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White collar foreign workers require a salary closer to 50k (like 47--- or 49---). Unless you're a teacher, then you just need to teach at least 15 hours a week at whatever the place is paying you (probably like 500nt an hour for a new teacher) which nets you a sweet 30k at bare minimum and moves up to 40 or 50k after a few raises or whatever. I know one teacher who makes 70k a month but that's on the high end and probably requires a lot of work. Rent at a reasonable rate is somewhere between 6k and 15k a month depending on how alone you want to live and how swank you want your place to be. More people = cheaper than. Bills make maybe another 2 or 3k a month depending again on how you live. Pulling home 35k (about a thousand US) a month after rent, taxes and bills is a pretty good deal.
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Jul 5, 2014 06:29
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TetsuoTW posted:And as we all know, Taiwanese bosses always strictly adhere to regulations and never just lie to the authorities. This drat
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Jul 5, 2014 07:32
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TetsuoTW posted:And as we all know, Taiwanese bosses always strictly adhere to regulations and never just lie to the authorities. Generally when it comes to (white) foreign workers they do because they can get in deep poo poo when the government guy comes around asking if they are happy. Lying to the tax people is a whole other story though. Spanish Matlock posted:White collar foreign workers require a salary closer to 50k (like 47--- or 49---). Unless you're a teacher, then you just need to teach at least 15 hours a week at whatever the place is paying you (probably like 500nt an hour for a new teacher) which nets you a sweet 30k at bare minimum and moves up to 40 or 50k after a few raises or whatever. I know one teacher who makes 70k a month but that's on the high end and probably requires a lot of work. Not sure about white collar jobs, but for teachers at licensed schools it works out to: - 20+ hours (full-time) = minimum $42k per month - less than 20 hours (part-time) = minimum around $400-450 per hour Most places pay more than that of course, and anyone teaching English full-time should expect to make at least $50k for 20-25 hours a week of time spent in the office/teaching. Anyone working more than 25+ hours should be making at least $60k.
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Jul 5, 2014 18:12
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Oh boy, now I just want to buy a sky palace apartment complex in Taipei and call it the day! And why not just rename all the counties into provinces?
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Jul 5, 2014 18:52
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caberham posted:Oh boy, now I just want to buy a sky palace apartment complex in Taipei and call it the day! Good luck finding a building taller than 13 floors.
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Jul 5, 2014 21:13
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Barto posted:This drat About goons driving in Taiwan... When I was there early last year for a vacation I had one of those international drivers permits from AAA. It was valid for a year and was subject to a binding UN agreement (US made AAA their permit issuer apparently). So it's not that hard to drive in Taiwan legally apparently. I loved driving in Taipei. Given the choice of driving in Taipei or in Washington DC where I am now, I'd take Taipei every time. Nobody cares about breaking the law or sneaking around as long as you don't injure people or piss off a cop. Rule of thumb was a combo of "only look forward," "scooters have the right of way," and "if you hit somebody, kill them so you only pay one fine rather than lifetime bills." That was the rule of thumb given to me from my last girlfriend who lived in Taoyuan.
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Jul 6, 2014 03:45
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Backweb posted:"if you hit somebody, kill them so you only pay one fine rather than lifetime bills." They really need to make the penalties for vehicular manslaughter tougher because this gets repeated by every Taiwanese person I know. They genuinely believe that gravely injuring someone as opposed to killing them outright is a hassle.
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Jul 6, 2014 04:16
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caberham posted:And why not just rename all the counties into provinces?
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Jul 6, 2014 04:17
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Atlas Hugged posted:They really need to make the penalties for vehicular manslaughter tougher because this gets repeated by every Taiwanese person I know.
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Jul 6, 2014 04:18
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E: ^^^^ Haha what? Are they elected, or is this just some serious nepotism?Atlas Hugged posted:They really need to make the penalties for vehicular manslaughter tougher because this gets repeated by every Taiwanese person I know. They genuinely believe that gravely injuring someone as opposed to killing them outright is a hassle. It's really morbid. Apparently it's mostly the large semi trucks that do it, and only if nobody's around. I was first told of that when I was driving on the switchbacks out on the east coast where the trucks go flying down the center of the road past you. "Accidental" manslaughter leads to one large lump-sum restitution payment to the victims' family, whereas injuring people requires that whoever is at fault must pay for the victims' doctor's bills for years afterward. People figure it's easier to murder someone after you incapacitate them rather than to help them get better. Apparently you don't need vehicle/drivers' insurance in Taiwan? Can anyone confirm/deny this?
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Jul 6, 2014 04:32
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Backweb posted:E: ^^^^ Haha what? Are they elected, or is this just some serious nepotism?
