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Has anyone worked at Gloria, Leader Language or Eagle school?
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May 16, 2018 09:25
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Is that last one just Eagle or American Eagle? I’ve known some guys who worked at those, though they’re franchises so I think it’s kind of hit and miss.
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May 16, 2018 09:30
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Pirate Radar posted:Is that last one just Eagle or American Eagle? I’ve known some guys who worked at those, though they’re franchises so I think it’s kind of hit and miss. I'm guessing it's the latter then. Do they really only take yanks? A shame for this Aussie then 
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May 16, 2018 11:40
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Xerxes17 posted:I'm guessing it's the latter then. Do they really only take yanks? A shame for this Aussie then Nah, I don’t think they do that—I mean, you’d need to teach “color” and “elevator” but they don’t tend to discriminate in that exact way.
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May 16, 2018 13:47
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Xerxes17 posted:I'm guessing it's the latter then. Do they really only take yanks? A shame for this Aussie then mate you overestimate the rigor of most Taiwanese language schools, as long as you're white enough you'll do fine
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May 16, 2018 14:11
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Xerxes17 posted:I'm guessing it's the latter then. Do they really only take yanks? A shame for this Aussie then Check your PMs.
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May 16, 2018 14:13
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TetsuoTW posted:mate you overestimate the rigor of most Taiwanese language schools, as long as you're white enough you'll do fine Well it's just that they say "We are looking for Americans" explicitly. Atlas Hugged posted:Check your PMs. Thanks! 
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May 16, 2018 15:09
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Xerxes17 posted:Well it's just that they say "We are looking for Americans" explicitly. do they? i can't find that on their website there's a lot of "we teach american english", but that's just because american english is the fetishized form of english in taiwan. all the schools teach american english, whether from an american or not
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May 16, 2018 15:29
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yeah:quote:Continuing to provide a challenging and Enjoyable Working Environment i think i've met a couple folks who worked at AE, and i don't recall them having anything bad to say about it
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May 16, 2018 15:31
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My friend said it depended entirely on management like with any other chain.
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May 16, 2018 15:49
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quadrophrenic posted:do they? i can't find that on their website I just double checked, it seems that  thing was for Leader Language actually.At the moment I teach mostly teenagers and adults, as I'm somewhat antipathic towards the idea of teaching really young kids. I'm getting the impression that most of the going work is for kindergarten and primary level stuff, is that right?
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May 17, 2018 13:43
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there are definitely lots of non-kindergarten after school buxibans and within the schools that have kindergartens you can usually negotiate to not do it which, personally, i recommend because fuckin hated kindy, but ymmv of course e: most (non-adult) buxibans mainly teach primary school and junior high school kids, but i'm sure there are some that don't somewhere. are you qualified to teach at a high school? that can be a pretty sweet gig quadrophrenic fucked around with this message at 13:51 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 13:47
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My impression of the public schools is that because Taiwan never had a program like JET or EPIK/GEPIK, the schools aren't really familiar with the fact that foreigners don't want to work Taiwanese teacher schedules. And as such the working conditions can often be worse than the conditions at the cram schools. This is assuming you meet whatever qualifications you have to in order to get into the public schools. Lots of jobs are kindergarten and young primary focused as that's when the parents are most concerned about getting their kids a leg up and there's some definite "keeping up with the Joneses" going on. But several goons have had jobs that don't go anywhere near children and have found plenty of work.
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May 17, 2018 13:54
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I've hopped onto Glassdoor just now and had a look around there. It's funny to see the reviews saying that HESS is absolutely terrible yet also piles of these generic sounding reviews with set phrases that say it's great  However I also read about Gloria there and it appears that they also do the whole real contract/fake contract thing. The  guaranteed hours are nothing but and it can take months apparently before you get your supposedly easy to get 25 hours a week. Also if your CT dislikes you they'll make your life absolute crap and can screw you within the school. Sigh.A common complaint also seems to be that even if your contract says 5 days on 2 off, it doesn't mean anything and you'll have to still come in on the 6th day.I take it there was none/less of these problems at the place you recommended me, Atlas?
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May 21, 2018 21:51
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i honestly did not think anyone not in tech even used glassdoor
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May 21, 2018 22:25
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I mean, there isn't that many, and just googling gives more results, but it's something.
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May 21, 2018 22:36
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Xerxes17 posted:Hess stuff HESS was fine. I worked there 2 1/2 years. This is what I wrote in 2014 when I left them: quote: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. And for most places, yes you may need to work some saturdays. Most HESS schools are half days on Saturday so you would need to work one class in the morning. Some people get really indignant about it, but I always saw it as a real "check your privilege" scenario. The only real problem with HESS is the pay.
