Ideas for new firm helping arriving English teachers?

What are the most important but the most difficult things for new teachers coming to Taiwan?

A Taiwanese friend of mine is thinking of starting a small company that will help new teachers coming to Taiwan, and is researching the things that are the most common needed things amongst foreign teachers in their first 3months to 1 year being in Taiwan. So far she has only a ruff idea what she wants and is trying to land an idea for the company. So any positive suggestions and good ideas will really be helpful to her.

She is hoping the job will help the Taiwanese society, and she picked working with foreigners because she can use her English abilities in the job as well.

The ideas that we have developed so far are:[color=#0040BF]

  1. English maps of local area with key location marked out.
  2. Phrases to use in ordering food.
  3. Rental search assistance.
  4. Recommendations and assistance for bookstores, furniture, transportation (ie buses, trains, MRT), etc.
  5. Explanations of visa requirements, an assistance acquiring them.
    ie. visa requirements and obtaining them- assistence locating offices and pre-knowledge of a checklist of required items at said office. (each office sometimes seems to have its own ideas of what is needed. Know what your local office wants.)
  6. Transportation and Assistance with scooter rentals or maybe being able to rent scooter out.
  7. Crash course for first time bikers. Teaching them rules of the road (or the lack there of), the in’s and out’s of working a scooter (I know this one is stupid but I have helps several of the new teachers in my school with their first scooter and the simplest things were the hardest for them)
  8. A registry of “emergency contacts” information for newcomers, i.e., Who do you call when the they get hit by a LBT? How to deal with accidents, such as you accidentally run into another person’s car/bike, you accidentally hit someone walking, etc…
  9. How to spot a scam. Like car kidnapping, people hitting you and saying it is your fault and you should pay them some crazy sum of money, fake wedding hongbao requests.
  10. Basic instructions on personal hygiene tips for a subtropical climate. Many college graduates seem to not have a clue. i.e. shower in the morning and at night in the summer. People wear facemasks on scooters because it is protecting their lungs from airborne particles, not for fashion. Tips to protect their health. (A friend learned the hard way- his first 2 winters he spent with bronchitis…)
  11. Hospital assistance. Having a bilingual service person to walk next to them to find everything and explain different demands is very useful. Not all doctors or hospitals have bilingual staff available. (most have some, but it tends to be unspecific.)
  12. Dispelling of any odd rumors or half truths and misconceptions that they will have about Taiwan.[/color]

If you know of any other suggestions or ideas that would fit well into this idea please share them. Or any stories of things that happened to you when you first got here that would be of help, just want to share.

[color=#40BF00]Thank you for your help!![/color]

[quote=“Chububobcat”]What are the most important but the most difficult things for new teachers coming to Taiwan?

A Taiwanese friend of mine is thinking of starting a small company that will help new teachers coming to Taiwan, and is researching the things that are the most common needed things amongst foreign teachers in their first 3months to 1 year being in Taiwan. So far she has only a ruff idea what she wants and is trying to land an idea for the company. So any positive suggestions and good ideas will really be helpful to her.

She is hoping the job will help the Taiwanese society, and she picked working with foreigners because she can use her English abilities in the job as well.

The ideas that we have developed so far are:[color=#0040BF]

  1. English maps of local area with key location marked out.
  2. Phrases to use in ordering food.
  3. Rental search assistance.
  4. Recommendations and assistance for bookstores, furniture, transportation (ie buses, trains, MRT), etc.
  5. Explanations of visa requirements, an assistance acquiring them.
    ie. visa requirements and obtaining them- assistence locating offices and pre-knowledge of a checklist of required items at said office. (each office sometimes seems to have its own ideas of what is needed. Know what your local office wants.)
  6. Transportation and Assistance with scooter rentals or maybe being able to rent scooter out.
  7. Crash course for first time bikers. Teaching them rules of the road (or the lack there of), the in’s and out’s of working a scooter (I know this one is stupid but I have helps several of the new teachers in my school with their first scooter and the simplest things were the hardest for them)
  8. A registry of “emergency contacts” information for newcomers, i.e., Who do you call when the they get hit by a LBT? How to deal with accidents, such as you accidentally run into another person’s car/bike, you accidentally hit someone walking, etc…
  9. How to spot a scam. Like car kidnapping, people hitting you and saying it is your fault and you should pay them some crazy sum of money, fake wedding hongbao requests.
  10. Basic instructions on personal hygiene tips for a subtropical climate. Many college graduates seem to not have a clue. i.e. shower in the morning and at night in the summer. People wear facemasks on scooters because it is protecting their lungs from airborne particles, not for fashion. Tips to protect their health. (A friend learned the hard way- his first 2 winters he spent with bronchitis…)
  11. Hospital assistance. Having a bilingual service person to walk next to them to find everything and explain different demands is very useful. Not all doctors or hospitals have bilingual staff available. (most have some, but it tends to be unspecific.)
  12. Dispelling of any odd rumors or half truths and misconceptions that they will have about Taiwan.[/color]

