Workplace reviews and discussion: 佳音英語林口頭湖分校_榮曜文理語文短期補習班

1. Having connections means you have no problems.

2. But if you’re relying on the interview, then you’re out of luck, so run away quickly.

Let me share my experience (regarding the work itself; I’ll leave out the parts about hitting children or their teachers thinking the children were beyond help).

Summer job

At first, I was looking for a summer job, and they happened to be recruiting summer interns, offering the minimum hourly wage.

The work conditions I agreed on with the female director were: 【Serve as an assistant teacher for a preparatory class for first graders, only assisting with lessons】

(She asked whether I could teach phonetic symbols. I said that although I had studied early childhood education, I had not systematically or professionally learned how to teach them.)

As it turned out, I only watched the female director teach phonetic symbols on the first day. At noon on the second day, she suddenly told me, “You watched me teach yesterday, so you’ll take over the phonetics class at 1:30 later.” From then on, I was the one teaching phonetics, and aside from English classes, which had an English teacher, I was basically solely responsible for the class.

The official start of the school year

At the time, for certain reasons, I had not yet received my graduation certificate. They said I could work without one, so I stayed. Looking back, I should have realized something was wrong during the summer and run away immediately.

1. Salary issues

Since the working hours during the school year differed from those during the summer, the new terms they offered were: 【Work from 11:20 to 19:30 every day, with a salary of NT$25,000】. They deliberately told me, “Your personality is suited to independently managing a class, so you’ll directly take charge of one class.” (Independently managing a class for NT$25,000???) When discussing the terms, I also clearly said that I still had one university course to complete, so I might arrive 10 minutes late on Tuesdays (elementary school children are dismissed later on Tuesdays, so work could start at 1:00 p.m.; I had specifically scheduled my course on Tuesday for this reason) because I had to catch the bus back. The director agreed.

After the school year began, since most of the children went home at 18:30, I asked the female director for her opinion. (They had two branches, and the branch where I independently managed a class was overseen by the male director.) She said that if there was nothing to do, I could leave early.

Then, a few days before payday, the male director suddenly came to me and said that my salary might be less than NT$25,000 because 【I was late every Tuesday】 and would therefore lose my perfect-attendance bonus (they had never said beforehand that the NT$25,000 included the attendance bonus). The male director even said in a tone implying that he had been very good to me: “The perfect-attendance bonus is NT$1,000, but I’m only deducting NT$500.” There was also 【leaving before staying until 19:30 every day】 (but his wife had said I could leave once I finished my work). After we discussed it, they changed me to an hourly-wage system, but he still offered me the minimum hourly wage (you’re paying a teacher independently managing a class the rate of an intern?)

After the switch to hourly pay, I asked the male director, “How will the pay be calculated for the 10 minutes from 11:20 until I arrive, as requested by the female director?” (In fact, I always arrived by 11:00.) The male director replied, “She just hopes you’ll come in early. Why are you arguing with us over these few thousand dollars? You’re here to learn, not to make money.” (Me: What exactly have I learned when I independently manage a class??? And wasn’t I actually the one who often shared methods for working with children with you???)

2. Job duties

Originally, it was agreed that I only had to be responsible for managing the class. But I was also responsible for washing the bowls they used after lunch (and was criticized for not washing them cleanly enough—but I wasn’t hired to wash dishes, was I?), preparing the afternoon snacks, cleaning the restrooms, cleaning the classroom, and making all the holiday decorations for the entire building.

I had to stay beside the children throughout their English classes. If I went downstairs to print a review worksheet (which the director had also asked me to prepare; after their English class ended, I had to stay in the classroom and couldn’t leave because I had to check homework and supervise assessments, so I could only use this time to print it), I would be reprimanded for not being in the class and causing the order to become a complete mess. (Me: ??? They’re only first graders. This English teacher can’t even manage the discipline of first graders?)

I was responsible for picking up and dropping off students from a certain school. Sometimes, when there were many students, there wasn’t even a seat for the teacher. A van carried more than 10 children, and I was often forced to sit on a small stool placed in the back. Also, whenever a student from one of the schools took an unexpected day off, they would not proactively inform me. (They also did not add me to their group chat, instead creating a separate new group. Whenever someone took leave, they notified people in their own group, so I had no way of knowing.) As a result, sometimes I couldn’t pick up the children and couldn’t find anyone.

3. Problems with the supervisors

The male and female directors (who are married) often failed to communicate information with each other. Since I had initially been contacted by the female director, but mainly worked under the male director, whenever I asked him a question, he would say he had to ask the female director again. Then, when he eventually replied, he would emotionally manipulate me. However, I was told that because I am a woman, the male director’s attitude toward me was already considered relatively good. A male colleague who left one or two months before me told me that the male director was very rude to him. (Three or four people left during that semester; apparently, several more people left one after another after I resigned, and the only ones remaining were members of their family business.)