The Good Stuff

Far be it from me to present only the negatives and not the positives. As promised, here is a post of the good stuff about Hess. I have now taught or substituted at six schools, so I feel I am somewhat qualified to say this stuff. However, all of this is based on my personal experiences so should be taken with a grain of salt- experiences are going to vary everywhere.

#1 the kids are pretty well behaved at Hess
This could be due to any number of socio-economic factors. Hess is one of the more expensive schools in Taiwan. More expensive school= wealthier parents, and for god knows what reason, wealthier parents often = better behaved kids. There is also a co-teacher in the room who may or may not help you with classroom management (which was my absolute downfall as a teacher- I was more interested in getting them revved up so they would talk more, which often got out of hand) My co-teachers helped a lot. Also, Hess's lessons move- there is very little lag time, so the students have less time to mis-behave.

To compare this, I will talk about two of my other teaching experiences. At a school I currently work at (putting in only 3 or so hours a week) I teach a small class of 4 girls. Every teachers dream, right? And I'm in charge of the lesson plan so I can tailor it to their needs and interests, which is great. However, their interests mostly run to 1) which boy likes which girl at their school, and which boy and girl may or may not have kissed- and - 2) English cuss words.
If one of my ideas for a lesson bombs, I've got 4 girls talking about boys at school (which is fine if it's in English) and begging me to learn English cuss words. (to my eternal shame I went ahead and let them believe that 'blue bird' is a perfectly acceptable term for the male genitalia. I don't remember how this came about, but now they say blue bird whenever possible, and dissolve into giggles every time they say it. Idiot, which I did not teach them and can only guess they learned from a previous teacher, is also a favorite.) Obviously I'm a teacher with minimal experience and sometimes my classes get out of control- but I will say that these girls conversational english is head and shoulders above head and shoulders above (yes, I meant to repeat that twice) your average Hess students. Their reading and writing is about on par too. I don't know how this happened and I don't take credit for it (except for some of their conversational skills, despite the inappropriate use of bluebird.)

Another experience- I taught a kindergarten class of 20 kids and it was the longest 2 hours of my life. The kids were crazy, erasing whatever I wrote on the board and stealing my markers and running around like madmen. At one point I turned around to write something on the board and one kid pushed another kid off of a chair and broke his arm. I kid you not. The co-teacher (you're going to need one with a group of 20 kindergarten kids who don't speak much English) had left the classroom five minutes after class began and never returned. This never happened to me at Hess.
(the amazing thing was, every time the owner of the school peeked into the classroom, it was magically at some point where I'd somehow gotten the kids interested in something. Somehow, magically, I looked like this stellar teacher. And she peeked in like 10 times! After the class she was nearly frothing at the mouth to hire me even though a kid broke his arm, and all I wanted was to get the hell out of there.)

Anyways yeah, the above bad experiences are generally not going to happen at Hess.

#2 You get paid on time at Hess
I haven't had much trouble with this at other jobs, but there is one employer who conveniently 'forgets' my money and I have to wait another week for it. I've heard horror stories at a distance but no one I've ever actually known hasn't been paid. Still, Hess has their crap together and like clockwork, your paycheck will be in your account on the right day.

#3 Hess isn't going to disappear into the night with your work visa
I've had one friend who went to work one day and found that her non-Hess school had been boarded up. She hunted down her (ex)boss and demanded her paycheck and only got it when she had her boyfriend go in and threaten said boss. This probably won't happen at a Hess school (although this same friend did get deported while working for Hess because they failed to tell her she was working illegally because her paperwork wasn't processed or some crap like that...and now she's not allowed back to Taiwan for 2 years. grrrr.)

#4 Hess has training

I know I griped about the training but I have found it useful- especially the games. And most schools do not have any sort of training.

#5 Taipei main office
Taipei main office wasn't much help in my situation, but if you're having a real problem, they can transfer you or help you out. If you are working with a small independent school, you are fending for yourself.
(this is a double edged sword though. Sometimes I felt like the main office people spent their spare time sitting around thinking of new programs to torment their teachers with.)

#6 Materials
Hess has flashcards, songs, books, etc.