If you know of any other suggestions or ideas that would fit well into this idea please share them. Or any stories of things that happened to you when you first got here that would be of help, just want to share.

[color=#40BF00]Thank you for your help!![/color][/quote]

Now wait a minute. Such company is already here. They are called Sue, Ariel, Ashley, Sharon, Cherry, Kissy, Summer, Winter, Linda, Juicy…

I’d tell your friend to forget the idea. Your friend likely harbors a number of mistaken impressions about westerners. First, she likely believes that there are far more western foreigners around than there actually are. Fact is, of all foreigners in Taiwan, westerners represent by far the smallest group. The fact that we are visible creates the mistaken impression that we are numerous. There really aren’t that many of us here, and most of us that are will not have any use for the services your friend would offer. Second, your friend likely has mistaken ideas about how much money English teachers make. Sure, it seems like a lot by local standards, but then locals often live in homes owned by family members. Foreigners pay at least a third more for most things, have to pay set up costs and then have to pay to relocate home again. There isn’t a lot of extra money for a luxury like your friend would be offering.

Consider also that many larger chain schools already provide a lot of the assistance your friend would be offering, but free of charge-- and that numerous websites also already offer up free advice and information as well-- and you can see your friend’s business might not do so well. The western foreign teacher demographic is small (much smaller than many realise), transient and tends to be frugal. Few businesses could do well that serviced only that group of people.

:roflmao: Ok, that one is funny. Not to be rude, but in my experience, it’s not the Westerners that forget to bathe…I remember a lot of terrible Saturday morning classes when many students come to class drenched in sweat. So drenched that they probably could have wrung a bucket full of water out of their shirts.

for starters, don’t promote illegal activity.

[quote=“bob_honest”]6) Transportation and Assistance with scooter rentals or maybe being able to rent scooter out.
7) Crash course for first time bikers. Teaching them rules of the road (or the lack there of), the in’s and out’s of working a scooter (I know this one is stupid but I have helps several of the new teachers in my school with their first scooter and the simplest things were the hardest for them)[/quote]

This should be better phrased as:

Once you have your arc, we can assist you with supplying info about how to legally get your scooter license. This includes mock written tests, ‘advanced’ driving skills needed for Taiwan, translation services for all written documents when applying for the test.

I assume that your target market is for the newly arrived English teacher.

I gather that you will then need to help supply info with regards to the job hunt.

Need to become an expert in 'kindy teaching laws"

If offering part-time employment contract assistance for noobs, need to explain that hours (may or may not) drop over the long summer vacation.

When the legal company goes live, expect a good ol’ lambasting from authorities, forumosans, and your competition.

Supplying an illegal activity will get you about 10 pages of scorn.

Don’t become the friendly human trafficking company.

An all inclusive package with a local personal assistant for a certain period of time could work. Borrow ideas from the big chain school’s websites, then get to know the needs of the smaller buxiban operators.

You will need to set high standards for evaluating the schools and a good filtering system to detect the unwanted.

Best advice to foreigners arriving here is to make some Taiwanese friends and LEARN the language. Simplifies everything. :wink:

[quote=“Tiare”][quote=“Chububobcat”]
10) Basic instructions on personal hygiene tips for a subtropical climate. Many college graduates seem to not have a clue. i.e. shower in the morning and at night in the summer.

[/quote]

:roflmao: Ok, that one is funny. Not to be rude, but in my experience, it’s not the Westerners that forget to bathe…I remember a lot of terrible Saturday morning classes when many students come to class drenched in sweat. So drenched that they probably could have wrung a bucket full of water out of their shirts.[/quote]

What we need on this island is actually a “keep your exit wound clean” song, maybe with a bit dancing coverage etc. Because what few people know, stool contains traces of fungus which, if swept out by sweat, may easily cause nasty fungal infections.

