Why is it so difficult

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

… finding an English teacher in Taiwan?

Here’s the scenario: The company I work for recently decided to employ a full-time English teacher who would be responsible for an in-house training programme covering courses such as Meetings, Presentations, Negotiations, Telephoning, and so on. Competitive monthly salary, ARC, medical insurance, annual bonus, six weeks paid vacations per year, one paid international flight per year, Chinese New Year bonus, housing subsidy, petrol subsidy, 20 hours per week.

So, the ad went out, applications were received, and interviews scheduled. Applicants were told that the interview would include a 20-minute demo on Presentations.

I was asked by the boss to sit in as part of the interview panel, not because of my knowledge of teaching, but because my English is “not too bad”. :wink:

Here’s what happened.
a. Interview 1: Bluntly refuses to do a demo because “it’s illegal”, it shows a “lack of trust” and just asking for one is sufficient proof of our “ignorance and unprofessionalism”. Shouting at me for being “spineless” for allowing “things like this” to happen. He continues his abuse and we ask him to leave. :astonished:

b. Interview 2: Arrived 20 minutes late in shorts and a T-shirt, unshaven. :s

c. Interview 3: Couldn’t write more than 5 words without a spelling mistake. :help:

d. Interview 4: A guy that insists speaking Afrikaans to me because he is convinced I’m from South Africa. :loco:

e. Interview 5: A lady whose “handouts” are tiny pieces of torn, crumpled paper with words scribbled on them in pencil. :noway:

f. Interview 6: No show. :fume:

g. Interview 7: A person with “years” of experience. Eager to take the job, but only if he’s granted 4 weeks vacation in August to go back to __________. :unamused:

h. Interview 8: Been in Taiwan a couple of years. Will take the job, but only if we’re willing to pay for his daily commute between Kaoshiung and Hsinchu. :smiley:

The list goes on.

We are still looking.

It seems as if all the ‘good’ teachers are taken.

2

Wow, sounds great! I’d do it, but I can’t smell. I mean spel. I mean–never mind.

3

[quote=“Anubis”]

g. Interview 7: A person with “years” of experience. Eager to take the job, but only if he’s granted 4 weeks vacation in August to go back to __________. :unamused:

quote]

I didn’t read your first post clearly. If this person was good in every other respect then why wouldn’t they hire him? I have asked for time off at every interview I have been to here to go home for weddings etc. It’s better that they say it up front instead of taking the job and then asking for time off.

The other ones are pretty much what I’ve seen everywhere here. Why would you wear shorts and sandals to an interview?!

4

#1 is hilarious. I’ll bet it was a certain Forumosan. :laughing:

What’s wrong with #7 again? He/she already has a vacation planned in August, and presumably already has the tickets in hand, given that August starts tomorrow. The job can then begin upon return. If he/she means annually, well, you offer “six weeks paid vacations per year”, which is more than the four weeks of August, so what’s the problem? The candidate is just letting you know vacation plans (which fit within your criteria) a bit early.

5

yeah I agree that #7 is reasonable, especially given it is so close.

6

I’d do it if you were in Taipei or would pay for me to go there instead of the international flight and some of the other benefits.

However, if I told you that I have to go home in September for 2 weeks because of my honeymoon, would that sour the deal? That to me is being honest…

7

Wow, four week vacation, that is nice. I didn’t have any time off the first year and then for two years only a week…

When I was hired, I had a previous commitment from another government entity, and I was also explicit that I had to help this people out. Eventually, this guys had to talk to my boss and plead with her. It was during SARS and no other person was willing to travel under those conditions. Even so, I was punished in my evaluation for it. And it was only 2 days!

8

I think there are plenty of teachers out there, but it seems a lot of employers have unrealistic expectations. Most schools seem to try to get as much work and time as possible from teachers while offering little money and usually no benefits. Then they arbitrarily dismiss applicants based on trivial things like appearance or an unwillingness to perform unpaid hours (for meetings, prep time…).

Most employers here seem to be completely unbending. They have a list of rather unreasonable demands (considering the pay) and refuse to negotiate. This results in loads of quality teachers being rejected.

However, in your case it sounds like you’re offering a pretty good deal with excellent benefits. But you too seem to have been way too picky about the candidates. Interviews 4, 7 and 8 sound like they could have worked out had you actually been willing to negotiate (well, maybe not 4).

It seems like there is something in the Taiwanese psyche that says the boss has to rule supreme, and it is unthinkable for a lowly employee (teacher) to question the boss’s will. That’s been my experience anyway. Am I wrong?

9

I think its that companies take the line of slowly slowly bit by bit, not take too big a risk, where they hire the teacher and then gauge how they are fitting in and what they are doing. They have little idea of how the teacher will work in the context of the company, and how and what exactly needs to be done for the teacher to be a success
Therefore the teacher starts, perhaps the teacher is ambitious and wants to do X, benchmark and create a system. The company wants something visible classes. From their perspective they hired the teacher to teach.

