Why do we expect to be treated like Gods?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

We arrive in Taiwan expecting to teach English. Most or even nearly all have not studied four years in Uni to be a qualified English teacher.

We get a job, expect a huge salary and only do half a days work.

We think we can wear anything we want and do what ever we want.

Be late, go to Thailand for a few months and maybe come back.

If we don’t like the job we just leave and then complain about crap bosses.

We expect everything to be written in English and everyone must act and do the same as us.

We can go to pubs and nightclubs swear,get drunk and abuse people and then expect not to get smacked in the mouth.

Do we really act like this in our own countries.

My last job in my own country , I worked 6 weeks in advance, turned up half an hour before time, dressed to the code got an average pay. And yes I was teaching English and these were normal rules and regs as in any job. Why do we expect so much here ? I don’t understand. WE had many Taiwanese students but nothing was written in Chinese.

PLEASE EXPLAIN OUR CONDUCT ?

2

I think you are hanging around the wrong people. Sounds like you need to meet some positive foreigners. Most of the foreigners I know are nothing like what you described.

3

I don’t know you and your friends. How can I explain your conduct?

Brian

4

[quote=“bigal”]We arrive in Taiwan expecting to teach English. Most or even nearly all have not studied four years in Uni to be a qualified English teacher.

We get a job, expect a huge salary and only do half a days work.
We think we can wear anything we want and do what ever we want.
Be late, go to Thailand for a few months and maybe come back.
If we don’t like the job we just leave and then complain about crap bosses.
We expect everything to be written in English and everyone must act and do the same as us.
We can go to pubs and nightclubs swear,get drunk and abuse people and then expect not to get smacked in the mouth.
Do we really act like this in our own countries.

PLEASE EXPLAIN OUR CONDUCT ?[/quote]

We we we we we we … please don’t speak on behalf of all of us. You can always be diligent with your work, dress to the occasion, imbibe a few ales wthout becoming a blind drunk. The answer is that these people here behave the same way back home … sad but true. They don’t respect themselves which is why thaey don’t respect anything else.

You’re just hanging out with the wrong crowd.

You probably just employed the dregs of the teachers on the lowest salary possible… pay peanuts get monkeys …as the old saying goes.

In any case a lot of the Chinese teachers also have a bad attitude towards working with foreigners, and they only teach for the money as well. Let’s not be so silly as to not believe that Chinese teachers do it because they really care about the little kiddies education muahahahahahahahahha.

5

We, the Queen and I, Queen Elizabeth get it.

How could I expect Bu lai and Bob to be anything like I said .

How many English teachers have you worked with or met and have now left after a year or less. I wish I had a crowd to call bad but I am fed up of going to the pub and listening to how they ONLY earn 800 nt an hour when back home they can’t even earn half of that. They are not my crowd but many of them have passed my way with their complaints. Maybe this should go back to travelgoddesses exceedingly long thread about living here.
Do I run with the wrong crowd or are the shutters up and you can’t see the bollocks of ’ Look I am a foreigner treat meet like God.’

6

OH Bob I didn’t say I was one of the qualified I was just bitching.

I am one of the floor cleaners who lick your shoes. I am not worthy…

Dam you mole dig faster…dig faster they are coming to get you.

7

Hey STV why did you come here?

8

Well, my profile does resemble the busts of the Greek and Roman gods.

9

Ditto what others said about hanging out with the wrong people. Plenty of English teachers care about what they do.

10

[quote=“bigal”]We, the Queen and I, Queen Elizabeth get it.

How could I expect Bu lai and Bob to be anything like I said .

