Job Discussion Forums

[meltedcheez]

My wife and I have been looking into teaching overseas since we both obtained our BA from an American U. last December. We had an interview with a school and was told they filled their positions, however a few days later I received another email stating he had worked out a schedule to hire us. So we decided to do it. We found the job listing here at Dave's ESL. It's a private English School and the guy said they have three locations. They offered us positions in the Kindergarten and few hours a week in the buxiban.

Like I said I am new to this so I started reading back through this forum to see what I could find and realized Kindergarten for foreigners is illegal. We are supposed to be making 55,000NT/month plus extra for the work in the buxiban. The school will provide the ARC and will pay the work visa costs up front and it will be deducted from our first month. They also will reimburse us for our plane tickets after the contract is done in a year and will provide housing minus electricity etc.

Is this school legit? I booked the plane tickets but I'm pretty sure I could cancel them if needed. Is deportation a real option here?

[markholmes]

Is the school legit or not is hard to say, but what i can say is, the scenario you describe occurs in thousands of schools all over Taiwan. Yes, kindergarten is illegal, but very few people ever get caught and even fewer get deported. Your ARC will be for the bushiban, not the kindergarten. If the kindergarten is in the building with the bushiban this somewhat gives you an excuse for being there.

My school was raided (back in 2002) and my wife and I had to run down the fire escape in our socks. We jumped on our motorbike and went home and waited for the school to call and give us the all clear. We went back to work and it never happened again.

55,000 for a 9 to 4 day with probably a two hour lunch break is about right. it's easy hours compared to being a full time bushiban teacher. If you get accom. too and its free and reasonably liveable I'd say you were doing ok, particulary if you actually get those plane tickets at the end.

Whats the name of the school?

[meltedcheez]

The school is Mark's English School. When we were doing the interviews and talking with them the legality was never mentioned about the kindergarten. My wife and I aren't very comfortable with the thought of working in an illegal situation.

[NEP]

Hey, I just saw this...Any update? Are you going with the Mark's School?