Upscale housing in a Kaohsiung suburb.	Teaching English in Taiwan Michael A. Turton Introduction Questions to Ask Employers Can I Teach Illegally in Taiwan? Protecting Yourself Can I Teach for a couple of months? Schedules Who Shouldn't Come Visas When to Come Your Students Getting a Job Other Work and Links Who to Teach   Where to Teach Email Me Are They Ripping Me Off? Return To Home Page
Where to Teach

The entrance to Fooyin University of Technology, outside of Kaohsiung.

A key question is chains vs. bushibans (cram schools)/specialized English schools. There are a limitless number of chain schools around the island reproducing by fission like bacteria. The chains mostly are so-so places to work. They operate on volume, without ethics or commitment and often do not provide good working environments.

Every year, I get together with my university students from 1999. One of the great pleasures of being a teacher is watching people grow.

Most of their systems are nowhere near as good as the small bushibans which have been around a while, but few of these are left. Unfortunately some of the best bushibans have closed or cut back hours, unable to compete with the chains (who charge lower prices). The market is instead littered with tiny schools, operating quasilegally.

Large buildings with open spaces are frequently used for dancing practice.

Chains have one priceless advantage: they provide large amounts of stable hours (but pay is lower). Many will also provide training, teaching assistants, and other things useful for people just starting out.

Banner for a local Taekwando school

Consequently, chains are good places for newbies to start out.

A dove keeps an eye on me.

The central plain, which looks as those someone tossed the buildings in the air and let them fall where they may.

The government has forbidden foreign teachers to work in kindergartens. No one paid the slightest attention to that ruling. However, in Feb of 2004 the gov't issued a new ruling forbidding English teaching in kindergartens. Everyone is outraged, and this one was ignored as well, though there were sporadic instances of enforcement in Taipei.

A gaudy KTV in Taichung. KTVs are where friends and family go to sing together on the weekend. After your class gets to know you, they will no doubt invite you to a sing-a-long. However, many of these are actually brothels. The barbershop pole on the left wall of the building hints at that possibility, since barbershops doubled as whorehouses in the bad old days.

The English reform program has been widely implemented in schools across the island. You can now get legal hours at high schools and junior highs all over the country, with a base pay of $48,000 a month or so, plus opportunities for private tutoring and so forth. Here is a letter from a recruiter who complained about me not mentioning this much on my site.

"...The moon slants westward over the river and the pond. Endless, the road from Jieshi to the Xiang River. How many will return by moonlight? Setting, the moon seems to shake the flowering trees along the river with unquiet thought."

Even though it is legal to teach at a high school, public high schools are not capable of applying for a work permit on your behalf. Yes, that's right, the mom-n-pop cram school down the road can get work permits, but a proud high school with fifty years of experience cannot. Instead, the high school makes an (illegal) arrangement with a cram school to get you a work permit. Officialdom winks at it, so don't worry about it. Private high schools can get work permits.

Hustle and bustle in a night market.

Taiwan's Elementary English program is being pursued with the usual thoughtless indifference that characterizes government policy implementation in Taiwan; however, there are hours available at elementary schools in the mornings and afternoons, times which are often difficult to fill. You will have to make connections but that is not difficult.  Especially in small communities, you are almost certain to be approached.

The famous Miao-kow Night Market in Keelung.

A signature Taiwan scene: rice fields backed by factories.

The downside is that elementary school classes can be incredibly difficult to control even for experienced teachers.  Though older classes may be able discipline themselves, younger ones can be extremely trying. You are not their main teacher, nor is the classroom yours, and the brutal punishments sometimes required to keep order may be pyschologically painful for you to implement.

There's plenty of ways to spend the money you make.

I DO NOT recommend that you take an elementary school class unless you 1) can speak Chinese 2) have lots of energy and 3) have been in Taiwan a while, 4) and are able to insist that the children's regular teacher be present at all times.

Wufeng, a heavily polluted and gangster-ridden warehouse-and-factory suburb in southern Taichung. The city of Taichung is in the upper right.

The smaller bushibans (cram schools) are better places to work. Try to find one which has been around at least six or seven years. They offer reliable and higher pay, good work environments and so forth. If you can find one, you have it made. It may take time, and many better schools require that you speak some Chinese.

The atrium of a new local university

Sadly, the best places are the ones you never hear about; you have to stumble onto them. Many of the TOEFL cram schools down on Henyang Rd. in Taipei pay very well, but you actually have to know some English grammar (and dress well). A number of missions also have jobs.

An English teacher holds court in a local English bookstore on a Sunday. This kind of situation, where mothers sit in with the kids, is not ...ummmm....the ideal classroom situation.

Finally, to Taipei or not to Taipei. Frankly, the big money is in the cities, but they are saturated with foreigners like you. Also, other opportunities, acting, translation, editing, and so forth, exist only in the cities. Unlike the US, the small towns are much less livable than the cities, crime-ridden, poorly-administrated and dull.  In Kaohsiung teaching jobs often pay more, but there are fewer western amenities and other kinds of jobs.

A large farmhouse overlooks the fields of its owner. With land and materials cheap, many houses in rural areas are quite large and comfortable.

If you have a formal graduate degree (any MA is acceptable for English teaching) then you can get a job in a university.

A car, attempting to pass a whole line of cars across a double yellow on a crowded and narrow street, slams on its brakes to avoid another driver attempting the same illegal move. Yes, there's never a dull moment on a Taiwan street.

Check and see if a prospective school accepts children under 5. If they do, avoid them if possible (unless it is a morning kindergarten, of course, which is completely different). A formal classroom environment is generally inappropriate for children under 5. Small children in the classroom will demand much more energy than large kids, and will be much less rewarding to teach (since they will learn little). However, schools with small children will have lots of hours. Kindergartens are great ways to earn money in the morning.

A university proudly announces its SARS score: no confirmed cases, no probable cases.

Remember to calculate travel time in your hourly pay. If you have to travel an hour and a half one way for 90 minutes of teaching at $800 an hour, it isn't worth it. Better to stay near home and work more hours for less pay. One hears all the time about foreigners making $1000 a hour for a 90 minute class with a three hour unpaid round trip.........

A typical residential street.

When you go, leave with good feelings all around. Taiwanese really hate it when you leave without a sentimental good-bye (children are especially sentimental about good-byes, though they promptly forget you). Besides, you may need that place again someday................

A primary school student buys breakfast at a corner stand.