#7 lesson plans
You are always going to know exactly what to do at what time. You will never stand in front of a class and go 'what the hell do I do now?' That's pretty priceless.
I hated the lesson plans. I prefer more freedom and feel like I can usually think of something worthwhile to do if a lesson goes faster than planned. But I have to say, it was pretty handy to not have to take responsibility for things- the lesson sucks? Well, it's not my fault, I have to teach it pretty much exactly as it's laid out. It's great to run your own show but if you run your own show and things bomb, you have no one to blame but yourself.
I personally felt frustrated because I couldn't alter the lesson plan to suit my students, and if the students were totally lost you had to continue with the class, even if it was way ahead of them and they weren't learning much. But still, like I said, it's nice to know exactly what you're supposed to do next.

maybe I'll add to this later. conditions are perfect for a surf right now so I'm paddling out!

Don't take my word for it

People who've worked at Hess, please feel free to post your stories here. I will also sort through my inbox and post some letters I've gotten over the months from friends who've worked at Hess.
Please feel free to post whether you've had a good or bad experience, I won't delete comments with good experiences =)

Here's a letter I recently got, pasted here with permission:
Hi Cami
Was just reading a couple of your comments on the FB HESS Feedback page, as well as a some excerpts from your Blog. Just wondering when you started with HESS as I first took it that you commenced in 2008, but some of your Blog posts are dated during 2000. Just curious to know how recent some of the information is as I'm also working for HESS and having THE WORST time of it. I commenced in XXXXXX 2008 and am still working for HESS at the XXXXXX Kindy. I absolutely hate my job and never in my life before have I ever said that about any employment I've undertaken. Would love to hear back from you as I'm seriously thinking of packing it in - sooooooon. Any advice would be muchly appreciated.

(PS I put some of the posts as 2000 because I wanted them to show up at the end of the blog- I worked at Hess in 2008 and 2009.)

Some letters from another friend, posted here with permission:
April 27 at 11:22am
.... As for how I am, kinda miserable, I hate working at hess and I want to leave as soon as possible... I'm looking in to other avenues of employment and preparing for if or when they fire me...

April 27 at 11:22am
... Oh also i know many other NSTs that aren't continuing with hess and just leaving...

April 28 at 3:09pm
Hey Cami, I'm applying for other jobs, I haven't been in to HESS this week as I just can't face it, they've been driving me crazy! Bugging me to write a script for a class of 24 SA5 low level English kids, I'm not a playwright or master director, especially to children who don't understand much of what I'm saying to them!

I came here to teach a little English and I didn't think I'd be as stressed and depressed as this, doing this kind of work! Shouldn't learning be a slightly more fun thing than listen, repeat, listen, repeat... I wanted to do many more practical things with the kids but kept on getting told no, stick to the formula. Also I've been reading up on all immersion language learning and this practice was generally considered not the best way to learn a language aqnd that was over 40 years ago!

Anyways let me know how your job search is going!?

All the best!

x

October 4 at 10:07pm
Hey xxx,
can I post some of your old leetters on my site, minus name and identifying info? I've got some retard telling me that I hated hess so much cause I'm spoiled and immature (which is probably true) but I want to show that other people hate hess too

October 5 at 2:02pm
Hey cami, yeah sure that's fine. How's you? I got two way better jobs and i'm now making much more than I was making at hess :) i'm far happier! X

Changing Jobs In Taiwan

One of the things that kept me at Hess for so long was the fear that I might not be granted another work visa if I changed jobs or that I would have to leave the country and do a visa run (which I really didn't have the money for.) There were rumors that Hess has sway with the government and if you piss them off they might make it hard for you to get a new visa. I finally worked up the courage to get a new job. My old ARC would be canceled 10 days after I quit working for Hess- it was my understanding that if I didn't leave the country within those 10 days and apply for a visitors visa, I would be deported and have to stay out of Taiwan for two years. In the hopes that I wouldn't have to make a visa run I went to the foreign employment office (? can't remember what it's called but I think every county has one) and took all of my new work documents with me, along with my old arc and everything. I wore nice clothes and really tried to make a good impression. I was so nervous that they would deny me.
They barely even looked at me. I filled out a visa extension form and then it was just stamp, stamp stamp, okay, you have 30 days. I timidly asked what would happen if my new work visa wasn't processed in 30 days. They said it probably would be and if it wasn't, they'd just give me another 30 day extension.
siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigghhhhhhhhhh! And this is what I'd been afraid of the whole time! It was a piece of cake.
maybe other people have had different experiences, but I would say you don't have to be afraid of changing jobs in Taiwan. The government seems to be pretty chill about it.

20,000 (or $607.40 US) training reimbursement BS fee

Here is a link to a post that gave me a lot of courage when I was quitting Hess(for some reason can't get it to light up as a link so copy and paste if you are interested). It is the fourth post on the page: http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=69755&start=20 Thank you, guy in Taiwan =)
Anyways, here's my story about the 20,000 fine. so far I know several other people who've quit Hess and none of them have had to pay it.