Guess the song could be a big hit with the locals, children TV and stuff. Well, TV in general here.

how about, just no…the point of coming to Taiwan or any non-western country is that there is some degree of difficulty in adapting; therein lies the challenge. Challenge is a good thing…if it was just like home…well it would be just like home.

Its not like Taiwan is a hardship posting; anyone too dumb to figure out the angles should just stay at home.

Sorry, I don’t see anything there that hasn’t been covered - many times - elsewhere. So your friend has REALLY no idea? Why, then, does she think her non-ideas will be helpful?
I just don’t get it. Is she wanting to make money off this? or does she just want to have a blog or something? Blogs are cool, I suppose. Better than watching Jacky Chan, maybe. Or ARE they? :laughing:

Chububobcat,
Don’t listen to these cynical old men. Most of them are bitter drunkards worn down by years of teaching and the tropical heat.
Your friend’s idea isn’t bad, but of course whether it works or not depends on how it is carried out.
As Toasty said, there are actually very few westerners here, a lot have friends already here to lend a hand, and many of them are too “frugal” for this kind of service. So, the potential pool of newbies in your friend’s area (Taipei?) is going to be surprisingly small.

Having said that, there are some good possibilities for you friend to do this as a part-time job. It would be a good way for her to improve her English. And it wouldn’t cost much for her to get started.

I dunno, almas. I don’t think it would be fair to even predict there would be a viable part-time job in this for OP’s friend. I think the whole business idea stems from a mistaken idea of both the presence and size of a potential market for this service. How many people does OP’s friend believe she would service? How much does she think she could charge?

Newly arrived English teachers? How many people does she think that really is? And of those people, how many would really be willing (or able) to pay for this kind of service. And how do you compete with completely free services offered by employers, friends, websites and, heck, even toll-free government hotlines in English?

I’ve seen these kinds of business ideas many times before. Very often they take the form of longer term foreigners (out this way anyway) who target newly arrived people with such must-haves as marked up Costco crap and other “necessities.” It usually takes about a week before the newbie can find Costco himself. This incarnation won’t be much different. Even if a newbie isn’t offered full support from a recruiter or buxiban upon arrival, the moment s/he meets anyone, they will have a free source for most of the stuff the proposed business would want money to provide. It’s essentially asking for money for things that are available free-- and to an extremely small market no less.

[quote=“Toasty”]I dunno, almas. I don’t think it would be fair to even predict there would be a viable part-time job in this for OP’s friend. I think the whole business idea stems from a mistaken idea of both the presence and size of a potential market for this service. How many people does OP’s friend believe she would service? How much does she think she could charge?

[/quote]

depends what she wants out of it, if she wants to get laid Im pretty sure it would be great for her/him, better than trawling for LEs eh!

Im actually with you on this - much better idea if she speaks english is to brush up on her history and heritage of taiwan :blush: then pass the travel agent tour guide exam and do pretty much the same for older richer american and european tourists and maybe branch out for corporate relocations if she gets a good contact (very slight chance)

[quote=“Toasty”]I dunno, almas. I don’t think it would be fair to even predict there would be a viable part-time job in this for OP’s friend. I think the whole business idea stems from a mistaken idea of both the presence and size of a potential market for this service. How many people does OP’s friend believe she would service? How much does she think she could charge?

Newly arrived English teachers? How many people does she think that really is? And of those people, how many would really be willing (or able) to pay for this kind of service. And how do you compete with completely free services offered by employers, friends, websites and, heck, even toll-free government hotlines in English?

I’ve seen these kinds of business ideas many times before. Very often they take the form of longer term foreigners (out this way anyway) who target newly arrived people with such must-haves as marked up Costco crap and other “necessities.” It usually takes about a week before the newbie can find Costco himself. This incarnation won’t be much different. Even if a newbie isn’t offered full support from a recruiter or buxiban upon arrival, the moment s/he meets anyone, they will have a free source for most of the stuff the proposed business would want money to provide. It’s essentially asking for money for things that are available free-- and to an extremely small market no less.[/quote]

Good points Toasty.
However, competing against something offered ‘free’ is not always a lost cause. What I see working is (and a reminder that this limited potential is just for part-time work, not a full-time gig)… where was the bottle… I mean… okay…
Chinese lessons with a practical focus plus help outside the classroom. Language exchanges don’t work. Not everyone wants to or can attend classes.

The practical focus would… damn, forgotten what I was about to say.

