International Job fair in TC soon. Could be interesting. The only school I haven’t heard of that’s going to the fair is AAIA. Anyone have intel on Asian American International Academy in Linkou? How’s life in Linkou? I’ve heard it’s developing and there are nice parts but lots of construction. How are the buses? Decent restaurants? Bars? Ups and downs to living in Linkou? How’s the air quality? Any information would be appreciated.
Straight up answer compared to Taipei it’s going to be boring for a single guy who wants to go the bars and enjoy diversity of restaurants and nightlife . To do that you really best at least be in the new Taipei city area. Linkou is a bit far out for that although you could bus it in and taxi back.
Air quality is better than Taipei, it’s probably a bit cooler in both Winter and Summer than Taipei city.
Go to Linkou and take a look around. It’s like American suburbia failed but in the form of mostly empty high rise residential buildings. There’s stuff, but it feels like a place people buy property in because it costs less than Taipei City. Not that the property is that much less expensive there…
I feel like any and everyone who lives in Linkou owns a car. Buses are much less frequent than in Taipei, though the airport line goes through there, so you can go one stop and then catch the express train into Taipei.
Everyone I know who lives in Linkou goes to Taipei (or at least Banqiao) for 99% of their living. But maybe they just have a bad attitude about Linkou and there is more to the location than an empty outlet mall. You can live in a much nicer apartment for NT20,000/month than you’d get in Taipei, so there’s that. It’s also at a slightly higher elevation, so it’s not as hot as Taipei.
My questions for those familiar with AAIA would be…
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Which department is the best organized? Which should I stay away from? At my last school, the kindergarten and junior high departments were run well and teachers were happy and stayed long term while the elementary department had huge turnover rates and miserable teachers. My current school, is the opposite. Elementary has great management while the kindy is more micromanaged and has more teacher dissatisfaction. Any tips on departments to go for or stay away from would be appreciated.
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Pay Scale. Pay scales at these schools are so wide it’s hard to get a read of what to expect. I’m currently at 99k base salary + 20k per month housing + flight stipends + one month CNY bonus. Paid only 10 months but works out to about 44,500 USD per year. Does AAIA compare or not even close? Housing? Flight? Paid 12 months?
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Location, are there nice apartment complexes within reasonable distance to the school? How was living in Linkou in general? My wife wants cleaner air and I want a bigger apartment than I can get in Taipei. Also curious about buses and public transportation.
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Overall how was your experience? Big turnover rate? Room for growth? Decent pay increases?
My friend used to work there. He left because they were very money focused and the higher ups never disciplined the students. He would send them off to detention or whatever it is called there and the administrative people would just lightly talk to the student and let them go. When he was leaving there was a shift in management that apparently was going to make it worse. He got paid very well though, I believe he taught high school.
Also isn’t this the school that got caught having a bunch of children with fake passports enrolled?
*Edit since someone removed their post I’ll provide an edit explaining
You can only do so much to get students to pay attention in class or to do their tests and homework.
You also should probably follow the disciplinary structure set by the school. I’m not saying all the students are terrible but from my understanding the main trouble kids were the ones with parents on the board or had very rich parents that the administrators didn’t want to offend since they provide a lot of money.
It definitely is, they’re not the only ones though.
I know a few people that work there and went to a conference there. They are pretty good teachers and the foreign head of the school/principal seems pretty good.
I also judged a few competitions that their kids were in. They have some pretty good high level students.
It is in the middle of nowhere, but the area it seems to be building up.
This is true with every international school in Taiwan though.
IMO this is the trade off. If you want to get paid, guy need to put up with badly behaved kinds who’s parents don’t like them to be punished. This is a wider problem in Taiwan though. If you can deal with that it’s one of the better schools; a step below TAS and TES of course… But sightly better than Kang Chao
I wanted to expand. Yes this is exactly the problem. I’ve worked at a school like this for many years.These kinds of schools have some rich kids who’s parents control management with zero support for the teacher.
These schools, especially when new, have low enrollment and high expectations from investors. This requires them to take the worst students rejected by other schools. The management wants to deal with them but are tied; the investors want their money and parents won’t accept discipline or they’ll take their money elsewhere.
These schools do have great students as well… But what often happens is that the problem kids start bringing down the school, good kids leave then all the can recruit are more problem kids.
Hopefully their enrollment is up so they can start kicking some of the problem kids out. I think AAIA has a lot of potential. A potential teacher should be prepared for this though. It’s not on par with tier one schools like KAS, TES, and TAS