Soon I will be offered to sign a contract at my job where I will be offer 2-9pm M-F for 55k/mo in Kaohsiung
Teaching hours are currently at around 20/week for about 8 different classes of kids (some classes are only 30 min), in non-class time I am free to prepare or do my own thing
I’m a white American with only 3 months of teaching experience.
Is this a good offer or not? To be honest, I’d love to ditch this and go teach adults for less money. Is that possible? I’m fluent in Chinese, would that be an asset in teaching adults?
Sounds like a good deal considering you only have 3 months teaching exp. And being fluent in Chinese will only help you teaching low level adult students.
For Kaohsiung, this isn’t bad. Adult teaching is hard to find anywhere, and because it is more appealing than Buxiban, many of the adult schools want teachers who already have an ARC (they don’t want to pay for it). Being fluent in Chinese changes things a bit, but the lack of experience is a drawback.
Personally, I would sign the tender and get some experience under your belt. The work permit and ARC will dictate most of your decisions when it comes to teaching in Taiwan; it is illegal to work here without one. It is a shite system: If you want to work, you need an ARC, but you can’t get an ARC unless you have signed a contract with a school that wants to own you. I think $55k is damn good for Kaohsiung and the hours aint too bad!
Someone else will have to guide you with regards to getting adult teaching jobs. Every adult place I have applied to in Taipei has asked if I already had an ARC, when I didn’t, there was no ‘call back’ .
How desperate is your situation, money-wise? I say spend another week looking. If you want to teach adults, it’s worth it to seek out that job.
My advice- check in with the local colleges. It’s the beginning of a new semester and many colleges have a government funded “chatting corner” which is a blast to teach and 800 an hour No preparation required (at least not where I teach). Not sure if they provide ARC though.
Two of my Canadian friends have a year long visa that does NOT require a work contract. It’s a new thing and apparently they were the first to get it. I’m not sure of the details or how easy it is to get but they’re stoked- their visa isn’t tied to work but they can still work if they want to. Really a sweet deal.
I teach at GVO, my arc is with them, and I love it- all adults, no prep- but apparently a lot of people signed on for like 450 an hour =0 ! And they’ve had problems with the management (I’ve had no problem with the management) I would never encourage anyone to work for less than 550 an hour (which is what they hired me at).
I think it always pays to hold out for the job you want, if you’re not desperate for money.
Not too bad I think. Only thing that sucks is you are at the school 35 hours a week but only teach 20. I was teaching 20 hours a week, but my work hours were 1-6(25 hours) and I was making 60k. This was in Hsinchu, though. But for your first teaching job with only 3 months experience it isn’t bad at all. Way better than I did my first year at Hess!
Sorry I forgot to mention an important piece of information. I DO have a JFRV, so ARC is not a problem. Does that change any of your opinions? should I go for the adult thing then? Part of me wanting to jump ship is my kids are out of control often and I’m not allowed to punish them or scold them at all and I’m not allowed to speak any Chinese at work. Also my boss has been pretty dishonest about pay and stuff, but apparently that just makes him a normal Taiwanese boss.
If you working hours are only 2-9 pm why can’t you still teach adults? Fluent in Chinese, have a JFRV, and you have a steady paycheck job being offered? Sounds like a win win situation. Better get your hustle on and make it rain (ebonics translation:make lot’s of money).
My personal opinion: an inexperienced teacher trying to teach adults only = poor (or incredibly poor) compared to other ESL’ers (not exactly a wealthy demographic).
My advice if you want to teach adults is to try to find a job (edit - this should have said buxiban job) ending by 7pm even if it’s only 15 teaching hrs/wk. This will give you a steady income but allow for a lot of evening free time to either do adult privates or try to get a part time job at gjun or Wells (are there other options in KHH?) teaching adults.
But are you sure that you would like teaching adults? It might be better to work part time teaching adults and find out if you actually like teaching adults before committing to it with a full-time job. I might go the part time (edit - part time adult) route depending where my job search takes me. But I hear a lot of people want to teach adults and then they find out that it isn’t very much fun or they’re terrible at it.
