Job Discussion Forums

minigo · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 8 Location: Vancouver, BC

Hi All,
I desperately need help. I am an asian canadian who has been looking for a job in Taiwan for almost 6 months now. However i have not been successful because I am non-white. I have my BA in History and has tonnes of teaching experience. Any advice on how to get a job? by the way, I'm still in Candad. I don't want to go there without already having a job. any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

Hi. My girlfriend is a cbc. She found work here after a little looking around. Things, however, are typically more difficult for Asian Americans/Canadians than for the rest of us. This much you probably know already. Firstly, it will be very difficult for you to find a job outside of Taiwan. Alot of overseas hiring is handled by recruiters. One recruiter told me that schools will not pay a recruiter for a foreign born Chinese teacher. The schools will quite often hire you directly once you are here, however. It is always preferable for a prospective teacher to find work once here. For you, it might be your only option. Other problems you might encounter have to do with salary. They might try to pay you the somewhat lower local teacher rate. You might be able to get around this by working for smaller, foreigner owned operations, as my girlfriend did. These places don't use co-teachers in class, so their teachers must also speak Mandarin. In these places, a cbc is quite valuable.

Okami · Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 121 Location: Sunny Sanxia

ABC/CBC have it the easiest here, especially if you can speak passable Mandarin. Most of the ones I know are making more money and have better jobs than I do. You will have to come over on your own though.

Please don't give me that non-white stuff either, maybe I'm taking it wrong, but after 3+ years, it's a little hard to tolerate whining from a person from a group that regularly does better than white people here.

Listen, I'm not trying to bust your balls. If you can speak Mandarin then come on over and find a job. The world will be your oyster. Just watch out for the Chinese cultural card being played on you.

CYA
Okami

juzstylin · Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Posts: 11 Location: Queens, NY

...I speak from experience. It is harder as a CBC/ABC to get a job in Asia as an EFL teacher. However, that being said, I landed a job with the first company I applied for, HESS. I've been rejected at some of the bigger eikawas in Japan however.

Btw, this goes out to those already living in Taiwan. I speak Taiwanese, but not Mandarin...even though I speak the second native language, how useful is it in Taiwan?

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

If you are being hired as a foreigner by Hess, your Chinese language skills will be unimportant. As a Chinese English teacher, you will need to be able to speak Mandarin as well as write traditional Chinese characters (as well as the kk phonetic system). In some of the smaller schools that don't utilize co-teachers, the translation is all spoken because it is done by Mandarin speaking foreigners (as in my girlfriend's case). In such a school, you may have a chance if you can speak only Taiwanese. You'd probably do better in the South, though. Some of the northerners don't speak Taiwanese all that well.

I disagree that it's easier for CBC/ABCs here. That hasn't been what I've seen and experienced vis-a-vis my girlfriend. I think a foreign born Chinese-- who qualifies for citizenship here-- can, over the long haul, do rather well provided s/he cultivates relationships well and is willing to work anywhere/ anytime. However, compared to us whites, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to simply stepping off a plane and getting a job in any town they go to. The tendency is also toward paying ABCs the local Chinese teacher rate, if they'll consider you at all.

Okami · Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 121 Location: Sunny Sanxia

Taoyuansteve,

You must be hanging around a different circle of ABC/CBC's than me because all the ones I know have cush jobs and high pay.

Take the one I work with at my kindy. He speaks Chinese with his students during class time, makes more than I do, gets away regularly with the things that I get into trouble for. All because of that asian face. Unfortunately I work at a kindy that was very successful only doing Chinese, till the city open public kindies. They have painfully little experience and chose an ABC, so that they would only have to deal with one foreigner.

Night time buxiban jobs for junior and senior high also pay very well for them. I know 2 that were making money hand over fist from such jobs.

Same for private students, there are more parents that will accept an FBC over a non-FBC, because of sterotypes. They feel more comfortable with peple that look like them, like most people in the world.

FBC's that have problems, generally can't speak Chinese, and/or have a haughty attitude according to the Taiwanese I know. They also whine a lot about how difficult it really is. sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

CYA
Okami

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

I respect your different experience. As I said, I have seen that FBCs that have been here a while do rather well. If they speak Mandarin well, they typically can have quite a few entrepreneuerial oportunities the rest of us can't. One Abc friend of mine gets classes at 1000 an hour. Of course he goes all over to get 'em. My girlfriend does rather well. She does, however, work for an American-owned buxiban. I know of a few fbcs that work for 400 an hour or less based soley on their Chineseness.

minigo · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 8 Location: Vancouver, BC

To all that replied:

Thanks for the suggestions and the advice. I will not despair and will keep trying. Sorry if my problem annoyed anyone. Thanks again.

minigo

wood · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 202

trukesehammer · Joined: 25 Mar 2003 Posts: 168 Location: The Vatican

ABCs, 123s, and CBCs? What's the deal? I keep reading that A/CBCs have a tough time getting jobs in Taiwan. In fact, it has become a mantra here in Dave's as well as "on the street" but is it true?

As for myself, I'm 1/8th Chinese but I don't think my situation counts. I don't look like a Chinese at all. More like an ET than anything. But being an American Indian/Micronesian/Danish/Chinese does have its advantages. When I travel I can "pass" for almost anything I want, especially in Third-World Countries.

But back to the subject at hand. I've got a CBC buddy who's doing pretty good at Minchuan University. And I reckon I ain't doing bad, either. Then again, both of us have our PhDs. My best advice to you: ACQUIRE & USE LOTS OF GUANXI. This cuts through all kinds of red tape and dumb hiring practices.

wood · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 202

Okami · Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 121 Location: Sunny Sanxia

trukesehammer · Joined: 25 Mar 2003 Posts: 168 Location: The Vatican

Hmmmm, I don't get it. LEAVE out of frustration? That doesn't sound like the behavior of a genuine trooper expat to me.

As for my Chinese buddy at Minchuan and myself, we both could fill your ears or eyeballs with our own rejection stories, but we kept on keeping on until we got our "cushy" gigs. I teach 8 hours per week and make almost 6-wan per month at a university in Hualian.

To be honest, however, I don't know if I got this job on merit or guanxi. --Which brings me to Okami's rather MEAN but ACCURATE desciption of FBCs "whining." I mean seriously, GUANXI is an important part of Chinese culture. Even FBCs should know how to operate this complicated cultural machinery. And if someone as addlepated as ME could learn it, ANYONE can.

wood · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 202

Aristotle · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1388 Location: Taiwan

A side effect of the re- implemented racist policy of the R.O.C. to ban English language teaching from schools is that many of those schools will now only hire Foreign Born Chinese as English teachers.