I just wanted to back up what most people have said already. I worked for Shane for 5 years and they are a very good company to start off with. They definitely have one of the lower salaries of the schools I’ve worked for and the Taipei schools salaries are capped at $620 an hour. Beware though, you may get block hours but lots of them are made up of private students who often cancel and you don’t get paid for those cancellations. However, I never, ever had any problems at Shane that I’ve had at other Taiwanese-run schools. Shane are very fair and well-run and yes their system is dead easy to teach. As someone else mentioned, I’ve never heard of $460 an hour at any Shane school and if it is indeed true, HO will sort it out. I think you can bargain a little more and get a slightly higher salary at franchise schools, but maybe not a newbie, I don’t know? I can’t speak for Changhua, I’ve only ever worked in Taipei but I would recommend Shane to anyone wanting a good, stable first ESL job.
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know the training is supposed to be pretty intensive, but I’m looking for anything that can help me along, so thanks again. 
Brettygood, good to hear you’re starting too - nice to know someone else is in the same boat. Are you arriving in the next couple of weeks (I know that’s probably unlikely)? If so, I may be at your training session. My name’s Graeme, please look me up.
And thank you for this as well RickyMa. It’s good to hear that Shane seems to have a good reputation in Taiwan, and I’m really beginning to look forward to it. Thanksto everyone who has commented.
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know the training is supposed to be pretty intensive, but I’m looking for anything that can help me along, so thanks again.
Brettygood, good to hear you’re starting too - nice to know someone else is in the same boat. Are you arriving in the next couple of weeks (I know that’s probably unlikely)? If so, I may be at your training session. My name’s Graeme, please look me up. [/quote]
Just booked my flight today, Graeme. I’ll be in Taiwan around May 11th so chances are we will be in the same training group! And like you said, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one packing up a suitcase, buying a one-way ticket & taking a chance in country I’ve never been to!
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know the training is supposed to be pretty intensive, but I’m looking for anything that can help me along, so thanks again.
Brettygood, good to hear you’re starting too - nice to know someone else is in the same boat. Are you arriving in the next couple of weeks (I know that’s probably unlikely)? If so, I may be at your training session. My name’s Graeme, please look me up. [/quote]
Just booked my flight today, Graeme. I’ll be in Taiwan around May 11th so chances are we will be in the same training group! And like you said, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one packing up a suitcase, buying a one-way ticket & taking a chance in country I’ve never been to![/quote]
Hope it’s a round trip ticket if you have a Visitor’s Visa.
Good to hear Brettygood. 
Chances are we’ll both still be pretty disorientated by that point, but look for me in the training group if it’s the one that starts on the 14th or thereabouts. I’m constantly told by friends I look like Will from Inbetweeners :fume: so look out for that…
[quote=“The LawBA”]
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know the training is supposed to be pretty intensive, but I’m looking for anything that can help me along, so thanks again.
Brettygood, good to hear you’re starting too - nice to know someone else is in the same boat. Are you arriving in the next couple of weeks (I know that’s probably unlikely)? If so, I may be at your training session. My name’s Graeme, please look me up. [/quote]
It is intensive but not crazy intensive. They teach most of the stuff from the point of view of games, so you see it from the students perspective. My advice is that you go home each evening, to the lovely hotel they put you up in (well, it’s a sex motel, or the one they put me up in was), but it’s still a decent enough place, and you write down as much as you can remember about the games and things you learnt that day. Just 10 minutes will do it, but it will help you out a lot. I also kept a little lesson book at the start of my work at Shane so I knew which games I was going to play and then could make a note after about how long they lasted, how much the kids enjoyed the game, what sorts of activities it works best with etc. Probably wise to buy yourself a sturdy little note-pad now where you are, then you won’t have to go trawling for one when you arrive. And make sure you have some drinks and snacks with you for the training. Your body won’t know what time it is or which way is up, so if you can reach for a quick chocolate bar or swig some water/energy drink you’ll be all good. Just get them at the 7/11 in the morning. Anything called, ‘sweat,’ is an energy drink. Anything with green or brown with tea leaves on, well, you might like the brown tea, but the green will just flush you right through the first couple of times. Don’t ‘go native,’ those first few days! Unless you have plenty of savlon. :roflmao:
And don’t put your toilet paper down the toilet at Shane HQ. I am serious. Put it in the bin next to the toilet. Again, I am serious. Their toilet has a feather touch, and you don’t want to be the one who inevitably backs the thing up and wades back into class with ankle wet trousers, stinking of crap. 
I’m not kidding, honest. Toilet paper in Taiwan goes in the bin, not in the loo.
