I just received this letter yesterday, so I've decided I'll just start posting them here on the blog and then answering them:
Hi Ken,
Can you please help my fiance and I out? We are struggling to figure out what we should do when it comes to teaching English in Taiwan. We know we want to live in Kaohsiung, and we also don't speakMandarin. We initially were planning on working in Taiwan through HESS but I have heard so many negative things about the company. We also have recently looked into Genius English Institute...are you familiar with them? We both have BA's, but Dan (my fiance) has no English teaching experience. I have a TESOL from a very small organization in Italy.. I'm not sure it would count for much.
Knowing that, what would you recommend? I really appreciate it, and I hate to bother you like this but we are really in a crunch. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Casey Siemasko
Can you please help my fiance and I out? We are struggling to figure out what we should do when it comes to teaching English in Taiwan. We know we want to live in Kaohsiung, and we also don't speakMandarin. We initially were planning on working in Taiwan through HESS but I have heard so many negative things about the company. We also have recently looked into Genius English Institute...are you familiar with them? We both have BA's, but Dan (my fiance) has no English teaching experience. I have a TESOL from a very small organization in Italy.. I'm not sure it would count for much.
Knowing that, what would you recommend? I really appreciate it, and I hate to bother you like this but we are really in a crunch. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Casey Siemasko
Okay, first of all, are you the same Casey Siemasko who was in Young Guns, Back to the Future, and Three O Clock High? Or do you just happen to share the exact same name? haha
I would recommend you go to the top left-hand corner of this blog and type "Hess" there in the search engine. Every article I wrote about Hess will come up, and most of it is pretty bad. Just last year I wrote a follow up about Hess called "Thoughts On Hess, 3 Years Later" I would strongly advise you read that one too:
It doesn't matter that your friend doesn't have any teaching experience. As long as you have a BA (in any subject), they will hire you. But you will have to do demonstrations before they hire you. These could range from 5 to 20 minutes, so you had better have something prepared. I wasn't prepared, so I just improvised using magazines, and it worked. My friend who came with me, who was also trying to get hired, did a terrible demonstration, and he bombed badly. So try to put some effort into it.
I don't know a lot about Genius, since I never taught in Kaohsiung, but I looked at their website, and they seem similar to most of the "bushibans" in Taiwan. If you work at a chain school like Genius or Kojen or Eagle, you will probably get paid when you're supposed to, and the school isn't likely get get raided. I've heard some very bad stories from teachers who worked at the smaller, independently run schools.
Don't worry too much about not speaking Mandarin. Most people can at least speak terrible English in the big cities. I wouldn't advise travelling too deep into the countryside though without a Mandarin speaker with you.
Good luck!
