Kaohsiung Dominican School (高雄道明外僑學校) Evil Across The Street

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“housecat”]Indiana, I still have no idea what’s next for me. There is very little on offer out there at the moment unless you are willing to work kindy–they’re begging for kindy teachers! But the moment I did that, someone from DKS would find out and report me. Anyway, when you’re a parent you just can’t take the same risks that you might if you were single. I really may not be able to make things work out on this island. It is NOT the same place I left five years ago.
[/quote]

This is my concern for you. The environment in Taiwan in terms of foreigners not married to Chinese has gotten much more difficult over the past few years. As much as I love Taiwan, I don’t think I could realistically move back at this point and be able to do any sort of work even vaguely related to something I care about. I certainly would find it very difficult to obtain the sort of semi-open but open enough for what I wanted to do work rights that I enjoyed when I left. Seems like in the usual “chabuduo” manner, the government is stacking the deck so that only pliable recent grads can manage to stay in Taiwan for a year or two and then leave to be replaced by other pliable recent grads, since the only other alternative to have any sort of security (?) would be to marry a Taiwanese national. And that is only trading the goodwill of a boss for the goodwill of an individual man. At least the boss’ motives are more transparent: if you make money for his organization, he’ll probably keep you. Probably. :aiyo:

If you’re willing to “take one for the team” (meaning your son, at this point) I’d advise moving back to the States, choosing a state that doesn’t have banjo music as its gubernatorial anthem, finishing up a quick additional certification/endorsement in Special Ed, and choosing your job. English is not a good field at the moment in public schools but folks with SpecEd can almost write their own tickets. You would also be free in the States to start up your own tutoring service or whatever without fear of being turned in by someone.

At the end of the day, “work rights” are pretty valuable. Sadly, I don’t see you in a situation in Taiwan that would make me feel secure even for the short-term, given your responsibilities. And I don’t see you doing something that lets you develop your talents further, either. If you had a deep support network in Taiwan, it might be valuable to stay, but the ex’s family doesn’t sound as though they are worth much in that regard.

(BTW, upstate NY is actually nice a few months out of the year…think about coming up this way. We’ll get you set up.)[/quote]
That’s pretty grim, seeing as she basically just got back here. However, I have to say I mostly agree with your assessment. One the other hand, she can get a JFRV via the youngster, and from what I understand (HC, correct me if I’m wrong) she’s busy with this atm. If that comes through sooner rather than later, it may be a good option to stay for a while. If not, I’d agree that for her and the boy it may be better to go back Stateside.

All in all, not a pleasant situation. The whole thing pisses me off, especially as the school in question is supposedly Christian.

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[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“housecat”]Indiana, I still have no idea what’s next for me. There is very little on offer out there at the moment unless you are willing to work kindy–they’re begging for kindy teachers! But the moment I did that, someone from DKS would find out and report me. Anyway, when you’re a parent you just can’t take the same risks that you might if you were single. I really may not be able to make things work out on this island. It is NOT the same place I left five years ago.
[/quote]

This is my concern for you. The environment in Taiwan in terms of foreigners not married to Chinese has gotten much more difficult over the past few years. As much as I love Taiwan, I don’t think I could realistically move back at this point and be able to do any sort of work even vaguely related to something I care about. I certainly would find it very difficult to obtain the sort of semi-open but open enough for what I wanted to do work rights that I enjoyed when I left. Seems like in the usual “chabuduo” manner, the government is stacking the deck so that only pliable recent grads can manage to stay in Taiwan for a year or two and then leave to be replaced by other pliable recent grads, since the only other alternative to have any sort of security (?) would be to marry a Taiwanese national. And that is only trading the goodwill of a boss for the goodwill of an individual man. At least the boss’ motives are more transparent: if you make money for his organization, he’ll probably keep you. Probably. :aiyo:

If you’re willing to “take one for the team” (meaning your son, at this point) I’d advise moving back to the States, choosing a state that doesn’t have banjo music as its gubernatorial anthem, finishing up a quick additional certification/endorsement in Special Ed, and choosing your job. English is not a good field at the moment in public schools but folks with SpecEd can almost write their own tickets. You would also be free in the States to start up your own tutoring service or whatever without fear of being turned in by someone.