[quote=“almas john”][quote=“Toasty”]I dunno, almas. I don’t think it would be fair to even predict there would be a viable part-time job in this for OP’s friend. I think the whole business idea stems from a mistaken idea of both the presence and size of a potential market for this service. How many people does OP’s friend believe she would service? How much does she think she could charge?

Newly arrived English teachers? How many people does she think that really is? And of those people, how many would really be willing (or able) to pay for this kind of service. And how do you compete with completely free services offered by employers, friends, websites and, heck, even toll-free government hotlines in English?

I’ve seen these kinds of business ideas many times before. Very often they take the form of longer term foreigners (out this way anyway) who target newly arrived people with such must-haves as marked up Costco crap and other “necessities.” It usually takes about a week before the newbie can find Costco himself. This incarnation won’t be much different. Even if a newbie isn’t offered full support from a recruiter or buxiban upon arrival, the moment s/he meets anyone, they will have a free source for most of the stuff the proposed business would want money to provide. It’s essentially asking for money for things that are available free-- and to an extremely small market no less.[/quote]

Good points Toasty.
However, competing against something offered ‘free’ is not always a lost cause. What I see working is (and a reminder that this limited potential is just for part-time work, not a full-time gig)… where was the bottle… I mean… okay…
Chinese lessons with a practical focus plus help outside the classroom. Language exchanges don’t work. Not everyone wants to or can attend classes.

The practical focus would… damn, forgotten what I was about to say.[/quote]

Yeah, but come on, seriously, have you ever met anyone who had been here longer than 3 weeks who hadn’t figured ALL of that stuff out?

That’s what you were trying to say, yes AJ?

OK then, bottom line. How much is she wanting to charge per person. How is she going to market it? Presumably she’ll need to market overseas, else, what would be the point? How? Newspapers? Travel websites? Backpacker English teacher websites? Where? How much do those kinds of sites charge for ads?
That’s just one or two wee questions.
Maybe she just wants a blog?

Give us some info and maybe you’ll get some answers.

Oh, and by the way, I googled just ONE click on each of the questions you asked in your original post and got PAGES and PAGES of useful information. What is your friend offering that’s better than ONE SINGLE GOOGLE CLICK?
This is a question she NEEDS to ask herself before committing further.

Quite the opposite Mr yet to be suspended (aka the Chief). All these years later it’s easy for you to say that your early days here were sweet. The truth is probably something along the lines of you crying yourself to sleep for six months.

Sandman, you’re becoming obsessed with “blogs”. Some kind of code word you tricksy city slickers are using these days?

Ok, sorry for the delay in replying for some reason I didn’t get any of the messages that there was a reply to this, on top of that it has been a very busy day.

Ok. Well to clear out some misunderstandings.

  1. In direct reply to itakitez [quote=“itakitez”]if she wants to get laid[/quote]. I know not everyone on here is a decent person but this has to be the rudest shit I have heard yet. She is not a slut, she’s not lose, she isn’t looking to get laid, she isn’t looking for some old fool on his death bed to take his money. She just wanted to start a small business and do something that deals with English and this came to mind.

  2. She is not looking to hit a gold mine, it is understandable that the western population in Taiwan is less than 1 percent of the total population of the country. I have explained to her that there are only around 10,000 Americans, 2,500 Canadians and too few Brits and Aussies and other “westerner” to count.

  3. I have told her about the services that a lot of these schools offer but these were still the ones that she came up with. There are times when even I can’t find someone who can help me with things that I need to find, and I have been here 4 years and know a lot of locals, and still I can’t find someone to help me with things. And I still hate going to the hospital alone :ponder: then again that just be due to a very bad experience with the hospital system my first year here.

  4. [quote=“Toasty”] I’ve seen these kinds of business ideas many times before. Very often they take the form of longer term foreigners (out this way anyway) who target newly arrived people with such must-haves as marked up Costco crap and other “necessities.”[/quote] Like I said she wasn’t out to strike it rich, she just wanted to have a business that she can have fun in and help people. So selling over priced walmart quality Costco crap at a 20% marked up price isn’t what she was out to do. From the idea that she had it wasn’t to be selling these things to people, it would be helping people to get these things for themselves.

  5. I keep seeing blog. This isn’t exactly the area that she was thinking. There could be a blog as and added feature to lure people to her business.

