Any school employing Foreign English Teachers has stories about the teachers that "didn't make it." You can learn a lot from these stories. They reveal a lot about people and their expectations, realistic or otherwise.
I have generally observed 5 types of Foreign English Teachers who "didn't make it." Maybe they quit, maybe they got fired, but from the school's perspective whether they were quit or they got fired makes little difference. From the school's perspective, the only thing that mattered was how much trouble the Foreign English Teacher did or did not cause.
With this in mind, please don't think I'm taking sides here. Lord knows I never have all my priorities in order, and there were times when I had to disappoint present or potential employers for the sake of personal circumstances. We all live in our own way, and for every teacher that "didn't make it" there is a story of how they "made it" somewhere else.
I should add that the number of types below is completely arbitrary. There may well be 50 types of teachers who "don't make it," or there may be 0, given that each situation and each individual are different. I just find the number 5 convenient to work with, and suitable for describing certain trends or types as I see them.
1. The Victim of Culture Shock.
This is the person that either cannot or will not adjust to Taiwan. They get homesick, and they leave. They decide they hate Taiwan, and they leave. The food here is too spicy, or too oily. Or the people are rude, and they refuse to speak English. Or the weather is too hot, or the traffic is too bad, or everyone stares at me and makes me self-conscious. Whatever the reason, these are usually the first people to skip out on their jobs. Naturally we have all felt these things at one time or another - and often about the place where we come from - but it is the ones who really internalize these feelings of alienation that disappear the fastest.
2. The Late Arrival.
This is the person that can never be on time. I have met several drug abusers who would also fall into this category. They are five minutes late on the first day, ten minutes late on the second day, and by the end of the first semester no one really knows whether they showed up at work that day or not. Often these kind of people are, paradoxically perhaps, very likeable, and the time it takes them to get fired is usually proportionate to how likeable and/or attractive they are.
3. The World Traveller.
This is the guy that just got back from hiking across the Silk Road, or the girl that travelled down the length of South America in a hot air balloon. Whatever the nature of their adventures, you can be sure that they will only be working at a school for as long as it takes them to save the money for their next plane ticket. I'm not trying to say that people who love travelling are inherently dishonest, but I have met a lot of guys who backpacked across Southeast Asia - only to disappear from work the following Sunday.
4. The Lecturer.
This person thought they were just coming to Taiwan to lecture, and that, when finished lecturing, they would be free to disappear into the dismal confines of whatever apartment they inhabited. They are usually sad, lonely people with few social skills, and they are like the Black Plague in any kindergarten classroom. As anyone who has taught for a while knows, teaching is more than mouthing a set of sentence patterns or vocabulary words. Sometimes you actually have to make it interesting.
5. The Perv.
This is the kind of person who watches porn on the work computer, or who makes lewd comments to staff members, or who touches kids. Of this type I have only met two, and that is during 11 years of being in Taiwan. I am happy that I have not met more of them.
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