At the end of the day, “work rights” are pretty valuable. Sadly, I don’t see you in a situation in Taiwan that would make me feel secure even for the short-term, given your responsibilities. And I don’t see you doing something that lets you develop your talents further, either. If you had a deep support network in Taiwan, it might be valuable to stay, but the ex’s family doesn’t sound as though they are worth much in that regard.

(BTW, upstate NY is actually nice a few months out of the year…think about coming up this way. We’ll get you set up.)[/quote]
I have to admit, I agree with much of what Ironlady’s said here even though I don’t know the situation in Taiwan all that well.

I would be happy to help you in Seattle if you chose to come here. I have little kids and friends who have done special education teaching. It’s nowhere near as warm as Taiwan, but I’ve lived here for 12 years and love it.

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The SE angle sounds hopeful.
Also, some of the Unis in Taichung are starting to offer degree programs in SE (my youngest stepdaughter is in her junior year in one), you mought could wrangle up a Uni position. Taichung ain’t the worst place in the world to live.

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Thank you, Ironlady, Dia Fun, and others. Thank you for your concerns and your thoughts and well wishes–and offers of supportive help.

But have you considered the enormity of what you’re saying? I honestly believed that moving back here was the best thing I could do for my son and I at the time because I have friends here, a supportive and involved church here, and I thought I might have some family here. It also IS important to me that my son learn Mandarin and understand the local culture. Its part of who he is—because it’s a part of who I am, too.

But one of the reasons I chose to come here was because I needed a break. I’d been so full on, for so many years in the States. There was ONE time, ever, when my son stayed with someone else and I wasn’t in class. The only time he ever stayed with someone else, I was in class, or at work. That’s it. No one said, “Hey, I bet you could use a night out.” It was always, “You have some pretty serious responsibilities to take care of. I don’t envy you one bit.”

That was my FRIENDS, people!

And that year last, with the behavior kids and their abject need just about killed me. I can’t do that and stay sane. I had a real heart for working with Special Ed. I truly wanted to be in the SPED classroom and wanted to try to make a real difference in someone’s life. But I just got my heart stomped on time and again and had NO admin. support.

But my Taiwanese “family” made sure I didn’t get a break. I’m still tired. I’m still very weary. I don’t WANT to move back. But I have been thinking about it. This isn’t the same Taiwan I left. The opportunities aren’t the same.

Plus, I have nothing to move back with. I haven’t worked in a month and I had just set up household again and been paying school fees for the Kitten. There’s not nearly enough left to move to the other side of the globe.

I know that not all schools will be like the one I left. The CAN’T all be like that. I know that not all SPED classrooms will be the same. And I know that there should be opportunities for SPED teachers here. There has to be a pretty high demand here, I would think, if the schools are going to start trying to work with these kids. But in fact, when the mother of one ASD child came to my school, they talked me up as an experienced SPED teacher, put the child in my class, an then blamed ME when all the other parents and students threw a fit because they had “the machine girl” in class with them. This is still Taiwan, after all. These rich parents didn’t pay for their kids to sit in class with a “retarded girl.”

And SPED cert isn’t quick; it’s almost a second Master’s program. At least, that’s true in AR. Which would be fine, too, if I had the support to continue to go to school and mother my son, and work. But it was tough enough to do that as young as he was. He’s growing, and maturing, and it would be even harder now.

There are no easy answers. I’m a single mom with no familial support base. I’ve got to be able to do three things at once, all the time, with no rest, and that’s that. Well, I’m a single mom who CARES, I should say. There are plenty of single moms out there who don’t seem to care much, but I’m not, and could not be, that way.

I have been thinking of looking elsewhere. Maybe even going back to the states (and six months ago I would have SWORN I’d never do it!), but I don’t know anyone outside of AR—just met Ironlady, of course. Is a teacher’s salary in NY or WA a livable income? Teaching is great when you have kids, but it’s more than full time and doesn’t leave a lot of room for moonlighting. I can only have one reliable income.

Anyway, just thinking out loud on the flob, I guess.

Oh, and looks like maybe it wasn’t just threats about not finding a job near here. I’m starting to get rejected outright by small school around here with no explanation. Before they were all hasty to get me to come in and ask me to teach kindy, now they are polite, but not interested in the least.

If I do have to move again, I sure hope someone Googles this thread before taking a job with these people.

@Bismark, I thought they were supposed to be Christian too, but have since decided that there is no reason to link Christianity and Catholicism. One has nothing to do with the other.

