Is it normal for Sunday to be my only day off? It is my first job in Taiwan, but not my first job teaching. I have a TEFL certificate. The job also stipulates that typical work hours are late afternoons and evenings (so I suppose I would have a lot of free time in the mornings). I have not accepted any job yet. I am still looking at all of my options. A six day week would not bother me that much, but it does sort of limit my ability to take detailed excursions outside of Taipei county (or does it?).
Also, what hours does an evening shift typically cover? Any advice would be much appreciated!
Yes. It is the norm but there are many exceptions. I had one job where I started at 6:00 pm Monday so could travel with all the crowds on Sunday and then return without the accompanying hordes.
Welcome to forumosa Candro.
Yes, a six-day week is normal for “buxibans.” The majority of students are elementary and junior high school students (the senior high kids are too busy studying to attend!). Classes start at about 5 pm Mon-Fri, except for Wednesday when the youngest elementary schools get out early. Saturday schedules vary greatly; you may just have a couple of classes in the afternoon, or it could be one of your busiest days. Check with the school. Being able to get away early on a Saturday makes a huge difference to your mental well-being.
I only worked five days a week, but I taught kids all day on Sunday which completely destroyed any interest in classroom teaching: I will never teach in a classroom again. You’ll burn out doing six days a week. Ask yourself why you are in Taiwan?
I would like to get a work permit so I can live in Taiwan legally. It is only 20-30 hours a week. Even 30 hours spread across six days is nothing too demanding. Right now I teach 13 classes every week, each class with 40-50 students (yay mainland China). I have to plan all of my lessons from scratch. All together, I think I spend 30 hours working each week, more if I include all of the required tutoring of senior 3 students and extracurricular activities. I think I can enjoy Taiwan even if I am working on Saturdays, though I will not deny that having a whole weekend, or at least two days off during the week, would be great. The school in question is with Kojen, and I am currently setting up an interview through Reach to Teach. RTT has been extremely helpful, but of course I also wanted to hear from the experienced teachers here. Thanks for the replies.
I’m definitely curious to know about any other options besides classroom teaching. Full-time tutoring could be done, but how does one live legally in Taiwan with such a gig? I think for a starting job on the island, this Kojen position does not seem bad at all. Everyone’s input has been really helpful. Keep it coming.
[quote=“candro”]I would like to get a work permit so I can live in Taiwan legally. It is only 20-30 hours a week. Even 30 hours spread across six days is nothing too demanding. Right now I teach 13 classes every week, each class with 40-50 students (yay mainland China). I have to plan all of my lessons from scratch. All together, I think I spend 30 hours working each week, more if I include all of the required tutoring of senior 3 students and extracurricular activities. I think I can enjoy Taiwan even if I am working on Saturdays, though I will not deny that having a whole weekend, or at least two days off during the week, would be great. The school in question is with Kojen, and I am currently setting up an interview through Reach to Teach. RTT has been extremely helpful, but of course I also wanted to hear from the experienced teachers here. Thanks for the replies.
I’m definitely curious to know about any other options besides classroom teaching. Full-time tutoring could be done, but how does one live legally in Taiwan with such a gig? I think for a starting job on the island, this Kojen position does not seem bad at all. Everyone’s input has been really helpful. Keep it coming.[/quote]
I taught 20 hours a week but with a lot of prep and admin and extra pointless arseholery: not a Asian cramschool gig. Bollocks to 30 contact hours a week, that’s white monkey work.
Tutoring is not legal if you have an ARC based on your school work permit: you need to get your work permit through your school and may not work anywhere else. Lots do it, though, as it’s fairly difficult to get caught teaching one to one. It’s a deportable offence.
In my whole time living in Taiwan (almost ten years now), I have NEVER taught on weekends. It is a strong stipulation that I have going into a job. Teaching is stressful enough, we need our weekends off!
Of course, if you are greedy and/or don’t have enough hours during the week, then sure. But I am happy with 65-70K a month, which is what I get for 5 days a week. But of course, it is a personal choice.
Smaller buxibans are often more flexible for this, but they rarely hire from overseas.
Noel
p.s. - Maybe I will actually start posting more these days …
Thanks guys. Honestly, I don’t post most of the time due to little free time. I play alot of music, so any free time that I do have is sucked away by that (on a perfect day 2-3 hours guitar, 30 mins fiddle, 30 mins piano).
All of my remaining free time is taken up spending time with the wife or working out. Sounds like a boring life, but I like it. But, as I said, I will try and write more on this forum.
