Teaching English in Taiwan

Teaching English in Taiwan has been one of the best decisions in my life and I couldn’t be more grateful for all the memorable experiences. I’ve met so many amazing people, both locals and ex-pats, explored major parts of the island, immersed myself in rich Taiwanese culture, and had many incredible students.

In this post, I’ll be talking about the exact steps I took to teach English in Taiwan. This post isn’t really meant to be a guide on how to teach in Taiwan but more so a reflection on my journey getting there.

This journey to teaching English abroad began in 2019 so some of the details I talk about here may not be relevant to those wanting to teach in 2022. However, I do believe that many of the things that I mention are important to anyone interested in teaching in Taiwan or in any part of the world. If you’re one of those people please continue reading!

Step 1 – Get a TEFL Certificate

After doing some research, I found that having a TEFL certificate is vital, though not entirely necessary, to get a teaching job abroad. So, the first thing I did was get a TEFL certification. For those who do not know what a TEFL certificate is, TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. TEFL is interchangeably used with TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) Teaching English to Speakers) and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).

There are lots of different accredited organizations that offer TEFL certification courses. I completed a three-week program through Oxford Seminars. The classes were held face-to-face on the weekends from 8 AM-6 PM, a total of 60 hours after the three weeks. There is also an additional 60-hour online component that is optional. Oxford Seminars claims to have over 100 locations throughout the US and Canada, so they might have one near you if you’re interested in taking their course.

I took this program in early 2019 (pre-COVID era) so classes were still in person however today most courses are held online via Zoom. To get the most accurate information, visit the Oxford Seminars website.

Step 2 – Apply to Schools

So now that I had my TEFL certification, I was ready to apply to schools. I knew I wanted to teach in Asia, so I started my search there. Not having a bachelor’s degree also helped limit my search. Some of the countries I found that did not require a Bachelor’s degree were Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

Taiwan stood out to me among the other countries because of the higher salaries and low cost of living, high safety, and high-quality transportation. All these things in addition to delicious food, a nice home, and a loving community make for a good quality of life in my opinion. According to InterNations’ Expat Insider’s Quality of Life Index for 2021, Taiwan ranked 1st for quality of life, 1st in health and well-being, 8th for travel and transportation, and 9th for personal happiness. I guess I made the right decision to go to Taiwan 🙂.

Taiwan has consistently been ranked in the top 40 safest countries worldwide for the past three years (2019-2021) according to the Institute of Economics and Peace’s annual Global Peace Index.

After deciding on Taiwan, I connected with Oxford Seminars’ job placement advisory which then connected me with an advisor in Taiwan named Bryan Wu. There are lots of bad things said about how poor of an agent Bryan is on the popular Taiwan ex-pat forum, Forumosa.com, however at the time I was naive, didn’t know about the forum, and my first instinct was to get someone on the ground to help me apply to schools. The school I later ended up with that he recommended didn’t turn out to be so bad after all.

Anyway, back to the journey.

Bryan informed me of the documents that I needed for my work visa to be properly processed. These documents included my TEFL certificate, a notarized copy of my college diploma, and a criminal background check. He also asked me to send a 3-4 minute introductory video about myself and why I wanted to teach in Taiwan. That video along with my resume was sent to schools all across Taiwan. Next, I waited for schools to get back to Bryan to set up interviews and hoped for the best. I also, in the meanwhile, applied for schools and scheduled interviews on my own. A popular place to find international ESL jobs online that I used was on Daves ESL Cafe (eslcafe.org).

Step 3 – Interviews

I received several responses from schools I applied to via Daves ESL Cafe which I all interviewed with.

Also, several schools reached out to Bryan however, these schools were located a little further away from the main cities than I had wanted — which now in hindsight, I understand why. I asked him if he could connect me with schools in Taipei as that was my preferred location but because I’m Asian, it was more difficult for me to even get an interview.

Schools in Taipei prefer teachers that match parents’ perceptions of what an “American” or western English teacher would look like (in short white). From my conversation with Bryan, it seemed like it was near impossible for me to land a job there or that he no longer wanted to try. Who knows, maybe he didn’t even try at all. Because I was eager to move abroad and a newbie, I took up any interviews I could get.

These were some typical questions I was asked in my interviews:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What experience do you have teaching or working with kids?
3. Why do you want to teach English?
4. Why do you want to teach specifically in Taiwan?
5. What do you do for fun? What are your hobbies and interests?
6. Do you have any questions for us?

Some of the questions I had for them were:

1. What are the teacher responsibilities outside of teaching? Am I responsible for correcting homework? Are there any events or holidays that I have to participate in? Will it be paid?
   
