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My favorite part so far is the FDA going "well we tested it, sure, and it totally passed, but even though we are the Food and Drug Administration and this is clearly not a drug, that doesn't mean it should have been put in food or anything, sheesh!"
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Sep 9, 2014 08:32
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Sounds like what happens whenever I eat Taiwanese fried chicken.
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Sep 9, 2014 12:43
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Yay! I got the interview with HESS!  Scheduled for Thursday evening, wish me luck!
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Sep 9, 2014 14:04
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poo poo when my friend told me they were re-using oil I thought it was gross oil that stuff had already been fried in several times, not that kind of "dirty oil". Possibly coincidentally we got lots of mooncakes this year...
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Sep 9, 2014 15:25
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Yay! I got the interview with HESS! Good luck! Just like any other interview, read up as much as you can about where it is you want to go so you sound not just interested, but knowledgeable, ask questions that show you are interested, don't ask about pay (especially considering that's actually posted on their website). Write down a few questions, look over the website to see if any of those are answered. Don't sweat it, my interviewer was very friendly, and it's fairly easy. It's Skype, so treat it as a face-to-face and don't sweat about dead air, try not to fill the 'quiet' spaces by rambling on while the interviewer is trying to write down their notes. I would sign in 15 minutes prior to your scheduled time, Hess and other schools I've interviewed with generally chatted me about 5 minutes prior to make sure everything was good to go, or let me know if they were going to be late.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:22
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Yay! I got the interview with HESS! Good questions to ask: Ask about the schools. Class sizes, curriculum, what the students in Taiwan are like, etc. Ask about the schedules. 25 hour and 20 hour, kindergarten or buxiban schedules, etc. If you want kindergarten, tell them you are a morning person, that you are outgoing and that you have a lot of energy. Bad questions to ask: Don't harp too much about pay. You can ask and request specific areas, but don't be overbearing. If you have somewhere you can live already, like a friend's place or a relative, DO tell them and press them about putting you at a nearby school. I've known multiple people who were placed a good hour+ away from their free housing despite multiple nearby branches having availability. I don't know if it was laziness on Hess's part, or just a lack of information being shared (or shared too late). And just be chill because your interviewer's job is mostly to make sure you're not a complete weirdo. Hess hires almost anyone who is white, educated and mentally stable. You're not competing for a job so much as you are being screened and fact-checked.
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Sep 10, 2014 10:02
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Thanks for the advice.  Also, question about the teaching demo they'll be asking about : quote:How would you teach the following example to a class of students who have been studying English for about 4-5 months? Wouldn't it be fair to point out to the kids that you want to focus on replacing the "a" (from the previous sentence pattern) with "his/her" to build on what they already know? And also to let the students use the new sentence with other male and female classmates so they process it? Or am I missing something here? Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 14:18
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How are you going to point that out with kids who will not be able to understand your explanation. The first sentence is, literally, all they know, plus maybe 20 or so nouns from the alphabet, if I am remembering when they teach the possessives, it has been around a year since I taught the early levels there (I think they learn his/her before he/she, but then they kind of re-learn his/her again after that because its kind of never brought up again. If you do teach kids from the first lesson on, you'll see how the first book is really different from all the other books and alot of what it tries to do doesn't make sense.) What you would usually do at that low level is to write the original sentence pattern on the board with a couple pictures of things they know, like a dog, cat, apple. Then draw a boy and girl on the board next to those objects and label them "his" and "her." Its easier with the animals so you can draw leashes as signs of possession. Then once they hear you speak the new pattern, write it up on the board, specifically noting to erase the A part and replace it with his and her, showing them the positive and negative answers you could say. After all the kids have kind of practiced with you in asking and answering, you can play a game with them using a big dice or sticky ball. Draw 6 pictures on the board, bring two kids up. Rock Paper Scissors for who asks question and gets to roll the rice/throw the ball, whatever they land on they need to use in a question, and the other person answers. GoutPatrol fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 14:32
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GoutPatrol posted:Then once they hear you speak the new pattern, write it up on the board, specifically noting to erase the A part and replace it with his and her, showing them the positive and negative answers you could say. That's what I meant when I said "point out." Sorry for vagueness. But that is good advice, thank you. I have taught 30-40 year olds before so I'm more used to using other English words to get to the new English material, it's different thinking about kids super new to English.
