Job Discussion Forums

nickole28 · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 4

Hi people!!

I am new to this whole thing. i am taking my tesol soon and hopefully it will do me some good.

i was considering working in 3 places as a starter: 1) taiwan beign on the top

i have heard some positive and negative comments about working in tawian. BUT i have also heard that it is the best place to go when one is starting out teaching english. is this true?

also i heard that jobs in taiwan make good $$$ per month such as 70,000 NT. is this good or bad?

what does the average person make montly and how much of it goes to rent and bills?

any suggestions to some good places to work?
thanks for any advice!!!

James_T_Kirk · Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 357 Location: Ten Forward

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

Full time pay (30 to 40 hours a week) should average between 80,000 to 100,000 per month. People on salary are paid considerably less than people paid by the hour.
Find two part time block hour positions paid by the hour close to each other or at the very least an easy commute (MRT).
Get a multiple entry tourist visa for business purposes and do your homework.

Please read this,
http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/Success.html
Good luck,
A.

mjed9 · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 242

Ki · Joined: 23 Jul 2004 Posts: 475

Are those 30-40 hours teaching hours, Aristotle? I guess if it is paid per hour it must be. That is a lot for a newbie, let alone most people to be teaching. The standard is usually about 25 teaching hours and if you have a contract you will probably do some office hours as well, making the total work time 30-40 hours a week.

If you opt for the 'not paying tax' route you will probably be enrolled in Mandarin classes which, although are not compulsory to attend, you may as well as you are paying for them anyway. So teaching 30-40 hours a week as well as learning Chinese 10 hours a week is perhaps too much for a newbie to tackle.

$70,000 is the standard salary for a salaried position. If you go through a recruiter or chain school this will drop to $50-55,000 or even as low as $43,000. On $70,000, if you teach 25 hours a week, roughly 100 hours a month, this will make your pay to be about $700 per teaching hour. Realistically, you should be able to save US$1,000/month, more if you teach the hours Aristotle mentions.

Try to decide what age group you want to teach. You will probably end up working for either a cram school or a kindergarten, the latter being somewhat illegal, not sure about the current situation.
Ki.

wombat · Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 134

matchstick_man · Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 244 Location: Taiwan

I was earning far more an hour salaried than I am now being paid by the hour. I was previously earning 50,000 NT a month for 80 contact hours and then paid 600 an hour if I worked over 80 hours a month. That works out as 25 NT less hourly doing more work. There are good and bad hourly and salaried jobs.