Job Discussion Forums

Scott G · Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 10

I just received this email back from Hess. They told me what the work schedule would be and that this is the norm.
Here is a piece of the email:
"The average schedule as a teacher for Hess consists of teaching a kindergarten class from about 8:40-12:00pm on Monday through Friday. You will then have a break from 12:00 until about 4:00pm but I often graded homework and prepared for classes during this time.

At about 4:30pm-8:30pm you will teach two language school classes and will then finish up at about 9:00pm if you grade homework and stay after class helping students.

In Taiwan, six day work weeks are common so teachers will usually teach one or two classes on Saturday's. Some teachers will also be asked to participate in an open house which lasts about an hour and will finish at about 4:00pm on Saturday. "

When someone comes to Taiwan to teach English, will that person have to be a slave to their work?
I am just curious on different people's views and opinions on this.

Thank you,

Pop Fly · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 429

Girl Scout · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 525 Location: Inbetween worlds

If you have not signed a contract with Hess, you can do better. Working 6 days a week is not standard. Any job that is more than 20 hours a week will cause you to be a slave to your job. (Well at least until you get really used to it.) If you are not making at least $550NT/hr, you can do better. You have to realize your split shift and Sat. work will give you no time off to see or go anywhere in Taiwan. You will not even have time to do a lot of things in your own city because you start work at 8:40 and then don't go home until 9pm. You also have to include travel time because you said you would be working at different schools.

Make sure this is what you want to do. Chain schools are probably not the best place to be for anybody with experience. Their idea of curicculm can be a bit stifling.

Best of luck.

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

You can do a lot better. Morning classes are generally kindergarten classes as regular school students are at regular school and adult students tend to work in the morning.
Most kindergartens will offer elementary school classes from 2:00 pm to as late as 8:00 or 9:00 pm. Having a 4 to 6 hour gap in the afternoon is not desirable for most people.
Salaried positions are in general inferior to positions that pay by the hour in terms of work load, unpaid extra out of class work and take home pay.
Hess is on the lower end of the pay scale. You can do a lot better by coming to Taiwan and finding job that is referred to you by other teachers.
Please read this,

http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/Success.html
Good luck!
A.

Ki · Joined: 23 Jul 2004 Posts: 475

Don't worry that your long teaching hours won't give you any opportunity to do anything in and around your city. HESS will probably send you to some one horse town in the middle of nowhere. There won't be anything to do on your time off and everyone will know your business. Even if you have already signed their contract don't feel that you are obliged to work for them.

junkmail · Joined: 19 Dec 2004 Posts: 377

Spinoza · Joined: 17 Oct 2004 Posts: 194 Location: Saudi Arabia

kait · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 93 Location: Lungtan, Taiwan

Yes, that's the standard Hess contract. A few get double kindy contracts, and some work only HLS in the evenings. I'm one of the HLS-only folks. Those who work both kindy and bushiban do seem to go through periods of burn-out. Once you are used to Hess lesson plans, preparation time can be minimal. Almost everything is spelled out for you in the lesson plan. Those who want to do more can, but I don't think it's expected of you. Because I don't have kindy, I work 22-24 hours per week, and I have plenty of time to prepare activities and games that are not in the lesson plan. I like that I am free to do that. If you don't have a lot of outstanding Western sized bills, working HLS only is a good option. And the correcting is what you make of it as well. Some people just plow through the correcting, decorating the page with little red marks and assigning a numerical value to the assignment. Others assign rewrites on particular parts of the assignment, which requires more followup and more time. So, you can do your grading for a given class in 10 minutes if you want to, but others require more time.

People with scooters tend to go home or on short little adventures on their breaks. Those without scooters are stuck to the neighborhoods near the school. Most folks have at least one class on Saturday. This is a bummer.

Spinoza · Joined: 17 Oct 2004 Posts: 194 Location: Saudi Arabia

kait · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 93 Location: Lungtan, Taiwan

EphemeralReal · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Posts: 35

Listen Scott, here's another scenario. I had to wake up at 5:45, take the train to an outside town and start classes at 8:00. I sometimes taught six hour classes a day there. Then I had to catch the train back to my hometown, hike on a scooter for 25 miles to another job, and work until 9:00 at night. This is not to mention the fact that I had some classes that were only 30 minutes, so I taught a bundle.

Then the employer did this and that. I said Later. Is it slavery? Indeed, as you will find yourself caught between a contract they dishonor and the almighty dollar in lieu of self-preservation.

You can become a decent teacher, some say? Really, and how's that, by working for someone who's got nothing but money on his, or her mind?

Then you've got the communication books, and the Chinese mothers, both of which are nonsense. By a good teacher, I think some mean to infer, a good Confucian conformist to mental madness.