Another helpful tip would be for one to take a look around and see if one is in Taiwan. If it turns out that one is in Taiwan, I think that might be one of them telltale signs.
A few blasts from the past:
[quote]I was working at a kindergarten with 400 kids some time back and the school was raided by the FAP and MOE.
The full-time South African teacher who taught the full-time English classes was hiding up on the rooftop. He only had a visitor visa to be in Taiwan. Turns out a competitor school complained about the illegal teachers at our school. [/quote]
[quote]It’s 1:30am and after interrogating us, making us wait, and feeding us supper(BK), we write up a statement with the police and are asked to sign the document in Chinese.
For all those people who said, “You shouldn’t have signed!”, I know that I shouldn’t have, but after 8 hours in there with pressure from your boss and the police saying that it’s okay, don’t worry, why don’t you trust us, and them threatening to re-interrogate me and/or deporting me that night, you’d crack too. They also said that at this point, the boss has to pay the fine and that’s it.
So I signed.
Fast forward to November 2nd, I get THE LETTER. [/quote]
[quote]Just five days into my “training” I was told that one of the preschools needed a teacher immediately. When I asked if the fact that my work permit had not been processed yet was a problem, I was assured it wasn’t. I was placed at the preschool in Shilin.
I started teaching on August 27th and the first day of the new semester was September 1st. On that day I was in the middle of teaching the alphabet when a fellow foreign teacher rushed into my classroom telling me to run. I was confused and stood like a deer in headlights. Obviously my reaction was very delayed. He quickly pulled me out of my room. The following happened all at once. I saw some teachers running out the back door. There were several men tramping up the stairs. There were flashes of light as our picture was taken. I could hear them saying, “Stop teacher!” Those of us that did not escape were escorted downstairs. The director and I exchanged glances and I searched her face for an answer to what was going on. The men were foreign affairs police and they had accompanied officials from the government who were conducting raids on schools. We were taken out of the preschool to the police station and asked to make a statement. The reality is that on October 1, 2003 the Ministry of Education declared it illegal for foreigners to teach English in preschools (ages 3-6).
The following day the owner of Kojen, Mr. Hou, and his son, Jason, came to the school. * * * We were assured that nothing could happen to us personally. The truth was that nothing could happen to the teachers whose work permits were valid and processed. * * * However, having no work permit at all, I alone was in danger of being deported. After the incident, Mr. Hou patted me on the back for being “so smart and saying all the right things.” I was told that my work permit would be in my hand soon and that there was nothing to worry about. Soon after that a more secure door was installed at the school with an alarm to warn us when to run. These raids happened a few other times in the following months.
One afternoon in December I was called into the head office. I sat down at a table with my director, Mr. Hou, his son, and some other administrative people. They told me that they had talked to their lawyers and it was no longer safe for me to stay in Shilin. Apparently they thought the government would come back looking for me in particular. I was to be removed in two weeks. [/quote]
[quote]A brief overview on what happened to my friend:
He is working entirely legally at a buxiban. He did a friend a favor and substituted a class a couple of months ago. The police came. They acted extremely friendly and simply asked him to sign a few documents in Chinese. They said everything would be ok. The police and owner of the school also asked him to please write a statement in English saying he was substituting classes. He, quite innocently, did as he was told.
Everyone said it was ok and nothing would happen. Two months later, he receives a letter saying he needs to leave the country in 14 days. [/quote]
[quote]We’d known for quite some time that the local foreign affairs police were beginning to crack down on illegal foreign teachers. Back then, in 1991, that was about the only kind there were. I was unique in the area because I was actually applying for a work permit. But when Fabulous Freddy, the underling foreign affairs officer, deported his first victim after taking her out for dinner the night before, I stopped teaching immediately and told the boss I wouldn’t start until I was officially legal.
After 3 days of losing money, the owner of the school had a chat with the head of the local police department and worked out a deal that allowed me to teach until I got my work permit sorted out. So when I walked into the classroom I was more at ease than I had been for some time. Apparently the laoban hadn’t spoken to the right people.
The police didn’t use lights or sirens when they raided us, slipping through the reception staff with barely enough shouting to tip me off that something was amiss. Panicked, I decided to try to make a break for it, slipping out the door in front of a classroom full of students and hightailing it up the stairs toward my bedroom. What a sight that must have been.
Sometimes in dreams when I’m running away from something I just can’t seem to get my feet under me. The harder I try, the worse it is. That’s what my trip up the stairs was like. My feet slipped out from under me halfway up to the landing, and I had just managed to get them back under me when the police shouted for me to stop. I did.
That was probably my worst teaching experience.
I was on an airplane out of Taiwan by mid-afternoon the next day. [/quote]
And one situation which is apparently ongoing:
[quote]Hey all,
Would appreciate any advice. Today a CLA official came to do an unannounced inspection at my school. I have an ARC but for another branch of the same school. [/quote]