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Sep 10, 2014 15:10
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Super new to English may not be the most fair way of describing them. They probably actually know a ton of English words, learned from television, ads, signs, classmates, parents, bits and pieces that have worked their way into Chinese, etc, and likely from their public schools as well. The technical term is "false-beginner". Their English isn't exactly useful, but it's most certainly there in some capacity. The other thing to consider is that language, for lack of a more technical description, is just a method of labeling. Whether you label something with Chinese sounds or English sounds doesn't really change what is being described (we can argue about colors and culture rendering direct translation useless at a later date). The kids already know how possession works. It's not a concept foreign to their mind. When you do things like draw leashes, you are building a context and "opening a schema". Some of them will already have access to the correct terminology and you can elicit it from them without ever having to just provide "his/her" to the class (this isn't always the case, you will often have to provide new vocabulary to a group if no one has encountered it or recalls encountering it). The students that didn't know it will actually learn far better from hearing their peers use it than from you putting the model on the board (well, for certain intelligence types, but that is a massive subject). In any case, you aren't actually teaching kids who don't speak English any differently than you would be teaching adults. It's just a question of how you build the context, demonstrating the use of the language being taught, and labeling concepts they are already familiar with with the English terminology. At least in theory.
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Sep 10, 2014 15:49
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Man, looking at that now I have no idea how I ever taught that in an English-only classroom. Seems like pushing a rock up a hill. And yet I did it somehow. Prolly drew pictures or some poo poo. Pictures are good. eta: Also, to demo that is easy enough. Just take a ball or something, toss it to a boy, and choral rep "This is his ball". Toss it to a girl and rep "This is her ball". Not the best usage of "this", but the possession part should be clear enough, and the kids think it's a big game. IDK. KISS is the best advice I have for you. quadrophrenic fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 16:49
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What people said earlier, lots of pictures. They're universal and basically function as a translation for them. They'll probably also know basic words like 'Marker' or 'Pencil' so when they've understood the pictures you can pass one of those around the classroom and everytime it comes to a new kid, the whole class can repeat after you: 'His pencil' or 'Her pencil' depending on the gender. You can then make it a game by picking up the speed a bit and see how fast you can go once they're confident. I always find the kids get a lot more involved when their classmates are the examples.
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Sep 10, 2014 17:34
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Another random question: is trimmed facial hair (full beard) okay on an English teacher? I promise I am neckbeard free.
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Sep 10, 2014 18:36
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Another random question: is trimmed facial hair (full beard) okay on an English teacher? I promise I am neckbeard free. From what I gathered in my interview, as long as you keep it cleaned and trimmed, HESS is fine with it. Being clean shaven is more of a societal thing, and the locals may frown upon it. There's a few things that really come across as "it may vary with your branch" so keep that in mind.
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Sep 10, 2014 18:40
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YF19pilot posted:From what I gathered in my interview, as long as you keep it cleaned and trimmed, HESS is fine with it. Being clean shaven is more of a societal thing, and the locals may frown upon it. There's a few things that really come across as "it may vary with your branch" so keep that in mind. Really? Is it taboo to have a beard in Taiwan, even for foreigners? That does make me think about it, if that's the case.
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Sep 10, 2014 18:53
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Really? Is it taboo to have a beard in Taiwan, even for foreigners? That does make me think about it, if that's the case. No, it's not taboo and no one will look down on you for it. Well, no more than in most places (which is to say some people are dicks). The suggestion they would is frankly baffling to me. Just keep your poo poo tidy and you're golden.
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Sep 10, 2014 19:25
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Hess says they care about facial hair because people in Taiwan care, but your average Taiwanese doesn't even care. So it's a weird and stupid position they hold. Welcome to Hess.
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Sep 10, 2014 20:03
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Really? Is it taboo to have a beard in Taiwan, even for foreigners? That does make me think about it, if that's the case. Like I said, that's how it came across to me in the interview. I haven't set foot in Taiwan yet, so please don't take what I say as gospel truth over anyone who has actually been there.
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Sep 10, 2014 20:37
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Just finished the HESS interview. Now it's apparently 10-14 days until I find out if I'm hired or not. 
Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Sep 12, 2014 |
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Sep 12, 2014 04:16
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Just finished the HESS interview. Now it's apparently 10-14 days until I find out if I'm hired or not. Did you remember to wear pants during the interview? Then you're probably golden. Some who don't have this skill still manage to get through the interview process.
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Sep 12, 2014 04:34
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Moon Slayer posted:Did you remember to wear pants during the interview? Then you're probably golden. Pants were indeed worn. The interview went really smoothly.
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Sep 12, 2014 04:36
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If I'm applying for a visa to China, do I need six months left on my ARC or on my passport? The travel agent is saying six months on my ARC but that sounds weird because I've got a passport.
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Sep 12, 2014 04:41
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I don't think the Chinese government cares about your ARC for another
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Sep 12, 2014 05:20
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House Louse posted:If I'm applying for a visa to China, do I need six months left on my ARC or on my passport? The travel agent is saying six months on my ARC but that sounds weird because I've got a passport. Should be for passport, because you're generally not allowed to get tix if your passport is going to expire soon because you *can't* travel at that point. For the ARC, that's kinda weird seeing as you'd just lose the ARC at worst and still be able to enter on a landing visa I'd think. It's also weird because 1 year ARCs are normal(to match up with 1 year contracts), so not being able to travel for half of that is dumb.
