Armando Said:

Teaching English in Taiwan for two weeks?

We Answered:

I got this from Jann Huizenga and it has some great points.

1. Dress right. Jeans, sneakers, and just-out-of-bed hair may be okay for teachers in the U.S., but in many parts of the world, a neat appearance counts far more than credentials. In Korea dark clothes lend an air of authority. Red is to be avoided at all costs. In Morocco female teachers don’t wear pants, sleeveless blouses, or short skirts.

2. Behave appropriately. When Judith Johnson asked 250 students at the Sichuan Institute of Foreign Languages in China what they liked and disliked about native speaker English teachers, the students’ main gripe was the informality of foreign teachers, who often seem to undermine their own authority by acting in undignified ways. In the U.S. teachers go on a first-name basis with students, sit on their desks, sip coffee, and even bounce off the walls without causing student discomfort or losing prestige. But these behaviors don’t export well.

3. Don’t worry if students seem unresponsive at first. Americans are used to participatory classrooms with plenty of teacher-student dialogue. Elsewhere, students are often trained to be silent, good listeners, and memorizers. In my classes in Poland, the Balkans, and Mongolia, students wore impassive classroom masks the first few weeks of class. It’s disconcerting to stand in front of a sea of blank faces, but expecting it reduces the shock. Introduce new concepts, such as discussion and role-play gradually. You’ll be surprised at how students will come to embrace the change.

4. Choose topics carefully. In the 1980s in totalitarian Yugoslavia I made the mistake of asking students to debate the pros and cons of capital punishment. A painful silence fell over the room. What discussion was possible, someone pointed out to me later, when the government’s position was clear? There are still many countries in the world where people are hesitant to voice opinions because of a fear of reprisal. If you’re conducting a classroom debate, remember that there’s a distaste for Western-style argumentation in Middle-Eastern societies, and in Japan it’s offensive for an individual to urge others to accept his opinion.

Certain topics may be taboo for cultural reasons: Most Americans don’t want to discuss their salaries or religious beliefs; Japanese may be disinclined to talk about their inner feelings; the French think questions about their family life are rude.

5. Don’t ask, “Do you understand?” In China and Japan, students will nod yes, even if they’re totally lost, in an attempt to save face for the teacher. Even in a country as far west as Turkey, yes often means no.

Nor should you expect students to ask questions in class if they don’t understand something. A former student of mine told me: “In China, a student who asks questions is considered a pain in the neck.” Check understanding by asking students to paraphrase or write questions they have in groups.

6. Avoid singling students out. Our society fosters a competitive individualism which is clearly manifested in our classrooms. American students are not shy about displaying their knowledge. In classrooms outside the U.S., however, showing solidarity with classmates and conforming to the status quo is often more important than looking good for the teacher. In Turkey and Montenegro students told me they disliked volunteering answers too often because it made them look like show-offs and attracted the evil eye of envy. This holds true in Japan and China, too, where proverbs express the cultural idea in a nutshell: “The clever hawk hides its claws” and “The nail that stands up must be pounded down.”

If you want to play a game, make the competition among groups rather than among individuals. If you need to discipline a student, do so in private.

7. Be aware of cross-cultural communication styles. French students appreciate wit. Venezuelan students like boisterous rapid-fire exchanges. In Japan, where debate is not as valued as in the U.S., students appreciate long pauses in discussions and silent “think time” after you ask a question. “Hollow drums make the most noise” goes a Japanese proverb, and Japanese students are uncomfortable blurting out the first thing that comes to mind. American teachers, who are uncomfortable with silence, tend to anticipate the student’s words or repeat their original question—both irritating interruptions for the Japanese student.

8. Present a rationale for what you do in class. Your pedagogy is going to be very different from what students are used to. They’ll conform much more eagerly to new classroom content and procedures if they understand the benefits.

9. Expect the best of your students. They’ll be serious about learning English because their economic advancement often depends upon mastering it.

10. Relax and enjoy yourself. Happiness in the classroom is contagious.

For myself all I can say is be open to everything and see things for what they are and not what you expect them to be and you will have a wonderful, life changing experience. Hope this helps and good luck!

Allen Said:

What is the best month to start teaching English In Taiwan?

We Answered:

that depends on where you wanna to teach.
at legal school ,or private cram school?

in general , most of cram schools follow legal school's schedule.
1st semester begins on september,2nd semester begins on february or march.

so if you wanna teach english here,arrive in here before september will be better.

Doris Said:

Should I move to Taiwan and look for a job teaching English?

We Answered:

It's pretty bad right now.

I'm CELTA-certified and have experience teaching in Korea, and I had trouble finding a job here. I'm not picky. I currently teach only about 10 hours a week at my main school, making only 500 NTD after taxes, and my classes are kids with very low English levels and even lower discipline levels. The teachers who survive here are so good and so experienced, if you aren't a really good teacher, you'll probably get fired, at least in Taipei or Kaohsiung.