Even though a lot of these things are given as services by schools and what not, and you might meet a dozen new people the first day you are here, and you gather 100 women’s/men’s numbers in the first month, and you do 1000 things that put you on the right path to a good life here. That doesn’t mean when you hit that wall of “shit I don’t know enough Chinese to be able to do this.” and you call all the people in your phone book and the one person who isn’t in class, hasn’t forgotten who you are, isn’t passed out drunk on his floor, isn’t a perverted bastard dog who thinks this is the chance to get your pants on the floor, isn’t such the person you have spent the last 3 weeks flirting with and she has finally agreed to go out with you so you don’t them to see you going to hospital from that centipede bite last night, is the one person that you don’t trust enough to help you out with going to the hospital, going out with you all day to check on the 3 apartments that you just lined up, to negotiate with the crazy old bat next door who smashed into your car with her scooter, or with the bank because some how they f^ing sent your paycheck to the wrong bank and into the wrong person’s checking account in the wrong country (this one happened to me last summer). There are 1000 reasons why a person would want an available anonymous person who is bound by law and contract to help them with something instead of trying to wrangle a competent trustworthy friend.

I am not going to say that I cried myself to sleep for a 6 months, but there were days in my first year and even the second that I wished I had never came to Taiwan. I had a lot of help from my coworkers and classmates (came as a univ. student and stayed), but none the less there were times when I wished there was someone to help me with things, because I felt that I had already burdened everyone I knew so much with getting my apt. my first scooter, setting up the bank account, getting the visa ( the school didn’t help me with this when I changed from a student visa to a working visa). So I can see how this service would be helpful to people who are thinking to come to Taiwan, new to Taiwan, and who have already been here for some time.

Quite the opposite Mr yet to be suspended (aka the Chief). All these years later it’s easy for you to say that your early days here were sweet. The truth is probably something along the lines of you crying yourself to sleep for six months.

[/quote]

Um, or not.
You got a problem here, hotshot?

[quote=“sandman”]OK then, bottom line. How much is she wanting to charge per person. How is she going to market it? Presumably she’ll need to market overseas, else, what would be the point? How? Newspapers? Travel websites? Backpacker English teacher websites? Where? How much do those kinds of sites charge for ads?
That’s just one or two wee questions.
Maybe she just wants a blog?

Give us some info and maybe you’ll get some answers.

Oh, and by the way, I googled just ONE click on each of the questions you asked in your original post and got PAGES and PAGES of useful information. What is your friend offering that’s better than ONE SINGLE GOOGLE CLICK?
This is a question she NEEDS to ask herself before committing further.[/quote]

Well considering that this is a fairly new concept to her and she is just in the stages of trying to figure out what she wants to do and what is available to do in this market, she has yet to come up with service fee. I am sure it wouldn’t be a huge amount of money, and I am sure it wouldn’t be something that is going to make a newbie go bust in the first month. I have explained to her that in the first 3-6 months of living here new teachers and new students don’t have that much money because they have to acquire so many things to be able to settle into their new lives.

What is the difference between a one stop Google search and having a real person across from you explaining how something works, or where something is, or what is the proper Taiwanese way of dealing with something.
I would say it is the same as when you call the tech support for you computer and they send you through the automated helpline and you still end up having to wait 30mins to talk to a real person about why your desktop is upside down on the upright screen ( dont take that upside down desktop seriously), or any technical issue that eventually results in you sending the computer in to be fixed, or someone coming out to help you.

Having a real person standing there helping you do something is difference between the almighty Google one click search that you then have to sift through the bullshit and rantings to get decent information from, and a real person who will walk you through something and can adapt to your changing situation.

Sorry, Chubu. I call them like I see them. I’ve been here a long time and can’t honestly see any use for what your friend is proposing. I came here with an ex and-- yes it was a little tough for a very short time. But once we found employers, everything else fell into place in a very short amount of time. My ex got housing assistance from her employer-- my employer would have put me up in a free dorm-- and we had our own place (nice one too) within a week . We got our visas and permits sorted by our jobs without any hassle at all. Cellphones came in a snap and with them numbers of bilingual staff and others who’d help us with anything. Friends, both local and foreign, seemed to materialize almost within the first few days of work and socializing. I never needed to pay for assistance with any aspect of living here. People were practically falling over themselves to help me. And things have only improved markedly for foreigners eight years on.

It’s obvious, Chubu, that you feel there is a market for your friend’s product. I don’t see it, in all honesty. Best of luck.