Privately Speaking 感想

 I received a lot of emails this summer.  A fair number of them were from people who want to teach in Taitung.  While I am no expert on the subject of working in Taitung, I do have some thoughts to offer:我今年暑假收到很多人的email.  有一些昰想到台東當老師.  雖然我對台東的就業市場不很了解, 但是也還有些心得:

1. Teaching English in Taitung

If you have a teaching certificate from the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada you should look into working for the Taitung County Government as a Foreign English Teacher.

If you have a M.A. or above, you should contact Taitung University.  Good luck with that.  They offer a handful of positions, and there is a lot of competition.

If you lack an (approved) teaching certificate and Taitung U is indifferent to your advances, you should go through the private English schools.  All of these schools are relatively small and tend to offer part-time work.  The bigger schools in the area are Global Village, Joy, Kid Castle, Hess, Giraffe, High Scope Kindergarten, and the Columbia Review.  There are others besides, so be sure to refine your search.

If you haven't had any luck with any of the private English schools, you could try private teaching.  I warn you, however, that it is extremely difficult to make a living doing this in Taitung.  Even in Taitung City, there just aren't enough potential students for this to be feasible.

2. Teaching Chinese in Taitung 在台東教中文

I also received emails from Taiwanese people who wanted to teach Chinese (to foreigners) in Taitung.  也有一些昰從想在台東教華語的臺灣朋友.

The ONLY place I know of offering this kind of work is the Language Center in Taitung University.  And even they have only a handful of students.  我知道的唯一教授華語課程的地方昰東大的語言中心.  而且他們的學生不多.

And privately teaching foreign residents of Taitung?  Next to impossible, in my opinion.  For one thing, there just aren't that many foreign residents.  For another thing, most of these foreign residents aren't that interested in learning Chinese.  You'd be lucky if you found just ONE foreign resident to teach, forget about several!  那教外國人中文的家教呢?  幾乎是不可能的事情.  台東的外國人沒那麼多.  而且在台東的外國人也沒那麼多想學中文的.  能找到一個學生已經很了不起了.

In conclusion, I'd appreciate any thoughts those of you in cyberland have on this subject.  As said above, I am no expert, and it may be that I have overlooked something here.  Yes, Taitung is developing, and yes, new opportunities are presenting themselves every day, but Taitung is still a relatively rural place, with all the challenges and benefits that rural places tend to offer!  最後, 這只是我個人的觀察結果 ,  可能其他人有不同的經驗.  當然台東目前也正積極發展. 每天都有新的機會出現.  只昰台東還是屬於比較鄉下的地方. 也伴隨著鄉下就業的問題跟恬淡生活的好處.