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Jul 6, 2014 05:08
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TetsuoTW posted:Neither. It's Taiwan, so obviously (IIRC) until quite recently the only requirement for a law grad to become a judge was passing an exam. They've apparently made it slightly more difficult, but it's still not like they need experience - life or professional. Yeah, my girlfriend was telling me what a sweet gig this is. You just go to law school for however many years, pass the exam, and then you are set for life.
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Jul 6, 2014 05:21
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Backweb posted:About goons driving in Taiwan... When I was there early last year for a vacation I had one of those international drivers permits from AAA. It was valid for a year and was subject to a binding UN agreement (US made AAA their permit issuer apparently). So it's not that hard to drive in Taiwan legally apparently. ...provided you go to the dmv and get it stamped, may have to get it stamped again after 6 months based on your state's reciprocity with Taiwan.
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Jul 6, 2014 05:22
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TetsuoTW posted:Neither. It's Taiwan, so obviously (IIRC) until quite recently the only requirement for a law grad to become a judge was passing an exam. They've apparently made it slightly more difficult, but it's still not like they need experience - life or professional. So true story here I heard from a law professor at NTU: So there's one of those super sheltered study-hard girls who ends up being a judge. So the first week, the bailiff brings in a man and a woman, and the woman says: "Your honor, he told me to 幫他吹喇叭!!!!!" And the judge is really confused and says: "Well, where's the 喇叭?" The bailiff is now confused too, the woman and man are ??? The judge continues: "Well, we need the 喇叭 as evidence! Bailiff, please put the court down as confiscating one 喇叭 for evidence!" (Eventually the bailiff took the judge to a meeting room to explain the facts of life) ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj9yjzOjvS0 )
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Jul 6, 2014 05:26
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Don't fresh grads become judges in every civil law jurisdiction? I understand that the "be a lawyer first" requirement is a common law thing.
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Jul 6, 2014 06:21
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Bloodnose posted:Don't fresh grads become judges in every civil law jurisdiction? I understand that the "be a lawyer first" requirement is a common law thing.
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Jul 6, 2014 06:53
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Question about prescription medicines and chronic illnesses in Taiwan: I take prescription meds for ulcerative colitis. How easy will it be to find the same medicine when I'm doing my graduate program in Taipei? When I was there on vacation last year I had no problem bringing my medicine through customs, but that was just a month's supply... Would it be worth it to have it shipped from America (assuming it's not available in Taiwan)?
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Jul 12, 2014 18:03
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Backweb posted:Question about prescription medicines and chronic illnesses in Taiwan: You can probably just walk into a pharmacy and ask for it. They'll sell it to you with no prescription. Failing that, go to the doctor for like six bucks and then they'll give you a prescription.
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Jul 13, 2014 05:32
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I'm not gonna pretend to know anything about ulcerative colitis medication, but I have a coworker who has cystic fibrosis and he is able to get all sorts of crazy gut pills around here for super cheap on national insurance, so that bodes well I think?
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Jul 13, 2014 05:57
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Today some lady actually chased after me on my bicycle, yelling about how she needed an English teacher for her cram school. Not suitable for me but still a novel experience nonetheless. Ah, Taiwan, where jobs chase after you and not the other way around.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:29
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hitension posted:Today some lady actually chased after me on my bicycle, yelling about how she needed an English teacher for her cram school. Yeah I've had a guy stalk me on the bus on my commute to work to keep offering me a job at his school. He didn't know anything about me of course.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:51
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I had someone pull over in the middle of the road in their car, and try to ask me to work for her. Her English was terrible, and it took like 10 minutes to figure out that is what she wanted. In hindsight I wish I had taken the job because it couldn't have been any worse than the place I ended up.
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Jul 16, 2014 20:01
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It must be that time of year where schools are getting desperate to fill positions because I've gotten two cold-emails and a Facebook message today alone.
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Jul 17, 2014 10:27
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Must be all the FOBs wussing out now that summer's hit.
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Jul 17, 2014 12:45
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Speaking of new jobs, I will be leaving HESS after 2 1/2 years. I can't really say that I wanted to leave (I really love my school and all the kids I worked with,) but my new job opportunity was just too good to pass up, in terms of a real career and not endless buxiban drudgery. Finally using my education degree, I'll be teaching in a very well-respected and gigantic private school in the all english program, teaching US history and a multitude of elective courses. The pay is really good, even though this job is going to be probably 10x the amount of work, because this is a legit teaching job. Which basically means I'm kinda freaking out until it starts, and also angry at HESS because I need them to send my contract release form (need to leave a month early to start this new job) to the labor bureau and they won't do it until the end of the month, which, because this job is ridiculously by the book, it is really loving me over, and there is nothing I can do about it.
