Teaching Kindergarten in Taiwan
Teaching kindergarten in Taiwan is one of the most bizarre things you may ever do in your life. You will be thrown into a classroom with around twenty 3 and 4 year olds, armed with only with English, inspiration, and ingenuity. In Taiwan, it’s your job to entertain and learn these little balls of energy in your native tongue (English). The children are usually fast learners, but to start out in this field requires a certain personality type. One word sums it up nicely… PATIENCE!
If you can make it through the first few months, you will figure out a system and scores of games to help you through your day. In the end, it’s likely you will love all of your students as if they were your nieces and nephews.
The status of legally teaching kindergartens here has changed a few times in the past several years, and at the time of writing this I have no idea if it is legal or not. It doesn’t matter that much though, as many schools will hire foreigners irregardless of the law, and can even work out a way to get you an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), albeit illegal, if you want or need one. Kindergartens give a lot of hours and while not typically paying the most per hour still pay a lot per month because of the amount of hours you actually teach.
Here is a short video showing life in kindergarten. You can see that Stu, the director loves his students and was moved by his experience in Taiwan. He writes at the end of the clip, “Teaching these kids has been one of the greatest joys of my life”. Way to go , Stu.
Foreigners teaching kinders-english is flat out illegal across Taiwan, but clearly enforcement of this law is “inconsistent” at best. The most entertaining story I heard was from a teacher who taught kids of parents high up in the Min. of Labour and Eudcation !
Whether or not school ‘x’ gets raided byt he police seems to be dependent on a number of factors of course, 關系, keeping up with special payments to the police (free tutition anyone for the police chiefs kids?) and ultimately the pressure from higher up to crack down.
Most schools will get raided, but they may get a call warning them about it. I guess that depends on the level of guan xi you alluded to. I new a guy that was working illegally, and got caught in a kindy raid. The funniest part of it is he went to the bathroom, jumped out of the first floor window and was never actually caught. He is still in the country today.
That’s a good escape story ! On the flip side though, I’ve heard about a teacher who fled a school before having time to put his shoes on ! The police just happened to see a big white shoeless fellow and they dragged him back into the school, taking him classroom to classroom …. the cute Kinders gave him away by joyfully screaming “TEACHER” upon his return. He had to leave the country the very next day.
That’s great. I wonder how many escape stories we can come up with. Anyone else?
It was a little hard to hear the kids talking over that music.
Yeah, the music was too loud. It wasn’t the best editing job for a video. I like that video because it shows an in the classroom view of Taiwan from someone that obviously loved the kids.
Oh, and sorry the comment took so long to post. I went through the spam comments and it was in there. Lucky I even checked actually…
Yeah, I really like that aspect, too. Kids are by far the best part of teaching.
Just noticed you used my video without permission. Would be nice if you could just drop me a line and ask, before you embed my work on your website. Come on man. Common courtesy… Sorry if you guys thought the music was too loud. It was probably the first or second video I ever made.
Does anyone on this forum know WHY teaching kindergarten is illegal here in Taiwan and where I can find the law stating it is so? I’ve been searching for a while, but have come up with nothing!
PEACE
Stu, you uploaded your video to a website specifically made for letting anybody on the internet embed it anywhere. Furthermore the privacy settings were set such that it’s public. What exactly were you expecting?
Hey Stu, nice to finally meet you. I love the video. It doesn’t matter about the sound.
Regarding the sharing of the video, I figured anything on Youtube that is set to public is just that. Sorry for the confusion there. I’ll tell you what, I’ll post your polluter scooter song and video if you say it is ok.