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Sep 12, 2014 06:14
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Moon Slayer posted:Did you remember to wear pants during the interview? Then you're probably golden. Um, it's a Skype interview. Why would he need to wear pants?
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Sep 12, 2014 15:04
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This is the standard Hess recruits at.duckfarts posted:Should be for passport, because you're generally not allowed to get tix if your passport is going to expire soon because you *can't* travel at that point. For the ARC, that's kinda weird seeing as you'd just lose the ARC at worst and still be able to enter on a landing visa I'd think. It's also weird because 1 year ARCs are normal(to match up with 1 year contracts), so not being able to travel for half of that is dumb. Thanks. I'll try going again with a friend. Magna Kaser posted:I don't think the Chinese government cares about your ARC for another Yes, so I'm posting in the Taiwan thread. It is a round ticket.
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Sep 12, 2014 15:11
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How would you handle shipping a desktop PC and accessories from the US to Taiwan? I definitely want to have my desktop PC with me, but I've never had to ship something like this before. I'm guessing some of you have gone through this before, right? Also would you just use converter plugs for US-Taiwanese electric prongs?
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Sep 13, 2014 15:46
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TheRamblingSoul posted:How would you handle shipping a desktop PC and accessories from the US to Taiwan? I definitely want to have my desktop PC with me, but I've never had to ship something like this before. From what I've gathered, Taiwan uses the same outlets as we do in the US, and at the same voltages (110~120VAC @ 60Hz). The only issue I've seen brought up in my research is the possibility of having a polarized plug and a non-polarized outlet, which is an issue here in the US with older houses that have been grandfathered through various changes in electrical code.
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Sep 13, 2014 16:12
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The only converters you'll possibly need are the ones that remove the ground prong, and you can buy them for super cheap at pretty much any of the big 3C places. I never brought a computer to Taiwan, but when I was in college I would just put my whole tower inside my suitcase. Only works if your tower isn't too big and you don't have too much other stuff, like "clothes" or whatever unimportant junk people typically put in a suitcase. Alternative answer: you're coming to goddamn Taiwan. Just build a computer here.
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Sep 13, 2014 16:42
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TheRamblingSoul posted:How would you handle shipping a desktop PC and accessories from the US to Taiwan? I definitely want to have my desktop PC with me, but I've never had to ship something like this before.
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Sep 13, 2014 18:34
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POCKET CHOMP posted:Alternative answer: you're coming to goddamn Taiwan. Just build a computer here. Is it really that much cheaper to build a gaming rig in Taiwan versus the US?
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Sep 13, 2014 18:50
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I've only ever built one here in Taiwan but I put a really high-end rig together that's run every game I've thrown at it for the last two years on max settings for around NT$30,000, and that was in small-town Taiwan where availability of parts was more limited and thus more expensive. That's about 3/4 of one month's paycheck from HESS.
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Sep 13, 2014 19:27
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Moon Slayer posted:I've only ever built one here in Taiwan but I put a really high-end rig together that's run every game I've thrown at it for the last two years on max settings for around NT$30,000, and that was in small-town Taiwan where availability of parts was more limited and thus more expensive.  Well, I might just bring my laptop with me then to bide me until then. Are internet/gaming cafes common in Taiwan like in Korea? I can definitely abide by that.
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Sep 13, 2014 20:00
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TheRamblingSoul posted:
Gaming cafes is slowly dying out, there isn't as many as there were but you can still find a couple in every town.
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Sep 13, 2014 21:15
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Are internet/gaming cafes common in Taiwan like in Korea? I can definitely abide by that.
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Sep 14, 2014 04:41
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Got offered the job with HESS!  Looks like I'll be flying in to Taiwan for training about two months from now.  The medical exam when you arrive just involves blood-work right? No urine/saliva sample? [e]: Also, based on availability, I think I want to request for Taipei, Taichung, and Taoyuan. Is Taoyuan liveable if I really want the big city aspect of Taiwan or at least close proximity to Taipei? Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 06:49
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TheRamblingSoul posted:
Depending on what state you live in, they might request a stool sample and usually a spinal tap.
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Sep 15, 2014 07:00
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Barto posted:Depending on what state you live in, they might request a stool sample and usually a spinal tap. With where I'm from, you can never be too careful. 
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Sep 15, 2014 07:02
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Got offered the job with HESS! I think there's a pee check.
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Sep 15, 2014 07:04
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I can't really remember, but I believe it was just vitals and blood for me, no pee and definitely no spinal tap wtf
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Sep 15, 2014 07:07
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