Job Discussion Forums

funkystuff · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 62

But Forest, your figures don't factor in the cost of living. My Taiwanese g/f is constantly complaining about how much it cost to visit me, which is why she does it less these day.(And which is why I'm thinking about moving to Taiwan.) For example, an air ticket with KLM used to be around 8K but is now around 12K. Further, I read that the Taiwan Authority is in debt to the amount of S1.4 trillion, which means more increases in coming soon. The new President there, for example, has told the public that power/utility costs will rise because the state-owned power companies are in massive debt. Costs have risen here in Thailand, but the amount is minimal. The other thing is that I don't need to fly home - or to Taiwan - frequently because taking a holiday here is fine. I've never worked in Taiwan, but I have toured the island, and quite frankly, I wasn't impressed with the beaches compared with what's on offer here in the land of a 1,000 smiles.

forest1979 · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: SE Asia

Of course the figures don't factor infactor the cost of living. It's merely average wages and possible levels of savings taken from a thread at this site earlier this year. However if you take the cost of living in NY to be 100 then Taipei is 85.8 (or 48th in the world).

Rank (2007) Rank (2006) City Country
1 1 Moscow Russia
2 5 London United Kingdom
3 2 Seoul South Korea
4 3 Tokyo Japan
5 4 Hong Kong China
6 8 Copenhagen Denmark
7 7 Geneva Switzerland
8 6 Osaka Japan
9 9 Zurich Switzerland
10 10 Oslo Norway
11 13 Milan Italy
12 12 St Petersburg Russia
13 15 Paris France
14 17 Singapore Singapore
15 10 New York City USA
16 18 Dublin Ireland
17 24 Tel Aviv Israel
18 21 Rome Italy
19 21 Vienna Austria
20 14 Beijing China
21 19 Sydney Australia
22 25 Helsinki Finland
23 36 Stockholm Sweden
24 27 Douala Cameroon
25 41 Amsterdam Netherlands
=26 53 Madrid Spain
=26 20 Shanghai China
28 21 Kiev Ukraine
29 59 Athens Greece
30 52 Almaty Kazakhstan
=31 56 Barcelona Spain
=31 48 Bratislava Slovak Republic
33 45 Dakar Senegal
34 25 Dubai United Arab Emirates
35 45 Abidjan C�te d'Ivorie
36 60 Glasgow UK
37 31 Lagos Nigeria
38 15 istanbul Turkey
39 65 Munich Germany
40 61 Frankfurt Germany
41 69 Birmingham UK
42 29 Los Angeles USA
43 46 Luxembourg Luxembourg
44 70 Brussels Belgium
=45 30 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates
=45 72 Berlin Germany
=45 62 D�sseldorf Germany
48 - Taipei Taiwan
49 50 Prague Czech Republic
50 51 Algiers Algeria

If you take ranking for health then Taipei is 110th in the world. Bangkok 168th, or less than Rangoon in Burma.

strangelove · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 26 Location: Formosa

Well, if you had to fly from Thailand to Taiwan then your cost of living will probably increase dramatically as well. Maybe you can get your girlfriend to pay your rent as well, and then you can tell us how housing is so much cheaper in Thailand. It is a good thing you are an English teacher and not an economist.

KLM=Royal Dutch Airline

Is Thailand blessed with an abundance of energy resources? If not then it is likely subsidizing the cost of energy (i.e. blowing loads of taxpayer $ to keep prices low)... many Asian governments have done this. I just saw that Malaysia just raised gas prices by 40% overnight since the cost of subsidizing is too costly. Taiwan had to raise the price of gas, and it is still too low considering the price of oil has risen MUCH faster than the price of gas in Taiwan.

It is hard for people to grasp, but producing energy costs money. You can set utility prices for less than cost, but it has been proven that business model doesn't work very well.

Yes, you should stay in Thailand.

funkystuff · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 62

forest1979 · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: SE Asia

Funkystuff...

Well let you provide us with the statistics. If you criticise everything relating to average salaries, and talk subjectively all the time, then stand up and be counted yourself with cold hard data for all social classes, groups, and regions of nations. We await in anticipation.

funkystuff · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 62

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

Thanks, Funky. The salaries and deductions I've posted and quoted a few times on this thread are straight from someone teaching at a university in Taiwan and she has given me a lot of information about teaching at universities there. A number of other people have given me info on university teaching in Taiwan also. so even though there are a few posters here who have actually taught in universities in taiwan, the info they're presenting on this thread doesn't quite jive with what I'm hearing.

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

forest1979 · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: SE Asia

Funkystuff...

If your view is that the majority of people responding on this thread to your initial posting don't know what they're talking about then you're doing nothing but insult them. Personally I won't ever respond to any of your comments again.

Miyazaki...

