Schools to avoid in Ilan County

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
21

I agree that this thread may seem strange to people because of it’s format. However, I also understand why some teachers feel uncomfortable about revealing who they are when posting such things. Even if what some teachers say is entriely true, the schools they worked for may try to damage the teachers reputation for speaking out about the school. It is obviously easy to “track people down” as you say. And as I said before, these posts have been done in Ilan, and on the same computer, it is a computer which is used by multiple people as well. What does it mattter? When I come to Ilan, I stay with the same people, and they have posted on forumosa before themselves. I did not and do not see a need to have used different boards or different computers.

I tried to be very clear that this post contained things that people heard or said, not that I could guarentee had happened.

No, I did not wish to destroy the reputation of any schools, and intelligent people can tell the difference between being told where not to work and being cautioned. I was trying to help out new comers make informed decisions, or at least decisions where they know when peolpe have made many compliants about certain schools. Obviously if you do not find the complaints valid, such as unpaid telephone teaching, then you would not think the school was a bad one to work for right?

On one hand people here are saying that teachers should feel secure enough to identify themselves when complaining about schools, and on the other you have “guests” that are tracking IP numbers! Does anyone not understand why the teachers in a small city would not post here themselves? And if they had posted individually, then it would have been a “smear compaign” against the schools, correct?

Perhaps this thread should be floundered, it doesn’t seem to be doing anyone any good, just causing arguements and grief for the moderators.

22

Glenn,

your post is very helpful and informative.

23

What is that supposed to mean? I am not useing my own computer as I do not have one, and as I have already said. However, if you’d like to find me my name is Glenn Kyle Smith, I am from Canada, and I will be returning there shortly after traveling around Asia for a bit. Then I will go to Toronto and stay with some friends. My email is glennsm99@hotmail.com, but don’t be surprised if you write me threats and I don’t respond. What is with everyone being so interested in “tracking” people here on forumosa? I do feel sorry for the people whose computer I used, but what can you do? I really didn’t think that posting here would cause such a raucous, or “tough guy” reaction: “for your own sake”? huh? Nice “community” atmosphere some posters create here.

All I was trying to do was get the word out on schools that teachers feel are not the best places to work. That’s it, that’s all.

Thanks to Durins Bane for logical and clear replies. I understand your position, and never mentioned the name of the school being removed (if anyone would care to check) because I cannot argue with either the moderator or the owner when I never met either personally. Looking back now, I should have chosen a different way of writing the original post, but what can you do?

24

Glen,

I understand what you were trying to do, I really do, your more recent posts make that clear and so does your openess in regard to your identity.

I don’t think that anyone was trying to get tough, at least I wasn’t, that’s not my bag (anyone who knows me could tell you that). I think people were trying to offer some caution to your post, at least I was, not just for Forumosa but for you too. No one here would try to track you down, it’s just that some schools will do that, read stuff online, get mad, track you down. Heck, this is Taiwan, people have been punished by the courts here for things as trivial as saying “you are a pig”, now think about how some argry boss is going to react when he feels that you are stepping on his toes and potentially hurting his business. That’s all. Out of concern for Forumosa and you we, or at least, I suggested that it may not have been a good idea to post like this.

I am profoundly sorry if you have taken things the wrong way. Not one poster got agressive with you, really. It’s difficult to feel the emotion of the post online, and well, it would be better if you weren’t so defensive. People were not taking a shot at you, more taking a look at the wisdom of what was posted. Don’t take it so hard, especially when people are only trying to look at both sides. :slight_smile:

25

Bassman, I’m sorry if I seemed hostile towrds you, I was doing something that I thought would be helpful and then it seemed that I was being targeted.

I am disturbed by “guests” message, it seems to me to be far from a friendly warning, "next time, for your own sake learn how to " balh blah blah “it would be far harder to track”. You can track the name of the person who gets the interent provided, but not me with that number. You see, I am leaving Taiwan, so I don’t care too much about schools tracking me down. If they want me to say I’m sorry that I repeated a rumour I will, but I have never had direct contact with the schools, so that is all I could say. The interent provider number is not mine, I already sold my computer. That is why I posted my info, so the computer owner would not be blamed, nor would the three other people who have access to this computer. I would give you a number too, if I had a phone. I don’t feel I should hide.

I think it is very clear by now that the no one is telling anyone where not to work (expect maybe the second school, but perhaps they’ve changed since). I recieved messages privately from other people who had reports of other schools that they personally had problems with, but that now do not feel comfortable posting this information on forumosa. It is unfortunate when an on-line community lessens it’s members by the way they respond to people.

Have fun in Taiwan, if you want to contact me, I will not be able to respond for quite awhile, I wil traveling where there ain’t no internet cafes !!! I can’t wait to leave technology behind for awile! Adios.

26

All those that are reading this thread and want to post something, but are nervous about it, should take a look over at www.buxiban.com and post there.

27

Now that the powers that be have spoken, shouldn’t his thread be floundered, or is the new policy regarding first hand accounts not retroactive?

28

Just bouncing an idea…

Rather than publicly exposing the dirt, how about posters simply list the schools they have worked at, and then it’s up to others to make contact by PM if they are considering a school on the list, and want feedback (good or bad). Vise-versa also. If a school is being considered by a poster, they could solicit advice/feedback by PM.
That way, the message can be conveyed only to those are genuinely interested, and the school(s) themselves aren’t reading about it on a public forum and getting all pissed off.

I mean, in real life, your more likely to only tell those people who are affected or interested, rather than putting up some notice in a McDonalds or Mos Burger etc.

29

It is not retroactive.

30

I worked with Glenn when I lived in Taipei, and I can vouch for him that he does not have a hate-on when it comes to buxiban owners. We used to go drinking with ours!