2. Will I need to create my own lesson plans from scratch? Does the school have a teaching curriculum already in place?
   
3. What are my working hours? Do I work on the weekends? Are these working hours subject to change at any time?
   
4. How much vacation time is offered? When will I be able to take a vacation?
   
5. Is there paid time off? Do I get paid sick leave?
   
6. Do you pay overtime hours?
   
7. How much taxes will be deducted from my salary?
   
8. Will I be teaching at one location or are there multiple locations?
   
9. Do you have photos of the classrooms, school activities, and offices?
   
10. Who are the staff that work at the school? Where are they from? Will I be the only foreign teacher working there?
    
11. What type of health insurance do you provide? What services am I entitled to with my health insurance? What hospitals can I go to?
    
12. Do you pay for the airfare allowance? Are there any bonuses upon completing the contract?

I waited to hear back from the schools about their decisions. Some schools were very quick to respond to tell me that they wanted me to hire me. One school emailed me that they weren’t sure if they could process my visa because I had an associate’s degree.

After weighing out my options, I finally decided on a buxiban in Taoyuan City, but before I accepted their offer and signed the contract I had several questions for the school which leads me to my next step…

Step 4 – Follow Up With School, Review Contract, and Send Documents

They sent me my contract. I reviewed it thoroughly and I followed up with the school to answer my remaining questions. I asked about the logistics of arriving in Taiwan, getting picked up at the airport, my hotel accommodation, and also apartments. I also negotiated for a higher salary.

Something I wish I had done was to get in contact with other teachers working at the school. This is something I recommend to anybody looking for a teaching job abroad. It’s one of the best ways to get a feel on what the working environment is like and if it’s the right fit for you. If the teachers are happy, chances are you will be too.

Finally, once everything looked okay and I felt confident and sure that this was the school (to be honest you can never be 100% sure), I signed the one-year contract.

Step 5 – Preparation for the Journey Ahead

There were several tasks I needed to do before leaving for Taiwan. The most important things were the following:

1. Notify banks of my international travel. You want to make sure you can access your cash when you’re out there.
   
2. Give a two-week notice to my employer
   
3. Move out of my apartment
   
4. Schedule doctor’s appointments. Make sure I was up to date on all my shots.
   
5. Purchase travel insurance. This is important because you will be uninsured until you get your health card from your employer. Better safe than sorry.
   
6. Buy things that are harder to find in Taiwan (e.g. All Spice deodorant, Pepto Bismol, Tums, your favorite local chocolate bars, etc.)
   
7. Spend time with family and friends. You may never know when the next time you’ll see them again especially in unexpected times like a pandemic.

As the days got closer to my departure, I had lots of mixed emotions inside of me. I kept questioning myself if this was the right decision. I started to feel extremely nervous and anxious. I was always passionate about travel but moving abroad and being away from my loved ones for an extended period of time wasn’t the same as a two-week vacation. At the time, I had never been away from family for more than a month.

What helped me with this fear was the encouragement and support I got from family and friends that it was going to be just fine and that I was going to have an amazing experience. And you know what? They were 100% right.

Step 6 – Fly to Taiwan, Look for Apartments, and Begin Teaching

I bought my tickets and was soon on my to Taiwan. I flew to Taiwan in October 2019 (before the pandemic) and was able to enter the country with a tourist visa.

One thing I’d like to quickly note is that my work visa and ARC (Alien Resident Certificate) were all processed once I was in Taiwan. Before the pandemic and border closures, many schools would process work and visa documents this way. Due to current COVID-19 Travel Restrictions, this is no longer possible. All visa documents have to be approved and received in your home country before entering Taiwan. To find the most accurate and up-to-date information, please visit Taiwan’s Bureau of Immigration website.

I arrived at Taoyuan International Airport on an early Friday morning. My two bosses picked me up, a Taiwanese lady and the other a Canadian man. They took me out for breakfast and accompanied me to my hotel accommodation. I stayed at the hotel for three nights until I settled on an apartment that I liked. I decided on a brand new, fully furnished, two-bedroom apartment with a lovely kitchen and bathroom.

I did not start teaching until my second week. Before that, I was sitting in on classes, shadowing teachers, observing the students, and asking a lot of questions. My first few classes were quite difficult as I was new to this. It took me several months until I started to get the hang of things, but even after that the art of teaching is something you constantly progress in as every day and every class session is unique.

Conclusion

The entire process of getting to Taiwan was quite long but it was all worth it. From getting my TEFL certification to applying and interviewing with several schools, all these necessary steps brought me to where I am today.

I now live in one of the safest countries in the world where I also get to eat top-class Taiwanese food every day. I have an amazing community of local Taiwanese friends and friends from abroad. What more could I ask for?

If you’re like me and have decided to teach English in Taiwan, please let us know about your journey and what it took to get there! Every experience is different so it would be great to hear from others! We would especially love to hear from those who have arrived to teach English in 2022 and what that process was like.

Thank you for reading!