Chief, tell me more about this. I just applied for a uni job in Taichung yesterday.

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housecat: Does it have to be a binary choice though? Why not a third country? Perhaps another country in this region, or if not that, there are other regions of the world that have completely different attitudes towards employment and/or different income levels, standards of living and so on. Think Persian Gulf, Europe or Latin America.

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The problem with the Persian Gulf region is that I must have “permission” to travel alone there with my son. “Permission” from his father.

Europe is tough with an American passport, and cost of living is high.

I ALMOST went to Mexico instead of comming here, but everyone I knew in the real world had such a *conniption fit that I gave up the idea. I realize that there’s more than just Mexico, but it’s all the same to the “others.”

Actually, I was thinking of HK for next year, too. I’ve wanted to move to HK for a really long time. I’ve had plans and cancled many times. But I haven’t even visited since I’ve been a mom and everyone I know who lives there now seems to hate it. I guess I may get to check it out sooner than I had imagined now, heh.

*“Conniption Fit” is a southern expression for an expressive outburst of oppositional thinking!

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housecat: I just think you need to really assess what you need/want, especially in light of your son, and where you are likely to achieve that.

It seems like job security is high on your list. Perhaps not earning as much (but still enough to save something) is better than either not having a job or constantly living in fear of losing your job. It just doesn’t seem to me like Taiwan is particularly conducive to that for you as the labour laws here are so poorly enforced and work practices are more often than not very exploitative. To me, it just doesn’t seem like the odds of getting a good job here are good enough, and it also doesn’t seem like the payout (the income) is sufficiently high enough to warrant that kind of risk.

Hong Kong does seem like it could be an option, but how secure are the jobs? Is there a similar culture of work and employer-employee relations? I should imagine there might be.

As for the Persian Gulf, maybe going a little bit farther afield to somewhat more liberal nations in the region might be the answer. I really don’t know, but how about Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or even Turkey? I’m sure they don’t pay nearly as well, but maybe they could be better than Taiwan? Maybe not.

Likewise, in terms of Europe, it’s a big place with many countries. It is expensive to live there, and maybe you wouldn’t earn much, but maybe you could still save a little AND be secure and be treated like a human being. It might be hard to get a job in a country in Western Europe, but think of countries in Eastern Europe. I was there six years ago and there was plenty of work for English teachers in Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (if not other places also) and it seemed more humane than here.

Latin America is a big and diverse place, and you could also think of some places in the Caribbean. Again, you might not do much better than living well compared to the average person, but somewhere like Argentina might be an option.

I don’t know if anywhere else would necessarily better (surely somewhere would be though), but it just seems to me like Taiwan is a really tough environment for anyone, but doubly so for a single mother. You could also think about where might be a place to get your foot on the ladder and use it to eventually end up somewhere better. There barely seems like any kind of ladder to get a foot on here, and even the normally reliable route of international schools seems like it’s pretty dodgy here. The “others” of whom you speak may not understand or accept your choices, but unless they’re going to provide you with viable alternatives, then their complaints or warnings may not be of much use to you.

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Guy, you make a lot of good points. Acutally, when I came here I was planning on getting the JFRV through my son. As it turns out, that’s taking a very, very long time. I just ran into another snag. My son’s family blocked me getting this before I left the states (as his great uncle is in a position to grant such a visa, but rufused), and it simply is going to, perhaps, take more time than I thought it would to work it out from this end.

Without that status, yes, this is much less than ideal.

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Housecat, please check your PMs…

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[quote=“RobinTaiwan”]Well executed, hc. :thumbsup:

[quote]Nonetheless, your contract or any waiver cannot take away the basic protections you have under the law:
[/quote]

It’s a fixed term contract. We were both wrong. :blush:[/quote]

I’m not sure that is correct. If a fixed-term contract fully performed through its expiry, then the employee cannot claim severance or pay in lieu of notice can be claimed:

[quote]

Article 18
In either of the following situations, a worker shall not claim from the employer either additional wages for the advance notice period or severance payment:

  1. A labor contract is terminated pursuant to Article 12 or 15.
  2. Where the worker terminates his service upon expiration of a fixed-term contract.
    [my emphasis][/quote]

Housecat is a foreigner. Thus in most cases she would have signed a one year contract. She had worked for only three months. Although her contract may have been fixed-term, she could still have claimed severance and pay in lieu of advance notice if she was terminated nine months before the contract expired.

