Why not start our own chain school?

[ImaniOU]

@AAF

Hi funk5000. I do understand that it isn’t as simple as it sounds, but as I said in my initial post, let’s focus on how it could work. Almost everything sounds impossible at first. A few decades ago it was impossible to go to the moon. I don’t think the Americans who planned the mission concentrated on why it wasn’t possible, but how to overcome known obstacles. By the way do you know what he birth rate of Taiwan is? It is difficult to believe that it has a low birth rate. Almost every second woman I see is pregnant.

I too will vouch for this as my OPWOTDW (Obligatory Pregnant Woman of the Day Watch) Rate is only one day without seeing one for three months straight. And I’m just one person. If anyone else is doing an OPWOTD Watch then think of how many more potential customers we are surveying…

I think it would be awesome to create a school of forumosans. We certainly have enough dedicated teachers who post on here to create the numbers.

I’ll bring the students!

Just kidding. I think my former school would sue me if they knew just how many families wanted to follow me to my next school, had I been able to land a job teaching kids.

Heh, as I said… I’ll bring the kids.

[anon38216271]

@Maoman

I think a more logical first step would be the formation of a foreign-owned buxiban association (F.O.B.A.). Teaching styles and quality would vary from school to school, but if a Taiwanese parent or foreign teacher wanted to know where in their neighborhood to go for this kind of school, such an association might be useful. Maybe.

How about getting the laws passed that would support and protect us first. I would already assume that their is an informal foreign-owned buxiban association, called networking?

Also, please don’t read this as a bash, but I am truly at a loss for as to why foreigners continuing to limit themselves to the buxiban sector. I don’t understand why more long term foreigners aren’t investing in stores that would actually service the foreign community. If I had a 100nt every time I heard a woman say she couldn’t find her shoe size and a man who can find a decent shirt, I would be able to buy out Tavern Captain.

[miltownkid]

@ImaniOU

I think it would be awesome to create a school of forumosans. We certainly have enough dedicated teachers who post on here to create the numbers.

Business idea #2,481:

Start a school where the teachers are their own bosses and run classes the way they want to run them.

Basically, there’d be a location with X# of rooms that teachers could pretty much rent out. The location would have all the cool teacher stuff (TVs, computers, projectors, sticky balls and hammers or course). The teachers would be in charge of setting up and managing classes with as little help from the office staff as possible.

Maybe it could be run like that restaurent in Neihu with a group of teachers each specializing in some aspect of teaching (if you don’t know the restaraunt, each chef specializes in a certain type of cuisine.)

It’s a rough idea, but I’d sure like to work there.

[ImaniOU]

@Namahottie

[quote=“Maoman”]I think a more logical first step would be the formation of a foreign-owned buxiban association (F.O.B.A.). Teaching styles and quality would vary from school to school, but if a Taiwanese parent or foreign teacher wanted to know where in their neighborhood to go for this kind of school, such an association might be useful. Maybe.

How about getting the laws passed that would support and protect us first. I would already assume that their is an informal foreign-owned buxiban association, called networking?

Also, please don’t read this as a bash, but I am truly at a loss for as to why foreigners continuing to limit themselves to the buxiban sector. I don’t understand why more long term foreigners aren’t investing in stores that would actually service the foreign community. If I had a 100nt every time I heard a woman say she couldn’t find her shoe size and a man who can find a decent shirt, I would be able to buy out Tavern Captain. [/quote]

I told my hairdresser that she’d be a millionaire if she moved her business here. Hair care products and services. I’m almost tempted to get into the black market of some decent hair care appliances. Get me a line of Gold N’ Hot stuff and some Soft N’ Beautiful and sell it in Taiwan…

And please, get us some clothes that aren’t either tacky as all hell or so thin you can look through the front and see your back pockets.

[anon38216271]

[quote=“ImaniOU”]
I told my hairdresser that she’d be a millionaire if she moved her business here. Hair care products and services. I’m almost tempted to get into the black market of some decent hair care appliances. Get me a line of Gold N’ Hot stuff and some Soft N’ Beautiful and sell it in Taiwan…

And please, get us some clothes that aren’t either tacky as all hell or so thin you can look through the front and see your back pockets.[/quote]

Honey btw Taiwan and Japan, you’d make Oprah look poor. What I would give to be able to go get my hair done here. God,you don’t realize how important somethings are until you don’t have them.

[AAF]

@miltownkid

[quote=“ImaniOU”]I think it would be awesome to create a school of forumosans. We certainly have enough dedicated teachers who post on here to create the numbers.

Business idea #2,481:

Start a school where the teachers are their own bosses and run classes the way they want to run them.

Basically, there’d be a location with X# of rooms that teachers could pretty much rent out. The location would have all the cool teacher stuff (TVs, computers, projectors, sticky balls and hammers or course). The teachers would be in charge of setting up and managing classes with as little help from the office staff as possible.[/quote]

You won’t believe it, but I actually mentioned the same idea to my former boss. I calculated the possible hours of teaching that could take place if there were enough students and teachers and how much they could make. I told her that she wouldn’t have to take any risks by hiring extra people. Instead of that, she could come to an agreement with teachers where they take most of the risk. They told me that a class had to have four or more students to make it viable. I suggested that the foreign teacher and the co-teacher would agree not to get any income from classes smaller than 5. In cases where there would be a viable class, a certain rate according to which the teachers would be paid, would come in to play.The foreign teacher had to find his ideal Chinese co-teacher and pay her/him from the profit. The two of them could run the class the way they thought fit. One chronic problem would be erradicated: the lack of maintenance of a classroom and bathrooms. Since the two teachers would be able to make more by doing a better job and providing a better learning environment (since it would attract more students), they would be motivated to go the extra mile. My ideas were rejected, but out outrightly.