I got fired from Hess. They didn't even give me a reason, and I'm still wondering what it was.

I sense that I'm on thin ice at my current school despite always coming in on time, preparing, and doing my work. There are just so many teachers applying, they figure "why continue to employ this average teacher when we can have someone with a degree in education and years of experience?"

If you don't have some experience or a decent TEFL certificate, it's going to be difficult to find a job, and if you find one, expect it to be with cattle car classes of screaming kids. And if you can't control all of them to the satisfaction of the laoban, she'll just replace you with someone else who can. It's not very compassionate!

That said, Taiwan has much better foreigner rights than Korea, Japan, or mainland China. If you're an extremely professional teacher, you can do well in Taiwan, but the things that pass as "lessons" in Korea or mainland China don't fly here. You're expected to do a teaching demo as part of the job interview process at most places, in fact.

Taiwan is no longer a "degree and a pulse" country. The visa requirements are actually pretty easy (you can get away with an AA + TEFL), but actually satisfying your boss is the challenge. Except for the most backwater parts of the country at the worst schools, lessons are expected to be very professional, and you are expected to either have good classroom management skills, or develop them darn quickly.

Oh, and another problem is that they pay hourly, and these days with the slumping economy, most schools aren't giving very many hours. So you might find yourself scaled down to ten hours and your pay cut accordingly.

As much as I like Taiwan, the EFL market here has gotten a little too intense for my tastes. I have a job, but who knows if I'll still have it next month. Maybe I'm just not a good teacher, but I think others will agree with me that Korea and mainland China are less competitive and probably more forgiving places to start your TEFLing career...

Jeff Said:

What are the best websites to find a job teaching English in Taiwan?

We Answered:

well, where do you want to work? taiwan, singapore or hong kong?

Tracey Said:

Information about moving and teaching English in Taiwan?

We Answered:

It is possible to get by in the larger cities speaking only English, especially after meeting more of the local English speaking community. But it is much easier if you learn Chinese while you are here, it doesn't take too long to pick up since you are completely surrounded in Chinese 24/7. The best areas to live in are Taipei because there are more job opportunities, more conveniences, better public transit system, more shopping options, etc. The down side is that it is over crowded (in my opinion), the cost of living is much higher, and you might have to live much farther from your work in order to have a cheaper decent apartment. The weather in Taipei sees more rain than the central and southern areas, and there are great changes in the temperature from season to season. Taipei is not Seoul, Bangkok or Tokyo but it's as good as it gets in Taiwan in terms of urban sophistication.

Taichung is a great city (In my biased opinion) because the weather is more stable except it gets really humid, the cost of living is much cheaper than Taipei, has a lot of conveniences, it more centrally located for travel purposes, less crowded than Taipei, there is a better chance to find a place to live closer to your school, and it has a more laid back attitude with a big city feel. The downside to Taichung is the humidity, the lack of public transportation, you need to purify your drinking water, or buy bottled water (its ok for bathing and cooking but not for drinking), traffic is a bit more chaotic than in Taipei, fewer job opportunities than Taipei or Kaohsiung. In some of the eastern parts of Taichung your more likely to run into random huge insects, ie, Scolopendra Centipedes (grow to a foot in length), Golden Orb weaver spiders, and this other gigantic house spider that as far as I know is not poisonous, plus the semi frequent cockroach, small lizards etc.. Also Taichung has a bit more air pollution than Taipei, I think due mostly to the larger number of motorized citizens, and industrial sectors the west of the city. The bar / club scene in Taichung is small and much less interesting / attractive than in Taipei. ~ Just though of this, there is something about not flushing toilet paper in Taichung, I don't really understand this part myself and as such I do it anyways and have not seen an adverse effect. I am not sure if it is a Taiwanese urban legend that got out of hand like not driving with you head lights on saves on gas. Maybe Matt of Asia can give a better account to this one since he has lived her longer than me.

Tainan is a good city to live in but it is much more a country city than Taichung, Taoyuan, Taipei and Kaohsiung (the other large east coast cities). The cost of living is much lower than Taipei, more cheap food options, more laid back atmosphere, more historical attractions and temples, than most other places. Tainan is a great little city, but IMO lacks a lot of the conveniences of the bigger cities.
The weather is stays hotter year round than in Taichung and Taipei, Tainan will also see more effect from typhoons than in Taichung. I have been told there are more insects that will come inside than in Taichung or Taipei.

Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan and I would guess that it also have a higher probability of finding a job than in Tainan and maybe Taichung, but I am not sure what the job market is like in Kaohsiung, However Kaohsiung is also more polluted than in Taipei and Taichung due to it being a more industrious city where as Taipei is more commercial and Taichung is a mix of industry and commercial. The weather in Kaohsiung is much hotter than in the north and much dryer, except during typhoons. The cost of living in Kaohsiung is much higher than in Tainan and Taichung, there are mostly likely fewer places to live since Taichung is over developed when it comes to housing. More conveniences than in Taichung and Tainan, probably fewer clubs and younger crowd bars than in Taipei.

Coming for the US this will be my 5th year living here in Taiwan, and I find that I still don't know enough about this place. Haha. I am sure you will have a lot of fun living here, as long as your up for an adventure, and you have a good sense of humor. I know I wrote a lot, some how I sort of started rambling. I hope that you can find some of this helpful. Welcome to Taiwan.
(edit)
I originally moved to Taichung for a 6 mo study abroad program, and I loved it here. So 3 months after getting I talked to the dean of the college I was in, sent various letters to scholarship programs blah blah, and got my 6 months turned into a 1.5 year study abroad trip which turned into a 5 year experience. But I don't recommend this option because it requires way too many sleepless nights, much stricter study habits, and constantly worrying about your scholarships being yanked and sent home. There is also the small matter with some of the classes I took here not counting for credits in my university back home. Still I love Taiwan and don't want to leave.

Eduardo Said:

I'm interested in possibly teaching English in Taiwan, preferably in the Tainan area?

We Answered:

I'm surprised Matt of Asia hasn't replied to this posting!

I taught English in Taiwan and there are three sites I would recommend to you (links to each are listed at the bottom of the post):

1. Footprints Recruiting company. Good Canadian recruiting company that does NOT charge you to place you. They connect you with schools looking for teachers. Very user friendly and very supportive of you when you go overseas (at least in Taiwan they're very supportive).

2. Tealit. As a previous poster alluded, this is a great self-serve site with lots of teaching opportunities. This is also a great place to learn about living in Taiwan, including tax information, meeting friends and learning about the culture.

3. Kojen English Language centers. This is the company I worked with in Taiwan, and although some others have had problems with Kojen, in my experience, as long as you're willing to work according to the terms of your contract (which they will send to you before you go over there), you can get great teaching experience, make good money and generally get good living and working support from them. Again, attitude is everything. If you're a hard worker, most of the school directors I worked with would bend over backwards to help you.

Good luck!

Penny Said:

Teaching English in Taiwan - is it a good idea?

We Answered:

No offence meant towards Carl, but China is not Taiwan. There are some similarities to how people will react but for the most part Taiwanese are different people than the Chinese (not historically, not ethnically, but socially). As for Chinese/Taiwanese not showing the same level of courtesy towards Blacks/Africans as they do to Caucasians is not completely true. As one who has a darker skin tone I know for a fact that Blacks will draw more attention but people are equally kind to us as white people. Mostly if you are a westerner you will find people to be really friendly. However, Taiwanese are just really friendly people, there are bad apples but that is the same as any place you go.
I have been living in and working in Taiwan for the last 4 years, and I have had the greatest experiences in my life while living here.

If you are living in the US now, then coming here you will find things to be significately cheaper (15-50% depending on what it is), traffic doesn't have the same order and flow that it does in the US, there are multitude of foods that you can chose from, there are some amazing points of interest for those that like traveling, lots of historical destinations and lots of culture all over the country. The "tourist" aspect of Taiwan is limitless.

As for being a teacher, I work in a private-public so I don't know too much about the life of those who work in buxiban (crams schools). but I can tell you that they are not quite like the ones that you will find in Japan, Korea, and other parts of Asia. For the most part the schools here are very good to work for, depending on the school you might have to bring your own materials (usually the text books are provided), the pay is around $15/hr (500nt/hr) and you work a minimum of 14 hrs a week and a max of 32, there are some schools that will want you to do out of school work that more often than not you wont be paid for, I probably should have said this sooner but to teach here legally you need to have a BA degree or a 2-3year degree with certified TESOL/TEFL certificate. The normal monthly salary is something like 38000NT (@20hr/wk) and the most if you are a real certified teacher (gone through education classes and graduated with a BA) you can look at something closer to 80-90,000NT each month. There is a 20% tax that is taken out of your check for the fist 180days of the year, and 10% for the rest of the year. We have National Health Insurance that is good for everyone that has a valid residency card.

I can't think of anything more right now, but I will direct some others to your post and we will help you to find your way to Taiwan.

You can figure some of the costs using this living expense calculator from HESS Educational Organization (a major language school here in Taiwan).
(http://www.hess.com.tw/careers/english/n…

Also you can join the Expat forum for Taiwan called Forumosa, and ask any questions there and search through lots of previous posts to find a bottomless well of information about Taiwan from people who have lived and worked here for years. (http://www.forumosa.com)