Hi everyone,
I am probably not the only person posting this here…
I’m Swiss citizen and would like to settle down in Taipei as my girlfriend is living here.
I learn english when I was really young, can speak French and German and did a part of my study in Australia. (I possess a diploma in business.)
I already taught english, french back home, in South East Asia and even in Australia.
As I am a non-native speaker I’d like to know if anyone of you know some non-native speaker teaching legally of course, here in Taipei?
If anyone know some tips or could help me, please feel free 
Just to let you know I am trying hard to find a solution.
Have a good day
[quote=“Sandrotpe”]Hi everyone,
I am probably not the only person posting this here…
I’m Swiss citizen and would like to settle down in Taipei as my girlfriend is living here.
I learn english when I was really young, can speak French and German and did a part of my study in Australia. (I possess a diploma in business.)
I already taught english, french back home, in South East Asia and even in Australia.
As I am a non-native speaker I’d like to know if anyone of you know some non-native speaker teaching legally of course, here in Taipei?
If anyone know some tips or could help me, please feel free
Just to let you know I am trying hard to find a solution.
Have a good day [/quote]
No. There are some schools that will hire foreigners not from the approved English speaking countries, but it will be illegal, under the table work.
And, not to be an absolute Berk, your English is not good enough to teach, based on the above post.
There have been some reports of non natives teaching legally, but to this day, no one has been able to prove any evidence of this mythical creature. It is always a friend of a friend of a drunk guy someone met outside the 7/11 three years ago.
The only way is to marry said girlfriend, get a marriage ARC with open work rights.
Sandtrope, read between the lines here:
there aren’t dozens of non native english university students teaching english in places like hsninchu. if there were, i’d guess that they speak english well. many i imagine would even know the difference between dog and dinosaur. I never met one, and have never been friends with one. they don’t come from countries like ukraine, slovakia, poland, india, and so on. It’s very unlikely that some even come to taiwan to learn english, while teaching english. no, this i’m sure has never happened. I’ve never seen it
this is not common in taiwan at all
edit: be legal, be happy, teach french
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I had the same question, so there is no way I could find an English teaching job legally? (I am a French native Belgian, I would come with a working holiday visa, so I wouldn’t need sponsorship). Moreover, is it possible to find a French teaching job and make a living through that? Demand for French teachers doesn’t seem very high
For legal English teaching work, you have to be a native speaker of English from the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. (I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
However, you may be able to teach French or German legally. French is somewhat popular here.
Ok thanks. Not planning on moving soon tho, I haven’t started to study Mandarin yet.
If its any comfort, I’m told French-Canadians aren’t allowed to teach French.
They are allowed to teach English, though, even if they don’t speak it.
[quote=“Chris”]For legal English teaching work, you have to be a native speaker of English from the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. (I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
However, you may be able to teach French or German legally. French is somewhat popular here.[/quote]
You’re wrong The official language of the country of your passport has to be the language you want to teach, and your degree has to come from an approved institution.
[quote=“Tempo Gain”][quote=“Chris”]For legal English teaching work, you have to be a native speaker of English from the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. (I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
However, you may be able to teach French or German legally. French is somewhat popular here.[/quote]
You’re wrong The official language of the country of your passport has to be the language you want to teach, and your degree has to come from an approved institution.[/quote]
What if on your own passport get 5 languages? Yes Swiss Does…
And it funny as one school is really interested to hire me and are contacting the government, nothing about my passport just my degree has to be approved by them…
It depends on a Foreign Ministry publication
wda.gov.tw/en/home.jsp?pagen … 1304230023
I would wager that your work permit will not be that of a teacher of English, processed through the Education Ministry, if that is the case.
What are the 5 languages? From memory German, French, Italian, Romansch…?
[quote=“Ducked”]If its any comfort, I’m told French-Canadians aren’t allowed to teach French.
They are allowed to teach English, though, even if they don’t speak it.[/quote]
They shouldn’t be allowed to teach either language
Because many schools are interested to hire me as english teacher tho…
So the process will just get stopped by the Education Ministry?
Actually there is 5 languages on my passport, those and english…
[quote=“Sandrotpe”]Because many schools are interested to hire me as english teacher tho…
So the process will just get stopped by the Education Ministry?
Actually there is 5 languages on my passport, those and english…[/quote]
Do you speak Chinese? Just asking as a matter of interest, not connected with your question.
They want to hire you cheaply because they know you can’t get a work permit and are an English learner yourself. They want you because you are vulnerable yet will attract students. Are you in your 20s？It might work out but don’t do too much work without being paid.
It’s not that the language is literally on your passport, but that it is an “official language” of your country.
