Some suggestions for small school owners.

[Hamletintaiwan]

The market dictates what people get paid and preparation time is, unofficially, factored into the hourly rate. If we were worth more then we would get more. Unfortunately, the students often suffer as a result of this because teachers feel they have been mislead and are being used.

The thing is that I do my preparations. I even mopped the floor and cleaned the rat shit, yes! rat shit in my previous job. I feel sorry for the kids when they end up in a run down sucker business like that.
I feel more sorry for the kids than for myself.
I bought a bucket, a mob cleaning soap, whiteboard markers, toys and props. I used my home printer so I could get the students without a book some nice color pages.
All this, only to find out that they were taking money, about 3000NT$ out of my pay check month by month.

Long story short I quit.

I still prepare and use my own markers and print color pages for the kids. But, I really can't stand the attitude I am getting here.

OK. Let me give another analogy.
If you hire a magician for your kids birthday party, he charges per hour or per show. He doesn't charge you for the time it took to practice and learn his skill, nor does he charge you for the time it took to put his props in order, write down and memorize the order in which he was going to perform the tricks, ensure that he has everything he needs and think about the words he was going to say to build suspense and create humor.
Magicians are also hourly paid professionals. They are worth what they get paid per hour. There are many good buxibans and buxiban teachers who are in the same boat. Unfortunately there are many "clowns" here who pitch up to work with either no props or their props are in a mess and then they bitch because the employer refuses to pay for the time it takes to put on the make-up.
Love how clowns just fit in there

Let me give you some metaphor.
'You expect some clown to show up at your party and that is exactly what's going to happen.'

[Exister]

I used to work at one of the bigger schools in Taipei and it was miserable. Come in at least an hour early to prep lessons and type out communication reports, at least 2 monthly meetings (unpaid), mandatory seminars, grading papers and preparing tests at home, four 1 hour classes spread out across 6-8 hours, work on Saturday, constant class observations and evaluations, bossy co-teachers, etc. Not to mention most of the students there were disrespectful, rude, and spoiled. It was just horrible...I almost gave up and moved back home. Finally I moved to a smaller town, started working in smaller schools, and my life improved dramatically. My bosses are all cool, I show up 5 minutes before class hardly ever prepared and still have good lessons (it's actually not rocket science, at least not what I'm teaching), the kids are mostly good and have fun, no lesson plans or grading papers. I think about work while I am there, and then I go home and I'm free to do what I want, study Chinese, write, spend time with my girlfriend, whatever. Granted, my main purpose in Taiwan has always been to learn Chinese and experience the culture, not really to be a teacher, so maybe I don't take it as seriously as a lot of you trained professionals. I'm more of a 'buddy teacher' type, and we just have fun when I'm around. I do think I still do a good job though, I don't hate it, and most of my students are happy, so there you go.

[E04teacherlin]

OK. Let me give another analogy.
If you hire a magician for your kids birthday party, he charges per hour or per show. He doesn't charge you for the time it took to practice and learn his skill, nor does he charge you for the time it took to put his props in order, write down and memorize the order in which he was going to perform the tricks, ensure that he has everything he needs and think about the words he was going to say to build suspense and create humor.
Magicians are also hourly paid professionals. They are worth what they get paid per hour. There are many good buxibans and buxiban teachers who are in the same boat. Unfortunately there are many "clowns" here who pitch up to work with either no props or their props are in a mess and then they bitch because the employer refuses to pay for the time it takes to put on the make-up.
Love how clowns just fit in there

Let me give you some metaphor.
'You expect some clown to show up at your party and that is exactly what's going to happen.'

Why do you think I was referring to you Based on what you said it is very clear that I wasn't. I am talking about the people who pitch up at the job 5 minutes before the time and then spend 60 minutes teaching the kids that the present perfect is when you are doing something at the moment and you should therefore add ing to every verb. For practice they then let the kids talk about their favorite computer game but they have to use present (progressive) which they taught as perfect and then wonder why they get paid 450 an hour. You are clearly not that so please stop "clowning" around in this thread. That's my job and I've done my prep work for it.

[timmyjames]

OK. Let me give another analogy.
If you hire a magician for your kids birthday party, he charges per hour or per show. He doesn't charge you for the time it took to practice and learn his skill, nor does he charge you for the time it took to put his props in order, write down and memorize the order in which he was going to perform the tricks, ensure that he has everything he needs and think about the words he was going to say to build suspense and create humor.
Magicians are also hourly paid professionals. They are worth what they get paid per hour. There are many good buxibans and buxiban teachers who are in the same boat. Unfortunately there are many "clowns" here who pitch up to work with either no props or their props are in a mess and then they bitch because the employer refuses to pay for the time it takes to put on the make-up.
Love how clowns just fit in there

Let me give you some metaphor.
'You expect some clown to show up at your party and that is exactly what's going to happen.'