A big problem lies in the fact that no way exists to measure the improvement of the people’s English, since there is no real benchmark to start from, but an expectation exists that the entire company will be speaking English in a couple of months. There is also a disconnect in the boss’ head that there is a difference between speaking English and being able to communicate

To reduce the risk they pay lower salaries and so get the bottom part of the barrel, and expect quick results. This does not happen. They fire the teacher and say what a great idea that they did not give that waste of space a higher salary

Same holds true for technical writing jobs etc here

10

Anubis, attitude problems aside, how about their experience and skills? Do they have training in curriculum and material development? have they done this kind of ESP before? I really like the idea of “sample demo”, but make it clear that you are not keeping the material; otherwise, you will be ripping these people off.

I also helped doing the interviews for an acquaintance, and I was also appalled at the level of attitude. True, when you start here and think it is for a short term many people believe they are “the last Coke in the dessert” and act accordinglty; or become jaded by the system, like your number 1.

For example, I do not think the “super commuter” would have worked -number 8-, since we know delays happen, and will happen more on long commutes. I do not see it as a reasonable request, given the circuinstances, unless he is willing and able to relocate later on if the job works out right for both parties.

Which leads us to TNT’s statement. If you want this to work, you need a system, a long term plan, a long term commitment on both parties, with clear goals. Then you can tell the people clearly what you want and why they do not fit in the plan. No resentment then, all is crystal.

Interviews are horrible when both parties are scared and scarred. Hope you find someone nice and suitable.

11

Why not him? All he’s asking for is a summer vacation, during a time when school isn’t usually in session. Sounds reasonable.

12

Why not him? All he’s asking for is a summer vacation, during a time when school isn’t usually in session. Sounds reasonable.[/quote]

Perhaps the company has a time line for getting the in house training program up and running and taking off for a month just won’t do. I wish my company gave me free language courses.

13

Why not him? All he’s asking for is a summer vacation, during a time when school isn’t usually in session. Sounds reasonable.[/quote]

Why, you are assuming like others that he was talking about this August, it is also quite easy to assume that the applicant was talking about having August off every year, which may not be acceptable from a timing point of view with the company.

14

sjcma wrote:

Indeed. The starting date, 1 August, was clearly stated in the ad.

Anubis wrote:

Chris wrote:

The owner of the company seems to think it’s not so reasonable. He insists on the stipulated starting date. What can I say?

15

Anubis, check your PM box for a company that specializes in what you seek. Taipei-based, but often do work in Hsinchu. They do benchmarking, too, so your boss will get quantifiable results.

#1 was quite right, by the way – demoes ARE illegal.

16

Asking for a demo shows that you are not used to hiring teachers because it’s generally not done, internationally. It’s a Taiwan, low-end-of-the-market thing. It’s a ‘marker’ that the job is probably dodgy so most that could do the job wouldn’t bother applying.

17

Just my opinion, I think if you look around some more, you should find another teacher. Contrary to popular belief, I really feel there are a lot of great, legit teachers in Taiwan though sometimes they need to be weeded out, so keep looking. I mean I would take that job in a second and I actually do consider myself a good teacher.

I do, however, feel the demo is unnecessary and it is something personally I don’t like doing (though I have done it). Not because it’s illegal or a sign of untrustiworthiness rather I believe that seeing the potential teacher teach for 20 minutes doesn’t give a good judgement of how he or she would teach in the long term-basically anybody can put on a 20 minute show.

18

Should do as Sandman says… hire a professional company that specializes in this, can come in and do it. This way you know what you are getting and what you are paying for it.

Finding a good teacher and then developing a robust system will take time. I would estimate upto a couple of years

In the meantime there will be experimentation. This could end up making the students jaded of it, or resentful. Nobody wants to be a lab rat

19

[quote=“TNT”]Should do as Sandman says… hire a professional company that specializes in this, can come in and do it. This way you know what you are getting and what you are paying for it.

Finding a good teacher and then developing a robust system will take time. I would estimate upto a couple of years

In the meantime there will be experimentation. This could end up making the students jaded of it, or resentful. Nobody wants to be a lab rat[/quote]

Seconded. (erm, thirded?)

20

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who finds demo lessons to be highly dubious. I never do them because, as others have said, it’s impossible to really gage someone’s teaching ability based on one short demo. When I’ve been asked to do them, I’ve just responded that I’m more than happy to provide references from past employers. I always wondered if I was putting myself at a disadvantage by not doing them, but I’ve still been offered jobs at the majority of interviews I’ve been to.

Though I would disagree about it not being the norm internationally. It seems it may be spreading, because various schools in Thailand had started asking for them towards the end of my three year stay there.