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May 21, 2018 23:30
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Xerxes17 posted:I've hopped onto Glassdoor just now and had a look around there. It's funny to see the reviews saying that HESS is absolutely terrible yet also piles of these generic sounding reviews with set phrases that say it's great Monday-Friday with very few Saturdays, like exceptionally rare. Your schedule is your schedule is your schedule. The issues were location (if that's a problem for you) and the split shift. The hourly rate isn't great, but it came with perks that most jobs in Taipei don't offer.
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May 22, 2018 02:34
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GoutPatrol posted:More HESS stuff I have visited several HESS branches in Taipei for next semester for my 4 y.o (speaks chinese but no english so international kindys are ruled out, no ARC yet so no public schools I understood) and so far the spectrum is quite large in terms of school size, fees and quality of facilities. Is the hit and miss situation with HESS also the case on the kids' side? Any branch I should avoid?
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May 22, 2018 03:07
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I have no idea what the situation is like in Taipei on a school to school basis, because I've never lived there and any friends I had who worked in those schools are long gone now.
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May 22, 2018 03:36
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senbe1 posted:I have visited several HESS branches in Taipei for next semester for my 4 y.o (speaks chinese but no english so international kindys are ruled out, no ARC yet so no public schools I understood) and so far the spectrum is quite large in terms of school size, fees and quality of facilities. Just ask yourself, do you want edutourists spending large amounts of time with your children, possibly hungover and definitely not giving a poo poo? I mean this is not 100% the case in all language schools and kindys. But I've worked in enough places, met enough 'teachers", and seen enough of the industry that I would be very, very selective about where I sent my kid.
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May 22, 2018 04:32
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Atlas Hugged posted:Just ask yourself, do you want edutourists spending large amounts of time with your children, possibly hungover and definitely not giving a poo poo? I totally understand the concern as I met many of these 'teachers' during my stay in worst China. I was just (naively?) hoping the bar would be way higher in Taipei. As the initial choice is limited (no public, no international schools), where would you send a 4 y.o. kid for bilingual (english/chinese) education in Taipei?
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May 22, 2018 04:55
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Your observation so far is right: the spectrum is pretty broad. People joke about Hess being the McDonald’s of English schools here but the comparison doesn’t quite hold because it’s less consistent than McDonald’s is.
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May 22, 2018 05:10
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Duckfarts can weigh in later I think, but he's had good luck with a Happy Marion. Basically, I'd ask other parents you trust with kids in a cram school. Then visit the specific school and see if you can chat with the director/lead teacher. Figure out how long the teachers have been there. The longer the teachers have been there, the better.
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May 22, 2018 05:11
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Whereabouts in the city are you, anyway?
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May 22, 2018 05:13
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Pirate Radar posted:Whereabouts in the city are you, anyway? I will be located in either Neihu or Dazhi districts (still hunting for apartment near the office in Neihu hi tech park).
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May 22, 2018 05:25
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Atlas Hugged posted:Duckfarts can weigh in later I think, but he's had good luck with a Happy Marion. Thanks for the great input. I'll definitely add the "how long have you been teaching here" question to our list.
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May 22, 2018 05:28
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senbe1 posted:Thanks for the great input. I'll definitely add the "how long have you been teaching here" question to our list. In general the more questions you can ask the teachers directly, since management will happily lie to you about their teachers. When I first started working here the buxiban I was teaching at told parents I’d been working there for years already and they just hadn’t seen me because uhhh I worked different hours.
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May 22, 2018 05:38
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senbe1 posted:Thanks for the great input. I'll definitely add the "how long have you been teaching here" question to our list. so this is HESS  I've been sending my kid to Happy Marian and it's been pretty decent; the kids coming out of there are pretty well behaved and not monsters, the teachers are all* long-timers at the school, and he seems to have fun there and learns here and there. They have parent/teacher relation days where they show a teaching demo, and it didn't seem artificially prepared and they were pretty easy to talk to, ask questions, etc. It's pretty low-stress for the kids, though they have a performance thing every half year. I haven't seen this be a problem though in terms of stressing out kids. THAT SAID, Happy Marian is franchised and ymmv depending on the branch you go to; i've heard word that one of them has some crazy lady who is loving insane about the performances and so there's def. pressure on the kids at that branch. *the shortest-term teacher ended up leaving suddenly after he got asked to not play so rough with the kids and to try and correct his behavior accordingly. he had a pretty decent give-a-poo poo level and was good with kids, but he left like a child too and so a sub had to be arranged to finish the last 3 months of the semester  I heard of some other school that's really good for teaching kids, but it's a higher-stress environment; i can look for the name if you want it and want to see for yourself. I'd make sure to set your expectations low and or accordingly; some parents just want it to be daycare where they might learn some English too and want a low-stress environment, some parents see this as a proper SCHOOL and want their kids to get a head start on school and are OK with high-stress environments. Then there are parents that want a low-stress environment and also for their kid to come out with fluent English and that's a reeeaaaaaaallllllly tall order around here. I'm more on the side of "daycare and he'll learn some stuff too" mainly because he can pick up English from me too. When talking with a school, I'd suggest asking:
