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On the web, most of the schools possessed the same abstract qualities:
they had students, they needed English teachers, they promised (heh)
good benefits and support for their teachers... In fact, of the two
schools I applied to, the Cambridge Bilingual School was certainly the
worse of the two when it came to So when CBS offered me a job, I actually had to stop and weigh the two. The only immediate difference was the curricula, and I guess, in retrospect, they were vastly, vastly different. But to a first-time English teacher heading to Taiwan on my own, the promise of being picked up at the airport and being provided housing went a long ways, perhaps even longer than a good curriculum. In the end, I chose wisely. I don't think I'll ever appreciate how wisely. And I don't think I can adequately describe how awestruck I was when I first visited Cambridge. We were told it was up in the hills, but I was cruelly unprepared for its grandeur. I think what made it even more dramatic was the fact that you ascend to the school in a twenty-minute drive from the gray, noisy bowels of Taipei county. Nobody will tell you that Taipei is a pretty place. Nobody comes to live here for the fresh air or the duck ponds or even for water you can drink straight from the tap (much less the ability to flush toilet paper). So when we left that world behind and rose higher and higher into the lush mountainside, a great feeling of anticipation started to grow... Add to the anticipation not one, not two, but three barricaded security checkpoints we needed to pass to reach it. These served to keep the riffraff out of the gated community that nestled along the mountainsides. The houses looked modest and quaint, but most of them required at least a $40,000,000NT deposit just to move into; the land that we were entering was second in price only to the sprawling villas of Yangmingshan. Betel-nut trees limned the winding road, and cicadas called out from their lush retreats. The air, though still warm, was cooler, and a breeze blew in air that was a refreshing change from the stale pollution welling in the city below. And then we turned that last corner soon after being saluted by the guard at the last checkpoint, and saw it.
After rows and rows of lookalike houses, the school stood out like some kitsch fairy tale castle. Its salmon-colored bricks were fringed by parapets and gothic arches, and formed a fortress that stood boldly in contrast against the green hillside. It was still under construction, but no amount of scaffolding could hide its presence.
The last three shots are basically just the kindergarten. Nevermind the conference room with the UN-style microphones at every station, or the three multimedia labs, or the computer lab, or the gigantic library, the olympic-sized swimming pool, the kiddie pool, the basketball courts, the theater, the amphitheater, the race track, the multipurpose field, the gigantic portico, the escalator, and the 40 classrooms dedicated exclusively to English teaching, each equipped with several Internet-ready computers, a power whiteboard, and sweeping views that endanger student attentiveness... This is only what is in place. The school promises a miniature zoo, a butterfly garden, hiking trails, student dormitories (for the yet-to-be-built high school expansion), and other facilities. As you might expect, this school is expensive. Many of the people who live in the area are sending their kids here, and that means that these parents are pretty big shots to be shelling not only the money to send their kids to the school, but also to live in the neighborhood. Did I mention the parent company has deep pockets? They are repsonsible for 80% of the educational texts in all of Taiwan. After being accused that they are designing texts and curricula from an ivory tower and have no real hands-on experience, they decided to squelch the rumor by building a billion (NT) dollar pilot school to try out their various textbooks. In fact, they came up with the following paradigm, a bit like Galen's four humors:
Their pamphlet contains some revolutionary statements about their bold vision. It doesn't get really good until points 2 and 3: I wish my school focused on the consistency of general education! Liberal and Refined: Education Beyond Compare
So... maybe their program's vision could use a bit more fine-tuning in the English department. But they are taking the experimental part very seriously. They have hired teachers from nearly every major Anglophone country: South Africa, the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. They are positively throwing money at the curricula. They have hired Westerners (or those who lived in Western cultures) for many key positions, resulting in a school with a uniquely blended management. And they're almost perfect. They really are. No question I asked merited a disappointing response. Yes, you can teach ballroom dancing. Yes, we can buy these materials for you. Yes, you can wear shorts. Yes, you get your own classroom. No, we expect teachers to think for themselves and have great freedoms in designing their own curricula. No, the lesson plans don't need to be terribly detailed. No, we won't be exclusively teaching to meet entrance exam requirements. Yes, you can go on field trips; just give us some advance notice. ... et cetera. Perhaps the following may sound like a boast, but it really isn't meant to be. This school is proof that I live a charmed life. I made it into my first-choice college. I was hired for the job I wanted. I was accepted into my first-choice graduate school, and quit just a few weeks before my job was to be unexpectedly cut in a wave of layoffs. I got the perfect Graduate Teaching Fellowship soon after starting school, and it was they who came to me. And now, I have arrived in Xindian, and
As we took the tour of the place, the elementary school curriculum director said to me (jestingly) that I didn't deserve to teach here; that I should have to pay my dues down in the cram schools (bushibans) before given the opportunity to work here, up in the clouds. I agree, how I agree. I just want to take this moment to thank all of my friends who prayed for me, or sent positive energy, my way. You're all responsible for this, if only in some small way. I think I'm going take a walk by Xindian stream and contemplate it all.
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communication.
In fact, after my not-so-promising phone interview, they did not tell
me if they had accepted me for employment. I had to email them and wait
the weekend for a response! Hess, on the other hand, was swift, friendly,
and informative. (I was told later that this was likely due to desperation).
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