How many English teachers have you worked with or met and have now left after a year or less. I wish I had a crowd to call bad but I am fed up of going to the pub and listening to how they ONLY earn 800 nt an hour when back home they can’t even earn half of that. They are not my crowd but many of them have passed my way with their complaints. Maybe this should go back to travelgoddesses’ exceedingly long thread about living here.
Do I run with the wrong crowd or are the shutters up and you can’t see the bollocks of ’ Look I am a foreigner treat meet like God.’[/quote]

Here’s a thought: don’t hang out in a pub and you are less likely to find people who hang out there drinking. Surely there must be other places to be in Tainan than in a pub with a bunch of losers.
You have described the textbook definition of a “revolving-door English teacher” (don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you), right down to the Thailand thing. Fortunately this is not a website for those types and you are more than likely to come across foreigners who have a genuine interest in Taiwan on this website (with an increasing number of them being in Tainan it seems) than the current bunch of mental (and cultural) midgets you run around with.

11

Well… Bigal… I also have a school. The school’s name is Mind Your Language. So I guess that I also teach, just Friday & Saturdays.

Plenty of the Chinese teachers get upset that the foreigners are paid more. Blame your racist bosses, who have decided that white is mighty good for business.

So that leaves us with plenty of very good local teachers getting paid a lot less than some of their foreign workmates. Some of the newbie foreigners of course can’t teach for shit, but they learn. I don’t think they are the ones on NT$800 an hour.

Some foreigners also tell fibs, you know, they brag about how much an hour they’re getting. It’s just to piss people off, even other foreign teachers. Also you’re dealing with young people living in a land where the culture and lifestyle is very different from back home. They like to hang out with people of their own kind.

No different to the Taiwanese who immigrate overseas and hangout together…

12

What Satellite TV said rings true. Actually a lot of first time teachers do make an effort appearance wise and teaching wise and are often let down by work place standards and end up playing game show hosts/foreign clowns. I wore nice clothes to my first job for three months and then dressed down and was complimented on my clothing. However at my second job I tended to wear nice clothes to work so I could differentiate between being at work and being at home. My American co-teacher taught in a bikini top a few times during the summer. (No way you’d catch me doing that).

I’m in my fourth year here and still turning up to work up to an hour before time. However with me you’ve hit the nail on the head with the Thailand thing but you could substitute with the Phillipines or any other country in the region and you’ve got both long-timers and short-timers in the blow.

13

I call bullshit on this one. Nearly every teacher I’ve met here actually has graduated. You hear this rumor from time to time, but no one ever actually backs this claim up with any shred of proof. Besides, to get an ARC and work legally, you need it.

[quote]
We get a job, expect a huge salary and only do half a days work. [/quote]

The average qualified Taiwanese teacher in a highschool or college makes roughly the same per hour. Your average Taiwanese teacher in a buxiban makes about 400NT per hour (I asked about this) - which is for Taiwan, good money for a job many of them aren’t very qualified for (i.e., can barely speak English, if at all).

Only a half day’s work? Well, whose fault is that? The boss only gives you half a day’s work, because the buxiban is closed for most of the daylight hours.

Considering the average Taiwanese’s fashion sense :laughing: , this is the last place for any of them to complain about foreigners dressing sloppily. I dress as casually as my coworkers.

You can do that, but if you come back, you won’t get rehired. And in today’s tighter market, the jobs are a lot scarcer than they used to be. The days of blowing in, working a few months, and blowing out, are fading away.

As is our right! What, you’re saying that people should just put up with crap jobs and shitty bosses? Pssst: this happens all over the world. People up and quit and complain back home, too.

English is the international language, and it’s just common courtesy for a country to make it easier for foreigners, be they tourists or guest workers, to get around. This is one area where Taiwan is a bit backwards compared to most of its neighbouring countries in Asia. It’s not as internationalized.

[quote]We can go to pubs and nightclubs swear,get drunk and abuse people and then expect not to get smacked in the mouth.

Do we really act like this in our own countries.[/quote]

You’re new to town, so obviously you haven’t heard about the Edmontonian who got glassed in the face at his girlfriend’s pub when he drunkenly turned around to some Taiwanese and slurred, apparently unprovoked and out of the blue, “Fuck you.” The guy had to have some serious plastic surgery after that. I’ve heard a few other stories about foreigners getting the crap beat out of them by Taiwanese - not very often, because this isn’t a very violent culture, but don’t go around thinking you’re not bound to the same rules of basic civility as back home, or you’ll get a rude surprise.