I told the HNST (western manager) that I was quitting, giving them over a months notice (in which time there was another kindergarten performance. If I really wanted to screw them over I would have left before the performance was completed) I asked my manager if they would be deducting the 20,000 nt training reimbursement fee from my paycheck. I told him that I would be happy to pay the percentage that felt I owed (1/6 of the fee, because I had completed 10 months of the 12 month contract) He said he'd have to check on it. A couple of days later he called me and said he was sorry, but even though nobody at the branch wanted to charge me the full fee, it was up to Taipei Main Office, so I would have to pay the full 20,000.
(other reports have stated that it is up to the branch managers to decide whether to collect the fee. Once again, the merry go round with who is really responsible for things and who you're really dealing with.)

I replied that it was illegal for them to take it from my paycheck, and I was pretty sure that the contract I had signed and scanned and emailed to them was not legally binding, so I told him I would be fight paying the fee, and bring whatever government officials into it that were necessary.

He said, "Don't tell me now what you're going to do in the future, just think about it a little bit."
I said "I already know what I'm going to do, and I'm going to fight it."

I knew hess didn't have a legal leg to stand on- I'd been teaching kindergarten illegally, there was the whole question of emailed contract legality, and the fact that I had very nearly completed the entire contract. I was just curious whether they would take it out of my last paycheck, because after working the minimum hours for hess for the previous months, I was a little low on cash, and would need that cash until the first paycheck of my new job.

A couple of days later the branch manager and I had a nice heart to heart. He really seems like a reasonable guy and I wish I had talked to him more instead of going through my HNST. He said that he felt that the problems I'd had were the branches fault as well as my own, so they would not be charging the fee. I said I would be happy to pay 3333 nt because I hadn't finished the last two months. He said that was nice.
And that was it.
So, current Hess employees who are scared to quit because of the training reimbursement fee---
The fact of the matter is that they can't legally take it out of your paycheck, and all they can do is harass you to give it to them. You can refuse, and if they pursue you bring in the appropriate authorities and they probably won't want to deal with it what with all the illegal kindy teaching going on. If you say you'll fight it, they'll probably leave you the heck alone.

Out of principle, I think it's fair to pay part of it, or the percentage that you owe if you are near the end of your contract. Training does take a lot of time and money on their part. I just wanted to pay that little bit so that I could have it settled in my own mind about whether I had done the right thing or not. And technically I hadn't even signed a 12 month contract because while in Taiwan I had only signed a six month kindy contract...but what the heck it was nice of them to put me up in a hotel for the training...

Anyways, don't be scared, do what you have to do. You may have signed a contract, but they don't own you.

Dating in Taiwan

(This is what I've found in Yilan, which is perhaps a more traditional place...Taipei may be very different.)

Gentlemen, you're in luck.
Foreign guys here don't seem to have a problem meeting and dating attractive local women. Even if no one would touch the guy at home he seems to do okay here =) I often see socially awkward western men with extremely beautiful Taiwanese women. I think there's a certain poetic justice to it- they're probably great guys who were ignored in their own countries, and now they're happy- good on em! I just hate the guys who have multiple girlfriends and mistreat and lie to them. May karma come and hurt them badly

Ladies, we have a tougher time. Most of the foreign guys are *ahem* busy, and not really interested in the western women who they may feel have been snubbing them for years. Can we blame them? Taiwanese women have a couple of things up on us. They're usually thin (I've met 45 year old women with cuter figures than mine, and I'm considered thin in America), they have nice skin, shiny hair, and let's not forget that a language barrier, while often a hindrance, can sometimes be a blessing in romantic relationships. And this may sound like a terrible generalization but I think they're generally sweeter than us. For example, a guy might do something, anything. My response would probably be "You're a dumbass." A Taiwanese girls response might be "Aw, you're cute." Just an observation...
As for Taiwanese men, there are some who are extremely attractive, but in the case of western women dating Taiwanese men, culture seems to work against us rather than for us. There are other factors to consider as well, but I won't go into those- let's just basically say that if you're a girl, and especially if you're a girl who is used to being hit on every once in a while, your self esteem might take a little hit here. Sometimes I kick myself for spending the last years of my 20's in a country where for all intents and purposes I may as well be an 80 year old Grandma...well, at least I lived in Italy in my early 20's. I got hit on enough for the rest of my life.

