Hi Johnathan, I would like to point out that your knowledge of a recruiting firm, or lack thereof, does not hold much credence with people who don't know you when you want to rant about business ethics. You can use Reach2Teach as an example of everything that recruiting firms in Taiwan should be, if you'd like, and you can lambast Go2TeachEnglish for being guilty of everything you speculate predatory recruitment firms to be. You're entitled to your opinion.

But let's not forget that you freely admitted you've never heard of the company so the last three paragraphs of your diatribe are worth very little.

I'm familiar with both companies. I was brought to Taiwan by Reach2Teach, specifically by the British No. 2 you mentioned and the No.1, named Mitch Gordon. I was recommended to Mitch when I was back in the States by a former college peer, because he'd heard Mitch advertising his company in a forum at our university, which was the same one Mitch attended. My friend had been having really great experiences in Taiwan and recommended R2T partly because Mitch assured him it would be easy to bring me over (which it was) and that the school he would set me up with, Kojen English Schools, would also give R2T a bonus which Mitch would then split with my friend and myself.

I passed through the interview easily enough. I like to think I was screened thoroughly but that might just be self-flattery (it's very nice to think I breezed through a tough interview on the first phone call, isn't it?). I went to the Boston TECO office on Mitch's recommendation because he'd had some teachers denied from the New York one, which is where I'm from (and where my friend, myself, and Mitch had all attended school, although Mitch was several years before me). Don't get me wrong - Mitch was very helpful in bringing me to Taipei, but the initial interview and nugget of advice was all the contact I had with him before I landed in Taiwan. I interacted mostly with the British guy, who was great.

The trouble I encountered was when I began working at Kojen. My manager was a witch. Before I eventually left after 10 months, she'd driven out at least 4 other established foreign teachers and who knows how many Chinese teachers. I mean, I'm sure I didn't make things very easy for her, but when I mentioned it to Mitch, he passed me along to the head office without a word of support. Twice. I asked the head office to transfer me to another school and they set me going in circles. Talk to your recruiter for advice and teaching tips, they told me. Talk to the head office and get them to sort things out with the manager themselves, Mitch told me. But the problem wasn't with my teaching ability and the manager wasn't going to change.

I found out later that many of these recruiting firms have contracts with the school that hold them liable for up to six months of the teacher's one-year contract. So the firm will bring a teacher from overseas, decide which chain to send them to, sign a contract with the school (because remember, Johnathan, that we're all commodities and we're literally sold on face value), and keep things moving. It's just good business. It's bad business, then, to give a shit about the teacher after those six months are up because that firm isn't liable for them anyway. They don't have to cover any losses, or pay an indemnity, or whatever is contractually stipulated. And since my problems with the manager didn't actually get to the point where I wanted to quit until around 8 months in, it's not that hard to do the math, is it?

Oh, and that bonus that should have been paid cash to my friend, who was also working at Kojen and who I explicitly wrote down as my recommendation so that he and I could split our share? The school told me it was paid to Reach2Teach, and to ask them for it. Mitch told me he'd never received it. Dirty business all around.

Now let's contrast this with my experience working at Sacred Heart. In between Kojen and Sacred Heart I'd done substitution work for two separate buxibans for one month each and had been gradually refining what I considered, and still consider, to be a pretty comprehensive, working understanding of the microeconomics of the ESL market in Taipei. At this point I'd worked for three schools and had relatively negative experiences with two of them. Kojen hit me with an indemnity for breaking contract, despite having requested a transfer a total of three times, another school tried to 'renegotiate' the pay scale after the month was up. So when I heard about Sacred Heart (an international 'brand' of schools, isn't it?), the familiar name and the fact it was out of Taipei inspired me. I did a demo and was hired.

