourself who has spotted the need could do so, cobbling info from places like the link above cpa.gov.tw/html2001/english/eindex.htm and plugging in the appropriate dates (albeit some of those dates may not be right for your specific school as many bushibans stretch holidays and other legitimate schools will sometimes have their own while some businesses switch holidays to create long weekdends - for instance a lot of folks will be working this Thursday but not Friday so they can have a long weekend instead of off-on-off-again fun.
On the other hand, if your school has more than one foreigner, then ask them to post the calendar like your old one did. This is a common practice and helpful. Most schools have schedules that they give students so they should be willing to give one to the teachers as well. If your school only has one foreigner, then someone can mark the holidays on your calendar for you - most of the Chinese calandars in the stationary stores have holidays marked so it’s just a matter of circling them for you if you can’t read.
Ha Ha Ha. Never yet found a school that could let you know much in advance about anything, except maybe 10/10 day. It took more than a month of asking to get closing dates for CNY from one of my schools this year.
Friend of mine once took two weeks unpaid off from his job to go visit the folks back home. The date wasn’t important, but he did it at what seemed like a convenient time for everyone. When he arrived back at work on the following Monday morning he was informed that the school would be closing for two weeks, starting in seven days.
O’ course that’s employer-specific, but I like the idea of a Forumosa holiday planner.
I hate it when schools don’t tell you that today was a holiday and you didn’t have to show up today. Got myself woke up at 7:30 and drove all the way out for nothin’. Well, at least I get to sleep after I eat this breakfast - no sense letting these 7-11 tea eggs go to waste.
I just had to go out for a 30 minute special event. My working day never starts before 10, and there I was cheering the little buggers on at 7:30 today.
Great way to start the new year isn’t it?
Still, only two weeks more for me. I’m doing a winter camp straight after my Thailand trip, and no more kids after that. Evenings only, with motivated adults who want to learn. Yeah!!
Weird how they don’t make much of a deal over holidays here. I usually know the holidays better than anyone in the school. I preload them into tye calendar on my phone. Most schoolsd have a calendar with the holidays marked in grey at the front desk. Otherwise just get a calendar fromt he stationery store. It’ll be in Chinese, but you’ll be able to see the holidays marked on it.
My school gives us a calendar in August (and a tentative one before we get summer break at the end of June) that has all holidays and teacher in-services highlighted until the end of July. There are rarely changes on it and it’s very useful. I think part of the problem with posting a universal holiday calendar is that not all schools have the same breaks or some cities have different breaks than others. It’s a good idea, however, for things like Double Ten Day, 2-28 Day, and the general Chinese New Year holiday that some people may not know about (yet).