MOFA shows the 4 we discussed as official for Switzerland (sorry, I don’t think there’s an English page for this)
[quote=“Sandrotpe”]Because many schools are interested to hire me as english teacher tho…
So the process will just get stopped by the Education Ministry?
Actually there is 5 languages on my passport, those and english…[/quote]
Of course they are interested. You must be very handsome. At least young and semi good looking and if you told them about the GF, you’re toast.
Look, many years ago, many people came here to teach English and there was plenty of vacancies available. There would be people that stopped you on the street to ask you to be their tutor. Pay was very good then. Not anymore. There is a crisis all the way from the lowest levels up. Not enough children are born to fill the buxibans -after school programs-, salaries are low and English learning is not longer a priority since the main market also speaks Chinese.
In summary, conditions are already bad for legal English teachers.
Hence, you will not be offered the best salaries/conditions/schedules. That they are willing to bend over the rules to have you means it will not be the best job around. Many schools have less than desirable working environments, ethics. How about your National Insurance? Tax reporting? Now you think it may not matter. many non legals teach for a year or so and leave for greener pastures. If you have long term plans, this could burn you up bad.
You can work in something else, something that will pay as much -since English teachers salaries are depressed now. You can do an office job where your business background can be used. You have a diploma, is that a BA? Now that is a requisite for any job here.
I hope you will find the time to answer a question that has been bothering me for the past few days:
I am an English teacher with 10 years teaching experience with ELT certification (Cambridge DELTA). I am officially employed as a Native English teacher specialising in Business English in the Philippines. I am currently the head of the Business English department and perform many academic duties related to curriculum development, ELT management, teacher training, and even marketing.
Recently, I’ve decided to move to Taiwan. I’m very drawn to the country and its culture, having taught a LOT of Taiwanese students throughout the years. However, I discovered only a week ago that in order to get an ARC and a work permit to teach English, I need to have a passport from an English speaking country. My passport is German.
It’s quite disheartening that one’s ability to teach English is judged on the basis of nationality. English is my first language since my parents are from South Africa. I grew up speaking English but only happen to be born in Germany.
My question is this: Is there a possibility for me to still get a teaching job legally (with ARC and everything) despite those restrictions? I was thinking that maybe I could be employed as an English language consultant, curriculum developer, academic manager, teacher trainer or any other title, while actually teaching at the school. Or maybe I could study Chinese while teaching English. Or get an ARC after studying Chinese for 4 months and then teach English?
Surely, there must be ways around it without doing anything illegal? I do not want to take the bad route, but only explore loopholes in the system or opportunities where compromises are possible. I have many job offers in Japan, but I find Taiwan much much more suitable to my palate.
I intend to move to Taiwan in May 2016.
Please help!
Thanks and hoping for a reply!
P.S.: I do know that this issue has often been discussed in your forums, but my questions are a bit more specific than the ones I’ve read.
My point is: Would I be able to get a job within the ELT industry that are not actual teaching positions?
Oh, and I also forgot to mention: What about private companies that are not schools? Some corporations may need Business English teachers and would be willing to hire those from non-English speaking countries. Would the government still restrict applicants like me?
[quote=“Pilgrim777”]My passport is German.
It’s quite disheartening that one’s ability to teach English is judged on the basis of nationality. English is my first language since my parents are from South Africa. I grew up speaking English but only happen to be born in Germany.
My question is this: Is there a possibility for me to still get a teaching job legally (with ARC and everything) despite those restrictions? I was thinking that maybe I could be employed as an English language consultant, curriculum developer, academic manager, teacher trainer or any other title, while actually teaching at the school. Or maybe I could study Chinese while teaching English. Or get an ARC after studying Chinese for 4 months and then teach English?
Surely, there must be ways around it without doing anything illegal? I do not want to take the bad route, but only explore loopholes in the system or opportunities where compromises are possible. I have many job offers in Japan, but I find Taiwan much much more suitable to my palate.[/quote]
The Workforce Development Agency, under the Ministry of Labor, has stated in writing (mentioned in threads such as http://tw.forumosa.com/t/possibility-of-teaching-esl-for-filipina-instructor/87484/1) that your country’s language is determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so to find out whether your country qualifies as English speaking you need to go to mofa.gov.tw and check your country’s profile. (In the Chinese version, click on “國家與地區” near the top left. The English version seems to have profiles of full diplomatic allies only and doesn’t list their languages anyway.)
This is, of course, ridiculous for various reasons – non-native speakers can make great teachers, most languages that exist aren’t “official” in any country, MOFA doesn’t have a say in any other country’s laws or in the interpretation of European treaties, and the existence of some small countries is apparently unworthy of MOFA’s attention – but perhaps the funniest part is the lack of consistency.