All of this is of course a generalization- I am sure somewhere there is a foreign woman and a Taiwanese man who are having a great relationship. I just haven't met them.

Anyways there is the rare foreign man who, for whatever reason (they enjoy witty banter, they like a challenge?), is still into western women. =) I salute you, and thank you =D

Taiwanese People

They're just like people everywhere. Some are good, some are bad, some are jerks, some are sweet, some want to help you out, some will hurt you.

But if you want some sweeping generalizations:
I have lived here for a year and have had perhaps 2 experiences where a Taiwanese person was rude to me. TWO. And I am a bumbling foreigner who doesn't speak their language and ALWAYS needs help and is generally doing the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place. These people are NICE.

I don't know how it is in Taipei but I feel like a bit of a celebrity here. I get nods and bows from complete strangers, along with teenagers asking if they can take pictures of me. You will feel special. You will be stared at. A lot. I find the staring isn't bad unless I'm in a bad mood. When I'm in a good mood, I just smile real big and they usually smile back and drop their eyes. If I'm in a bad mood I get in staring contests with strangers that last for far to long to not be awkward. Thank god I'm rarely in a bad mood (now that I quit Hess)

People will go out of their way to help you. This isn't like at home where if someone doesn't speak the language we cluck our tongues at them. A lot of people want to practice their English and are really helpful and cool and nice.

You will find cultural differences (avoidance of direct confrontation, to name one) that may annoy you or you may think are 'wrong'. It's a different culture. To them, we're probably just as wrong. Roll with it.

People feel differently about beating dogs/children here. while it's not smiled on, it's perhaps more accepted. I still have a hard time with this.

I'll add to this as i think of things.

Food in Taiwan

Food in Taiwan is cheap and plentiful and for the most part good.
However, you may spend your first month or so in Taiwan in a pathetic, malnutritioned stupor like I did. A lot of this was because I am vegetarian. I think if I weren't, I would have just gone to a restaurant and pointed at random items on the menu, just to try something new. But because I'm a veggie it stopped me from doing that and lack of Chinese ability/culture shock induced shyness stopped me from reading/asking about the menu. (Written Chinese is difficult to look up in a pocket dictionary. Difficult or...nearly impossible because it's not phonetic). If you live in Taipei you will probably not have this problem as many menus are in English and you can probably pull aside the nearest person to ask questions (more people speak English in Taipei than in my little town).
Grocery stores are great and about anything you want is available, but you have to know where to look and again, not knowing chinese will hinder you- I so often bought packages of food and was so excited to eat, only to get home and discover that it was not what I thought it was. sigh. Also I spent hours and hours and hours wandering through grocery store aisles with a dazed look on my face, picking up and examining packages then staggering away. I would also wake up thinking about CHEESE! PIZZA WITHOUT CORN ON IT! GOOD ITALIAN FOOD! AMERICANIZED SUSHI!!!! I WOULD KILL FOR A FRICKEN REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUP!!!(about the only candy you can't find here). Food may be a major preoccupation for a while. It's all part of the experience.

Anyways, Now I can eat well on about $5 US a day. This is eating exclusively at restaurants.
I get this kick-ass breakfast sandwich from the local breakfast shop, there's a great vegetarian buffet near my work ($50 nt for a box, which is like a buck 30 US) and then teppanyaki for $80 nt (little over 2 bucks US) for a huge meal with soup, rice, sprouts, cabbage, and a main course which is all prepared artfully right in front of you. Sometimes I splurge and spend 140 nt dollars on a veggie burger at my favorite restaurant owned by this Canadian guy. Best veggie burger I've ever had. Prepared fresh. $140 nt. That's like, I dunno, 4 bucks? I know it sounds ridiculous but I walk out of there going man, that was so freaking expensive. The most expensive meal I've had here, in a 5 star hotels restaurant, was 800 nt dollars (bout $20 US?)(thank god Jody was paying). I cannot believe that I used to regularly spend that much money on one meal in America!!!

Anyways, the food is cheap and good, you just need to know where the heck to get it (another foreigner can help you out here).
but you will probably struggle for a couple of months just because it all tastes so different and your body is not used to it. I've never had food poisoning here although I pretended a few times to get a mental health day from Hess. bad Cami.
Anyways get yourself a fridge and a stove and force yourself to get out and try different restaurants. If you are vegetarian,learn the character for vegetarian and you will be able to pick out great restaurants with no meat products. And ask other foreigners...