I am interested in teaching English in Taiwan, but I was wondering what sort of positions and salary I could expect with my background.
I have:
A BA in Economics and Statistics
A teaching certifcate to teach secondary mathmatics in Texas and have two years of experience teaching high school math.
One and a half years of experience teaching English at a language school in Japan.
I am planning on getting a CELTA as well.
What do you think my options would be? What kind of salary could I expect?
Thanks in advance for your help!
You’re overqualified. You’ll probably get the same “salary” as anyone else with a white face – you are white, aren’t you? – gets.
Actually, probably less; the really qualified folks here seem to do less well than the scam artists. JMHO.
Teacher friends say about NT$60,000 per month if you find a full-time position, plus more if you do private lessons in your spare time. Typically in the range of NT$100,000 per month.
Dig around on the forum; you’ll find a few hundred repetitions of the question, and about ten times as many answers. . . .
Come as you are. You’re plenty qualified. I wouldn’t even worry about CELTA, unless it is something you really want to do out of interest. You already have teaching related experience and certification. The only problem is you’ll likely be paid the same as somebody less qualified than you. But that’s the way it goes here…
[quote=“TS”]I wouldn’t even worry about CELTA, unless it is something you really want to do out of interest. You already have teaching related experience and certification.[/quote]If you’re planning on teaching English for a long time, the CELTA or the Trinity equivalent are well worth it. They have a lot of stuff specific to teaching English that will be different to the math teaching qualification you have. It will be doubly useful because you already have some English teaching experience which you can reflect on and relate the theory to while doing the course. (To the TEFL naysayers I would say that there are some people who do manage to go through the course without really picking up anything useful. If you are prepared to get involved in the course and relate it to practical experience both during it and afterwards, however, it will certainly improve your teaching.)
TEFL certification probably won’t mean you get higher initial pay here though. If you’re only planning to teach English a further year or two you may not feel it’s worth it.
Thanks for the advice. My major concern is finding a job where being an educator comes before being an entertainer. I loved working in Japan, but there where times I felt like a clown. I worked at AEON in Japan (one of the big 3 chain schools), and while they treated me fairly, I didn’t really feel like a real teacher there. What are the conditions like in Taiwan? Do you think I could find a semi-serious teaching position? I don’t mind keeping the customer happy, but I want a place that has some sort of educational standards too. Thanks!
there are serious teaching jobs, but unfortunately the renumeration for most of them doesn’t stack up again the “clowning around”. you can do full-time (8 hour days, not all teachings) at a junior/senior high for 60-70 K a month (as posted in numerous newspaper ads, whereas at cram schools you work about 10 hours less a week and make about 80 K or more.
on top of that, at many real schools, you are required to attend meetings, perform as an outside moniter, and attend school functions … never heard of any pay associated with these - think they are part of the package.
otherwise, get as few hours as an arc provider will give you, and find some private students who really want to learn - more rewarding in my opinion.