Most countries just get one language mentioned, and that’s it, whether it’s de facto or de jure. Switzerland gets all four of its official languages listed, bravo to MOFA. The South Africa page notes there are 11 but only bothers to name 6 of them (including English). Mauritius is listed as English only, never mind that it was a French colony, is a full member of the Francophonie, and has French parliamentary debates. The Peru page lists only Spanish, despite indigenous languages like Quechua having official status in the constitution. Switch to the mobile version, and suddenly Quechua exists.
English gets a mention on the Netherlands page: “語言：荷語 (英語普及)” meaning that besides Dutch, English is either “popular” or “universal”. There’s no explanation, so we don’t know whether they mentioned English because of the state of education and modernization/internationalization there, because Amsterdam is officially bilingual, because they were thinking of the Netherlands Antilles (the newly independent countries of which have no profiles), or because the WDA once granted a work permit to a Dutch English teacher and asked MOFA to play along (just speculating). Switch to the mobile version, and no languages are mentioned. (If the teacher thing is the reason, it probably won’t work for the next Dutch applicant unless the same person who approved it before is in the office that day – the other bureaucrat would say English is just popular, not official.)
Poland somehow gets four languages listed: “波蘭語(英語逐漸普及，其次是德語及俄語)” (“Polish (English becoming popular/universal, followed by German and Russian)”). Alas, they don’t extend the same type of courtesy to Scandinavia, Germany, or most other countries.
They do extend a very large courtesy to Canada by saying that its languages are “英語(約佔總人口59％)、法語(23％)、其他(18%)”. So, in theory, Canadians who get bored teaching English or French can apply for work permits to teach “other” languages and claim that whatever languages they want to teach are part of that 18%. Say hello to the Taiwan Institute of Esperanto, Klingon, and High Valyrian!
http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/images/smilies/dance.gif
Assuming you can’t persuade MOFA to recognize Germany as an English speaking country and also can’t persuade the WDA to stop using MOFA’s sloppy homework, here are five paths you can take:
- Become a South African citizen if you aren’t already (sometimes people are dual without realizing it – laws change now and then).
- Become a citizen of any other country MOFA recognizes as English speaking – including the Philippines.
- If you’re under 31, stay German and get a working holiday visa for one year.
- Fall in love with a Taiwanese, get married, and get a JFRV (family visa).
- Get a non-teaching job with an ARC, keep it up for five years, and get an APRC (become a permanent resident).
As for having a permit for X and actually doing Y, Subparagraph 2 of Article 73 of the Employment Service Act forbids this. If your employer admits that you were ordered to teach instead of doing whatever your permit said you could do (which sounds unlikely), you might still be in violation of Subparagraph 7 for submitting false information. The penalty (Article 74) is deportation, plus whatever else they decide to hold against you (e.g. causing a bureaucrat to file false information is a criminal offense).
If they’re willing to approve you as a translator, consultant, administrator or whatever, you may find that you enjoy your new job, but if you actually want to teach/tutor and not in a figurative sense, to do it legally you need either open work rights (JFRV etc.) or a work permit that says you’re doing it.
There are also student work permits, but there are extra conditions, and it seems that route isn’t worthwhile unless you really want to learn Chinese. There was a long thread about them a few months ago: LEGAL way to work with local artists/producers/talent?
Viel glueck!
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Now that’s a great post. 
This is, indeed, a wonderful post. Very very informative. Thanks yyy! 
It is quite ridiculous that a government agency would actually rely on such an inconsistent system. Something has to be done about this. Seriously. The world is becoming more globalised and we can no longer classify people merely based on nationality or country of birth. We have now what is called a Third Culture Kid (TCK) community - people without a national identity because they spend much of their lives growing up in so many countries. I happen to be one.
Ranting aside, let me have one particular point of yours clarified:
So you are saying that I could be given a work permit to teach English in Taiwan if MOFA qualifies my country as English speaking? I am a dual citizen and actually possess a Philippine passport in addition to my German one (my mother is 50% Filipino.)
Assuming that this is a possibility, could I opt to enter Taiwan as a German, get a visa as a German, apply for an ARC as a German, but use my Philippine passport to get a work permit? You see, the Philippine passport is quite terrible as it comes with many visa restrictions, so I prefer to use my German passport whenever I travel. However, can the Philippine one get me a teaching post as a native speaker?
Also, are the schools in Taiwan aware of MOFA’s “list” of nationalities that are allowed to teach English?
It’s all a bit complicated, isn’t it? 