Taiwanese-American: Not Entirely Either

Teaching English in Taiwan Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does being Asian actually hurt you in getting a teaching job in Taiwan? How many times did you get turned down because of this?

Being Asian does not really hurt your chances here in finding a job. I only got turned down once because I wasn’t Caucasian. There are some schools, mostly the smaller private ones, that are pressured by the parents to believe that how Caucasian you look is postivitely correlated to how fluent your English is. Just don’t bother with those if you’re Asian.

2. Where are some places you applied to? How did you start looking?

I found TEALIT which is a great website to use for job hunting and any other questions. They have a bunch of schools listed with job listings all over Taiwan. I applied to both small schools and the bigger ones like Hess and Kojen. There was an recruitment agency, Asian Consultants, that I contacted initially who actually ended up helping me land the teaching job that I have now.

3. What is the difference between bigger schools like Hess and Kojen vs. smaller private ones?

Most big schools will try to help with the transition of moving abroad to teach English. They do provide everything to help the transition easier like transportation and accomodations. Smaller schools will also have friendly employees to help with the smaller things, but they usually are not obligated to do so.

4. Did you have any teaching experience before?

Not really. I taught a few ESL classes for community service in the States to the Hispanic community, but that’s about it.

5. What do you need to teach English abroad?

All you need is a native English accent and a college diploma. It wouldn’t hurt to be great with kids either.

6. Do you have to pretend to not know Chinese at school?

A very big yes! Never let the students see you speak Chinese, or else that’s all they’ll say to you.

7. What type of questions do they ask you at the interviews?

During the interviews, the questions are pretty basic. They ask you about your college degree, if you had teaching experience, have you worked with kids before, how would you discipline a child if they were acting up, why are you in taiwan, why do you want to be an English teacher, are you working only here or do you have other part time jobs, are you an outgoing or confident person, do you have good handwriting… etc. And no, you generally don’t have to wear a suit to the interviews, generally a bit more casual than business casual is fine.

8. What’s the pay like? And what are the hours?

The average pay is $500-650NT an hour depending on the school and the grade level. Private tutoring lessons that you hold on your own time can range from $600-800NT based on age of students and level of English. The monthly income is about $50,000-60,000NT. The hours also average about 20-25 hours a week. However, the bigger schools might require 30-40 hours.

9. Do you already have books or do you make up your own lessons?

At my school, we have a curriculum with books provided, so I don’t have to spend much time working on lesson plans. I spend most of my time planning hands-on activities for the kids outside of the lesson plans.

10. What about the legal stuff?

All of the schools should help you get an ARC/ work permit through them. That’s the only way they can hire you legally, that way you can get health insurance and they can take their taxes and whatnot. All of this can be accomplished within a month of signing the contract with the school. Most of the schools require a yearlong contract.

Just FYI, people are not super responsive with emails here. The best way to get in touch with schools is by making phone calls and/or showing up in person.

***For more questions and answers, read my interview HERE at youcanteachenglish.com.***