Job Discussion Forums

Brian D. · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 3 Location: USA

I am planning to come to Taiwan (Taipei) to teach English and have been told that Kojen and Hess are some of the better places to teach. I have heard some good things about both chains, but have been told that quality can really vary by the particular school. Have you had any experiences working for either chain and have any of you worked in their adult program?

My plan is to arrive mid May and probably stay at a hostel the first few weeks until I can locate a job and apartment.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Brian

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

Kojen has been heading on a downward trend since they broke their contract with ELS and went local.
Chain schools in general are not the best places to teach.
Kojen branches in Taipei have a fair rating, 5 out of 10 but the schools in Taichung and Kaohsiung as well as their affiliated schools in Tainan are not recommended for teachers or students.
Hess has been making an effort to improve their schools' environment both for teachers and students. They have capped salaries low however and have not raised the starting pay for several years. Hess has been the industry leader in Taiwan for almost 20 years. Taiwan's English ability still lags behind it's competitors. You need to be in Taiwan to find a good job.
Please read this,
http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/Success.html
Good luck!
A.

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

I'd say you could do worse than work for those companies. True, you can make more money per hour at some places than they will likely start you out as making. However, those who look only at hourly salary for jobs quite often get bad deals. One needs to consider the whole picture. How much prep time and marking is needed for each class? How many extra duties such as telephone teaching and meetings are there and are they paid? Does the school provide training, a decent curriculum and all materials needed to teach a class? Does the school provide you with an ARC and health insurance? Is the school big enough that, when a class closes, they can right away provide you with a new one. For that matter, can they consistently provide you with as many teaching hours as you are looking for? Sometimes the school that pays 600 per hour is a better deal than the one that pays 700.

As already mentioned, the schools you listed are chain companies and have branches all over the island. Many are independently owned franchises. Experiences will vary depending on locations, individual managers and so forth. But, in general, large companies are better equiped to provide you with a soft landing in Taiwan.

Fortigurn · Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 390

For the last 6 months, I've worked at Kojen (school 6, Shilin). My experience has been uniformly satisfying. I am paid on time, every time, and I am paid what I earn. The standard rate is NT$550/hour, the rates for kids classes and writing classes are higher (NT$600-650/hour).

The administration staff at school 6 are friendly, supportive, and accomodating (especially when it comes to holidays and time off at short notice). My fellow teachers are all very easy to get on with, and support each other a lot (and I'm not differentiating here between the local teachers and the foreigners).

The guidelines for teaching are clear, but there is a lot of flexibility in them, and teachers are encouraged to innovate. The atmosphere is very relaxed and comfortable. I always look forward to going to work.

Other Kojen schools may differ, depending on who is there, but I personally enjoy working where I do.

Fortigurn · Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 390

markholmes · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Wengehua

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

Well, there you have it. Someone currently working at one of your prospective employers has taken the time to give you detailed information about the company and a sense of what it is like to work there. As suspected, Kojen seems like a decent employer. BTW, so is Hess. I know people who have been happily working for them for years. It's very easy to get someone to write in a complaint about a place-- people make more noise when they are angry-- but it's harder to get the positives. Fortigun's inside look at Kojen is, therefore, very valuable insight.

Keep in mind these companies are huge and employ hundreds of foreign teachers. Finding some who are disgruntled is a very easy thing to do. Conversely, you never hear about a lot of other places simply because they are smaller and haven't been around very long. The complaints of those less than satisfied can give the impression that schools such as Kojen and Hess are bad places to work. In actual fact, however, these schools are probably better places to work than many others.

PS. There is one disgruntled former Kojen employee who posts here from time to time (thankfully, we haven't heard from him yet in this thread). I would advise you to disregard much of what he has to say. Experience has taught me that this individual is likely trouble wherever he goes.

Fortigurn · Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 390

Pop Fly · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 429

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

Pop Fly · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 429

Brian D. · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 3 Location: USA

Thanks for all the responses, everyone. Despite the negatives, it seems that both Kojen and Hess could be a good first job for a newbie in Taiwan like myself. I was told by a former Hess employee that although she enjoyed her experience with that company, she thought Kojen would be a better fit for me since it`s less "controlled" than Hess; that is, teachers have more freedom than the "script" that Hess teachers need to use. Since I`ve got my MA in TESOL and have a few years of teaching under my belt, I`d prefer more freedom than might be appealing to someone with little or no teaching background.

A serious consideration, and one that will likely prevent me from signing on to Kojen before I get to Taipei in May, is that a number of people I`ve heard from have said that the environment at individual schools can vary greatly. So far I`ve heard Kojen`s school 6 (Shilin) and school 4 (?) mentioned [both located in Taipei, right?], with school 6 receiving a good review (from Fortigurn, I believe) and school 4 receiving some criticism of its adult program head.

Therefore, despite the warm and fuzzy feeling I would get if I knew I had a good job secured before leaving the U.S., it seems best to

(1) simply show up with my 2 months visitor`s visa,
(2) hole up in a Taipei youth hostel for a couple weeks,
(3) visit some ex-pat haunts,
(4) meet people and get advice,
(5) check out the bulletin boards for jobs and
(6) show up on many schools` doorsteps with my resume, friendly smile and charming personality Smile

Brian

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

If you have an MA, there are other options open to you. You could get a job in a university, for example. I saw one ad for an MA holding English instructor for a nursing college. Definitely, come here with no firm commitments. You will likely find something good. Good luck.

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

Putting the individual opinions aside or a moment. Any schools like Kojen/ELSI that have so many complaints filed against them by so many different people should be avoided.
All Kojen Schools are owned and operated by the head office.
Hess Language schools have been around twice as long as Kojen / ELSI and have 10 times as many schools. Yet the complaints about Hess schools have been in declining numbers and severity for some time. The biggest complaints seem to be the low pay and ineffectiveness of the Hess methods and curriculum.
Good luck,
A.

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

Have to disagree somewhat. The number of complaints has more to do with the size of the company and number of people it employs than any serious problems. We seldom hear about some of the worst employers on the island because they are too small and the number of people employed by them is just not large enough for most people to have heard about them. For example, I know of a small school here that puts enormous amounts of pressure on its teachers and witholds 100,000nt deposits. I'd argue working there would be much worse than working at any branch of Kojen or HESS. But few would know about this company simply because it doesn't have the brand recognition that the big boys have.

I checked Kojen Taipei on Buxiban.com and found that the branches I looked at all had an average rating. This means they receive a roughly equal number of positive comments as they do negative. That's the same as about 90% of schools here. Of the remainding 10%, most will be the nightmares with far more complaints than recommendations, although a few are schools with spotless records (at least as far as that site has been able to determine). One company Buxiban says is clean is Joy English, another chain. Given that a couple of current and former employees have given Kojen a clean report, I'd say they are a good risk.