And do “we” act like this back home? Yeah, like there aren’t any barfights back home. :unamused:

14

As mentioned it is a requirement to teach legally so where do you get this?

[quote]
We get a job, expect a huge salary and only do half a days work. [/quote]
Huge? Compared to what? I made more 12 years ago in the U.S. than I would ever make teaching in Taiwan. And half a days work…well considering most English teachers get paid by the hour so it’s not like they are getting paid for not working. From personal experience, by the time I figured out prep time, meeting times (and other UNPAID) times…my hourly pay was about NT$350~NT$400. Granted this maybe a huge salary by Taiwanese standards but for someone with a MA it isn’t that much. Then again, I didn’t come here to get rich.

Really? In what fantasy world?

Sorry I have been in Taiwan for over two years and I have never been to Thailand. Is this a requirement? BTW, if I was (am) late for work my pay was (is) cut.

As mentioned above, this happens everywhere…but then again what do you expect when so many people open schools with no knowledge of English (it’s just a business) and no understanding of Western culture. BTW, both times when I quit and GAVE notice, the employers withheld all the salary due me or charged me a training fee…something totally illegal but then again, I am a foreigner so I have not rights (well I do but I can’t afford to hire an attorney and sort them out) but in the U.S. the labor board (or whatever it’s called) would love to hear about this. There would be a major lawsuit.

Sorry we don’t, maybe you do.

Again we don’t and maybe you do…I haven’t been to a pub or nightclub in over a year and when I did go I didn’t abuse anyone (but I did get drunk)

[quote] Do we really act like this in our own countries.[/quote] I don’t know…do you?

Sorry but in the U.S., normally you clock in as soon as you arrive at work or begin to work…to do otherwise is against federal law. There are several examples where companies have been fined millions of dollars because employees were required to begin work 5 MINUTES before they actually clocked in or were required to clock out then go back to work.

As I said above, these are normal rules and regs in the U.S. – you work you get paid. If you are in training, it is against the law for the company to tell you to take your training materials home to study. Actually, they would make us turn our materials in at the end of the day so we couldn’t study at home. And the boss never called you on your day off.

So were they studying Chinese??? Were your employees Chinese? Duh. You are teaching at an English school so everything should be in English or have an English translation available. Employee contracts should naturally be in the native language of the employee (IMHO).

I think I just did. :laughing:

15

i think the OP meant that the four year degree that most foreigners come here equipped with has little (nothing?) to do with teaching of any kind, never mind a language to young children. i got business/english degrees, and i sure don’t remember anything from those classes that helped me here, in terms of teaching anyways …

16

Perhaps, but it’s pretty common to work in a field completely different from what you studied in school.

17

perhaps, but i would argue that some degree of knowledge about second language acquisition would be useful, as would child psych, as would cross-cultural sensitivity … and none of these came up in either of my bachelor degrees …

18

The original poster is British. Three year arts degrees are common place in his own country. I think he meant that there are a lot of teachers who have not furthered their studies after degree completion.

19

“expect”? We DO get treated as such.

Me: Dear boss, I’m going to thailand for a week.
Boss: Ok, sure :smiley: have fun, and when you’re back you’ll get a raise :slight_smile:

And you know what? Back in your home country there are “god likens,” as well. You just aren’t lucky to have one of those jobs, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, would you?

The name of the game is: “supply and demand”.

20

Why? How many parents have child psych courses? Besides you are not there to raise the children, just play games with them that teach them English.
Cross-cultural sensitivity…another PC term that means common sense. Treat others as you expect to be treated, keep your mouth shut and see how others act before you act, and remember you are not Taiwanese. There’s your course. Hope it was helpful. BTW making friends with Taiwanese and asking them questions is also helpful.