Job Discussion Forums

[the_p0et]

I've been in contact with another fellow Canadian who's helping us find work in Taiwan. He gave us many references, all of which have checked out. They have the highest regard for him and their jobs. They seem to enjoy the amount of money they save and life in general over there.

The problem is that I'm very worried after reading a few posts on here about 53,000NTD/month for 8hrs/day being very low. He found us a job in his hometown in Touliu, Yunlin.

We'd be teaching English in an Elementary School for children ages 4 - 8 years old. We'll be working 9am - 5pm, but he says we're only actually teaching about 25hrs/week. The vacation is 2 weeks and the airfare reimbursement is about $900CND per person. So that will cover our one-way there. We're also getting ARC, work visa once we arrive, 80% paid health care, picked up at the Taipei Airport and assistance in finding accommodation. The salary is..... 50,000NTD/month. Now this doesn't seem to be too terribly low for me. This works out to be $2,030CND which is a lot more then my usual $800CND/month in Canada.

Any comments would be great!
Thanks.
Dan

[killian]

immediate questions with little thought:
is it 8 hrs a day or five? you are obviously gonna have split shifts. how many and how long?

did he mention the 20% tax?

do four year olds go to elementary school in canada? nursery school OK with you? some folks love it. some hate it.

what is there to do touliu?

50,000 or 53,000?

i have always tried to base my pay on hours. 50,000 into 100 hours a month. standard starting pay.

but touliu. never been there. oftentimes, small towns have to pay a premium to offset the "hardship posting" aspects.

is he gonna be around in his "hometown" when yo are there?

you write that he is canadian and then you write his hometown is in taiwan.

[wood]

[the_p0et]

We'll be working 8hrs/day, which is 5 teaching hours, 1.5hrs lunch and 1.5hrs grading and creating lessons.

He did mention sometime about taxes briefly. I heard if we stay for at least 6 months, then we'll be getting about 60% of our taxes back when we leave the country. Not exactly sure how that works.

He did mention that this elementary school will include kindergarten, so I'm guessing that's where the 4 year olds are.

I googled Touliu and it looks like there's a lot of good hiking and a couple of nice lakes nearby. It also looks like Touliu is on/near a major bus/rail route that can take us pretty much anywhere on the island on our days off. The only major downside I see is that there are no universities there. I was hoping to enroll in Mandarin classes. I'm taking Mandarin now and was wanting to continue.

He is from Canada, as we are. He has been living in Taiwan for 3 years now and has married a local.

I'm only making about $800CND/month now because when I moved back into Canada I could only find a part-time shift work job related to my field. (IT) At least we're only paying $400CND/month on rent here.

Is it pretty hard to find clean, safe accommodation? It will be for my wife and I.

[TaoyuanSteve]

It sounds terrible. Do yourself a favour. Don't take a job until you get here. You very likely (unless you speak fluent Mandarin or Taiwanese) will have a very hard time in a remote area when you first get here. Want friends? Who? There likely will be very few (if any) foreigners in the area you want to take your job. Want to go to a restaurant? Buy something? Ask for assistance? Anything involving language? You will have a very tough time doing even rudimentary things without English speakers (and trust me there aren't any) to help you. The pay is also at least 10000nt per month too low for the amount of work you will be doing. I think I'm becoming a broken record. I've said this a million times: don't trust recruiters. Get here and get your own (better) job in a place you might actually want to live. You WILL regret it if you don't.

[the_p0et]

We're not wanting to live in Taipei or Koashiung (however you spell it). If we just wait until we arrive, how do we find the jobs down there? Any tips? We're not wanting to just up and take off without having someone meet us at the airport and have accommodation already in place and a job ready for us. We were thinking we should be taking one of these jobs from the recruiter just so we can get there and then think about looking for other jobs afterwards.

Dan

[TaoyuanSteve]

Recruiters take advantage of scared newcomers like you. I have no other motivation or alterior motive other than to save you from having to learn the lessons I had to learn when I first got here. Taking a contract that sucks in a remote place you have never seen in a country you've never been to? Just dumb. Sorry to sound harsh. But your only reasons for doing something you'll likely regret are fear, fear, fear; and that's never a good reason to do anything. Seriously rethink your approach to coming here.

[markholmes]

Don't take it. It doesn't sound great and also sounds like you will be in the middle of nowhere.

I would suggest you come over and look, but if you feel more secure lining up something before you come check out www.kojenenglish.com.

[the_p0et]

Thanks for the advice. I had a look at the salaries for kojen and they say that we will make $540NT/hour with up to 18hrs/week. That works out to $38,880NT/month whereas I would be getting $50,000NT/month. I'm SO confused now. I'm leaving here in less then a month and now I'm begining to have doubts about everything... It would be nice to have a job like Kojen without many hours leaving time for privates, but I'm not positive that I will have any privates. The other job sounds nice because my wife and I will work at the same school with the same hours.

[Taylor]

Dear Readers,

As the old saying goes, "No one ever got rich being an English teacher."

To really make any progress here, you need to be clearing 60,000/per month after taxes.

The deal with Kojen is that you would have the whole day open until about 4 PM. Classes would run from 5 to 9--with only a few 10 minute breaks. Therefore, most teachers show up at least an hour early to get prepared. It may be an (unwritten?) rule to show up an hour early.

Kojen also has a pre-school program which is very exclusive (that is, Expensive). It would run from appx. 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. If you like being around the same bunch of 4 year olds all day, give it a shot! This would only be offered in the big cities.

You are right for not depending on privates. They are too unpredictable. In the past, most young teachers could supplement their main income by teaching in the mornings at day-care centers. I have heard the legalities of this have changed back and forth over the past year or so.

This agent seems to only have contacts in the countryside. Are you SURE you don't want to live in one of the larger cities?

Look into Gram also. http://www.gram.com.tw/ Also, check tealit.com

Best wishes. Keep us posted.

Taylor
Texas/Taiwan

[wood]

[Taylor]

Dear Readers,

Having 50K after taxes might be acceptable for one's first few months in Taiwan.

However, any thoughts of putting $1000 USD in the bank every month will have to be based on a higher salary...

Taylor

[markholmes]

The Kojen contract is a minimum of 18 hours not a maximum. In the summer you could be working 10 hours a day, seven days a week if you want.

Do your sums. So you are looking at a contract with a salary of 50000NT. You'll be working 25 hours a week, which I guess comes out at 110 hours a month. 50000 divided by 110 comes out at 455NT an hour, not including the extra three hours a day that they apparently make you work.

Yes its true that most schools don't pay for prep time, but most don't specify that you have to stay at school for an extra three hours a day even if you really have nothing to do.

You should not be taking anything that works out less than 500NT an hour (regardless of whether its hourly or monthly pay) and ideally should be looking for 600NT.

Do your sums. Its not rocket science.