Hi teachers. I am considering teaching in Taiwan this year and I’m also hoping to study part time. I am a qualified English teacher and meet all their requirements as a full time teacher.
I would like to know if anyone has any experience being an assistant? I’m aware the pay is much lower however the extra time from admin and possibly less mental exhaustion could be much better for me.
Does anyone have any advice or experience in this matter? Do the main teachers end up sharing a bulk of the work anyway? Will it be worth the salary cut?
I will also be my first time teaching abroad and wondering if this would be better for preparation.
I appreciate any information in this regard. Thank you for your time:)
I did what was essentially the same program. My employer was a cram school which was being funded by the government to recruit us foreign English teacher assistants for elementary and junior high schools. Ultimately, I and many of the other teachers participating in the project felt like we weren’t doing much of anything. The most class hours I would have on any given day were three, and during those class hours I would only be given a fraction of the time to teach my part. Aside from that, I would do some prep with the other teachers, but for the most part, I was sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs. Of course, this is highly variable—some schools will really want to put you to work (but then you might be teaching the kids how to make shadow puppets for weeks on end and not do anything more important). However, if you like spending most of the day sitting in the office from 8:00-4:00 for $50,000 a month (less than what you’d earn at a cram school but for more of a time commitment), then give it a try. Like you said, you want the time to study and complete assignments.
This sounds wonderful. I’m serious — at this point in my life, I’d love to do a job like this. How do I find these kinds of jobs? I didn’t even know foreigners could work as teaching assistants in Taiwan.
You can apply through TFETP Taiwan, it’s the government teacher program and they also recruit assistants. However, I emailed them this morning and they said that they are no longer accepting applications for this year unfortunately.
Try checking tealit.com. I believe that’s where I originally saw the job listing (and it was as late as July or August). It might still be better if you can get hired by the government directly, though.
They probably set the bar too high for regular teachers and end up with lots of locals using Chinese to teach tests. This is a loophole to get around their own rules.
Haven’t seen any updates lately about how the Philippino teachers are doing…
