Job Discussion Forums

cheese6 · Joined: 26 Feb 2009 Posts: 5

Recently I was employed for a two month summer camp for the YMCA in Taichung. The children were an absolute delight and teaching Taiwanese children is an experience with in itself.

However the mislead info of administation seems to dampen the wholeful experience. We were hired on a "volunteer" basis. and told a 9-5 job, four teaching hours, with shared accomodation provided. What they failed to state was that besides the four teaching hours, the other four hours were also to be spent in the classroom bringing contact hours to 8. Our accomodation was the sweaty dancefloor of the YMCA. After school there was no sanctuary to sit down and relax because the ymca accomodation was flooded with children for evening cram school and dance studio constantly running classes and full volume. We were given infant sized blankets that were not previously washed and yoga mats that were used by YMCA dance studio members throughout the day as sleeping arrangements/beds. Also to add there were 30 other Taiwanese counselers sharing the dance studio. So now 30 Taiwanese and 5 wy-goren were given a shared closet around 10x10 feet and 5 showers. 35 people are preparing for their workday, techno music is blaring, and people are also using the same facilities to prepare for dance class., making a very uncomfortable situation. Also important to point out that we were not allowed to sleep until the final dance class was over at 10pm. So from 7am to 10pm we constantly surrounded by children and taiwanese women in leotards for 15 hours a day. It was comical for a couple of days but after the 1st week was over it was just a count down till the end. (7 weeks total) Our english camp alone brought in 60,000 USD for the YMCA Taichung, and it was dissapointing to see there lack of sensitivity towards foreigners.

I have expressed my opinions to the YMCA which I believe were kindly disregarded. The reason I am writing this is because the YMCA Taichung will hire foriegn teachers again and just wanted to try and give those applicants the heads up for next year. Taiwan in a whole was awesome, people, food, and culture.

sojourner318 · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 2

I worked at the Y for a summer camp as well. I don't understand why they hired foreigners from outside of Taiwan. I didn't speak any Chinese, didn't know how to get around, and basically had a terrible time. Working inside of the camp was not fun either- especially since I found out I was paid less than half of what other foreign teachers are paid in Taiwan but I did more work!

They seem like well meaning people but they just didn't care if the foreign workers were happy or not.

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

sojourner318 · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 2

That I was aware of. They were upfront about the legal situation. Didn't bother me much- probably 1/4 of all my ESL earnings in Asia have come from the shadow teaching economy.

2sly4esl · Joined: 08 Mar 2010 Posts: 2

It. Was. Hell.

Lived at the YMCA and it was terrible. Worked at the camp and it was crap. Not paid enough, too much work, incompetent helpers, staff didn't care about foreigners being happy. I woudl never do it again.

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

Interestingly, during the process I was told that they preferred to higher people from overseas. Now I understand why. They knew that people living in Taiwan would just quit.

2sly4esl · Joined: 08 Mar 2010 Posts: 2

Could be. If i lived in taiwan at least i'd have been able to sleep in my own bed. Might have enjoyed things more if i wasn't kept awake by taiwanese counselors while sleeping on a gym floor.