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Jul 17, 2014 15:11
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Sorry about those red tape issues, but congrats on getting out of the buxiban game! I thought I was out, once, but then it sucked me back in.
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Jul 17, 2014 17:03
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GoutPatrol posted:Speaking of new jobs, I will be leaving HESS after 2 1/2 years. I can't really say that I wanted to leave (I really love my school and all the kids I worked with,) but my new job opportunity was just too good to pass up, in terms of a real career and not endless buxiban drudgery. Finally using my education degree, I'll be teaching in a very well-respected and gigantic private school in the all english program, teaching US history and a multitude of elective courses. The pay is really good, even though this job is going to be probably 10x the amount of work, because this is a legit teaching job. Which basically means I'm kinda freaking out until it starts, and also angry at HESS because I need them to send my contract release form (need to leave a month early to start this new job) to the labor bureau and they won't do it until the end of the month, which, because this job is ridiculously by the book, it is really loving me over, and there is nothing I can do about it. Do you mind if I ask why you re-signed at HESS? I'm thinking about whether to renew now, and I'd appreciate the opinion of someone who renewed and doesn't have a vested interest in convincing me to do the same. How did you get on with their way of doing things after the first six months?
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Jul 18, 2014 07:19
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House Louse posted:Do you mind if I ask why you re-signed at HESS? I'm thinking about whether to renew now, and I'd appreciate the opinion of someone who renewed and doesn't have a vested interest in convincing me to do the same. How did you get on with their way of doing things after the first six months? If you aren't having a good time there, then don't renew. Each branch I've been to and worked at was very different and all dependent on who the bosses are. You could have been stuck at a lovely one. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the "HESS way." Some branches make the NSTs go to weekly meetings that serve no purpose; mine doesn't. Some branches don't have the CTs in the class with you when you're teaching; mine always does. I am never going to complain about the amount of work I had to do while I was there: if you were just teaching EFL classes, then its a cakewalk. I wrote up a rambling post about it a couple months ago: some douche posted:HESS can be an incredible hit or miss situation. The actual teaching portion is like how I describe it to my friends back home: it's like you're a substitute teacher who sees the same class every week. You don't come up with any lessons but do all the homework. I've been teaching at the same branch for over two years now, and I can say with all honesty that I like going to work there everyday. I would like to keep working there for longer. I adore my coworkers and kids. They've also got me doing two other classes for them inside a junior high school and those are pretty good too, for the most part. I also get sent out on alot of all day-excursions where you teach huge groups in public schools, and those were easy money (all outside HESS contracted stuff pays more and get gas per diems that will fill up your scooter for the week. ) That being said, I have also been pretty screwed by them big time on one occasion : forced to drive an hour out of town to teach an adult class of engineers with no plan of any kind given to me (with the reason given that they were supposed to buy a book with the course but they didn't want to, so come up with your own poo poo. ) When that happened, my regular school branch always had my back and tried to help me whenever she could. When I have been farmed out to sub at other branches, my experiences were... Not as good. One branch in particular, which has a reputation about being lovely, was hell everytime I went there. Others ranged from fine to this sucks. My roommate, who also works for HESS, has had a really lovely time with upper area management who continually try to screw him, and he's finally had enough and plans to quit once I get back from vacation (because he is subbing all my classes for a month because they literally don't have anywhere for him to work right now. He agrees with me that my school is great and his other schools treated him much worse.) I would go into more detail If you want but let's just say that he really hates HESS now. If you're in the need to save alot of money in the first year, you probably won't (with the expensive places they find you when you get there, and startup costs, Im pretty sure I lost money overall even with my parents help. ) if you move into a real place after, even on a HESS paycheck you should be saving a fifth at least.
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Jul 19, 2014 19:20
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Barto posted:You can probably just walk into a pharmacy and ask for it. They'll sell it to you with no prescription. Failing that, go to the doctor for like six bucks and then they'll give you a prescription. quadrophrenic posted:I'm not gonna pretend to know anything about ulcerative colitis medication, but I have a coworker who has cystic fibrosis and he is able to get all sorts of crazy gut pills around here for super cheap on national insurance, so that bodes well I think? Thanks for the heads-up. I sent the school an email indicating that I needed specific medicine and they're checking with the local hospital and pharmacy. Nice to know that if they have it in stock, it'll be cheap rather than the obscene prices that I pay in America.
