[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!