Gram English Center

I worked at several English schools in Taichung and this was the best I think. Paid 600 NTD for 50 mins which works out better per minute than other schools, for example Shane (630 NTD) or Washington (650 NTD per 60 mins). Books were OK, depends how you use them. Staff at some branches can be a bit uncommunicative but they just lack confidence in their English. Overall a good school to work at. No teaching assistant though, and sometimes the Chinese teacher of the class directs you too much, but stand your ground; you're the English expert. Hope that helps.

The worst thing about Gram is the curriculum. They mostly use books that their publishing company wrote and are pretty much garbage. My local manager in Taoyuan, (Stacey) was great but my regional managers were incredibly arrogant and not very helpful.

Teaching in Taiwan was my first real teaching experience. I didn't seem to mind it at first. I've always heard that teaching is rewarding in the end, when you see the progress that the children have made. After the first three months of teaching I was starting to hate it more and more. The children were happy but just loud. It was hard to keep several classes under control. I would come home and just lay on the couch and pass out. One day my boss came to me and asked me what was wrong. He said that in the past few weeks I looked like a "dead zombie". So I finally told him my problem. He took me out to have a tea and told me many different styles of classroom management. He talked about how every class is going to have a different attitude towards English so I need to find a different strategy for every class. The next couple weeks I had tried to use this new strategy, it didn't work. One day I came in tired and not wanting to teach that day. The kids had noticed too. I thought they were going to try and take advantage of me that day. But, as I started teaching the students were behaving and participating. I thought it was a miracle. After class I noticed my boss had a huge smile all over his face. I went up to him shook his hand and said thanks. From that day on I really found out what it means to be a teacher.

Although I work for Reach To Teach Recruiting as their Global Director of Recruiting, I'd like to say that my very first job through Reach To Teach was with Gram English Center in Shulin, Taipei County.

My husband and I both worked at this branch and we ended up staying with them for almost 2 1/2 years. While I can't offer an opinion on other Gram schools, this branch, in particular, was top-notch.

The director of the school and her staff went out of their way to make my husband and I feel happy and comfortable. We were included on family picnics and get-togethers, the school gave us top-notch training, and we received full support at work and in our personal lives. We became better teachers because of the incredible staff and care that we received while working at Gram English Center.

I would certainly consider working there again and I still drop in on the school from time to time to say hello. All in all, our first two years in Taiwan were amazing, and it was because of the excellent care and guidance that we received through Gram English Center, Shulin and through our recruiter, Mitch, from Reach To Teach Recruiting.