Thanks for the advice, Noel and buttercup. I can get a job at one of the bigger English companies before coming to Taiwan, or I can go to Taipei sometime in July or August and find work that way. I am a bit worried about doing the latter, even though it will probably land me a better job than the bigger companies. Noel, did you find such great jobs with just a TEFL certificate, or do you have other credentials as well?
For people with TEFL certificates and experience, is it really as easy as everyone seems to say? I could just go to Taipei and find a good job in July or August? I still get the impression Kojen is not a bad place to start out for a year. Still, that weekend is rather important to me.
[quote=“candro”]Is it normal for Sunday to be my only day off? It is my first job in Taiwan, but not my first job teaching. I have a TEFL certificate. The job also stipulates that typical work hours are late afternoons and evenings (so I suppose I would have a lot of free time in the mornings). I have not accepted any job yet. I am still looking at all of my options. A six day week would not bother me that much, but it does sort of limit my ability to take detailed excursions outside of Taipei county (or does it?).
Also, what hours does an evening shift typically cover? Any advice would be much appreciated![/quote]
You are the 1,000,000,000th teacher to want a 5 day week. You deserve a free gift. “Oh, but I want to travel on the weekends’ is a stuck record. Go to South Korea if you want a Monday - Friday job. Better still, stay at home.
Come to terms with the fact that that the majority of teaching jobs (except kindergarten, which is illegal) are 6 day weeks; unless you are qualified to work in the public system or BC. Drink whiskey if it helps you come to terms with this. Drink more whiskey if you work in the public sector or at the BC (no offense the lovely BCp)
Five day weeks do exist but that alone doesn’t make it a good job.
If you find a five day week, watch out for low or erratic teaching hours, class sharing, maniac bosses and dodgy paperwork. I am not saying that schools that offer a 5 day week have these inherent problems, but they are generally smaller schools and that alone means there are more things to watch out for.
You can spend lots of money ‘tracking down’ a good job in-country. The cost can break you – and has many before you. My advice is play the job hunting game when you have been here a year and know what you are dealing with.
Shane offer a 5 day week (not necessarily consecutive days off though) and they look for TEFL qualified teachers. They are ‘good’ in that they won’t screw with you if you do your job properly and they will pay you on time. A safe 5 day week from overseas.
Don’t think you are in the driving seat at the moment. You aren’t. There are lots of teachers desperately looking for work. Any work. The Western teacher in Taiwan that likes to exercise the old adage “It’s my way or the highway’ is increasingly hearing the reply “The highway buddy, and quickly”.
All jobs in Taiwan suck in some way… so find a job that gives you the things that are important, and the parts that suck you don’t really care about.
If it’s important to travel, and you don’t care if you work illegally with the babies, take a kindy class (mornings M-F), if you want to make a lot of money and can’t be bothered to think for yourself or teach you students how to learn; work at the big schools and teach them to memorize one or two sentences a day. (These are Also good places if you like to drink! it’s much easier to go to work hung over at 4pm than go to work still drunk at 9am.)
You can sign a year contract (which probably has illegal contract termination clauses) to get yourself an ARC (working visa) or you can “free lance” and leave the country every two months. (Air Asia will start flying round trip Taipei to KL for 1800NT starting in July!)
basically there will be things that you don’t like at any school, lack of hours, too many hours, piles of paper work, no freedom to teach, only to memorize… i could go on and on.
But you make 600 NT per hour. The rest is up to you.
[quote=“alanmica”]All jobs in Taiwan suck in some way… so find a job that gives you the things that are important, and the parts that suck you don’t really care about.
[/quote]
Dignity and a decent coffee machine will not be found in ESL, particularly in Taiwan.
And I’ve never even been to British Columbia, Blackadder. Is it in America? Do I know you irl?
If you’ve got a buxiban job, you’ll likely have mornings and most afternoons free to do whatever you want. Unfortunately, you can’t go far because you have to work in the evenings. I did the six-day week thing for about four years, and then managed to work out a deal in which I got every other Monday off; Saturday was our most lucrative day. When I finally found a “normal” five-day job, every weekend felt like a long weekend! It’s still wonderful, and never, ever will I go back to a six-day. Even though some days were only four hours of work, it essentially took away the rest of the day. What wasn’t taken by sitting around dreading going to work was taken by endless reams of homework and test grading and other unpaid office crap.
That being said, with the economy being what it is, you may need to ride it out; unfortunately, you chose a time when you will not be able to stipulate conditions, and as someone mentioned, even qualified, experienced teachers are a dime a dozen at the moment (not that half the buxibans can tell the difference anyway). Get in and make some money, then see what you can do.
