Your girlfriend conducted most of the interview for you in Chinese?! :loco:
Are they hiring you or your girlfriend?
[quote=“Anubis”]Your girlfriend conducted most of the interview for you in Chinese?! :loco:
Are they hiring you or your girlfriend?[/quote]
This is a very valid point. Never let anyone speak Chinese for you when the management doing the interviewing can speak perfect English. Corners will be cut, perimeters will not be secured, and oft given up with not even a struggle.
Taoyuan county is quite a large market. Don't let oneself be constrained by working in the dirty old town of Taoyuan City.
And: welcome to Forumosa, TaiwanVisitor12321!Wrong post, I made earlier. Disregard.
Yup, I’m an ex employee. I quit before my contract was up. Not a disgruntled employee, but didn’t enjoy a moment of my time there. Nor did the students.
From the beginning it was all smoke and mirrors. The person who interviewed me said I get to do many fun activities with the students when I arrived and looked around. They have a recording booth that is mostly just for show, a “TV Station” room, which I’ve never seen used, a dance room, which was used perhaps twice during my stay. The students never performed a fun activity.
The goal of the foreign teacher is make the kids entertained and not really teach. There was very little education going on. Many of the ‘foreign’ teachers were actually from non-native English speaking countries. Now, I don’t mind this overall as if someone has a good grasp on English, let them teach English. However, there were folks from various countries that didn’t understand the basic pronunciation, definition or proper use of words and grammar in many cases.
The local teachers job was to yell at the students and make them cry. I’m being a touch sarcastic here, but there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t have my coteacher screaming at the top of her lungs making one student or another cry. This is not right. My new school does not follow this procedure. Sure, students are emotional and may cry, but the goal is to educate and empower, not to knock them down.
The agenda is all over the place and highly inconsistant. Upper management keeps changing guidelines and schedules. Things change ever 2 to 3 weeks, if not more frequently.
They hire foreign teachers to work in Kindergarten, which is illegal. It’s practiced at many schools - but for such a big school to do so, I’m surprised.
If you have a problem, you’re wasting your time reporting it. A married foreign teacher received illicit photos from a local teacher in his classroom. This teacher complained to management, which basically laughed off the situation. They wouldn’t resolve it, so that teacher quit. This can be verified, he told/showed various coworkers. That said, you can imagine how smaller issues are resolved if a major one such as this has such poor oversight.
They rarely pay the full pay that is listed on your contract. Evaluations rarely, even for some AMAZING teachers there - reach the full potential. They will dock pay from most every teacher, every month. For little things, to things that aren’t even within the teachers control. Say, a student gets hurt in your class? The local teacher is fined a large sum from their salary AND the foreign teacher (not so much, but a fee none the less). That’s just one example, there were several others.
Local teachers come and go often. Within my time there, I saw so many faces for a day or a week, and then they’d be gone and someone else was there. Many foreign teachers have also come and worked for a few days to a few weeks, and then end up leaving before they sign their contract.
Contract - when I first arrived, I mentioned the time limit I wanted to work there. When it came time that they printed and gave me the contract to evaluate and sign - it was 6 months longer than what I had wanted. I went back to them and they practically begged me to sign it for that period of time. I replied that if I work there during the time I initially said I’m willing to provide, I’ll sign on for a longer period. Now I understand why they wanted this.
They will expect you to do many very-non teaching related jobs. Paint the school, clean the floor with a detailer, move large - heavy furniture. On weekend events (holiday teaching, they call it) you will work for more than 4 hours and make about $400nt or so. This will include the event activity, and breakdown at the end. Breakdown will include transporting of tents, tables, desks, chairs, sandbags, large “air blowing machines” (not sure what they’re called), and even a huge, inflatable Arch.
Grading students is also a joke, and proves how uncaring they are. They have (had?) “Practical classes” on Wednesday’s which the students absolutely hated. These also included books the students had to fill out with vocabulary, and sentence patterns that were often carelessly put together. The grading system was based on “Very good” and “Good”. There were no other options.
When giving evaluation tests, teachers aren’t allowed to give scores below 85%.
During slow summer seasons when there’s less students, they ask if any foreign teacher wants to take 1 or 2 months off, unpaid. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just be aware that it’s possible - and if you’re relying on income, then it’s not ideal.
I could go on, but I think my point was made overall. The school is still a good stepping stone for new teachers or for people from non-English native countries to get a go at teaching. It’s difficult to find a job teaching English if you’re from a non-Native English country or if your skin color isn’t caucasion, unfortunately. (I don’t support this, but it’s what it is. :-/ )
When I broke my contract, they claimed they would sue me because it’s illegal to break the contract. Don’t let them scare you if you break your contract. The contract clearly stated that if the contract is broken before the end of the period, that there is a fine of $10,000nt for Foreign teachers ($40,000 for Local teachers, beware). Once I pointed that out and paid my fine, they left me alone. They will, however - try to harass you and your close family beforehand. I threatened to sue as well, because of this. It wasn’t worth my time, so I didn’t bother.
Feel free to ask questions or comment if you’d like me to go into more detail. If I can think of anything else - I’ll submit a reply/edit.
