Job Discussion Forums

[OrangeBetty]

Just a quick question pertaining to ARC eligibility in Taiwan. Would a person be eligible if they fulfilled their requirements to be legally employed in an english speaking country (ie. recieved degree/diploma/TEFL in Canada, Australia, or U.S.A.) but were born in and only hold a passport to a non-native speaking country (Poland, Slovakia etc.)

Curious about the topic as it is a situation that many fairly recent immigrants likely find themselves in.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Ilanian]

Sorry, it's all about the passport. Has to be from one of the big English countries. They are America, Canada, Oz, NZ, or South Africa. Something tells me there are 7 but I can't remember the other two, but they are not Eastern Bloc countries, I know that.

Edit

The UK, that's another, maybe Ireland is the 7th.

Another thing that is often overlooked, as I just did, is that you can be employed as a Polish teacher if you are from Poland, a Spanish teacher if you are from a Spanish speaking country, I personally have met a Danish teacher from Denmark, although this person was really teaching English.

[clark.w.griswald]

The short answer is �No�.

Many people feel that the current system is unfair and prejudiced against applicants from countries where English is spoken freely, such as India and the Philippines. The regulations state that in order to be considered a native English speaker of an ability that students here can benefit from, the teacher should be from one of a list of countries that includes the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and England.

Although there is no denying that someone from a non-English speaking country could have an excellent ability in English, I guess that the government feels that there is little way to distinguish these proficient second language speakers from local Chinese with an exceptional English ability. This would include locals who grew up and were schooled in Taiwan, but spent some time overseas obtaining tertiary qualifications. The only reason that we foreigners can get employed as English teachers at all is because our employers are able to show that we are doing a job that locals couldn�t do. Most of us are employed as conversation teachers, and although most of the local English teachers could beat many foreigners in English grammar skills, they often just can�t compete on a conversational level. If the doors were to be opened up to second language speakers with exceptional English language abilities then this non-competition requirement would no longer be able to be satisfied, and these employees brought in from overseas would be in direct competition with locals. This would become a problem and there would soon be a lot of resentment from locals against foreigners per se for �stealing jobs�. As it is currently we each have our place.

Having said this, there are non-native English speakers teaching English here in Taiwan. While some of these may have obtained documentation for their work, my guess is that most do so through forged documentation, or possibly because they are lucky enough to have a passport from one of the declared native English speaking countries. Many more are most likely working illegally. Assuming that they came here on the prospect of teaching English only to find out after the fact that they didn�t qualify for legal employment, I can understand their desire to remain here and pay off their airline ticket at least. This is a good reason that people should research life in Taiwan before coming.

My suggestion to any one who doesn�t qualify for legal work in Taiwan is to reconsider coming here. There are other alternatives that may be worth considering. If you haven�t got your heart set on coming to Taiwan then maybe you could consider other countries in Asia who may not have such stringent requirements for English teachers to be native speakers.

[OrangeBetty]

Cool, thanks for the knowledge.

Do you guys know which Asian countries are more flexible than Taiwan in regards to allowing non-native speakers to legally work? Also, is it possible to obtain an ARC for doing work other than English teaching (bartending, landscaping, taxi driver etc.).

Thanks again for your help.

[TaoyuanSteve]

There are other jobs for which you can get ARC, but not many. Foreigners are typically hired for things locals may not be able to do. Jobs usually have something to do with language. Such jobs as editor, technical writer, translator and the like are examples of other jobs for which you may get ARC sponsorship. Other jobs can be done by locals and, accordingly, are off limits to foreigners (at least those who have not got open work rights). So, though I may be wrong, it's unlikely you'll get an ARC for cab driving or the like (and if you don't speak fluent Mandarin and Taiwanese, I don't see how you'd do the job anyway).

Other countries. Mainland China comes to mind. The other developed countries in the region (eg Japan, South Korea...) have similar requirements to Taiwan.

[clark.w.griswald]

Non teaching work offering an ARC is certainly a possibility, but the rules of non-competition with local workers still apply. Basically, for a foreigner to obtain legal work here in Taiwan they need to be doing a job that local people can�t do, or that the foreigner has some special talent or knowledge in. Obviously bar tending and taxi driving don�t fit the bill as locals can do those jobs, but there may be something else that you qualify for. If you have work experience in a certain field, have a specific tertiary qualification, or have some talent that is in need here that locals don�t have, then there is a possibility for you to fully legal work and an ARC. You could check out the non-teaching work forum over at www.forumosa.com to get an idea of what kind of work is available.

[junkmail]

Yes, the system is not only unfair but ignorant.
There are many South Africans, for example, for whom English is most certainly a second language (at best) as well, as every other passport mentioned for that matter.
I have non native friends who were educated in English and who are fluent and yet I know many 'native' passport holders who are definitely second language speakers, although in all fairness they don't teach English.
As far as not having any reliable ways of testing people's skills, yes there are. It would be near as dammit impossible for someone without at least native like fluency to get onto, never mind pass a CELTA for example.

The bottom line at the moment is that having filters is probably good, as there are alot teachers looking for work. The choice of filters are questionable but I'm not getting into that debate at the moment.