The first month was really overwhelming! I took a class on teaching ESL in college but I never had any hands-on experience. Luckily I got a two week training before I started my job. It was definitely worth it!
My first class was a bunch of 2-3 year olds in a kindergarten. It's so incredibly satisfying to teach a child their first word and to know that all of their English, they learned from you. I have been teaching this same group of kids the entire time I've been here and now they're about to graduate from kindergarten, around 6-8 years old! Kindergarten is great to teach because the kids are so happy and give you lots of love. You can be as silly as you want and do art projects with them. They're also much more respectful than the older kids... and cuter!!!
I also had another class of 9-10 year olds. They were also fun to teach! They had a lot of energy and great attitudes. And most important, they still respected their teachers. I didn't get any time really to do art projects but they could carry on really interesting conversations with you. I also taught them a lot of writing!
Then the older students, high school age... Some classes could be fun... some could be a terror! By now they've lost all respect for teachers and some of the students have really bad attitudes. I think they have less of an interest in learning English- they just want to pass the class. In Taiwan high school is very stressful and so much more pressure and work than in America, keep that in mind. I think the senior high students were great and, although they were shy and didn't want to be embarassed in front of the class, they also had great attitudes and I loved teaching them!
The next age group I need to tackle is: adults!!!!!
Teaching ESL in Taiwan is a great job. You can save a lot of money if you are smart and there's always jobs for English teachers! All you need is a B.A. in anything and be a native speaker. As for what company to work for, I only know about one of the big ones. All I can say is there's lots of advantages and disadvantages for working with a big company. You just have to weight them out and decide which one is best for you! :)