Come 2 months down the line you’ll be doing lessons on auto-pilot without a care in the world, dating some passionate girl who you can’t quite put your finger on, ordering food like you think you are native, getting ticked off by the little things that aren’t quite like home (but, hey that’s why you left, right?), drinking all night, completing pointless medical exams and Vogon style form filling marathons, making friends with people you adjudge to be some of the finest chaps in the world, marvelling at prices in the shops wondering how something can be, ‘this cheap,’ and then finding out why when it breaks after 30 hours or all manner of bugs spawn from it, and riding a scooter like you are Steve McQueen (not you personally perhaps, but you get the gist). I am glad it is not me going (been there, done that), but I envy your adventure. Have a blast, yo!
[quote=“superking”][quote=“The LawBA”]
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know the training is supposed to be pretty intensive, but I’m looking for anything that can help me along, so thanks again.
Brettygood, good to hear you’re starting too - nice to know someone else is in the same boat. Are you arriving in the next couple of weeks (I know that’s probably unlikely)? If so, I may be at your training session. My name’s Graeme, please look me up. [/quote]
It is intensive but not crazy intensive. They teach most of the stuff from the point of view of games, so you see it from the students perspective. My advice is that you go home each evening, to the lovely hotel they put you up in (well, it’s a sex motel, or the one they put me up in was), but it’s still a decent enough place, and you write down as much as you can remember about the games and things you learnt that day. Just 10 minutes will do it, but it will help you out a lot. I also kept a little lesson book at the start of my work at Shane so I knew which games I was going to play and then could make a note after about how long they lasted, how much the kids enjoyed the game, what sorts of activities it works best with etc. Probably wise to buy yourself a sturdy little note-pad now where you are, then you won’t have to go trawling for one when you arrive. And make sure you have some drinks and snacks with you for the training. Your body won’t know what time it is or which way is up, so if you can reach for a quick chocolate bar or swig some water/energy drink you’ll be all good. Just get them at the 7/11 in the morning. Anything called, ‘sweat,’ is an energy drink. Anything with green or brown with tea leaves on, well, you might like the brown tea, but the green will just flush you right through the first couple of times. Don’t ‘go native,’ those first few days! Unless you have plenty of savlon. :roflmao:
And don’t put your toilet paper down the toilet at Shane HQ. I am serious. Put it in the bin next to the toilet. Again, I am serious. Their toilet has a feather touch, and you don’t want to be the one who inevitably backs the thing up and wades back into class with ankle wet trousers, stinking of crap. I’m not kidding, honest. Toilet paper in Taiwan goes in the bin, not in the loo.
Come 2 months down the line you’ll be doing lessons on auto-pilot without a care in the world, dating some passionate girl who you can’t quite put your finger on, ordering food like you think you are native, getting ticked off by the little things that aren’t quite like home (but, hey that’s why you left, right?), drinking all night, completing pointless medical exams and Vogon style form filling marathons, making friends with people you adjudge to be some of the finest chaps in the world, marvelling at prices in the shops wondering how something can be, ‘this cheap,’ and then finding out why when it breaks after 30 hours or all manner of bugs spawn from it, and riding a scooter like you are Steve McQueen (not you personally perhaps, but you get the gist). I am glad it is not me going (been there, done that), but I envy your adventure. Have a blast, yo![/quote]
Woah, that’s pretty huge.And, uh, thanks for the toilet advice. That’s mildly terrifying, if a little funny. I have to ask though; when you say write everything down when you head back to the hotel, are you not allowed to write things down during the training. I’ll have pens and an A4 pack I’m bringing out, so I won’t be lacking for materials. Anyway, thank you for all you wrote there. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do lessons on “auto-pilot”, but it’s good to talk to someone who has “seen the elephant” as it were. Thanks for all your advice man, much appreciated!
You can write stuff down during training. Your teachers are Western. The point is, don’t go out and get shit faced straight away. You are entering a web of spiders, YO! Pick your spider.
Thanks for the advice man, appreciate it. Not long now…
[quote=“Puppet”]
When you get here, let me know. Will still grab a burger with you and let you know all the places to hang out.
Matt[/quote]
ewww creepy! :discodance:
Thanks for the advice man, appreciate it. Not long now…[/quote]
Enjoy yourself. It’s all one big adventure. I went to Japan for my first Asian adventure and I loved it. New people, new foods, new experiences, finding out about yourself on a whole new level. The teaching is sort of a secondary part of your life really. The same is true in Taiwan. Get stuck in and make yourself an adventure. 
Thanks for the advice man, appreciate it. Not long now…[/quote]
Enjoy yourself. It’s all one big adventure. I went to Japan for my first Asian adventure and I loved it. New people, new foods, new experiences, finding out about yourself on a whole new level. The teaching is sort of a secondary part of your life really. The same is true in Taiwan. Get stuck in and make yourself an adventure. [/quote]
Thanks man. Will let you know how I get on.