Yeah, it all comes down to what am I getting for my money. What do I get by paying more for an experienced teacher? My answer, BASED ON EXPERIENCE, is that the school usually does not receive enough benefits from hiring an experienced teacher to justify the extra cost. A lot of times the difference in job performance between a new teacher and an experienced teacher does not justify the difference in pay.
I get a lot of “I don’t have to do what is asked because I have 1 year experience”. Or, “Somebody owes me something because I have 1 year experience”. The only problem I get from new teachers is their adjusting to life in Taiwan (but that can be nipped in the bud by careful screening of applicants).
I would hire an experienced teacher but having experience would not necessarily count in their favor.
[quote=“mod lang”]Perhaps you’ve been here too long. You’re starting to sound like a typical discriminatory buxiban owner who only looks at superficial stereotypes. Let’s see, how many times have I heard that line over the telephone, “But we’re looking for a female teacher…” And of course there’s the North American accent discrimination, and the ageism, and the “you don’t look like a real foreigner because you’re an ABC” discrimination, or even worse if you happen to a little on the too-brown side.
But thanks for confirming my suspicion that such active discrimination against long-timers exists. Perhaps I’ll do an experiment and pretend to have just arrived in Taiwan and watch the job offers roll in. [/quote]
No. The only thing I look for is can this teacher do the job. In all fairness, here is when I do discriminate:
1.) A potential teacher tells me, “I have a boyfriend back home”. She’ll be gone in a couple of months.
2.) “Can I bring my guitar to class?” Right…
3.) “I can’t work mornings, afternoons, or nights. Other times are fine.” Why don’t you work your fat arse right on out my door.
4.) “I want to use the Bible as my primary textbook. I want to save these little heathens from eternal damnation.” You ain’t working for me…Praise the Lord!
5.) “All my friends told me that I can make $1,000NT an hour starting out.” Have another hit on whatever you are smoking…
[quote=“Durins Bane”][quote=“mod lang”]Perhaps you’ve been here too long. You’re starting to sound like a typical discriminatory buxiban owner who only looks at superficial stereotypes. Let’s see, how many times have I heard that line over the telephone, “But we’re looking for a female teacher…” And of course there’s the North American accent discrimination, and the ageism, and the “you don’t look like a real foreigner because you’re an ABC” discrimination, or even worse if you happen to a little on the too-brown side.
But thanks for confirming my suspicion that such active discrimination against long-timers exists. Perhaps I’ll do an experiment and pretend to have just arrived in Taiwan and watch the job offers roll in. [/quote]
No. The only thing I look for is can this teacher do the job. In all fairness, here is when I do discriminate:
1.) A potential teacher tells me, “I have a boyfriend back home”. She’ll be gone in a couple of months.
2.) “can I bring my guitar to class?” Right…
3.) “I can’t work mornings, afternoons, or nights. Other times are fine.” Why don’t you work your fat arse right on out my door.
4.) “I want to use the Bible as my primary textbook. I want to save these little heathens from eternal damnation.” You ain’t working for me…Praise the Lord!
5.) “All my friends told me that I can make $1,000NT an hour starting out.” Have another hit on whatever you are smoking…[/quote]
what about if they tell you they learnt finnish-ungaric to understand the elvish language better and can recite the songs and poetry of middle-earth? will that help? lol
As one from “Middle Earth” I’d just like to say that elvish as a language is very difficult to learn and shows a great deal of intelligence to have a mastery of it.
I know that I am from “Middle Earth”, it’s a fact, the last airline I flew on said “Airline to Middle Earth”, so, it must be true.
Hey DB, what kind of rates could a Middle Earther get these days, bearing in mind that the middle earther does have 5 years “experience”, oooooh, that’s experience that I actually learnt something from. Not many people, in my experience, have actually learnt anything from their experience.
Would anyone give Big Fluffy Matthew a job ? He’s really nice, and he’s the third best moderator on Forumosa (after Tigerman and Durins Bane), couldn’t teach to save his life though, but he is cheap.
Well, I’m sure than Durins Bane and Bassman are reasonable, competent businessmen. I’ve never had any problems with schools run by foreigners with Western management. It is, to make a generalization, the schools run by local Taiwanese - many of whom can’t speak English and don’t seem to have much knowledge or training in the education field - where I’ve often run into problems. And the most frustrating thing about working with Taiwanese management is that you’ll never, ever get any honest feedback about anything - their style is, if there’s a problem with your teaching methods, to simply fire a teacher without any advance notice or discussion. I know that Taiwanese teachers get treated the same in this system. And that this style of non-confrontation & ignoring the problems until the very last minute is not just limited to teaching in this culture. It’s frustrating because when I’ve had bosses that have discussed any problems with me & my teaching and maybe given me some tips on how to improve - you know, do their job, management - I’ve been able to do my job as a good teacher better and not had any complaints on my side. It’s always trying to second-guess what your Taiwanese laoban is really thinking that’s stressful. And the fact that many of the qualities they look for in “good” teacher are very shallow and not really related to teaching well - you know, how they’ve got in their minds what the “ideal” foreign teacher has to look & act like.
Mod lang is getting really close to hitting the nail on the head.
