I will be graduating with a law degree this year and am considering applying to study mandarin in taiwan after the summer. I am a female BBC who speaks cantonese and enough mandarin to communicate. I also have what I would call a “working knowledge” of chinese reading and writing.
If I were to go to Taiwan do you think I would be able to find PT work teaching english that would be enough to cover living expenses(not necessarily including rent)?
Or any other suggestions of PT work.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Getting part time work is a little tricky… the majority of English schools (cram schools) pretty much keep their teachers full time, sometimes even 6 days a week, from morning til night (not what you really want). In fact it was because of this system that during my first year in Taiwan I never had the time to properly take Chinese class.
If you have friends here who can put you in contact with the right people then you will have no bother finding private students; if not then you could always advertise online and even put adverts up around your school (where you’ll be studying) and you can find students that way. If you make a really good impression with you small handful of students, then within a small period of time you will as many students as you need (though you will probably be working from startbucks and other cafes).
Personally, I recomment that you take a CELTA course or something like it, although it takes a month to complete and costed 1000 quid (5 years ago when I took it), it will provide you with an internationally recognised English teaching certificate ~ plus it’s accredited to Cambridge University (even though you can do a CELTA at most places in the UK). If you have this, it will make you a better English teacher and (although some will disagree with me) will help you get more students and earn more cash - most people in Taiwan haven’t got a clue what a CELTA is - but just mention the fact that it’s accredited to Cambridge and that normally seals the deal.
Again, going back to working hours, unless you can work out something with one of the English schools here, then you may just want to have a few private classes, even if you do make a deal with the English schools here… they are absolutely ruthless, given the chance will not hesitate to increase your working hours and even cut into your Chinese classes and pretend like it aint no thang…
Anyway, you should have a great time here studying Mandarin.
Finding part-time work won’t be a problem. Although at the moment the job market isn’t great and there aren’t that many jobs out there. However, I recently looked for some part-time work and went to four schools and had four job offers so it really isn’t that bad.
You need to work about 14 hours a week, i think, to get an ARC though, but most employers are flexible about this.