I also mentioned to her that we could diversify. Since the school was almost empty after 7pm, they could teach English to adult students and offer other services like translation and proofreading.

I had worked for this school before I shared my plans with them. The last class that I began for them only had 4 students. I left them with about 14 students in the same class. When I came back after about a year. The whole school had about 20 students. I left them again.

[almas_john]

The Miltonkid wrote [quote]Start a school where the teachers are their own bosses and run classes the way they want to run them.

Basically, there’d be a location with X# of rooms that teachers could pretty much rent out. The location would have all the cool teacher stuff (TVs, computers, projectors, sticky balls and hammers or course). The teachers would be in charge of setting up and managing classes with as little help from the office staff as possible.[/quote]

I remember posts 2-3 years ago about a forumosan kicking off a school like this in Taipei. Does anyone know how it worked out?

[AAF]

Let me add this to what I have said thus far. Any school that could guarantee that a student would be able to speak English quite fluently if he/she attended and participated willingly in all classes after six years, would attract more than enough students to make it viable. Some students attend years of buxiban without showing signs that they have learnt any English.
I’m helping out at a school that is the bane of English in Taiwan. The classes are so small that there is an echo. I think the echo might have something to do with the fact that their pronunciation is totally off course. What’s worse is that all the older students don’t speak English freely. I get paid for talking to wax models.

[almas_john]

I hate to be a bastard, but where would the money come from? Everyone knows that foreign teachers spend all their disposable income on booze and ordering Japanese schoolgirl uniforms through the internet.
Are there any examples that anyone knows of that involve a bunch of waiguoren pooling their talents and resources? Most business set-ups seem to be a foreign husband-local wife affair.

[AAF]

[quote=“almas john”]
Are there any examples that anyone knows of that involve a bunch of waiguoren pooling their talents and resources? Most things seem to be a foreign husband-local wife affair.[/quote]

Many of our posters already have a local spouse except for me!

[Taichung_Social_Club]

@AAF

…their pronunciation is totally off course. What’s worse is that all the older students don’t speak English freely. I get paid for talking to wax models.

And you think your school could change this? :roflmao:

[AAF]

@Taichung Social Club

[quote=“AAF”]…their pronunciation is totally off course. What’s worse is that all the older students don’t speak English freely. I get paid for talking to wax models.

And you think your school could change this? :roflmao:[/quote]

Indeed. Give me a tabula rasa and I’ll turn it into a mind that generates English conversations freely within six years!

[Taichung_Social_Club]

@AAF

[quote=“Taichung Social Club”][quote=“AAF”]…their pronunciation is totally off course. What’s worse is that all the older students don’t speak English freely. I get paid for talking to wax models.

And you think your school could change this? :roflmao:[/quote]

Indeed. Give me a tabula rasa and I’ll turn it into a mind that generates English conversations freely within six years![/quote]

I would love to work in such a school. Hell, I’d even invest what little money I have in such a school, except that it is doomed to fail.

What you’re offering to do in six years, the guy across the street is offering to do in six months. Of course, he doesn’t teach anything, it’s far easier to get the kids to memorize the text book and learn a few catch prhases by rote. Have you noticed how everyone in Taiwan is “fine thank you, and you” when you enquire?

At your school, a student would probably go through one text book per semester. Across the street, the kids are completing four times that many each month. To the Taiwanese, the more books the kids are rushed through, the more value they get for their money. No parent ever seems to consider what, if anything, their kid actually learns.

As for pronunciation, that’s a losing battle right from the start because you, the foreigner, are up against the Chinese teacher, and the parent, who are the ultimate authorities on all things English even though their English sucks ass.

Here’s an example:
I subbed a kindergarten class for a week. The kids were all saying orange-ee, but after one day I had them pronouncing it correctly. The next morning one of the boys came to me, “Teacher Wayne, my father and grandfather say orange-ee.”
“Tell them it’s orange,” I replied. The boy’s eyes opened wide as he backed away, shaking his head.

Here’s another example:
A boy and his mother were walking past the school one night as I was leaving. The boy was spelling out the word school. “Ess, see, eightch…” whereupon his mother took her open hand and repeatedly beat him about the head, all the while shreaking, “EIGHTCH-EE! EIGHTCH-EE!”

What do you think any child would choose? Being corrected by the foreinger, or being beaten to within an inch of his life?

I guess where I’m going with all this is the success of the kind of school you’re advocating is directly proportional to your success in changing the thought process of the adult Taiwanese. A Herculean task, indeed.

[SoulDragoN]

[quote]Most business set-ups seem to be a foreign husband-local wife affair.
[/quote]
Would have been a whole helluva lot easier!