Yes, teaching English in kindergartens in Taiwan is actually illegal, but it's a law that's not really enforced strictly. There are, and have been raids by police in the past and deportations of teachers has happened, but the kindergartens normally hide you when the police are around or get 'tipped off' before the police arrive.

With regards to working at HESS, if you can't find anything better (if you think HESS is the best try actually looking for other jobs) then do a year there and run, you'll see why after 6 months. I had a really bad experience with them, once I met one of their VP's, and discovered that this person had no clue about the business or about teaching, but they didn't see any issues with making teachers work unpaid overtime or split shifts that were 8 hours apart.
With regards to what people say about ethnicity, it's true, the same VP I met, mentioned to my friend that they found black people to be 'scary' and then questioned where my friend was from (my friend was born and raised in America, but their grandmother was Asian, so they have a very slight Asian look about them). Being racist is one thing but this VP was being racist towards their own race!

My advice, check out Happy Marian or Kojen or somewhere, from my experience people have a better time there, and their staff turnover is a lot lower

Hi Dan, could you tell me, honestly, how is HESS as far as legality and workload? I was really excited about the company - I've been pouring over their website and it seemed really great. Then I got the forums and started seeing horrible stories about how they aren't legit (that the kindergarten classes are actually illegal??? and that teachers have gotten deported?). I also read that during the training process (after you've already paid to fly to Taiwan) you can still get kicked out?

But other than the legal issues (then in other places I read that they were legit or that the kindergarten issue was a "gray" law and because HESS was so big they were able to "protect" their employees for the most part...) I am concerning about how a great deal of people mentioned having to work at least 40 hours on a 20 hour contract (with 20hrs worth of pay)?

I was really excited about applying there but now, quite frankly, I have read so many bad reviews that I'm a bit terrified... If you or anyone else could give me some honest, straightforward, no sugar-coating about HESS legality and work demands, I would really really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

I've been teaching for HESS for about 2 1/2 years. It's not bad. But I'm ready to find something more advanced, possibly like a business English school or more specific teaching with higher qualifications, like a Taiwanese public school. HESS is a great place to start. Mostly, though, they focus on Kindergarten and low level grammer courses.

Does anyone know anything about the HESS school in Taiwan?
Any information regarding them would be greatly appreciated.