Program Reviews

I worked for Hess in Hsinchu from June 2015 to February 2016. Hess is a big chain, they help you come overseas and get acquainted with Taiwan before you start teaching. They'll help you find a place to live and get you working permits. That's the good part. They don't really tell you how much you really need to get started. It's a lot and don't expect a paycheck until 2 months after you get here. The 183 days 18% tax and 182 days 5% tax was not accurate at my school. I was always getting hit with 18% tax. Other schools don't pull this on unknowing foreign teachers. Other schools will also pay you more and let you teach or substitute at other schools. Though many want you to have some sort of certificate showing you know what you're doing. I don't really recommend Hess to anyone that wants to teach seriously in Taiwan. There are much better schools available. Hess is just a giant corporation with very high turnover, even with the hefty contract termination fee. It's not for everyone, but it is at least a way to get started here in Taiwan if you're willing to wait a year to find a serious teaching position.

HESS provides you with a lot of support in and outside the classroom. This makes it easy to adapt to living in a foreign country and learn more about teaching.

Lesson plans are provided making your introduction into teaching easier. You will be well supported by head teachers, area managers and the main office.

There are many social events and events organised by the organisation to help you network with other teachers.

If you are willing to work hard, you are able to make a very good wage and live well in Taiwan.

I worked for Hess and without doubt they are ten times worse in my opinion it is alleged than any other company I have worked in in any other country. I would never recommend anyone work for them ever!! Even my worst enemy.

Are you a reasonably clean cut, complacent, semi-decent looking Caucasian male in your late 20s to early 30s? Congratulations, you are Hess material. You will likely encounter few problems while working with the Taiwanese staff at your buxiban. I would recommend this company to you solely on the basis of lack of teaching experience and few contacts in Taiwan. Keep in mind the possibility of 6 day work weeks, and being your branches go-to man for underpaid extracurricular work.

Now, if you don't belong to this minority, you may run into some issues. If the staff at your buxiban decide for some reason that they don't like who you are on the basis of your appearance, your personality, your ethnicity, your teaching style, etc, then you may have a difficult time. Poor relationships with the staff can be extremely stressful and make working with Hess a nightmare. This is of course subjective, and each branch is different, but micromanagement and internal hostility seem to be a recurring theme in many Hess buxibans.
Head office is aware of these issues, but unfortunately can do very little to change things.

If you are lucky enough to have a good experience with Hess, then you are of the minority. Life in Taiwan is of course what you make of it, but having an enjoyable job will make all the difference.
There are other cram schools which pay a higher starting wage, and give less extra admin work. Don't settle for Hess.

Where to begin?

Well, first of all, my branch is pretty decent. The managers were helpful, and the staff was something that I could work with. Also, the kids were great. The issue I had was the HESS structure itself. They work you into the ground, especially if you teach kindy with a mix of treehouse classes. You're only paid for your time in class, but your time grading and doing administrative work is way more. According to the Labor Standard Act in Taiwan (read it before you sign any contract), andy buxibon company is only allowed to work you a certain number of hours a day, and the days you are clocked in are the days that you are legally allowed to be compensated for. Out of a whopping 10 hour work day (including grading, lesson prep, etc) you are only paid for 4 or 6 of those hours (depending on how many classes you actually teach). You even have to put on extra Kindy performance shows, which the rediculous amount of prep time for the show isn't compensated for at all. Also, it is the law to have employees paid for national Taiwanese Holidays, according to Article 39. Guess what? HESS doesn't pay you for any international holiday. I'm actually planning to go to the labor board about this. HESS has gotten away with so many illegal practices, I feel partly to blame because I didn't research what my rights were.