Why do you think I was referring to you Based on what you said it is very clear that I wasn't. I am talking about the people who pitch up at the job 5 minutes before the time and then spend 60 minutes teaching the kids that the present perfect is when you are doing something at the moment and you should therefore add ing to every verb. For practice they then let the kids talk about their favorite computer game but they have to use present (progressive) which they taught as perfect and then wonder why they get paid 450 an hour. You are clearly not that so please stop "clowning" around in this thread. That's my job and I've done my prep work for it.

Perhaps paying more than 450 hour would solve this problem.

[Exister]

Perhaps paying more than 450 hour would solve this problem.

Yeah, who's only getting 450? That's awful.

[Whole Lotta Lotta]

Perhaps paying more than 450 hour would solve this problem.

Yeah, who's only getting 450? That's awful.

I have done it before. I got a job that paid 650 and hour on the same day at the same time and the boss at the first job was PISSED that I quit.

On this thing about showing up minutes before your class; Sometimes that is out of neccessity if you are working at more than one school and the schools aren't all that close together. I had one place that I worked at on Tuesdays at 6:30 and worked at a job before that until six. The commute took about 25 minutes. I had to prepare for the next class a week ahead of time.
When you have a problem finding one full time job, a bunch of part time jobs becomes neccessary.

I would also like to say something to the small school owner who has a teacher who works both at your school and at a bigger school with more hours for him and more guanxi; Don't expect this teacher to give your school the same level of dedication that he gives to the other school. If you want that teacher to take a class that is at the same time he has obligations at his other school, your school will have to make the sacrifice. Unless you have his ARC.

[TaiwanVisitor12321]

OK. Let me give another analogy.
If you hire a magician for your kids birthday party, he charges per hour or per show. He doesn't charge you for the time it took to practice and learn his skill, nor does he charge you for the time it took to put his props in order, write down and memorize the order in which he was going to perform the tricks, ensure that he has everything he needs and think about the words he was going to say to build suspense and create humor.
Magicians are also hourly paid professionals. They are worth what they get paid per hour. There are many good buxibans and buxiban teachers who are in the same boat. Unfortunately there are many "clowns" here who pitch up to work with either no props or their props are in a mess and then they bitch because the employer refuses to pay for the time it takes to put on the make-up.
Love how clowns just fit in there

Let me give you some metaphor.
'You expect some clown to show up at your party and that is exactly what's going to happen.'

Why do you think I was referring to you Based on what you said it is very clear that I wasn't. I am talking about the people who pitch up at the job 5 minutes before the time and then spend 60 minutes teaching the kids that the present perfect is when you are doing something at the moment and you should therefore add ing to every verb. For practice they then let the kids talk about their favorite computer game but they have to use present (progressive) which they taught as perfect and then wonder why they get paid 450 an hour. You are clearly not that so please stop "clowning" around in this thread. That's my job and I've done my prep work for it.

Perhaps paying more than 450 hour would solve this problem.

No kidding. We get paid as little as they can possibly get away with, the schools are stingy with absolutely everything, they offer no advice or training.. everything is automatically the teacher's fault...

Why the hell would we want to do anything extra for you? If I had a good relationship with my boss, I'd try hard to please him/her. In Taiwan, nobody gets this. You don't care about your business, so why should WE care about your business? I do my job, but I'm not doing unpaid work. My classes are spread out throughout the day, which is very inconvenient for me and basically wastes my whole day and pays me for very few hours. If I was paid for each hour that I was kept busy, (and therefore actually doing work or helping your company) I would have a vastly different attitude about this issue.

You're really saying "it's not too much for us to ask you to come to work for free for a couple hours each day to prepare".

Don't be so stingy and cold to everyone and you won't have these kinds of problems, honestly.

[Abacus]

A bunch of whiners on this board. Crying about 9NT markers?

the time to cry about prep time is when you consistently have mountains of HW/test grading. Prep time comes as part of the package of being a teacher even if you're merely an hourly worker. Blast away but you just want to punch in and punch out and go home.

[GuyInTaiwan]

A bunch of whiners on this board. Crying about 9NT markers?

the time to cry about prep time is when you consistently have mountains of HW/test grading. Prep time comes as part of the package of being a teacher even if you're merely an hourly worker. Blast away but you just want to punch in and punch out and go home.

I disagree entirely. Where's the package of sick days, paid holidays, a pension, etc. that is part of the package of being a teacher? The buxiban industry wants it all one way.

[Abacus]

A bunch of whiners on this board. Crying about 9NT markers?

the time to cry about prep time is when you consistently have mountains of HW/test grading. Prep time comes as part of the package of being a teacher even if you're merely an hourly worker. Blast away but you just want to punch in and punch out and go home.

I disagree entirely. Where's the package of sick days, paid holidays, a pension, etc. that is part of the package of being a teacher? The buxiban industry wants it all one way.

I don't understand your argument. I've never said that buxibans are a good job (I work in one) but it is a fact of being a teacher.