Teaching English in Taiwan: Why and How

by Antonio Graceffo

Living overseas for even a single year of your life could be one of the deepest and most memorable actions you will ever take. As a tourist or avid traveler you only see the surface of the places you visit; you can only truly know a place if you live there. Tourists don’t open bank accounts, work at jobs, commute, eat 21 meals a week 52 weeks a year, attend weddings and funerals, receive red envelopes at New Years, use a squat toilet, or chew betel nuts.
You learn not only about the foreign culture, but because you are now outside of your own country looking in, you understand a lot about where you came from and how your home country is perceived in the world.

It’s a sappy slogan, but it’s true: Taiwan will touch your heart.

So if you are ready to make the plunge, the next logical question is how will fund your foreign adventure?” The simple answer is, “Get a job.” And for most foreigners in Taiwan, that job will be teaching.

What Qualifications Do You Need?

You absolutely must have a BA and a clean criminal record to work in Taiwan.

You don’t necessarily need a TESOL, TEFL, or other ESL certificate, but if you have one, it really helps.

If it is possible for you to pick up a teaching license in your home country before coming over, that is actually a best-case scenario. Taiwan government school jobs pay about 20% more than other kinds of jobs. They include housing, paid holidays and bonuses, and require light teaching hours, but you have to have a teaching license from your home country to get one.

Teaching Licenses

Contact your local department of education or the university you graduated from and find out what is required to get a teaching license. You can certainly land a teaching job in Taiwan without one, but with a licensce you can get a posh government-sponsored teaching job. So if the time and money investment in getting certified is small, go for it. The return will be huge.

So much of your overall enjoyment of your Taiwan experience will depend on whether or not you like your job. And earning extra money plus a free house is a pretty good step toward enjoying your job…

TEFL, TESOL & ESL

Although there is a slight, technical difference in the meanings of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and ESL (English as a Second Language), the certificates are essentially mutually interchangeable and having a good one will put you at the head of the line.

There are a lot of fly-by-night TEFL or TESOL courses you can take, but if you want a certificate which will be recognized everywhere in the world, then you should get Cambridge, RSA, or Trinity College qualifications. They can be done through centers all over the world and a first certification only takes about a month. Do a quick web search and find a center near you. Many universities also offer high quality TESOL programs, but they often take longer and cost more.

I personally have a Diplom Licenciate in TESOL from Trinity College. Despite being American, this advanced British qualification allows me to jump to the head of the line and get better jobs, including work for schools sponsored by British Commonwealth Governments. Most employers in Asia today prefer teachers with an American or Canadian accent, but interestingly, British qualifications are still considered the best. And for you Americans and Canadians, worry not: you don’t have to go to England to do your first certification; it can be done in a number of centers in North America.

MA or BA in Education

With a BA in any subject, you can legal work in Taiwan. But with an MA in any subject, you can teach at a university; the cream of the educational crop. These jobs are very sought-after and are gradually disappearing. The best-case scenario is having an MA in Education, ESL, TESOL, TEFL, or Linguistics, but any MA will be accepted. If you have an MA in a non-language related field, you may want to consider getting TESOL certification.

I know the subject of this book is Taiwan, but once you start TEFLing, then you realize the world is your oyster. Just open Dave’s ESL Café and look at the international job board. There are jobs in Russia, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Dubai, Brazil, and on and on. As a qualified English teacher you can go anywhere in the world. And the better your qualifications, the more options are open to you.

As a Taiwan teacher you have a better than average salary (more on that later) and universities are extremely cheap in Taiwan. If you like teaching, save your money and use it to study to improve your qualifications and job prospects. If you don’t like teaching, save your money, and use Taiwan as a means of gaining qualifications do some other type of work. Many MA programs in Taiwan are actually free for foreigners because it is prestigious for the university to be able to show pictures of foreigners attending classes. I have many teacher friends who earned a free MA while teaching in Taiwan. Even if you have to pay tuition, it could be as little as $2,000 USD a year (for programs taught in English, but much lower for programs taught in Chinese). Having an MA will get you a better job and you will earn back your tuition money in just a few months after graduating.