On Teaching in Taiwan Pt1: The Basics
The first part is, obviously, getting here and getting a job. Not necessarily in that order but its the way that i did it. Americans enjoy “visa free” entry which means you will get a one month visa upon landing. If you don’t have a work permit by then (more on that later), then you can do a “visa run” (more on that later). I don’t recommend getting a visitors visa before arriving. Its a waste of time and money. If you are arriving without a job locked down in advance, then its best you arrive in August or January when schools are looking for new teachers to fill vacancies next semester.
The only legal reequipments for a work permit are holding a visa of an English speaking country and having either a) a bachelors degree or better or b) and Associates degree and a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate. I did the latter. Go ahead and find the cheapest and fastest accredited TEFL certification course you can. I have a 20 hour certificate. It took me two days and a few hundred dollars and it is just as good as a 2 month intensive course. For the purpose of qualifying for a work permit. An intensive TEFL or CELTA can give you a leg up in other countries but the schools in Taiwan will often insist you take their company’s training course regardless of how well or poorly trained you already are. There’s no sense in paying for a course when your future job will require you take their course anyways.
Getting a job is easier than finding Hello Kitty merchandise. My favorite website is Tealit and if you want to set up a job before arrival, i highly recommend it. Also make sure to look for (name of your city) Teachers Board on Facebook. They are all loaded with full time, part time and substitute jobs. Some have had luck just going door to door; I haven’t. The final method is my signature move and trust me: I saved the best for last. This is how i found my current gig. Go to the website for your franchise of choice, find the directory for all the branches in your city and call them one by one until you find one that has openings. There are literally dozens of branches for the franchise i work at in my city, but i scored a full time job with the first one on the list. Don’t stop scheduling interviews until you have a contract signed no matter how much they seem to love you and promise to call you back. They frequently wont. Don’t be that guy, waiting next to the phone like a love sick 16 year old for a call that’s never coming..
Aside from a steady paycheck, you need a roof over your head and the best way to arrange that is to let the locals do it for you. The Taiwanese are very helpful. As a matter of fact, if you are white, young and tall, the local girls are VERY helpful in all the ways you fantasies about during your yellow fever induced hallucinations but that is not what we are concerned about right now. Tuck your boner in your waist band, refocus and ask for help finding an apartment. This means: employers, coworkers, girls you pipelined before arriving and even strangers you bump into on the street. My first week i spent in a tiny dorm that my Taiwanese classmate from college helped me find. My second dorm i found by asking the girls who work in the language center at the nearby Feng Chia University. I arrived speaking enough Chinese to ask about rent and security deposit but i could have just as easily asked any one of the english speaking students on campus to come interpret for me. The third place I stayed in was found by The Taiwanese uy who played guitar in our band. I told him im looking for a larger apartment and after a 10 minutes internet search (on a Chinese language website) he sent me 5 options. Anyways, you get the idea. The Taiwanese want to help you. Give them the opportunity.
Once your employed and settled in, your next priority is the work permit. Your employer should take care of the bureaucratic bullshit for you but you will still have to get some pictures taken and do a health check. I’m going to assume that if you’ve read this far, you are intelligent enough to sit still for a picture. Your employer will point you towards a photo shop just so long as you ask nicely like your momma taught you to. For the health check, your employer should set up the appointment, give you the address of the hospital and maybe even call the cab to take you there. Just take the cab. Its incredibly cheap and Taiwanese roads are incredibly confusing. Your employer SHOULD pay the health check fee too but they don’t always. Ask about this before you sign the contract. The health check is easy. You will need to do a few tests including an x ray and blood draw to make sure you don’t have tuberculosis, syphilis or HIV. So long as you haven’t picked up any nasties from your hedonistic lifestyle, you’ll be back to pick up a clean bill of health within a week.
At this point you are in Taiwan with a job and a shiny (laminated), new work permit that is tarnished only by your very own ugly mug. In part two, we’ll talk about money. That is: stretching out your life savings to last you the one to two months before your first payday, how to save more and spend less and what things cost in Taiwan.
-Rocky