[quote=“HanananFerng”]Yup, I’m an ex employee. I quit before my contract was up. Not a disgruntled employee, but didn’t enjoy a moment of my time there. Nor did the students.
From the beginning it was all smoke and mirrors. The person who interviewed me said I get to do many fun activities with the students when I arrived and looked around. They have a recording booth that is mostly just for show, a “TV Station” room, wich I’ve never seen used, a dance room, which was used perhaps twice during my stay. The students never performed a fun activity.
The goal of the foreign teacher is make the kids entertained and not really teach. There was very little education going on. Many of the ‘foreign’ teachers were actually from non-native English speaking countries. Now, I don’t mind this overall as if someone has a good grasp on English, let them teach English. However, there were folks from various countryies that didn’t understand the basic pronunciation, definition or proper use of words and grammar in many cases.
The local teachers job was to yell at the students and make them cry. I’m being a touch sarcastic here, but there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t have my coteacher screaming at the top of her lungs making one student or another cry. This is not right. My new school does not follow this procedure. Sure, students are emotional and may cry, but the goal is to educate and empower, not to knock them down.
The agenda is all over the place and highly inconsistant. Upper management keeps changing guidelines and schedules. Things change ever 2 to 3 weeks, if not more frequently.
They hire foreign teachers to work in Kindergarten, which is illegal. It’s practiced at many schools - but for such a big school to do so, I’m surprised.
If you have a problem, you’re wasting your time reporting it. A married foreign teacher received illicit photos from a local teacher in his classroom. This teacher complained to management, which basically laughed off the situation. They wouldn’t resolve it, so that teacher quit. This can be verified, he told/showed various coworkers. That said, you can imagine how smaller issues are resolved if a major one such as this has such poor oversight.
They rarely pay the full pay that is listed on your contract. Evaluations rarely, even for some AMAZING teachers there - reach the full potential. They will dock pay from most every teacher, every month. For little things, to things that aren’t even within the teachers control. Say, a student gets hurt in your class? The local teacher is fined a large sum from their salary AND the local teacher (not so much, but a fee none the less). That’s just one example, there were several others.
Local teachers come and go often. Within my time there, I saw so many faces for a day or a week, and then they’d be gone and someone else was there. Many foreign teachers have also come and worked for a few days to a few weeks, and then end up leaving before they sign their contract.
Contract - when I first arrived, I mentioned the time limit I wanted to work there. When it came time that they printed and gave me the contract to evaluate and sign - it was 6 months longer than what I had wanted. I went back to them and they practically begged me to sign it for that period of time. I replied that if I work there during the time I initially said I’m willing to provide, I’ll sign on for a longer period. Now I understand why they wanted this.
They will expect you to do many very-non teaching related jobs. Paint the school, clean the floor with a detailer, move large - heavy furniture. On weekend events (holiday teaching, they call it) you will work for more than 4 hours and make about $400nt or so. This will include the event activity, and breakdown at the end. Breakdown will include transporting of tents, tables, desks, chairs, sandbags, large “air blowing machines” (not sure what they’re called), and even a huge, inflatable Arch.
Grading students is also a joke, and proves how uncaring they are. They have (had?) “Practical classes” on Wednesday’s which the students absolutely hated. These also included books the students had to fill out with vocabulary, and sentence patterns that were often carelessly put together. The grading system was based on “Very good” and “Good”. There were no other options.
When giving evaluation tests, teachers aren’t allowed to give scores below 85%.
During slow summer seasons when there’s less students, they ask if any foreign teacher wants to take 1 or 2 months off, unpaid. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just be aware that it’s possible - and if you’re relying on income, then it’s not ideal.
I could go on, but I think my point was made overall. The school is still a good stepping stone for new teachers or for people from non-English native countries to get a go at teaching. It’s difficult to find a job teaching English if you’re from a non-Native English country or if your skin color isn’t caucasion, unfortunately. (I don’t support this, but it’s what it is. :-/ )
When I broke my contract, they claimed they would sue me because it’s illegal to break the contract. Don’t let them scare you if you break your contract. The contract clearly stated that if the contract is broken before the end of the period, that there is a fine of $10,000nt for Foreign teachers ($40,000 for Local teachers, beware). Once I pointed that out and paid my fine, they left me alone. They will, however - try to harass you and your close family beforehand. I threatened to sue as well, because of this. It wasn’t worth my time, so I didn’t bother.
Feel free to ask questions or comment if you’d like me to go into more detail. If I can think of anything else - I’ll submit a reply/edit.[/quote]
This school sounds like the school from hell. My school is paradise compared to this place. Holy shit! 
Tomorrow I’ll have a new enthusiasm at school. :discodance:
RockOn: Exactly. Well is owed by the Taoyuan Bus company and also runs a printing company. It’s just a large money pot for various rich parents to send their kids to, basically, English daycare for a few hours a day. They love to bully people, especially if they think they are weak and/or are here woring illegally (without proper documentation, etc). Hope what they deserves comes to them in time once these allegations are brought to light to the Taiwan government. I know several previous teachers have gone to the Taoyuan foreign labor office. We’ll see…
I’ve been reading about the legality of teaching in Taiwan in Forumosa. I guess I was only able to look for answers when such problem occurred. I have worked in this school before and I can confirm the things @warning, @grootkrokodil, @leaving, and @HanananFerng mentioned.
