David on Formosa

I have been working in my new job for a little over three weeks now. So far everything has gone well, perhaps a little better than expected.

The two previous times I taught in Taiwan (1999 and 2002) I worked at Kojen (or ELSI as it used to be known). At Kojen I mostly taught adult classes. However, one problem with this was the seven day a week schedule.

When I came back to Taiwan last month I considered a number of different jobs. Although my initial preference was to teach adults, I eventually decided to take a job teaching children in a small buxiban. I am the only full time foreign teacher at the school.

All the classes are in the afternoons and evenings from Monday to Friday. I have every weekend free and, except for the summer vacation, the mornings are free too. I plan to use this time to attend Chinese classes after the summer vacation.

My previous experience teaching children was fairly limited. I had only occassionally substituted for other teachers and taught a few classes for one or two months.

The experience teaching in this school has been quite different to my past experiences. First, the class sizes are small. My largest class has 11 students and most classes have eight students. That makes teaching a lot easier.

The students also seem to enjoy learning and speaking English. Some of the older students have just reached the level where they are confident speaking the language and have enough vocabulary and grammar knowledge to begin expressing themselves in the language.

I will be able to watch these students further develop their language skills. One of the big advantages of teaching children compared to adults is being able to teach the students for a long period of time and watch them develop their abilities. I am looking forward to it.