Job Discussion Forums

[scb222]

can someone tell me if ELSI and Kojen are one and the same? they seem to have their web sites linked, yet on other ELSI web pages there is no mention of Kojen. Kojen sucks right? ive seen other posts saying that theyre not paying anyone at present. so is ELSI any better IF theyre not one and the same school?? please untangle this mess for me.

[taiwan boy]

ELSI changed its name to KOJEN a couple of years ago. The reason for the change was that it ended its association with ELS in the United States. The school is still owned and controlled by the Ho family of Taiwan.

I worked for ELSI as it was then known in 1999/2000. I returned to work for Kojen again in 2002, but left after 4 months for various reasons. Some people feel the school has gone backwards in the last year or two. It is still an extremely successful business and still expanding though.

[Aristotle]

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:1040125073-6567.txt
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:1040125073-6567.txt
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:1000625045-28937.txt
http://pub57.ezboard.com/fesfitfrm35
http://www.geocities.com/graylist_database/Taiwan.html
http://teachtaiwan.community.everyone.net/commun_v3/scripts/topics.pl?NodeID=126131
&page=3&sortBy=postDate&sortOrder=desc
Not a lot of good news and the more recent reports are a lot worse.
A.

[eslintaiwan2002]

The other posts are correct. ELSI changed its name to Kojen a few years ago, not sure exactly when.

I am an ex-Kojen and would say that I had a less than favourable stay with them. Kojen is your typical chain school in Taiwan, each branch is basically ran by the director, so you will find some people who are happy because they have one of the few good directors.

Be prepared to teach a lot of kids classes or preschool. If you are planning on teaching adults, their program has taken a huge hit with the loss of some key people over the last six months to a year. Also, if you want to teach adults there will be a limited amount of teaching hourse available, which means very little to no money at all.

Kojen pays well below average. I believe they start at around 540-550 an hour. If you are lucky enough to get 20 hours, then take out taxes, well you see that you are not taking home a lot of money.

If you are planning on coming to Taiwan for the first time, my advice is to get a two month tourist visa from your home country, come to taiwan and pick up the local English newspaper (In Taipei the China post) and hunt for jobs that way or through newtworking with other teachers that you meet.

[Pop Fly]

Take my word for it....I cannot elaborate yet, but will get into the nasty details by the weekend (hopefully)...Prentice is gone, Steve is gone....there are no resources for the foreign staff administratively speaking....go elsewhere....stay away...it is the plague....Throw out yer dead...throw out yer deee-aaad!


I'm not dead yet!

[EOD]

I got most of this second hand, so it may vary a bit from what others know and say.
Many years ago ELSI was a pretty good school in a country full of really bad ones. The way they maintained their quality was to make a contractual agreement with E.L.S. schools in the US. I have not seen this agreement, but I was told the jest of it from a close friend of mine at the top, at ELS. The agreement stated that native speakers were required to hold all senior level academic positions in all schools and have total control over the curriculum. That in itself is unusual for Taiwan. It also stated, what were considered academic and non academic issues.
The ESL market in Taiwan has improved a little over the years and many schools are doing as well as, or even better than ELSI, in all areas.
The owners at ESLI were being forced to sacrifice profits in the name of academic excellence. Well, the owners are Taiwanese business people and sacrificing profits for any reason, is unacceptable to them.
I am assuming that they decided to have a go for themselves and drop ELS, or were violating their contract to such an extent, that ELS severed ties. Probably both.
The end result is KoJen, the schools are now named directly after the Taiwanese owners. They have appointed all loyal "Taiwanese" to top positions, mostly family and are in the process of removing all senior foreigners from the staff. That means that KoJen is now a Taiwanese owned and operated business. I would strongly recommend that anyone considering working there take that fact into consideration.
EOD

[Sunpower]

I had an interview at Kojen in Taipei in November '02.
The man that interviewed me was part Japanese and I beleive his name was Ken Inagisawa (not sure on the last name).
Afer talking to me for a few minutes and looking at my resume, he told me that maybe I would have a tough time "fitting in to the Kojen culture" due to my experience. They were also wanting me to teach kids. I told him that I didn't want to teach kids.

I met another guy with experience a few days later who had a similar expereince at kojen. Ken wanted him to teach kids all day and he didn't want to.

I also get the feeling that they don't want older more expereinced teachers for fear that they will be difficult to manage.

Younger, less expereinced "teachers" are more easily to manipulate.

I'd go in for the interveiw but back out if you feel it's not what you're looking for.

Reminded me of another Nova or Geos situation.

I definitely don't regret not getting the job with Kojen now that I think about it.

[Pop Fly]

[WorkingVaca]

While teaching in Thailand I filled out Kojen's lengthy application on the Internet and waited for the "follow-up phone call." They e-mailed a contract showing the low pay rate and no guarentee of minimum hours, and asked me to send a tape of myself answering the same questions I already filled out on the website. Like I was going to go out and buy a tape machine for this? I thought it was just cheap on their part that they couldn't just call me on the phone--I was already in Asia. Considering it a bad sign, I passed. I'm not sorry either because I was able to interview in-person at a dozen places once I got to Taiwan, and took one of the few decent offers.