This is also not completely true. If a contract is signed under duress (xiépò), the contract is void. It can be tough to prove duress but their treatment of House Kitten could be a problem for them especially in front of a sympathetic judge.

[quote]
An expression of intent which is procured by fraud or by duress may be revoked by the expresser. If the fraud was done by a third party, the expression may be revoked only under the circumstances that the other party knew, or might know the affairs.[/quote]

Be that as it may, I think HC took this as far as she should and had bad luck with her labor board. The labor board in Taipei can be much more sympathetic (although not always). It probably deals with a lot more white collar foreigners though.

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I agree with Tomas that you should stick it out for a while. Things have a way of working out in Taiwan. Almost everyone I know leaves jobs for better jobs most of the time even if it didn’t look that way at first.

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I agree that you should stick it out.

Have you ever read “The Alchemist”? It’s a short novel by a Spanish writer about how everybody has their own ‘Personal Legend’ to fulfill.

A paraphrased quote:

“When you want something, and it is part of your Personal Legend, the whole universe conspires to make it happen. But the closer you get to it the more the universe conspires to test you to make sure it’s what you really want.”

Maybe you’re on the right path and you’re just going through the final tests. The people you know here ARE all willing to help you out, so let us know if you need it! I’m sure you’ll find a good job that’s right for you, but you might have to do a cram school or something while you look out for it.

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[quote=“Feiren”]
I’m not sure that is correct. If a fixed-term contract fully performed through its expiry, then the employee cannot claim severance or pay in lieu of notice[/quote]The employee and the employer agreed to change the term of the contract.

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HC-

FWIW, in New York it’s not too hard to get SPEC into your toolkit as a supplemental area, since you are already certified in another area:

Existing Valid Base NYSED Certification (you would have this through reciprocity)
College Coursework - Teaching Learners with Severe and Multiple Disabilities - 9 S.H. (which is 3 courses, and these include courses you’ve already taken if any)
Workshop - Child Abuse Identification
Workshop - School Violence Intervention and Prevention
Workshop - Autism
Fingerprint Clearance
(The workshops are done online and, like the fingerprint clearance, mostly a matter of having the check clear.) :unamused:

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Housecat, you have a Masters, how about community college teaching jobs in the US? I’ve seen a number of them advertised that pay from about $50,000 to $80,000 / year.

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Several Forumosans have contacted me privately to say that much the same has happened to them in the last year or so. Go to the labor guys to ask questions and they call the boss and get you fired.

Also, I’ve now heard of several foreigners who have suddenly been denied work rights because they don’t have proper credentials–even though some of them have used these same creds for some fifteen years now. I know we’ve all heard of these type stories before, but it seems like this is some sort of official policy now as these things keep happening a LOT lately. It can’t all be coincidence.

I have another interview tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck.

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[quote=“housecat”]Several Forumosans have contacted me privately to say that much the same has happened to them in the last year or so. Go to the labor guys to ask questions and they call the boss and get you fired.

Also, I’ve now heard of several foreigners who have suddenly been denied work rights because they don’t have proper credentials–even though some of them have used these same creds for some fifteen years now. I know we’ve all heard of these type stories before, but it seems like this is some sort of official policy now as these things keep happening a LOT lately. It can’t all be coincidence.

I have another interview tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck.[/quote]

That’s very interesting. Why would the government be trying to get people fired?

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Yes, that’s VERY interesting!!

I still want to know why you need to tell the labour board ANYTHING just to ask questions though. They don’t even need to know your name as far as getting answers is concerned. Asking you to provide your name, workplace and position is like me requiring your SSN, Credit Card and Mother’s Maiden Name before accepting a friend request on FB - it’s vital information that’s completely unnecessary for me to know, but in my position I can do a whole lot of bad with it.

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tsukinodeynatsu: Precisely. It seems a heightened sense of paranoia is in order in the future. Still, what a sad state of affairs that you can’t trust the people who are supposedly there to help you.

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I think it’s paranoia to imagine the govt has a policy to try to get you fired.
There are inept people at work… a lot of them.

Woohoo, here’s a foreigner and they want ME to do something. Whooopee… look at me, I’m doing something! I’m IMPORTANT!!! The more noise, the more fuss, the more people I can involve in this issue, the more important I must be!! :sunglasses: