Using the Telephone Service in Taiwan

Using the telephone in Taiwan is a rather complicated issue.  It seems intuitive to locals, but to foreigners, it may take a couple weeks to get the hang of it.

To make things a little easier for some of you, I've listed some simplified directions here, for using the telephone in Taiwan.

TYPES OF NUMBERS

• Cell-phones have 10 digit numbers.  
• Land-lines typically have 8-digit numbers, but are sometimes written with the city code included at the beginning, making them into a 10-digit number.  
• Some older land lines have 7-digit numbers, and you'll have to ask a local to help you dial one of these 7-digit numbers.

HOW TO PLACE A CALL

When dialing from a local phone:

• To dial a cell phone from your own (or your friends) cell-phone, just dial the 10-digit number.
• To dial a land-line number from a cell-phone, dial the city code first.  ("02" is Taipei.)  Then dial the 8-digit number.
• To dial a land-line number from another land-line, just dial the 8-digit number.
• To dial a foreign number, you must first dial a three digit code for an international carrier.  "002" is the service most trusted by the Taiwanese, but I've found "017" to be the cheapest service available.  In fact, by using the "017" carrier, I can call my family in the U.S. for less money than I can call my fellow English teachers here in Taiwan!

When dialing Taiwan from the U.S. (or another foreign country), or when dialing from a cell-phone with a foreign number.  First dial the country code for Taiwan, "886", and then...

• When dialing a land line, dial the city code without the "0" at the beginning.  ("2" for Taipei), and then the 8-digit number.
• When dialing a cell-phone, just dial the 9-digit number.

I hope this is helpful.  By the way, don't bother calling customer service to explain this.  They will not understand your question.

A case study of business challenges at a Taiwanese English School for Children

I met a lady whom I’ll call “Ms. T”, who owned an English School for young children in an affluent section of Taipei. Upon meeting, she wanted me to dress up like Santa Claus, and help her attract customers. But after we got to know each other a little better, she forgot about Christmas and lamented her deeper woes to me. Ms. T talked about how much trouble it was to run her school, and how she wasn’t much of a businessman, so the topic turned to me helping her manage the school. I told her that I was not much of a businessman either, but that two heads are always better than one when making tough decisions. I appreciated the fact that she trusted me enough to discuss these things.

About a month later, Ms. T asked me to attend a training meeting to be a manager at her school. But when I met her at the school for the training, she had completely forgotten about our appointment. Instead, she was very busy and in a very bad mood. I tried to get a chance to sit her down and talk to her, but she was too agitated to listen to me. The environment at the school was extremely disorganized and confused, and after I monitored the situation, I saw that the school’s atmosphere was a reflection of Ms. T’s own poor leadership style. Then suddenly, she announced she had some personal errands that needed urgent attention, and she asked me to come along to help her. I was very suspicious at first, but I decided I would take my chances and go along with her.

While we were out, I learned that Ms. T was divorced and was at odds with various people in her life, including close family members. From the way she talked, it sounded like she was struggling to support herself, although from observation, she seemed to enjoy a rather affluent lifestyle. She also had a cute daughter named “B”, who was about three years old. That girl was so excited to see me, and I wondered if she had any male/father-figure in her life. While Ms. T was busy, little B and I shared a drink and I talked to her for a while.

Ms. T’s personal errands consumed most of the day, and after a while, I saw that I would not have any opportunity to talk with Ms. T about the school business, or my training, unless I stayed very late at her apartment. I didn’t want to do that, and I didn’t want to interrupt her personal business, so I just gathered myself together and made for the door. When Ms. T saw me getting ready to leave, she changed her priorities and asked me to go out to dinner with her and B. So we went to a hotpot restaurant, and over dinner, I talked to her for two and a half hours about her school, and how she could run her business better. Finally, the restaurant was closing, so we had to leave around midnight. B had fallen asleep in the adjacent booth, but Ms. T had written about ten pages of notes covering things she needed to do with the school. After this, she said I was a genius, and she said she was so confident about my management ability, that she wanted to make me the executive manager. But when I asked her about an offer, she refused to get specific, so I recognized her flattering statement as (1) a discreet appreciation, and (2) a cover of the fact that she hated the responsibilities of running this school.

A genius?!?!?!? In my opinion, I only told her some common sense – a few logistical requirements for her school to go smoothly. The major points of our discussion are described briefly as follows:

Reasons she gave for not registering her business (English school) with the government:
1. She claimed that the owner/executive manager and the investors are able to make more money from the business if the business affairs are kept confidential.
2. Labor expenses are greatly reduced because employees can be hired for less than the minimum wages specified by law.
3. Avoid all responsibilities for employees (e.g. health insurance, workers compensation coverage, other contractual obligations)
4. Avoid paying taxes.
5. Avoid the publicity of financial records (the owner is not subject to burdensome audits).
6. Avoid legal responsibilities in the event of a disaster.
7. Avoid the trouble and expenses related to the changes required to obtain registration (building codes, fire and safety regulations, legally adherent contracts for employees, obtaining licenses and permits)

Reasons she gave for not being physically present at the school during hours of operation:
1. Everytime she goes to the school, she spends all her time answering the phone, responding to e-mails, greeting customers, and covering gaps in the workers responsibility, which she says wastes her time and accomplishes nothing.
2. Whenever she arrives at school, the employees barrage her with all kinds of problems, which she cannot solve.
3. She doesn’t want to face the complaints of parents and customers.
4. She has “many other things” to do with her time.

Other problems that she mentioned:
1. Domestic employees were irresponsible, especially, they fail to show up for work on time.
2. Foreign English teachers were neither willing to work full time, nor stay with her school for more than one year.
3. All employees have frequently quit after a short employment in order to travel, to visit family, to attend school, or to accept positions at competing schools.
4. Investors keep demanding financial reports and fiscal returns, but there are no profits, nor reports thereof, to disperse among them.

Other problems that I noticed:
1. She gave herself a hefty salary of NT65,000/month, while workers quit on account of being underpaid, and the business was losing money overall.
2. After examining her books, I found that she was stalling investors while receiving a disproportionately greater amount of the earnings, frequently labeled as “salary” and “bonus”.
3. Her primary investor was her brother, who did not expect to be repaid ad hoc.

I indicated the following problems as being caused by her unregistered status:
1. Time and money is wasted in hiring and training low-quality, short-term employees (who neither have a vested interest in developing a career at her company, nor are seeking to build a resume).
2. Unable to sponsor work permits and visas for foreign workers (English teachers)
3. Unable to attract and hire quality, long-term employees, (because of inability to sponsor work permits and visas, uncompetitive contracts/agreements, unreliability of work, and unsafe working conditions)
4. Unable to attract enough student enrollment to produce a profit (caused by an insecure environment, a poor corporate image and low-quality, short-term employees)
5. Unable to establish a respectable and trusted corporate image
6. Unable to advertise without drawing unwanted attention (from government agencies and better business bureaus)
7. Authorities keep coming to check the status of the business (adding to the trouble and stress of the owner, investors and employees)
8. Possible liability of tax evasion (NT$150,000 fine)
9. Possible liability of illegal worker status (NT$150,000 fine)
10. Unable to obtain quality business insurance (therefore, a possible risk of lawsuits from customers in the event of a disaster)

My Advice and Suggestions to her:
1. Attract investors by being more transparent and paying them a certain percentage of the profits. Include a disclaimer in the agreement covering the event of a business loss. (Further credibility might be obtained by detailing the business plans here described.)
2. Invest in the changes required to obtain registration (building codes, fire and safety regulations, obtaining licenses and permits)
3. Formally register the business with the government.
4. Sponsor work permits and visas for foreign workers (English teachers).
5. Offer legally adherent and competitive contracts to encourage employee and customer loyalty.
6. The owner/executive manager should be physically present at the school for at least six hours every day the school is open. This will enhance employee efficiency, and increase customer security, satisfaction and loyalty.
7. The owner/executive manager should not have exclusive responsibility. Instead, daily duties should be executed by appropriate employees who are arranged in a hierarchy, and each assigned a delegation of responsibilities.

Results of Case Study:
One year after I had helped Ms. T with her business, I got a call from her. She had finally got a license and registration for her school, and now she wanted to hire me to work for her part time. I thanked her but rejected the offer, because by that time, I had found a much better position. We had a long chat, and I found her business is doing much better than before, due to the advice I gave her. She now has three full-time foreign English teachers, who are very happy to work for her and have no intention of leaving. She had a flood of new enrollment after advertising, and there are more new students coming every semester. The overall quality of her employees is much higher, as is the general morale of the school. Ms. T said, "I'm much more happy with my job, and everyone else is happier too!" She also noticed that the more time she spent at the school, the less problems and complaints she received from employees and customers alike. But she still spent less than six hours a day at the school. For the first time since she started the school three years ago, her business was financially solvent, and she expected significant profits from now on. She also said she has since become interested in the Jews, because of their “business saavy”. (Funny, because I’m not Jewish.)

She said she wanted to see me on a regular basis again, because she realized that the advice I gave her a year ago was dead accurate. She was amazed that I could find the problems in her business right away, while it’s taken her the past entire year, just to see the problems that I saw immediately.

I’ve lived in Taiwan long enough to know that Ms. T’s former attitude about her business is a very common one among English school owners/executives. But from my perspective, Ms. T’s school is living proof to the people of Taiwan that an English school, or any kind of business, with a law-abiding, customer-oriented, western-style of management, can really work and compete here in Taiwan.

Comments on "Why do people get married?"

It seems like the "M" word (marriage) is profane among college students in Taiwan. Most young people in Taiwan postpone marriage until their mid-thirties. Why? Marriage doesn't seem to be worth more than all the troubles, worries, expenses and responsibilities that it brings. It seems as if they have no practical sense about the mechanics and logistics of love and human interaction.

Recently, I asked my students, "Why do people get married?" Not one of them could tell me a good reason. I told my students, when you love someone, you want to be with them all the time! Nothing else really matters. They replied, “Yes, but why get married?” I tried to tell them that, for most people, sharing life with another person, is the most happy and fulfilling life that can be imagined. They responded, “Yes, but why get married?” Finally, I couldn’t take the suspense and mystery any longer, so I told them this story.

Why do people get married?

As an educator, I noticed that the positive approaches I took in explanation just weren’t penetrating their understanding, so I tried some negative approaches, which were very effective. The fact that negative motivators were splendidly effective while positive motivators had null effect, indicates to me that there is a lot of insecurity and apathy among the young people. In other words, it is easier for them to believe that something bad could happen to them, than it is for them to believe that something good is available to them. (Of course, I am also assuming that they trust me as a teacher.) I am asking myself, what kinds of cultural effects could cause them to be this way?

The International Professional Image

I've had more than one person call me within the past week, asking for advice about how to get a job teaching English in Taiwan. What did I say to them? I just tried to help them understand the Taiwan Foreign Language Educational System, according to my own experiences. Here is an exerpt from one conversation...

Q. I've been called to an interview at T. K. University. But no one is telling me what the job involves, or what I should expect! I feel lost!
G. (Your situation) sounds typical. I guess you are white, and you have an advanced degree, and some experience in teaching English, is that right? Those are the first things they'll look for.
Q. Yes, I have a Masters, and two years experience in teaching.
G. Sounds adequate for them. Do you really want the job?
Q. Uh... Yes I do!
G. Then wear a shirt and tie, get a clean shave, and BE AGREEABLE at the interview.
Q. Huh!?!?!
G. They'll look at your appearance most of all. They want to sell an international and professional image of their school. So just try to play the part.
Q. Eh... O.K. ...
G. Do you know, you could make slightly more money working at a cram school?
Q. Really?
G. Yeah, but you'll be putting in about 25-30 hours of classtime a week. You'll be "doing the time", if you know what I mean. If you want to teach at a University, then it's not about the money. You're looking to build a professional career. Is that right?
Q. Well, yeah... Why don't you teach at a cram school?
G. I did (teach at a cram school) for one year. I made more money there than I do now at the University, but I also felt like I was a babysitter. Those kids don’t want to be there. Their parents want them to be there. Those kids don’t want to learn (or do) anything. They’re already burned out from being in public school all day. Half of the work as a cram school teacher is in controlling their attention. Cram schools make their money by helping parents feel like they are being good parents, and parents are willing to pay for that, even if their kids are being overworked in the process. I didn’t want to be a part of that. I felt like I had more to give. I wanted to spend my time on students who really wanted to do something with their lives. I wanted to find those people who were really searching for direction and meaning to their lives. That is the kind of class I belong in. So that is why I am at the University. I’m not in it for the money. If you’re only going to be here less than five years, then I’d suggest working at the cram school, and make your time worth your money. But if you’re looking for a deeper reward, and money is not an issue, then the University is the way to go.
Q. Yes, I know what you mean. That’s why I am considering this position. But what will they expect from me? What is the job like?
G. They will probably ask you to come up with your own materials from somewhere, and they might expect you to offer your own courses in their program. They might even ask you (along with the other English teachers) to design their whole English curriculum! Don’t expect them to tell you what to teach, because they probably won’t. They’ll expect you to take the initiative. They’ll be watching you to see how capable you are.
Q. They want me to tell them what courses I should teach?!?!?!?
G. Quite possibly. You should have something ready to tell them about that. That’s why I said, “Be agreeable”. I need to do all those things at my present job. It’s a lot of work, but my students are really thankful for my instruction, and for all the encouraging words that I give them. So it’s all worth it to me in the end. That’s why I came to Taiwan.
Q. O.K. Thanks! I think I get it now.
G. Call me after the interview and tell me how it goes, will you?
Q. Sure!