Communication is the biggest problem, that is true. I have seen many good teachers become complete crap after 6 months to a year when they are subjected to the typical Taiwan management style and sadly the only thing to be done for them is to say goodbye. That’s why teachers with “experience” are not what I’d be looking for unless I could see that they hadn’t fallen into the general foreign teacher type that has about had enough with Taiwan and teaching in general.
I try to do a good job of protecting my staff from Taiwanese that have any sort of power or influence in their work situation. It’s mostly translating what people really mean, in the case of Taiwanese, and putting the foreign teachers comments into an acceptable Taiwanese package. Perhaps “protect” is not the right word but you know what I mean.
I won’t sell out to make more money nor will I lie to either side, you always get asked to, but none of that is coming from my mouth. This, in Taiwan, may cost me one day, but I’d rather keep my integrity than sell out. Now I say “if you want to say that, you say it”.
Pay rates, now that is a tough one to keep fair and reasonable, especially with all the ridiculous figures that float around the net and forumosa. Teachers automatically assume that they deserve the top end of the pay scale because someone else is getting it… right
I’ve just seen a very good example of this. He had half the class I had and twice the experience and he couldn’t handle it. It was painful to see my manager trying to work with him. It was like dealing with a prima donna. I was actually giving my boss moral support.
That being said. There is an average wage for everything in Taiwan. I’m lucky to have a decent manager who has a good grip of management philosophy. I handle my afternoon manager by staying out of her way and having a strong relationship with my co-teachers.
The worse thing I saw was a person with a teaching degree ask for her schedule to be completely mapped out for her. I was quite shocked.
Starting pay is 525, after 3 months 550, 6 months after that 575.
Completion of contract bonus 10,000NT
The school pays for ARC and physical.
25 hours of paid training (half pay). If you want to learn how to teach, this is your shot at the big time. I will teach you stuff you can’t learn in any fucking ESL workshop or class.
Teachers work from 30-38.5 hours a week. (though I have one teacher who wanted to work less and he’s about 22 hours a week).
Vacation time whenever you want how long you want…usually. I think I have had to say “Can’t do it at this time” once in the past 4 years. One teacher just came back from a 6 week vacation and stepped right back into his schedule.
Everything little thing is laid out for you. Don’t have to make lesson plans, tests, etc…I mean, you really have to be a complete idiot not to be able to do what is asked. And, you are asked to teach, not perform.
Contracts for the second year get a bit more personalized. Pay and bonus depends on performance.
[quote=“Bassman”]
Hey DB, what kind of rates could a Middle Earther get these days, bearing in mind that the middle earther does have 5 years “experience”, oooooh, that’s experience that I actually learnt something from. Not many people, in my experience, have actually learnt anything from their experience.
Greetings from Middle Earth,
Bassman[/quote]
I have a couple of teachers who post here regularly and so I really shouldn’t say. But with your experience, sparkling personalilty, and intelligence…oh…$3,000NT per hour, paid vacations, and coupons for the local rub-and-tug joints.
BFM is welcome to come and teach anytime. “Cheap” is good, but “cheap and easy” is better!
The British Council is advertising what seems to be a pretty good deal for teachers. They’re offering NT$90,000 per month for 24 hours of teaching a week, with very generous paid holidays (something like 35 days a year plus all public holidays, if I remember correctly), for people with minimal qualifications. I bet they’ve been swamped with responses to those ads!
[quote=“Durins Bane”][quote=“Bassman”]
Hey DB, what kind of rates could a Middle Earther get these days, bearing in mind that the middle earther does have 5 years “experience”, oooooh, that’s experience that I actually learnt something from. Not many people, in my experience, have actually learnt anything from their experience.
Greetings from Middle Earth,
Bassman[/quote]
I have a couple of teachers who post here regularly and so I really shouldn’t say. But with your experience, sparkling personalilty, and intelligence…oh…$3,000NT per hour, paid vacations, and coupons for the local rub-and-tug joints.
BFM is welcome to come and teach anytime. “Cheap” is good, but “cheap and easy” is better! [/quote]
I’ll take that deal any day of the week. ummmm… what’s the quality like at the rub-and-tug joint? Which girl should I ask for? Or do they just hook you up to a milking machine?
It’s not a question of whether there is a catch, it’s a question of just what and how many catches there are. If it sounds too good to be true, it more than likely is.
I don’t know whether the basic requirements of degree ± possibly CELTA (or the Trinity equivalent) though preferably DELTA, ± 3 years experience are really ‘minimal qualifications’. And I suppose it depends how many applicants there are before the ‘desirable’ factors are used to weed people out:
“Desirable
+ICI- awareness of contemporary UK: its culture and education
+ICI- examiner status for IELTS, YLE, KET, PET, BULATS
+ICI- RSA DELTA and/or a post-graduate qualification in relevant field”
I’m very happy in my current job and furthermore happy living in Taichung, but for someone who meets the requirements and wants to live in Taipei, it seems a good offer. The deadline’s the 16th January.
I do. I love working with preschoolers and elementary school students. I also like the connections I could make working for a British company since I have plans to move on to Europe to teach English. Teaching at an English-immersion kindergarten (with an American teaching philosophy) doesn’t open as many doors in Europe as teaching at at IELTS prep school based on British curriculum. I would much prefer to teach children, though. Adults are great, but kids are much more fun.
Besides, who said I was going for a job there? Hmm?
[/quote]
