Hi, I originally wrote this as a reply on a seperate thread but, realized the responses might be useful for others who are looking for work.
I’m just curious what the going rate for elementary teaching at private school bra buxiban teaching should be? I’m trying to figure out the standard rate for myself in Taiwan with my current credentials. I have an interview with a private school next week and am trying to figure out how to go about negotiating. I worked a year at cram school two years ago, one semester at public school in the us, and recently got my masters degree. Around where should I think about aiming my salary at in terms of negotiations?
For private school, they usually advertise a monthly rather than hourly rate. Would I say the rate should be 800/hr x the full day of work so (800x40)x4 for the monthly salary? That would be 128,000 a month.
Or is it (800x 20)x 4 and only expect to be paid for actual teaching hours even though it’s required to work there all day?
I wish you luck on finding anything over 100K NT$ that isn’t TAS (Taipei American School) and the other similar international schools. Maybe somewhere like Kangchiao and the the other similar schools, just maybe.
But hourly-wise at Buxibans, you can break the $100K mark, if you are on a Gold card or have open work rights, and can manage a 2-3 hours in the morning at one school, then maybe 5 in the afternoon at another if you get over $750 NT/ hour. It will take a lot of hustle though, but it is possible.
Ah ok thanks I understand. I tried applying at Kang Chiao but unfortunately they are all already hired. It seems to be pretty competitive.
I guess I should curb my expectations on salary then. Do you think 80,000 is reasonable to ask for if it’s a private school that’s not Kang Chiao? Im just not sure where to start the negotiations at. I know they said on the advertisement the starting rate is 65000 per month
80,000 is very good if you’re teaching ~20 classes/week and don’t have a lot of experience. But that 80,000/mo usually assumes you’re in the school 40 hrs/week, even if you’re not teaching.
Kang Chiao has historically had a lot of turn over. It’s possible their admin has fixed things up, but there’s no limit of people with ~1 yr. cram school experience and marriage-based ARCs who are willing to work there no matter what the problems, as pay is typically 90-100,000/mo., which is quite good for TW, even Taipei. TAS gives MUCH better packages to overseas hires than local hires (“overseas” means people who don’t already live in TW, not people who aren’t Taiwanese), but they also recruit in November - early Jan of the previous school year.
Other private schools typically post for starting at 75,000/mo, but some don’t provide housing and sometimes only reimburse up to US$1,000 total for airfare, which won’t get you one way in the post-COVID world. It’s important to look at the total package, as even the FET program gives you roughly US$6,000 more in benefits than your salary.
Likely can only pull this off with a fair amount of experience. You need a whole kit of activities, game ideas and a solid understanding of grammar and how to explain it ready to go in your mind. There’s just no prep time and likely when you get home, you’ll go straight for a shower and bed. Long term, I find it hard to believe $100K a month is sustainable at cram schools, public schools + privates or adding in 1-1s. You just get spread too thin over time.
I’m just trying to get a fair deal here not make the maximum cash possible. I want a decent salary, but I’m not aiming to max out my revenue by working to death or anything like that. I’m content working the 8 hours a day.
I realize that I would work the whole day but only get paid for the 20 hours essentially. I think it kinda sucks, but that seems to be how things work in Taiwan. I’m going to miss my current job here in America where I get paid for my lunch break and planning periods, but I’m willing to change jobs so that I can be in Taiwan.
I do hope that the labour laws change for teachers sometime in the near future for both foreigners and locals. When I worked in a buxiban, local teachers were routinely under paid and taken advantage of/abused.
Anyway, back to the salary expectations, I guess I’ll aim for 80,0000. I don’t think I should accept anything below 70,000 though since the public school positions are 69,965 for a teacher with a masters and 1 year experience. Plus you get airfare reimbursed and an extra 5,000 for housing. So if they don’t at least match this, I’ll just wait out and see when new public school positions get posted on Teach Taiwan.