The buxiban offered me a 1 year contract with a working permit, health insurance, accommodation, and bonuses. It was manageable in the beginning but after some time, the ambiguous jobs started to pile up. I’ve seek help from the other teachers if they are experiencing the same duties and responsibilities I was given. To my dismay, I figured this was a bad employer. We had several ambiguous duties such as: cleaning the classroom after class with a broom and mop, doing telephone teaching after working hours while getting paid 15nt per call, force you to attend an event where you will work as a staff without pay on a Saturday, make you decorate the classroom after office hours without pay, force you to check the books after office hours, make you stay after office hours to do oral teaching without pay, the grading system is only based on very good and good, the schedule changes every week, they ask you to substitute in other classes, they have no limit of students in a class, they do not care if students are being socially bullied in class, they force you to do a bus run to pick up the kids from their Chinese schools, they make you clean the ceiling fan like you’re some sort of janitor, they make so many grammatical errors on the evaluation exam and yet they continue to hand it out to the children, they plagiarise Cambridge books to cut cost, they make you wake up the kids after they have their nap time, they make you pile up all the sleeping beds on the corner of the classroom like some sort of staff, they conduct meetings after office hours instead of the designated meeting day, everything they do is always last minute, and so much more other things. Hence, after 6 months of enduring such terrible employer, I have decided to resign from my teaching position because of the unfair treatment the school is doing.
Now, I am threatened of deportation from a parent that complained about me to the executive yuan “not letting their son go to the bathroom” To clarify things, I told the boy not to go to the bathroom because this boy has been disrespectful and downright mischievous every single day in class. I have a rule that they can go to the bathroom before the class start and after the class finishes. Also, in case of emergency, they can tell me that it is an emergency. The first time he raised his hand was when I was asking the kids for an answer to a question. This boy raised his hand and asked “in Chinese, is that shit?” After studying Chinese, I would know some bad words. The second time he raised his hand, I ignored him because I knew he was up to no good. Eventually, he stood up and asked me if he can go to the bathroom. I told him, we only have a few minutes left and he didn’t even finish his exercises yet. After a few seconds, he decided to go out on his own. I did not physically stop the boy from going out nor did I harm him in anyway. I tried to look for the supervisor to handle the boy but there was nobody outside.
With time running out, I only had about 4 minutes to finish the books. I had decided to tell the boy, if you go outside on your own, I cannot accept you in my class unless you settle things with the supervisor. During that time, I thought that the greater majority would be more important that handling a single boy. What if the others parents complained that their kids did not learn much at school because of my attention on this mischievous boy? Eventually, the boy went out on his own while I moved his table outside of the classroom. After some time, I was called by the principal and asked why i did such a thing. I told them that the boy was always misbehaving in class, disrespects the teacher, disturbs the other students, acts very unruly, and never listens to the teacher. Even though the supervisor reprimands the boy countless of times, the school has no disciplinary actions nor sanctions to kids who conducts such behavior. The school just lets the boy continue attending class because he pays the tuition.
Now the boys parents complained to the executive yan and is threatening to have me deported. The school is putting the blame on me because of my actions. Note that this was not the first time I brought the boy out to the supervisor. I’ve sent him out of my class countless times for disturbing the class and misbehaving. Over and over again, they just send him back. This is a big school and I’ve read the previous posts about other teachers complaining about the school’s unfair treatment but I don’t think they are able to do anything.
I just want to end anything to do with the school and move on but now I got this issue with the parents complaining about having me deported. I don’t want to leave Taiwan because i like it here. From this point on, I would seek for advice on how I can defend myself. Plus, I came from a non-native english speaking country but I pass the other requirements such as: 4 years BA in liberal arts, teaching experience, and the necessary documents that go with it. Hence, they were able to provide me with a work permit. I am not connected to the local government nor know any legal entity that can defend my claim but if I can get help on the matter I will welcome it.
Really? Which country is it?
Your situation sounds like a real mess. I would talk to the labor department asap.
Hello everyone! I got an job offer from Well School. Is this the same school school as Well American School? I am quite a bit concerned after reading the negative reactions on this forum.
Hi, everyone I was a student from this buxiban just here giving some thoughts from the students pov, so you know how awful this school was (graduated for years, but I think things have only gotten worse), I’m not here to whine about how much the homeworks were etc., I’m here to say how I as a student see, what they made foreign teachers do, as for the payment, I’ve got no idea our teachers were paid so poorly, though I have to thank all the foreign teachers that taught me b4, you’re the reason why I’m able to use English at all.
Now back to the point, I’ll go through the conclusion here first in case tl;dr, yep the foreign teachers weren’t treat as teacher by any means, they were awfully abused, all the unnecessary works they have to do said by the former posts were true, btw the school doesn’t give a shit about kids being bullied, the Chinese teachers are also the ones who’re bullying, not only towards students too, they also bullied foreign teachers, so for your best bet, do not be employed by it, you’ll regret it!!!