Now, the facts of what the first poster Mark Bridge said were pretty accurate. The school did mislead some of its teachers. I was under the impression they were in the process of applying for my ARC when they weren't, but then again, having been in Taiwan for some time and having developed some awareness of how these cram schools do business, I understood that a lot of what's done is conducted in murky water and Paul helped to make sure my ARC situation was provided for in the meanwhile. This is because I'd gotten two visa extensions from the National Immigration Agency and doubted I could get another. So Paul helped me to stay in the country. In addition, Paul took the time to observe my individual classes and give me some pointers in areas I could improve, and he held seminars with his partner on behalf of all the teachers he found for Sacred Heart so we could pool our experiences and improve as a faculty.

Of course, it holds to reason this was as much in his interest as it was for ours, just like Reach2Teach worked in its own best interest. Logically it comes down to the type of contract he (likely) held with Sacred Heart. Now, this I don't know for sure, so take it with a grain of salt, but I'd speculate that he had a contract signed exclusively with Sacred Heart to staff their school. This would be markedly contrast with Reach2Teach, in which while the latter would naturally push for as high a volume of teachers into the country as they could manage, the former (Go2TeachEnglish) would seek to keep teachers in the schools they were matched with. Meaning, make sure the teachers are happy at their schools and smooth over any friction that might arise from a conflict of cultures and attitudes and priorities. It's just the type of contract that was signed which happens to benefit the school (from having a stable faculty), the students (from having the same teacher for the whole year), and the teacher (from having a stable job, and improving at his/her job). It treats the schools as clients instead of buyers, and teachers as people instead of products. It's just good business.

(Of course, that type of contract is arguably more work, because then the recruiter is obligated to pay a bit more attention to the teacher and help them deal with some very human problems. I'd also that it takes a certain type of person to work within those parameters, and I'm content at this point to consider Paul a good friend and a capable ally in Taiwan.)

What happened at Sacred Heart shortly after, in which immigration officials came into the school and detained myself and two other teachers; the full details of the circumstances elude me and it's in the past anyway. I've stopped caring much about it. But what I do know is that one reason I was 'apprehended' and treated like a criminal was on account of a collection of disgruntled ex-employees of Sacred Heart. Some ex-teacher's girlfriend directed the immigration officials into the school, singled me and a few other teachers out, and basically oversaw the operation that would give me a headache about visa problems for the next several months (and probably ongoing to this day). I'm not saying these teachers didn't have legitimate complaints. But I don't think they were deceived by any margin more than their lack of knowledge of the ESL industry in Taiwan, which is what it is without a need for hyperbole, and their collective refusal to move on with their lives led to me being plastered on the channel 4 news to be used as some icon for all the negative underhanded things some foreigners do in Taiwan (it works both ways, but you knew that, right?). When all I'd been trying to do was play stickyball games with kids, teach them some English, and make some money to pay off my student loans, a few foreigners I'd never even met pulled any string they could to use me to bolster their flimsy legal case against Sacred Heart, and for some reason, Paul, who by no stretch of the imagination represents the school in the first place.

In fact, after I'd been sacked from Sacred Heart and consequently my finances hurled into disarray (because of my inability to get a new job because my visa status was 'restricted' from new applications for a while), it was Paul who managed to squeeze some severance pay out of the school for me. It kept me afloat for a good two months.

The reason I posted this long-winded and meandering reply is because I'd hate to see Paul's reputation dragged through the mud on account of some sour grapes who came to another country and expected everything handed to them on a silver platter. It's not Paul's fault for what happened to them. He can't give details he doesn't have, and if Sacred Heart were aware that what they were doing was illegal (which I'm sure they were), how the hell does anybody reason they would share it with their recruiter, of all people?

Bottom line is Paul acted in good faith, as did the rest of us. We were all manipulated. The principal of Sacred Heart is a dirtbag and he basically played everybody. But I've got more of a bone to pick with the foreigners who interfered with my life and got my information put in some precinct's database rather than the cowardly local principal who wanted to line his pockets, because goddammit whatever happened to a sense of community.

They would never have won their legal battle anyway. Foreigners versus Taiwanese in a Taiwanese court? COME ON.