I terminated my contract early due to a family emergency, and in the contract you agreed to a 20,000 termination fee. First of all, it is ILLEGAL to work as a kindy teacher in Taiwan, and you figure this out AFTER you sign the contract. What bugs me even more is that HESS attempted to deduct my wages from my paycheck, which is black and white illegal, and can open them up to a civil suit and get them fined 90,000 NT. The reason they didn't is because I researched my rights as an employee. Needless to say, I didn't pay the fine even after much intimidation and coercieon by my HNST to make me sign another contract promising I'll pay some other amount of NT.

HESS has a reputation of overworking and underpaying its employees, and if you're not careful, they will nickel and dime you. They have left a really bad taste in my mouth after all of this. I'm glad to be done with them. It's no coincidence that they have such a high turnover rate and they have issues retaining empoloyees.

Your first experience with Hess is the training which is everyday for one week and change. It is generally not that helpful because it is not specific to the place you will be teaching at which run however the manager feels it should. The degree to which the contract you sign and the policies outlined at the main office are followed varies a lot from branch to branch. In my experience many branches underpay for events. Also I have had a few "accounting errors" which surprisingly have never been in my favor.

Hess generally pays less than the going rate for teachers. They also expect you to do a lot more work outside of class than other jobs in Taiwan. You may have a little leverage if you complain depending on how many teachers have quit recently, but usually managers are willing to fight for pennies from you no matter the long term costs.

They have a main office staff of foreigners but they don't have the power to really help you. They seem well meaning enough though, and they will at least listen and then tell you to talk to someone else.

First and foremost, I love Taiwan. I want to stay here; it is brilliant and amazing. I love where I live, I love the local area and the people. My review reflects none of that because -- and I wish I could underline the rest of this sentence -- that shouldn't be the consideration you have when working for Hess.

Focusing entirely on the program: It's only (and barely) adequate if you've never taught a day in your life and have absolutely zero experience; the materials are poorly edited, and this includes both student books and teacher manuals. There are points where the grammar is absolutely incorrect and the examples are glaringly wrong; the materials contain highly inappropriate "in-jokes" that shouldn't even exist. There are countless references to subtle racism (black children going to the police station, poor representations of the Rroma as 'crystal-ball carrying gypsies,' caveman-inspired Native Americans), drugs (a girl is holding a flower that looks exactly like a marijuana leaf), alcohol, age inappropriate word choices for teaching phonics.

There is far too much work for the time allowed, and you're expected to get through all of it. There are activities that are incredibly pointless for the time given to them, and you're questioned if you skip something in favour of doing a different activity. I prefer to incorporate more speaking in my classes, as this is something most of my students need more practice with. However, as I'm expected to get through all the low-grade secretarial work provided in order to "prove" I've "effectively taught" my students, there isn't a lot of time to incorporate discussion and questioning.

When I'm teaching, my co-teachers commonly interrupt me. Sometimes it's about class behaviour, which I can handle. The moment the most minor infraction occurs, my teachers are up and shouting at my students. If I'm in the middle of teaching something, they always question me. I had a lesson about using past continuous tense; the instructions stated that students should be using past continuous tense, and my co-teacher kept insisting that we should be using "simple past tense" regardless of how many times I pointed out that the instructions stated "past continuous" and that answering all questions using past continuous would make sense. Rather than waiting until after class and discussing this, it was determined that the best time for an argument over instructions was during class time and in front of the students.

The training that is provided is minimal and inadequate. They constantly pull you in for trainings on various things that do nothing more than waste time; they could easily email you the videos and PowerPoints they plan to show you, as those are the only thing they will ever reference. More than half of your questions will be answered with the phrase: "Check the teachers manual" or "Ask your branch." Both of which are problematic when your branch doesn't know.

Their pay is lower than average, too. It's not bad, and a person can obviously live on it; it's just lower than the going standard.

Two more things to consider, as well, if you're going to work with Hess:

1. They won't tell you until nearing the end of training what the legal status is about working in kindergartens. It's a changeable law that is a grey area, but it is currently illegal; depending on the capricious nature of the inspectors (and even your school), you really need to be aware of its legal status and avoid being caught if you're currently teaching children in that age bracket. Seriously.