I applied for both tas and european american school, I just didn’t hear anything back from them. I’ve seen Kang Chiao always hiring but I’ve applied several times at all their schools (except hsinchu) and never get contacted. This last time they finally responded to say that they already are all hired but would keep me in mind if anything new opened.
You could consider finding a job at a private uni. You likely would get paid 60k a month with only a master’s, but you’d be teaching only around 14 hours per week and perhaps have only a 3-4 day work week. Uni here is just advanced high school anyways and you can mostly leave right after class. Anyhow, you’d certainly have time to get those other gigs. Speaking from experience, you never know what can happen unless you apply…
I actually agree with you, but I am very much leaning more to the work/life balance (less work, more life) as I approach 50. However, I did exactly that schedule above for a few years, as did my wife. We both had over 5 years of experience teaching at that point though, and did indeed just come home and do nothing, aside from three nights a week at the gym (we went together and then ate dinner after, at like 9pm).
Together we were making over $200K NT a month, but we weren’t exactly “enjoying” Taiwan in that period, but we did make (and spend!) a pile of money. I just wish we had saved/invested some of that … Oh well, the follies of youth.
Yeah that’s definitely true. I’ve been wanting a job at the University or high school level. I just haven’t had much luck. It’s difficult right now since I’m in America at the moment. I’ve been looking, but I haven’t seen any postings at all for university gigs online. I have applied to several high school positions though.
I should clarify, there are plenty of university positions, but they all required PhD. Some want postdoc experience as well.
I’m also specifically looking in the Taipei/Taoyuan/new Taipei areas
I got my uni job by just writing places without knowing if they are hiring. I know people tend to think PhDs are required but you’d be surprised sometimes. You never know.
This thread has had uni jobs requiring masters only
One poster on the thread said that getting a uni job in Taiwan is the ‘holy grail’, and although clearly not everyone is interested in the work/responsibility vs. pay/advantages, it seems enough people are that it helps to have some connections or a shiny CV, so high school may be the safer bet (especially if you have a teaching license).
My uni job only required a masters in the advertisement, but I think having the doctorate almost finished helped set me apart from other applicants. That said, my plan before getting this job was basically @oneofdaroughs’ suggestion; I was looking for buxiban jobs in order to get to Taiwan, and expected to spend a year going door-to-door with a nice tie and a stack of CVs until some university offered me a job.
Just so you know there are other recruiters for public school besides Teach Taiwan. Teach Taiwan is for most places outside of New Taipei City and I believe Taipei as well. For New Taipei City elementary schools it’s Ren He. I’m not sure what Taipei uses. I’ve never seen a job posting for one of their schools. Check on some of the Facebook groups for the most update to date postings.
Thanks for this. Teach Taiwan keeps telling me they also recruit for new Taipei but maybe the contracts change every year? In any event, I’ve sent another email to ren he. I’d be open to Taoyuan as well which I know teach Taiwan recruits for. I have no idea who recruits for Taipei either unfortunately
I’ll probably have to wait until after I get into taiwan to look for a uni gig now. I’m trying to relocate to Taiwan by july 1 if possible. My lease is up at that time so it’ll be a big pain if I don’t have a way in by then. I know the paperwork can take a little time too
They might do the English Wonderland Programs. I think there are only 3 schools that still have them. From my understanding, it’s like a camp where a school will send their students for a couple of days to learn English from foreigners. They have dorms and everything too.
You are right, recruiters can change. I believe it is almost time for the new bidding to take place. With the new FET program now including Taipei and New Taipei, that could change.
I think you can start some of the paperwork now even without a contract as most documents are good for 3 months. Background check from your home country, FBI if America, and a health check.
I don’t recommend English Wonderland/Village. It’s a nightmare. You get a bunch of kids with little to no English proficiency who don’t want to learn English either. Then you’re supposed to teach them practical spoken language skills, but they are assessed only using a written test. Rule number 1 of curriculum planning: assess what you teach, in this case spoken language. Another fail by the TW government. The few kids that do know enough English to communicate will find your lessons boring and the rest can’t understand “hi, what’s your name?” so good luck teaching them how to communicate on anything else.