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Jul 21, 2014 02:32
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GoutPatrol posted:If you aren't having a good time there, then don't renew. Each branch I've been to and worked at was very different and all dependent on who the bosses are. You could have been stuck at a lovely one. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the "HESS way." Some branches make the NSTs go to weekly meetings that serve no purpose; mine doesn't. Some branches don't have the CTs in the class with you when you're teaching; mine always does. I am never going to complain about the amount of work I had to do while I was there: if you were just teaching EFL classes, then its a cakewalk. I wrote up a rambling post about it a couple months ago: I don't know about other people's experiences, but generally what I found to be the "HESS way" was that HESS tries really hard to form a sort of brotherhood around their teachers. Generally speaking it seemed like people working with HESS were more apt to hang out with other people from HESS, whereas teachers at other schools seemed to hardly ever hang out with people from work.
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Jul 21, 2014 08:07
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This is pretty true. When I worked for HESS all of us teachers had a single place where we could work and chat and eat, so we naturally interacted more. At the American Eagle school I'm at now all of us are in our own classrooms all day and I don't think I've had more than a few conversations with my coworkers in the three months I've been here. As a giant goony introvert I liked "the HESS way" better because it forced me to make friends with my coworkers, but to each their own.
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Jul 21, 2014 08:45
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Say what you will about Hess, but after working for another school I've got to appreciate at the very least how cohesive their material tends to be, at least in terms of the SA series. I'm no expert on building an ESL curriculum from scratch, and when I was at Hess I use to scoff at the stuff that was so obviously "homegrown" (some of those CDs for the listening practice, eughhh) but in retrospect I really miss such an organized system. Also my experiences sound just like yours, Moon Slayer. I don't know if they were purposely trying to build a "brotherhood" but having a common office to hang out in definitely left a lot more time for chatting and getting to know your coworkers. At my current school, since we also just have our own classrooms that we live in, I've "worked with" this other foreigner for over a year and a half now and I literally know nothing about him beyond his name.
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Jul 21, 2014 14:13
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"Hey do you guys know POCKET CHOMP in room 3?" Not really, he's always giggling in front of his computer. He's on this website full weird pink wall paper and really strange pictures. Let's just go out for a drink on our own.
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Jul 21, 2014 15:47
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Pshh I always browse the forums on my phone first of all, and I don't have my back towards the windows/door, so no one can see what I'm doing anyway. Rookie mistake, that!
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Jul 21, 2014 16:37
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Is this typhoon coming supposed to be pretty major? It's the first time I've gotten an email warning from my home country saying "hey citizen watch out for this bullshit coming in a few days"
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Jul 21, 2014 18:24
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GoutPatrol posted:I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the "HESS way." I was thinking of the way the curricula are so structured that there isn't much freedom for the individual teacher. POCKET CHOMP posted:Say what you will about Hess, but after working for another school I've got to appreciate at the very least how cohesive their material tends to be, at least in terms of the SA series. I'm no expert on building an ESL curriculum from scratch, and when I was at Hess I use to scoff at the stuff that was so obviously "homegrown" (some of those CDs for the listening practice, eughhh) but in retrospect I really miss such an organized system. I know there's a lot of effort put into it, but sometimes it's a Procrustean bed. HappyHelmet posted:I don't know about other people's experiences, but generally what I found to be the "HESS way" was that HESS tries really hard to form a sort of brotherhood around their teachers. Generally speaking it seemed like people working with HESS were more apt to hang out with other people from HESS, whereas teachers at other schools seemed to hardly ever hang out with people from work. The impression I get is that head office tries poo poo like that, but on the ground it's more that we all work together in the same staff "room" so we get to know each other. Since I've been here the main influence on whether we hang out together is how many of us have wives/girlfriends 
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Jul 22, 2014 06:00
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House Louse posted:Since I've been here the main influence on whether we hang out together is how many of us have wives/girlfriends No straight women and/or gay men at your school?
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Jul 22, 2014 08:05
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Not amongst the foreign teachers, which is what I thought we were talking about. The CTs/secretaries are almost all women, but the two groups don't hang out together that much, alas.
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Jul 22, 2014 16:06
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House Louse posted:I was thinking of the way the curricula are so structured that there isn't much freedom for the individual teacher. I think that is a really good idea. You know how many fuckups there are that come here and don't know how to teach. You get a bunch of people who are here for working vacations and have no interest in really teaching. With HESS, there is a sense of stability. I have no idea how other buxibans could operate when their idea of a lesson plan is "so, fifteen minutes before class, what are we gonna do?"
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Jul 22, 2014 18:27
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I'm looking at booking my flight for early september with Eva Air, nonstop from JFK... Anybody fly with them before? Are they anything like flying with ANA?
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Jul 22, 2014 21:36
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