Illegal Worker

At last week's meeting we were informed that we'd be getting an unscheduled holiday. Why? Because that's the day the government officials will be here make sure there are no illegal workers...i.e. foreign kindy teachers. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm being illegally employed to work in a kindergarten.

Apparently, the Taiwanese government has laws about teaching kindergarten children foreign langauges. You can't do it. So that means, although they can be "exposed" to foreign cultures, (posters on the walls and the 'occasional foreign guest' to read a story), on the day of the officials' visit, we are to be nowhere in sight and the Chinese teachers can't even sing the alphabet.

The best part about all this is that the day of the visit is usually pre-arranged with the school, so the teachers who aren't supposed to be there have full knowledge of the expected visit (but a few of my friends have had their schools raided and found themselves hiding in closets and whatnot). Also, "international" kindergartens openly advertise the presence of foreign teachers in their schools. So basically, everyone knows we teach here, including the government, but there are these laws, see...so everyone pretends for the day that we aren't really here.

Amazing what face can do...