I have worked for 3 different public schools in Taiwan. A decade ago I got my first
teaching position in Taiwan, teaching EFL at a local public school, and I didn’t get
that contract renewed because I didn’t do all that well the first year. But on the
following year I got another chance at a different school in a different jurisdiction,
and I did a much better job there until suddenly, the school director and principal
told me that my contract will not be renewed for some stupid reason. They said that I am
a good teacher but the didn’t renew my contract for a stupid reason. So after that I left
Taiwan for good.
Fast forward to 2019, I returned to Taiwan and I was teaching in a bilingual program last
year. Although I love my job as a teacher, I didn’t like the bilingual program. I tried my
best, but I ended up not having my contract renewed last year. Then 2 weeks before I was
scheduled to go back to Canada, I finally got a job offer to teach elsewhere in Taiwan,
which is where I am now. This job is an EFL position and I am enjoying this job much
better than I did last year.
So, as you can see I never had good luck with contracts in Taiwan. Unlike Korea where I
had the chance to renew my contracts with the same employer, I never had such luck in
Taiwan. So I am really hoping that I will get a chance to renew my contract with the
same public schools where I am, or perhaps stay in the same city and shuffle schools.
This is not a good time for me to go back to Canada for good, but if I do leave Taiwan
for good again, I won’t come back.
If you google ‘international schools in Bangkok’ there will be 16 lined up at the top (not on your phone). Some of them will be very hard to get into (ISB, for example, gets a lot of diplomatic and corporate CEO children), but if you are certified in Canada and experienced overseas that is something. You’re a shoe-in for the regular Thai system or a government university, but the pay and culture are not as great.
Thailand is very much a word-of-mouth place to get a job. When a school is looking for a teacher they ask around: do you know anybody? I’m not sure where to look online for jobs these days…
Some of it is luck, some of it is the school. If you butter up to the principal and you’re white and young, you’ll probably get your contract renewed. If they find out your undergraduate is from a bible college and “accredited” by liberty university and your teaching “license” is actually a substitute teacher’s license, they might decide they don’t like you anymore, no matter what glorious things they had to say about you yesterday. (not that I know anyone that that happened to…)
But I know a lot of fully qualified people who seemed to be getting along with their school just fine and got excellent reviews by the ed bureau and then the school just didn’t want them for the next year. Some schools like to cycle through new tall noses every year. Others will try to hold on to you but it’s not like they can offer you anything better than every other public school in the country.
I knew it was a good choice to leave my last school when they only thing the principal could say to me when I said I was leaving was “你這樣對我們很麻煩". Sure, it’s a pain that I’m leaving but I haven’t signed a contract for the next year (and at that point it was mid July). They only wanted me there because I sought them out for the job in the first place. At a school where someone else will find them someone new (like the county government or a recruiter), a lot of schools happily take the opportunity to get that new someone…
Yeah, see I’m sure you’ve noticed that race really plays a role in one’s ability to get and keep a job as a foreign teacher here. I have had to tell principals and parents time and time again that the foreign teacher they had “before” was still a “real foreign teacher”, even if they weren’t white because they came from an English-speaking country. People here don’t care. Schools here really hate being “given” foreign teachers who “aren’t real foreign teachers”, which to them literally means “any race but white”. They do not care that you grew up and went to the same school as all the white people in an English speaking country. To most Taiwanese, a foreign teacher is a white person, full stop. If you’re not white, it is possible that you not getting contracts renewed when things seem to be OK might have something to do with that. But I’m not even sure that you’d be protected under the law even if you could prove that were the case.
The only thing the principal could tell me when I said I wasn’t staying was that I was being an inconvenience to them. No totally faked “thanks for your hard work” no “is there anything we could do to make you stay?” no “we’re going to miss you after three years of working here!”. Just “you leaving is inconvenient to us”.
I guess this means #StopAsianHate would not apply here in Taiwan. Just kidding.
Well, you are right on this one because most East Asian people worship white people.
They have narrowminded views about foreign teachers who are POC and part of it
is because several Han-Taiwanese people (like other northeast Asians) have views
about black people that have shaped by the negative stereotypes from the Western media
which has a very strong global market base. Also some of their stereotypes have been
shaped by racist and debunked scientific theories about the origin of man.
I just had two online interviews with 2 public school boards in Canada. The first interview I had did not seem to sound like there was a promising potential for me to get in, but the interview I had this past Tuesday evening with another school board seems more promising. But I don’t know what the outcome will be.
If one of these Canadian school boards offers me a job, and I don’t get my contract here in
Taiwan renewed, I would most definately follow the gold back to Canada. But if I get a chance to renew my contract in Taiwan, and I get an offer for an occasional teaching position in Canada, that will be a moment of making difficult decisions. Because if I get the offer for an occasional teaching position in Canada, I can be at home where my family is, but the disadvantages are: 1) expensive housing costs and 2) being an occasional teacher I will not be guaranteed an assignment to substitute teach every single day. If I choose to stay in Taiwan, I will have the full guarantee to work everyday, Monday to Friday, a cheaper life, and I can avoid moving out of my apartment. The disadvantages will be not going to see my family in Canada because of the pandemic related travel restrictions, and the bad air quality in Taiwan. So if I had the ball in my court from both employers, which would be better?
I didn’t have an interview with Ottawa-Carleton DSB. It was with another school board in the Golden Horseshoe. But whatever the situation is in Ottawa, I am pretty sure it is the same in other parts of Ontario.
Does this article suggest that I should go back to Canada if I get offered a job as an occasional teacher?
Tough for me to say, what you should do depends on many things (such as your long term life goals). However, the article does suggest that insufficient demand for teachers will not be a problem, especially if you are willing to move around within Canada (such as to a place like Ottawa where housing is much cheaper than the GTA).
Then perhaps I am better off in Taiwan if I get the chance to renew my contract, or if I get a new contract elsewhere in Taiwan. Besides, COVID-19 is too rare of a problem here in Taiwan compared to Canada.