2. If you're looking at Hess for a cheap alternative to a TEFL certification, you're being silly. Their TEFL is not accredited by any university/program (as they cannot afford the costs of going to an English-speaking university?). They state that it may be useful but will not always be accepted, but they sort of neglect mentioning this directly in their propaganda for new recruits.

In July of 2009 I moved to Taiwan a month after graduating college. I went for a few reasons: work, travel, fun and to learn Mandarin. I was interviewed and hired before I went by Hess Educational Organization. My two years in Taiwan started off with a 2 week Hess training in the capital Taipei where we learned teaching strategies - everything from classroom management to how to explain adjectives. This was a great time to adjust to the time changed, make friends and learn about the culture all while being housed in a nice hotel and fed 2 free meals a day. I made friendships those first two weeks that I still have today. After training I moved to the port city of Keelung where I moved into an adorable, small Japanese style studio apartment and started teaching ESL. I started out teaching at Hess's kindergarten in the mornings and teaching elementary and junior higher school students in the evenings. A typical day involved riding my scooter to kindergarten - teaching 3 year olds for 2 1/2 hours then having lunch with my fellow teachers (usually something made by the kindy aunties - delicious Taiwanese food). Teaching kindy was really fun in the sense that we were really involved in every aspect of the kids' education, from teaching them phonics to teaching them how to clean up and how to be polite. I taught the same kids two years in a row and it was so amazing to watch them grow up. By the time I left they were 4 and 5 and could speak English really well. It's also challenging teaching the younger kids though, it takes a lot of patience, and sometimes it seems like the kids have better relationships with their Chinese speaking teachers (which makes sense of course). I enjoyed teaching the older kids as well, although teaching till 8:30 at night was not on my list of favorite things. The older kids really appreciate learning from a native speaking teaching and while you have a pretty strict curriculum to follow there is always time to share your culture and get to know your students and their culture.

Hess as a whole was a really supportive school. I would definitely recommend Hess to any one starting out teaching abroad. They offer a lot of support such as finding an apartment and helping with necessary but very difficult tasks, like setting up a bank account, filing taxes and going to the dentist. The Taiwanese teachers we worked with were awesome too, they were really helpful in and out of the classroom.

I loved my experience in Taiwan. A huge reason I went was to study Mandarin and live in an Asian country. I made some amazing friends - the Taiwanese people are some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. They are so welcoming and love sharing about their country. The city I stayed in was just the right size, big enough to never get bored, small enough that you became familiar with the area and people pretty quickly. There was a cafe called Leaf Cafe in Keelung where I befriended the owner of the cafe. Of all my experiences in Taiwan - studying Mandarin at the Normal Taiwan University, going to glorious Green Island, lasting through a Typhoon, experiencing Lantern Festival (and ALL the other festivals), going out in Taipei - the thing I am thankful for the most is that little cafe and all the wonderful memories there. When you travel it's hard not to feel like you have to be living on the edge every single day, seeing new places, trying new foods, meeting new people, but at the end of the day that gets pretty exhausting especially when you're living and working somewhere for an extended period of time. By the end of my two years in Keelung I was so thankful for my curry place where the owners knew my favorite dish, for the comfort of having friends nearby, for my faithful scooter that gave me freedom to explore, and for a beautiful, ancient culture that will always be a part of me.

I have been working for Hess for almost four years and it has been a great experience. Taiwan is so conveniently located in Asia that it allows you to travel easily between many countries on the cheap. Also this company does quite a bit to ensure that you are looked after once you arrive. I would say that most peoples biggest gripe about Hess is its large size and the feeling of working in a middle sized corporation. Overall it is a good company, but Taiwan is the real reason to come. This island is truly beautiful!

As an introvert, going overseas to teach during the 2009 recession was a scary prospect, but HESS did a fantastic job of making sure I was comfortable and settled. I had a fantastic time teaching kindy for two years in Keelung.