You raise some seriously good points. Firstly, you're spot on when you say PhD holders are difficult to handle. Personally from what I have found is they require a different management dynamic as they have different academic priorities to instructors, and the Taiwanese uni system doesnt cater for this.

They cost more money....true...can't criticise that as it is 100% correct. So, yes, in some instances where budgets are tight MA holders will be given preference. However, as I have said before, there is MoE pressure now for departments/ELCs to have a more balanced ratio of MA to PhD holders. This is why, for instance, MCU has been advertising for research degree holders in TESOL, Education, Linguistics, etc. Problem is though that if you're a PhD holder from the US, Canada, UK, etc., would you would with this kind of degree in a ELC? No way! Complete waste of time, hence whether ELCs want PhDs or not they often have no choice to fall back on locals with PhDs or foreigners with MAs.

On the subject of staff vs instructor contracts this is becoming common in private unis. What is the issue is not whether the new teacher is called an instructor or not, irrespective of contract by being a MA holder you're an instructor, the contract form depends on the uni in question. MCU, which has cropped up no end of times in this thread, has a number of instructors on staff contracts. They teach more, earn less, have less holidays, do much more admin. Staff contracts are to be curt, an instructor contract for locals.

On the subject of MCU I can categorically say that maybe your sources have one or two erroneous views of LeAnn. Did your source once work at MCU but is now at the Chinese Uni in Yangmingshan? Damn right she is known to be religious - she came to Taiwan as a missionary - but is she unintelligent, autocratic....?....far from it. She certainly is not stupid, and her management style is anything but autocratic. Her problem was controlling people!

Underqualified? Maybe. Certainly she's lacking formal qualifications in TEFL but she's got a huge number of years of classroom practice, and does have a MA (albeit in a different subject).

Did she wield power? Yes, in admin terms she was MCU's ELC boss. Now there is technically no formal boss in the ELC, just an administrative secretary with a bit more power than most.

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

Forest,

I agree with all that you've written.

I think there are people who can work in the same place and have different experiences or competing interpretations of events. I've met or exchanged e-mail with several (like maybe 6 or 7 people) over the years who have taught at this school and, although I cannot speak from personal experience, did not like working there. leanne was mentioned by some of these people.

frankly, while I think JZer raises some great points in this thread, I cannot agree that universities should open their doors to teachers with only B.A. degrees - and non-TESOL degrees at that! it's crazy. I'll never accept that this is good practice - to bring amateurs and hacks into the univ. english depts. head back to korea where this is the norm. however, in taiwan you get these old-timers who have been here for decades and have no professional or relevant training or education in tesol or applied linguistics - yet they're often the ones in management or supervisor positions, supervising doctorates! i'ts mental.

speaking of ming chuan university, do they still have to travel out to taoyuan to teach once a week? can they tell admin that they refuse to go travel out that way - or is is compulsory? some of the poeple i've talked really didn't like this aspect of their contract / program.

forest1979 · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: SE Asia

Miyazaki....

Did you know that one of Taiwan's TEFL experts, according at least to his blog, is written by someone without any formal qualification in language teaching. Still regards himself as an expert though!

MCU...yep, people still have to go out to their campus in Taoyuan County. Some do it three times a week from what I gather, in part due to the classrooms being larger (and so easier to teach in - the Taipei campus is like a chicken coop!). Also the Department of English is based there so for specialist classes, e.g. composition, drama, etc., then the teacher would have to go out to Taoyuan. For remedial teaching, i.e. to all non-English majors, this is done in Taipei and Taoyaun through the ELC's self-designed books (not very good - I have seen some).

As for saying whether people refuse to travel I am not 100% sure on this. I think it depends on the contract, which probably means teaching staff have no choice, but also the lady who does the timetabling. I know she gets leaned upon by some staff members, and as a result she modifies their schedule. I suppose therefore with good quanxi or telling her to stick it you might be able to get out of travelling. On the whole I think it's compulsory. I think most teachers are resigned to travel as part of their working week but I have heard on the grapevine that what has got a lot of people's beef is not so much the journey but that the MCU bus at certain times has not been large enough to accommodate everyone. So people have been asked to take taxis, and then claim the money back. As you know admin office work at snails pace so this is hardly a pragmatic long-term solution to the problem!

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

BJ · Joined: 03 Dec 2003 Posts: 173

"modicum of objective advice is Myiazaki" - erm thanks Flunky, very kind of you to say taht Forest and I have no objective posiitons. Some times I wonder why I bother. I have no ulterior motivation to give advice other than trying to help.

Regarding masters for langauyage centre. I called both the advertised locations about the jobs on offer, all full time posts were for PHds only, Langauage centre masters were for part time staff only. - Not objective? call them yourself and ask.

Mr. Kalgukshi · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:46 am Post subject:

Way too many personal attacks and so this thread is now closed.