Job Discussion Forums

Minella · Joined: 22 Aug 2010 Posts: 37 Location: Turkey

I am a non native English speaker. I have a Tefl certificate plus have native English proficiency, is it still not possible to teach in Taiwan? All the jobs that I have applied, they returned back to me saying I have all the necessary degrees and great English but they still can't employ me to teach in Taiwan! How unfair is that! Is there absolutely no way of teaching there as a non native English what so ever? Any ideas?

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

First, from your post it is clear that you do not have native like English proficiency. Furthermore, yes you can teach English in Taiwan if you marry a Taiwanese. I know a guy from Turkey who teaches English. I think he makes 80,000 a month.

Despite that the Taiwanese government will not offer you a working visa to teach English in Taiwan.

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

Dr_Zoidberg · Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:10 am Post subject:

I have personally met a Russian who was teaching English in Taiwan with a job-sponsored ARC. He had a Canadian passport.

I have personally worked with a Pole who was teaching English in Taiwan with a job-sponsored ARC. He had an American passport.

Obviously one is not required to be a native speaker, only to hold the passport of a country where there are native English speakers. The Taiwanese wouldn't know a native English speaker if he bit them on the ass.

By the way, how do South Africans get their ARCs when their native tongue is Afrikaans?

Minella · Joined: 22 Aug 2010 Posts: 37 Location: Turkey

I am not a native English so why do you say no native English says this? I am not even trying to be a native English. My grammar is right and I have lived in England and Australia and I can speak fluently. Also this post is not about me or how I speak. Clearly there is nothing wrong with my speaking here. Meaning wise it is not wrong to say "this person returned back to me with this reply etc etc" I have heard it from my native English friends before. Anyway the point is not this. But thank you for fixing my grammatical mistake anyway!!
Thank you to Dr_Zoidberg for giving me the answer I was actually looking for!
PS: Many native English speakers make many many grammatical mistakes so maybe you should also criticize them...

Minella · Joined: 22 Aug 2010 Posts: 37 Location: Turkey

Nice one about the South Africans Smile

) I had a friend from South Africa and he hardly knew any Afrikaans lol. So maybe not all of them can speak it.

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

Dr_Zoidberg · Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:29 am Post subject:

Dr_Zoidberg · Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 1:04 pm Post subject:

Just out of curiosity, Minella, why do you not try to get an English teaching job in your own country?

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

I know of Filipinos/Filipinos working in universities. Other too, e.g. Eastern Europeans - all teaching English despite it not being their first language. How come? Isn't the place of graduation very important?

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

As someone mentioned elsewhere or probably on another forum, universities have different criteria for their teachers? I think that is the story because my wife has two Russian teachers but they don't teach conversation, grammar and some kind of culture thing. Uni might be an option for the OP if she/he has the right qualifications etc.

scarab1169 · Joined: 07 Jun 2007 Posts: 42

And I'm tired of being judged as a non-native speaker, when people hear I'm from SA. The first thing that goes through their mind is that I supported the racist old goverment and that I have a thick stupid accent because my mother tongue is probably Afrikaans. That isn't true. Yet, that's the kind of judgement and predujuce I've to live with. The Afrikaans speaking population makes up a very small percentage of people in SA. English is the the main medium that is used in communications because there are 11 official languages in SA. So, that's maybe why it's seen as an official English speaking country? I don't know. I' just know that I'm so sick and tired of being judged because if this stupid perception that people have. And to the OP, in this country people will often tell you how great you are, and actually lie to your face about it. That's just the culture. Don't believe everything people tell you - they'll tell you that you're a god, just to not lose face. Look at something else to do if you want to stay in this country. And life isn't fair - that's all that I'll say.

Benben · Joined: 04 Sep 2010 Posts: 10

You can teach as long as you have a passport from CAN, US, Aust, etc....

We've been here for a year teaching and we never had any problems.
My gf and I are both from the french and bilingual part of Canada and English is our second language. I also had two other francophone friends teaching in Taiwan and they didn't have any problems getting a visa with their Canadian passports.
Maybe it helped that we were certified as native speakers when we took our TESL course. Luckily the teacher didn't realize we technically weren't.

We couldn't get a visa for Korea, but Taiwan was ok.

bbc100 · Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Posts: 8

Getting a visa is easy, problem is where to start looking for a job? I tried Hess but just received a rejection letter.