Kang Chiao is a fake international school. It’s a buxiban with a few bells and whistles.
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I realize it’s not a KAS/TAS/TES type of school but I’m assuming it’s a big step up from where I’m at now teaching in a public school.
I could be wrong though, although, the salary and benefits are a huge step up.
Have you worked there and have some insight on this to offer?
Seems like you have a lot of good information on the school.
How long did you work there and at which branch? Do you have any insight into the working conditions, environment, etc.?
Thanks
I don’t have any inside info, it’s just that it’s kinda common sense that local international schools are no good. 
No good compared to … what?
Are you saying it’s no good compared to a local public school or standard buxiban even?
If that’s the case you’re trying to make I’m intrigued to know why, although I have a hard time believing it’s actually worse than a buxiban.
I never worked there. I’m going off of what friends/people I’ve known have told me. And also just seething because they truly do make the worst textbooks I’ve ever seen children forced to use.
A lot of the people I know who have worked there were in the public schools, thought Kang Chiao’s pay was so much better, left the public school to work there, and were right back in the FET program the following year with few nice things to say about Kang Chiao. You can poke around the internet; there’s plenty of reviews from employees of the other campuses with many more counter-reviews because apparently there was someone in the school whose job it was to make sure that the internet was full of only nice things. I also know a number of people of color (Indian) who were offered very tiny salaries (~60k/mo) compared to their white counterparts(100k/mo). Same qualifications. Typical for TW, but that doesn’t make it OK
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I thought 60k was only for local teachers. So this is not just low self esteem but like actual racism… wtf
A friend’s friend used to work there. But I don’t know about the details. I heard that they pay good money even to locals so I poked around. But 60k isn’t that much. You could easily make more money from bushiban. And less duty. Most bushiban wouldn’t ask their money maker teachers to do the chores.
For local people, those “fake” international school is just a place to show off your income and nothing else. We know that the students there aren’t fluent in English. Parents spend lots of money just so their kids could go to an international school and not learn English. The irony.
Plus those schools are quite Taiwanese with their teaching style. Basically the culture is still Taiwanese. 薇閣… oops I just realized that it’s a bilingual school not an international school lol. They would force their student lovers to break up. Or not allowing students to dye there hair. Stuff like that. I doubt an actual American family could stand that.
Local (elite) public schools like 北一女 建中 (G10-12) provides better education, and their students are more fluent in English. For those who don’t reach the requirements for the elite schools, parents that actually has an influence find ways to get their kids in TAS TES or KAS, the real deal. I’ve heard people form TAS complaining about how it’s not “American” or “international” anymore lol.
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Reviving this old thread. Does anyone have any reviews about the kindergarten at the Hsinchu campus (as a place to work)?
I’ve been subbing there lately and it actually seems like a great place to work. I’m pretty sure they are about to make a full-time offer and it pays much more than what I currently get.
However, I’m only subbing and have only really spoken to one other foreign teacher whose been there a few years. She seems pretty real and has let me know the ups and downs. The down’s don’t seem much different to other workplaces.
I was offered to join the Kris Kringle with the foreign teachers so I met them only briefly which I thought was nice.
No red flags so far but I just wanna be careful. The last job I took due to salary only lasted 3 days. They were all nice to me when they were trying to get me to sign the contract and turned quickly on my first day.
Thanks for any insights
Hi, curious if you pursued taking on the kindergarten position at Kang Chiao. I’m currently looking into teaching positions at Kang Chiao at a different campus. Wondering how the Kang Chiao working environment is like, and management’s (respectful) attitude towards teacher’s work hour boundaries?
Thank you!
Advice: don’t work for Kang Chiao. Full stop. Kindy you can’t work at at all, legally. But they’re a moral-less private school for rich Taiwanese people that get their money from the fact that Kang Xuan is one of three textbook publishers that MOE schools are required to choose from (and purchase books from twice a year, for all students, every year). Yet Kangchaio the school uses textbooks from the US. To even entertain the idea of working there indicates very low standards for oneself.
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The Linkou campus is incredible. They’ve certainly splashed out on facilities. I’ve no idea about the teaching or management.
This kind of applies to TAS too. Majority of kids there are not the children of expats.
Sure, all international schools in TW are. But when they’re for-profit and basically get their money from the government forcing all the other schools to use their textbooks (while they use textbooks from other publishers!), there’s still a serious moral issue with supporting such schools in any way. (Admittedly, most of the other “international” schools are founded on KMT dark money, so I guess you can’t really win here…)
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If you exclude all that stuff, you might end up having a hard time!
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The oddest experience for me in Taiwan so far.
I hear the money is good.
Really? They offered me 90k/month. That’s not terrible at a school that tries to keep its tuition prices reasonable, but given it’s a school that charges a bazillion dollars a semester but can fund itself completely off the profits it gets from the public schools being forced to buy their books, they could probably pay their teachers 3-5 times more than that and still be a very profitable school.
Edit: Linkou offered me that, not Hsinchu
Was there a housing allowance?
That, I don’t remember. Probably. I was offered the job at peak “Kangchaio horror stories abound!” time on the internet and also developed a conscience (but not enough of one to ignore a few immoral other schools, convinced that was what I needed for my career…). Ok, add a housing allowance and I suppose it’s a decent gig, assuming you want to live in Linkou/Hsinchu/commute high into the mtns near Xindian
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Long story short their attitude (not only theirs to be fair but the general attitude of all employers) was the last straw that pushed me to leave Taiwan.
I’m tired of having to fight for my rights and to be upheld and forcing people to let me give them my business. Tired of landlords who think they’re gods. Tired of people being totally inept at their jobs.
Long story long
I had a meeting to sign the contract, the person who I was supposed to see (and whose signature was required) just looked at me through a window and otherwise ignored me for an hour and a half. No apology. No hello. No ‘i forgot’. Just blatantly ignored. They handed me a contract with about 10 illegal conditions which I called them out on and the response was ‘we only make all the foreigners sign off on these conditions’. I messaged her telling her how unprofessional she is etc etc. she said she would reschedule. Didn’t hear from her after that but I got an email from her assistant about 2 weeks later.
This woman walks around like a queen too
Had a job interview with an Australian company a few days later for twice the money, 4 days a week, work from home, 5 weeks paid annual leave (paid at 17.5% above my base rate salary too) . They gave me an offer with a delayed start date to help give me time to move which was really nice of them. Something no one in Taiwan would do.
Screw Taiwan. I’m taking myself and a Taiwanese born citizen back to Australia. No wonder they have a net population loss due to immigration.
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