And a last comment - you mention that you currently have about 20 teaching hours but what is the contract max? 25hrs/wk? because you should plan on that being maxed out.
[quote=“Abacus”]My personal opinion: an inexperienced teacher trying to teach adults only = poor (or incredibly poor) compared to other ESL’ers (not exactly a wealthy demographic).
My advice if you want to teach adults is to try to find a job ending by 7pm even if it’s only 15 teaching hrs/wk. This will give you a steady income but allow for a lot of evening free time to either do adult privates or try to get a part time job at gjun or Wells (are there other options in KHH?) teaching adults.
But are you sure that you would like teaching adults? It might be better to work part time teaching adults and find out if you actually like teaching adults before committing to it with a full-time job. I might go the part time route depending where my job search takes me. But I hear a lot of people want to teach adults and then they find out that it isn’t very much fun or they’re terrible at it.
And a last comment - you mention that you currently have about 20 teaching hours but what is the contract max? 25hrs/wk? because you should plan on that being maxed out.[/quote]
I agree with all of this. As well, what does class “prep” entail and how many students are in each class? What variety of levels will you find in one class (ie. is there a testing process or can the students join any class they like?) These factors will influence your success and your return rate. Also, as an inexperienced teacher, do you have the cojones to “control” an adult class? You won’t have behavioural issues, but you will have students who attempt to monopolize the class, to the detriment of those who pay just as much, but have been brought up without that special sense of entitlement. Also, make sure that the classes are exclusively for adults; sometimes schools try to sneak in paying teenagers.
Unless you need the cash, why would you do this? You don’t need the ARC, there’s no reason for you to do this if you don’t want to. I understand no wanting to run all over the place chasing hours, but 55 isn’t so much to come up with that way, or with a couple private students. If you don’t love it, and don’t HAVE to be tied to it, then why consider it?
Even when I first got here in 99, NO one worked that cheaply! At 29 NT to the dollar, that’s about 15 dollars per hour. That’s not really that bad for Arkansas, at least with no or little work experience, but I be for most of the rest of the US, that’s somewhere near minimum wage! Why would anyone come here to do that? I started out then at 550 ph with no experience, but six months later I had a couple of 1000ph gigs.
So wages aren’t just stagnant, they’re declining. And I did some 1000ph private teaching last year, but it was kids from the private school I was teaching at. I think 1000ph is much harder to find these days. (And I didn’t keep any of the private students very long, either. Too rich and too spoiled to put up with, even for a grand.)
[quote]I teach at GVO, my arc is with them, and I love it- all adults, no prep- but apparently a lot of people signed on for like 450 an hour =0 ! And they’ve had problems with the management (I’ve had no problem with the management) I would never encourage anyone to work for less than 550 an hour (which is what they hired me at).
I think it always pays to hold out for the job you want, if you’re not desperate for money.[/quote]
GVO is known for their low pay. On the other hand, I do know people who say they have been there for a while and are getting 850 an hour on the weekends :s . Some people like the way they stay out of your way.
Thanks for all your replies. After reading all the replies, It seems like the best thing for me to do would be to try to find some higher paying part time jobs and accumulate those to make more money, without all the hassle (I could also be closer to home, this job is about an hour commute away ) and maybe try some adult teaching on the side.
The highest minimum wage in the US is for the state of Washington at 8.67$/hour.
That makes 15$ almost a 75% improvement over that. Definitely not “somewhere near the minimum wage.” Still might not be worth relocating half-way around the world though.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Jackalope -
The sooner you realize that “contracts” on Taiwan are not worth the paper they are written on the better you will grok life here.[/quote]
Not entirely true. Your boss will wave that paper in your face and threaten you if YOU deviate from the contract. So you see? It is worth something. To them. Not you.
No preparation required (at least not where I teach). Not sure if they provide ARC though.
.
Even when I first got here in 99, NO one worked that cheaply! At 29 NT to the dollar, that’s about 15 dollars per hour. That’s not really that bad for Arkansas, at least with no or little work experience, but I be for most of the rest of the US, that’s somewhere near minimum wage! Why would anyone come here to do that? I started out then at 550 ph with no experience, but six months later I had a couple of 1000ph gigs.