(NESTs) Stealing Native English Speaking Teachers' Golden Eggs

Hi David, its nice to make your acquaintance. I am a Master's student completing my MSc in International Management with a focus on China and Taiwan at the University of London. I am currently working on my dissertation the subject of which is focused on Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) in the EFL and ESL industry throughout Taiwan and is focused on building up management policies which schools and buxibans could utilize to retain there teachers for longer periods of time by catering to their needs. If successfully implemented, teachers will hopefully be happier with their working conditions, schools will save on HR, training, and marketing costs, and students will benefit through having teachers who will have had more time to grow and develop their skills.

My hope is to interview teachers who have taught or are still teaching in Taiwan, with the interviews starting in June and July. If you are interested in assisting with the project, you will most definitely be compensated for your time. If you have any friends or colleagues who may be interested, I'd be more than happy to interview them as well and would be grateful for your aid in helping me network with them.

I look forward to your response, have a great week and I hope we can talk soon. (feel free to write me via private message)

Hi Evan: International Management of local teachers rubs me wrong.I believe anarcho-syndicalism, self-management in a workers union is the best way to go in improving the success rate for fluency in a foreign language and helping comrades develop their pedagogy while protecting their interests against predatory bosses. It is for this reason that I hesitate to be part of your research project; it would be like the Jew who invented nerve gas that Hitler used to destroy his family. What is needed for ESL/EFL is teacher training by colleagues who'll clue new instructors in on the obstructive techniques and exploitation of school management and demeaning unfair local laws.If that is the thrust of your research, I would be glad to share opinions and advice from 35 years of reaching ESL/EFL, 14 of them in Taiwan. Thank you for your interest and good luck in your studies only if it helps fellow workers and eager students.

TOCFL: Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language

4-1-17

The bike ride to the middle school was pleasant yesterday in a warm, dry overcast breeze. The iced black tea lady warned of impending rain and temperature drop. I sat downstairs out of the cooling breeze in the space I teach the conversation classes at Shengang Middle School and went over the first few stories in the Mandarin practice mock test. I’ll be taking the real one next Saturday, April 8^th. I will meet George this morning at 9:00 to go over the test together. He was so kind to print out a copy for both of us but I went ahead and printed my own; the three stories with cloze answer choices. I understand 75% but the multiple choice answers I was mostly guessing at. 

4-9-17 

       I went back to my own life yesterday, with my daughter visiting from America, with the taking of the TOCFL in the morning and made borscht and Russian salad in the afternoon while Leona was out with Amanda and Margarita and Huai-Ya toured downtown Taichung.

      On TOCFL Band B, I got a raw score of 18 out of 50 on listening but I don’t know my raw reading score. My total was Listening: 33 and Reading: 42. On the mock test least week, I got a raw score of 15 for the 41^st percentile in reading so I made some improvement. It looks like out of 100 questions I got about 40% right, tops. George said I did better than he did in reading on the actual test which is strange because on the mock test he did better than I did; 29-50 (59^th percentile). I write “percentile” but it’s just the way the center scores the test; not percentile at all. We both accepted not getting certificates gracefully and took our ceramic consolation gift coaster. I will most likely take the test again next year if not in six months (I believe it’s given every three months) to see if I’ve made any improvements.

      After the exam, I got on my bike and George took a U-Bike to the Uptowner Restaurant where we met Teacher Cheryl for lunch. She asked us about the exam and we talked about our four-day vacations, George’s in Okinawa and mine with Amanda.