Taiwan’s English industry is hitting a barrier — a lack of kids.
The Neqws Lens
Date: 2017/11/21
By: Matthew Fulco
In the mid-2000s, Taiwan still had a faint flavor of the Wild Wild East. Parties in
Photo Credit: Jerome Favre / AP Photo / 達志影像
nightclubs lasted well past sunrise, and revelers often spilled out onto the street. Complaints about noise were rare. After all, people back then still tolerated election campaign trucks with blaring loudspeakers audible from a kilometer away.
The freewheeling atmosphere – and the island’s subtropical charm – attracted many a foreign adventurer. The occupation of choice was English instructor. The only requirements were a four-year university degree, a passport from the Anglosphere (including South Africa), and the ability to pass a rudimentary health check.
Yet some cram schools (buxibans) would at times bend even those limited requirements for the right candidate. Doing so was illegal, but the demand for instructors of English as a second language (ESL) often outstripped supply as the industry grew at a torrid clip. From 2003 to 2008, the number of cram schools more than doubled from 6,000 to 12,500, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE). In the Taipei area, most qualified teachers preferred to work in the city or nearby suburbs accessible by subway. A bit farther afield, schools couldn’t afford to be picky. [FULL STORY]