if your partner is taiwanese, they can probably find some PTT threads or facebook groups focused on parents kvetching about preschools and you might be able to get the lowdown on specific schools that way too, such as teachers ignoring kids that are behind or basically putting kids in a separate room alone as punishment, etc etc etc
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May 22, 2018 06:23
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senbe1 posted:I have visited several HESS branches in Taipei for next semester for my 4 y.o (speaks chinese but no english so international kindys are ruled out, no ARC yet so no public schools I understood) and so far the spectrum is quite large in terms of school size, fees and quality of facilities. Which area of Taipei are you thinking about? General rule of thumb with Hess is to go to a corporate controlled branch instead of a franchise; but even then there's some variation in the curriculum (generally, I think, if it's on the Hess website, it should be corporate). If you want more focus on English, go to a branch that offers SPARC. There are also a few Hess schools that are run like international schools. Otherwise, I can help look into any potential branches. e: missed your post about being in Neihu. Xinhu kindy branch is basically the premier Hess branch outside of main branch. Otherwise the branches in Neihu are all supposed to be good, afaik. If you have any questions about a specific branch I can still help out. CovfefeCatCafe fucked around with this message at 07:11 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 07:06
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duckfarts posted:
Wow, thanks for the extensive write up. I have seen before some info regarding Happy Marian, but to be frank I was a bit put off by the lovely fake Super Mario logo. Now I will definitely check out the branch near Wende MRT (please just tell me it is not the one with the crazy lady) And definitely a great list of questions. I am looking too for the low stress environment. CovfefeCatCafe posted:Back to Hess stuff Xinhu branch topped the list of Hesses I visited, so your message kinda confirms my first impression. Do you know if they provide any school bus service (as it is quite far from any MRT station)?
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May 22, 2018 07:49
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senbe1 posted:Xinhu branch topped the list of Hesses I visited, so your message kinda confirms my first impression. Do you know if they provide any school bus service (as it is quite far from any MRT station)? They should, as all Hess branches have busses afaik. You'll just have to inquire with the branch directly about how the service works.
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May 22, 2018 09:29
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senbe1 posted:Wow, thanks for the extensive write up. I have seen before some info regarding Happy Marian, but to be frank I was a bit put off by the lovely fake Super Mario logo. also every tuesday and friday, you're supposed to dress your child like a clown their uniform
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May 22, 2018 09:57
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I'll be visiting from Korea during the first week of August. How difficult is it to get baseball tickets?
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May 27, 2018 12:24
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How often is the mountain road between Cingjing and Taroko closed off due to bad weather? I'm going to be in Taiwan for 9 days in early November and was planning on getting a private driver to take me from Cingjing to Xincheng with scenic spots in the gorge along the way, but a lot of similar itineraries I see online have most people going back to Taichung through to Taipei and then back down to Hualien and wanted to know if there are reasons other than just expense. I've heard there can be mudslides? I feel like going straight through the road would be more convenient with only 9 free days, but not if chances are high I will need to drastically change my plans the day I wake up in Cingjing.
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Jun 17, 2018 14:24
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During November...it shouldn't be a problem, but it may be colder than you think. I've never actually driven the Cingjing to Hualien part myself, only to from Taichung and back.
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Jun 17, 2018 16:38
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kuddles posted:How often is the mountain road between Cingjing and Taroko closed off due to bad weather? I'm going to be in Taiwan for 9 days in early November and was planning on getting a private driver to take me from Cingjing to Xincheng with scenic spots in the gorge along the way, but a lot of similar itineraries I see online have most people going back to Taichung through to Taipei and then back down to Hualien and wanted to know if there are reasons other than just expense. I've heard there can be mudslides? I feel like going straight through the road would be more convenient with only 9 free days, but not if chances are high I will need to drastically change my plans the day I wake up in Cingjing. The only way between Taichung and Hualien by bus requires an overnight stay in Lishan and catching two early morning buses, or flying, or the train route you described. The road itself is beautiful and fine outside of typhoon season. Lishan is cool though.
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Jun 17, 2018 18:57
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Jeoh posted:The only way between Taichung and Hualien by bus requires an overnight stay in Lishan and catching two early morning buses, or flying, or the train route you described. The road itself is beautiful and fine outside of typhoon season.
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Jun 18, 2018 01:59
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I'm gonna resurrect this thread as I think it's the best place to ask. I recently got tix back to the USA and the best option time/cost wise was EVA by a pretty fair margin. Does anyone know how their international service is? Am I in for a bad time or an OK time in the 12~ hours or so to the US I'll be on the plane for.
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Jul 16, 2018 08:38
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Magna Kaser posted:I'm gonna resurrect this thread as I think it's the best place to ask. EVA practically spoils you compared to US airlines, you'll be fine.
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Jul 16, 2018 09:27
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