Glenn always speaks up for people, whether they ask him to or not in some cases. I think he had the best intentions, but should have contacted forumosa first to find out if it was alright for him to post this stuff here. I like truant’s idea, so people who want to know about schools can ask, but not everyone is forced to know.

31

This original post was written some time ago, but I can confirm that most of it still holds true from what I’ve heard. PerCharter School Yilan (Ilan) is currently hiring, and you better watch out because they are only hiring one foreign teacher and the workload is horrendous. Some of the homeroom teachers are difficult to get along with to put it mildly. (They used to pay 70+5; they are advertising 70 now.)
Edison: Seems like they haven’t got a clue.
Maple Bridge: Same as Edison. Bad vibes.
Smile Institute: Nutty director; nobody stays.

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32

Have you worked at all these schools?

33

Draw your own conclusions. The information is good and it correlates with the op.

34

Late in the game, but I removed some personal info from the OP.

35

Interestingly, most of the schools to “avoid” continue to thrive and produce many of the best English students in Yilan County, whereas the “good” schools are almost all closed.

Anyone interested in the OPs motivation can DM me.

As the owner of 2 of the schools to “avoid”, Edison and Maple Leaf (the redacted school) and having worked at or had interactions with most of the others, I can provide factual insight.

Posts such as this bring to light the disconnect between teachers and schools.

Schools should want continuity of curriculum and stability, paired with educational success. Some teachers look for schools where they can do what they feel is best. Similar to Parents, some look for tried and true chains and larger schools, while others prefer a smaller school where they feel they can have influence over the curriculum.

Unfortunately, schools, hopefully, will still be around in 20 years, while teachers, more often than not, will return to thier home countries.

36

Unfortunately English is a fairly fluid language. Much like Mandarin is. Much of the street Mandarin I learnt 15-20 years ago is no longer used. Sort of makes me feel old.

There’s no way to tell whether you’re talking about schools that own the places they operate from and therefore could weather the Covid shutdowns.

If we are to go the Chomsky method of learning a second language then it should be remembered that it is paired with continuity and review. As part of the continuity previous sentence patterns and vocabulary are reused to help cement those words and meanings into the minds of those learning. This is often referred to as the rote learning process. So introduction, repetition, sentence pattern, substitution using already established nouns and verbs, repetition again. This helps to learn adaptability to their approach rather than becoming reliant on pressing play on the CD.

As for phonics face masks have made it very very difficult to teach younger learners, and older ones too for that matter, how to use their mouths, teeth, and tongue to make sounds and then turn those sounds into understandable words. There has been a distinct regress over the last two years particularly with r’s L’s and z’s. Think February, crazy, lazy, zoo, and more complicated structures like w especially used in the context of would which is now more commonly pronounced ood.

I’ve seen too many family (or hidden investor) run schools that put up with seriously bad behaviour from one kid that sees 10 other kids leave. And then for the foreign teacher to be blamed all while they’ve been begging management to get rid of the little emperor that’s wrecking the class.

I’m not saying your school is like that. Yours could be an excellent school with a great success rate and happy kids that go on to use English as part of their lives. But I don’t know you either way so I guess I hope it’s the latter.

At the end of the day not every kid is going to master English. Or French. Or German. Or Russian. Or even math or science. Unrealistic expectations from parents and unrealistic promises of academic success from cram schools is a no win situation at best. And damaging to the kids that are stuck in the middle. Destined to grow up miserable and lead unhappy and unfulfilling lives.

37

This is clearly an Ilan thing, so take what I post with a sizable amount of salt. Issues between teachers and schools are usually six of one and half a dozen of another.

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38

馬馬虎虎，哪裡？

(Two “Must learns” that people told me made me sound like an old lady, a decade ago, that are still in pretty much every Chinese language textbook I’ve ever seen)

39

“Six in one, half dozen the other”? (Eh, it’s a horse a piece)

Edit: Ok, I googled it. It seems the most common use is “six of one, half a dozen the other”. We’re both wrong. But it’s still a horse a piece.

40

You’ll have to excuse me, I am not much for online forums.

I just didn’t think it was fair, to any of the schools named by a disgruntled teacher, for this thread to be resurrected. I had written a more detailed rebuttal, but, it was deemed to contain too much personal detail of the affected schools.

Nonetheless, yes, curriculums are always fluid. Learning to read through phonics hasn’t changed.

My point being, using the English department at one of my schools, as an example, has a collective 200+ years of English teaching experience. A new teacher is going to have a difficult time convincing anyone that they know better. That being said, I will always learn something from every teacher, even the newest of the new.

Whereas when a teacher goes to a smaller school, regardless of experience, they will be seen as the expert, and a bushiban may change direction with each new teacher.

Continually changing direction, due to teachers, parent demands or the like, is the death knell for many schools. Set your goals and keep moving toward it, regardless of the pressures, financial or otherwise.

The “good” schools referenced all closed long before the world knew the word Covid.

Covid has been challenging in so many ways, for schools, teachers, parents and students. Hopefully, we are getting near the end of the middle of this pandemic. Fortunately, we get to spend a lot of time with our students.

Nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems when it comes to dismissing students. There are no bad students, only bad student-teacher relationships. Everyone has a teacher that speaks to them, and everyone is a student.

Our philosophy has always been, no owner, teacher, parent or student is bigger than the school. This makes decision making much simpler.

Yes, usually six of one, half dozen of the other, but, when it comes to human relationships, nothing is ever as straight-forward as we would hope. Not all school-teacher problems are created equal.

Yilan County is small.

Again, I am not much for online forums, so forgive me if I choose to bow out. DMs welcome.