[taiwan boy]

This was recently posted in the Job Information Journal.
Kojen...a gamble

As a former ELSI/Kojen employee I can say it is a fair assessment. As mentioned in the above article and also by Pop Fly so much depends on your director. If you get a good one then it is probably going to be OK. Get a bad one and you'll regret it. Kojen appoints all its directors in house. There are some good ones, but in many cases people are appointed as directors just because they have worked there for a few years. The result is they have no management skills and do their jobs poorly. Kojen would be far better off paying these people more to stay in the classroom where they can do a good job rather than paying them to do a poor job of managing a school.

Also Kojen's adult program has been failing to attract decent numbers of students recently so it has very difficult to get enough hours if you don't teach kids.

[Pop Fly]

So stay away!!!

[Aristotle]

Kojen is no worse than any other chain school on this rock. They all suck .

[Wu Hong Feng]

Kojen (formerly ESLI Taiwan) used to be OK if you got a good director. The director, and his or her attitude, really seems to influence the atmosphere of the school. The problem is that directors are very haphazardly appointed by an aging management that is very out of touch and only cares about the amount of money that comes in from each branch as opposed to how things are being run / areas that could be improved. All because a foreign teacher taught well enough and got along with Taiwanese students (who are almost always motivated and nice) doesn't mean that they know how to manage a department and get along with foreigners / local staff. What makes things worse is that the management doesn't seem to notice what the hell the directors do. Directors are almost never monitored except by their manager who has her own responsibilities and can't really observe all that closely. Without accountability, the result is tryanny and at a couple of schools, this has become firmly entrenched. Some of the things that go on at the Gongguan branch across from Tai Da would make for a script to a Hollywood film. The director, {edit}, far from inspiring his teachers as a middle manager should do, instead denies that he even is a middle manager, telling his cowed almost all female staff that he, in effect is the Kojen management. This is all part of some delusion of grandeur that is just one sign of rather obvious psychological problems. He's unfriendly to the point of cruelty and scared off all but one of the male staff with threats of firing without cancelling the work visa, which is tantamount to threatening someone with deportation. The irony of having your rights trampelled on by a fellow expatriot in a foreign country is not something that some people take lightly, and it certainly doesn't help for staff morale. The teachers don't like him but they simply bow to his whims and commands, so that they'll get classes and avoid the inconvenience of transferring to another branch or school. Opinions are stifled and the staffroom has a sort of Orwellian feel to it. When the director isn't there, the staffroom feels normal, but the problem is that he's there almost all the damn time. Teachers with any sense of independence are pushed out the door, paving the way for completely inexperienced "teachers" who are fobbed off on the poor students. This is in fact a vicious cycle which has certainly helped contribute to the sharp decline in Kojen's now sinking adult department. The head office needs to wake up and address this problem as well as why it has not been reported by the manager. Unfortunately, this isn't the only branch where this goes on, so it goes without saying, think twice before you sign up here. Mr. Daley and people like him, are killing business and your chance of ample classes in an amiable working environment. Keep looking. You can do better. I know I certainly did. And if you are one of the good directors that I have heard of who actually has the EQ and people skills to manage your branch properly, remember: all it takes is a couple of bad apples... (4, 5)

[Fortigurn]

I have very much enjoyed my experience with Kojen so far. The school at Shilin where I work provides a huge amount of curriculim material, as well as a consistent teacher training program.

I'm still happy after 4 months at Kojen. I love the teacher trainers there, and the Academic Director is a very easy going guy (South African), who is extremely accomodating, especially in the matter of holidays.

I am paid on time, every time. Sometimes I'm paid more than I had calculated. I'm never paid short.

Long time staff at Kojen tell me that Shilin is the best school in Kojen. I don't know if that's right, but after 4 months I have absolutely nothing to complain about, and everything to be grateful for.

I'm sure that there are other Kojen schools which may well be dogs, but I don't think I'm at one of them.

[Chris Smith]

Anyone reading the link above about Kojen�s GongGuan school would rightly be frightened and shocked by the content. Without a doubt it would make me put Kojen at the bottom of any list of schools I was considering working for in Taiwan, if I were new here or considering changing schools.

Forums, like this one, are a great source of information for all ESL teachers, but they can easily be abused by individuals with an agenda. Instead of dealing with these serious allegations in a way that could lead to the truth and, if necessary, action, the author has chosen public vilification as a means of punishment for reasons that are obviously very personal.

Singling out individuals in this way and naming them on the Internet can only be for the purposes of damaging or destroying the intended victim�s reputation. Lets say the allegations about the school and director are true. Without a doubt there would be a series of posts from former teachers recognizing their similar experiences and sympathizing with the author (just think how many male teachers were sent packing over the 4+ years this director has had his position!). As this hasn�t happened, I think it�s pretty obvious what this is- a very public personal attack.

Kojen is not a typical chain school in Taiwan. As has been pointed out in other threads on this site it is wholly owned by the Hou family. Branch schools do have a lot of independence from the owners and are trusted to do a professional job in their own market. However, because all the branches follow the same system, there is constant contact between different branch schools at management level and through teachers who work at more than one branch. If such problems really existed at any given branch, it wouldn�t take long for the news to spread within the company. The problem would be dealt with because there simply wouldn�t be any other option.

If you are concerned about the negative things written about Kojen and this is influencing your choice of school to work at, contact the company directly and be specific about your concerns. You�ll be able to judge for yourself based on the answers you are given. The website below has a �contact us� tab, but you have to position your mouse over the Chinese tabs to see the English translation. Alternatively you can contact me at
[email protected] and I�ll do my best to answer your questions.

Kojen-els:

http://www.kojen-els.com.tw/


Chris Smith
academic director- adults� department (Neihu Branch)