Jobs for Taiwanese students with a degree in English teachin

My question is: what are the future options for Taiwanese students who graduate from a local university with a degree in English teaching?
First a little background: I teach in a four year public (as in governmental) teaching university in the English education department. The standard future for my students is to teach English at the elementary school level in Taiwan. Currently, they are organizing a seminar to talk about what they can do after graduating other than teach public school. We’ve got plenty of local experts on the local education market floating around anyway, the problem is: what else can they do?
The things that jumped to my mind were:
Publishing/writing – educational materials in English or perhaps doing writing for companies
Translating
Cram schools – what kinds of jobs are available for locals with pretty good English? I know the regular Chinese assistant gigs are pretty dicey, and many of my students do that already as a part time job.
Graduate study
Surely there are more.
Personally, I don’t feel qualified to talk much about the Taiwanese labor market, I plan to stick to the theme of “you can do anything; you’re not restricted to a life or jobs related to your major.”

I would appreciate any ideas that you may have
And if anyone wants to participate in the seminar, that would be great too :laughing:

Acquire a skill other than English, like law, marketing, or engineering. Then your English will be a real asset.

-Milton, Of Education

Seconded. Speaking a language is not that useful unless you can do something useful as well.

Language learning is fun but kind of pointless because there are always other people who grew up with that language and are therefore better than you. For example, I speak Thai fairly well these days but the amount of time that has gone into it is INSANE. My cousins and other relatives are much better than me. because they grew up with both languages.

There are tons of people in Taiwan who are really good at Chinese and English so unless you have a ‘special angle’, why would an employer choose you? I think, as beautifulspam said, you have to learn a skill. Telecommunications are easier and cheaper than ever before, people travel more; speaking another language, especially a majority language like English is not a niche skill anymore. It’s a standard. Law, marketing, etc…

Writing is possible but there will always be native English speakers in Taiwan and overseas who can do it better so it probably wouldn’t pay much.

Developing materials may be useful but you have to find a way to sell and market them that is lucrative. There are lots of other threads on this. But bear in mind that as a non-native speaking recent graduate, there aren’t many opportunities. You’d be in the queue behind native English speakers with a lot of teaching experience. It’s impossible to write effective teaching materials without considerable teaching practice experience.

Teaching in cram schools is possible. I don’t know how it works for Taiwanese people but there is no long term security in this for foreigners unless you figure out how to open your own. Others could help you with this more; there are cram school owners on this site.

The biggest advice from this (foreign language speaking) broke 32 year old with no skills is GO BACK TO SCHOOL WHILE YOUR PARENTS WILL STILL PAY FOR IT! :slight_smile:

I agree with that. There are a number of MNCs in Taiwan who are looking for people with a minimum of English proficiency. That’s just to enter the door. Then on top of that, you have your other (business/technical) skills that can help the company. These companies also offer opportunities for training etc.

I suggest working with the various Chambers of Commerce to see if there’s a way for them to organize some workshop with their membership and these students.

Language skills is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

EDIT:
As an example of putting money where my mouth is, we have a number of employees who start of in support staff positions and then work themselves up through the ranks due to their English ability and general smarts (still need to have that). Many have had overseas schooling (North America, Australia, UK) but I don’t think that plays a huge role in their ability to perform well and advance in the company. My dept admin is a TESOL/EFL/TEFL degree holder + Mass Communications and in less than 6 month has used this opportunity as a jumping point to bigger and better things. I think less than a year’s time, she’ll be moving out of her current low-level support role via promotion. Bottom line, if you have language skills + strong ability to get things done then one’s career prospects are never dull.

Well, considering the glut of people with this degree, I’d say their chances of getting a good position based solely on graduating with a degree in teaching English are somewhat less than a person from the US who graduated with a degree in, say, Spanish teaching, French teaching or Chinese teaching.

If they don’t secure a position in the education industry they’ll find it difficult to get a job.

Getting a master’s degree or additional training in another field would be the best bet. They could specialize in translation, interpreting, sales and marketing, the service industry, or something that they already have a specialized talent.

They can also get into any company that has entry level positions and their skill in English will help the climb the ladder faster than others.

The message they should come away with: If they don’t get a position to teach in public schools they should have a backup plan.

The big difference between your students and ‘people with other skills as well’ is that they can reasonably be expected to have some genuine interest in the language.

Most of my students are good at what they do, and are learning English purely because it’s a means to an end. It’s just a tool, and they tend to stay within their comfort zones. They persist in the bad habits they learned as part of their test-focused education and rarely achieve real competence in English.

Somebody who has reached the proficiency required to teach English gets a lot of respect from me. I’ve met a lot of extremely competent English teachers from/in Taiwan. And let’s not forget they’re also qualified to teach, which means they have presentation skills, some grasp of psychology, and are trained to lead and motivate. They are also, for the most part, naturally enthusiastic people with an interest in learning who are interested in people.

These qualities may be useful in any job which requires interaction with foreigners, particularly in any kind of sales or customer servce role. It’s a mistake to believe that people buy products from engineers - even at a B2B level. They buy from likeable knowledgeable people who enthuse about their products and care about their customers. The product can be English language, or it can be widgets from Shanghai. The principle is the same.

By the way, I need a local teacher for a company class. Any one evening a week, two hours.

One of my biggest problems is to find people who can speak good English (and Chinese of course). I sure would not mind throwing our company name in the pot as a potential career path. We do customer service and our people need to help foreigners (and locals) via phone, fax, email and web chat.

If you would like someone from the employer side to talk to your students, let me know.

Our company website is: http://www.enspyre.com.

Take care,
Elias

Give speeches at this:[url=http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=56664]

Englisg Carnival!
[/url]

[quote=“gangster recycler”]Give speeches at this:[url=http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=56664]

Englisg Carnival!
[/url][/quote]

Erm, it finished weeks ago. There was a thread. Try and be productive.

[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“gangster recycler”]Give speeches at this:[url=http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=56664]

Englisg Carnival!
[/url][/quote]

Erm, it finished weeks ago. There was a thread. Try and be productive.[/quote]

Damn…that’s cold

[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“gangster recycler”]Give speeches at this:[url=http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=56664]

Englisg Carnival!
[/url][/quote]Erm, it finished weeks ago. There was a thread. Try and be productive.[/quote]
There’s always next year.