Foreign wages and foreign work ethics are two terms that repeal the very existence of the other. Let me start by saying the average Taiwanese person works a fifty hour week over a six day schedule. They work extremely hard and long hours, and are loyal even when their bosses trample on their few rights. I work a 35 hour week, and am paid double the average engineering professional. I also work barefooted, and dress in gypsy scarves and boat pants. Some of my closest friends earn a third of what I do and work nearly double time.
To obtain the privileged ‘foreigner’ status, all you have to do is: look white, have an overseas passport, and in extreme cases, forge a degree. Incidentally, I am the ‘exemplary’ foreign staff member at my school, and according to some Dwarfs, in a plot to make them look bad. I am exemplary because: I go to work regularly and on time; I stick children’s compositions on my classroom walls; and the school laoban-niang thinks my father is handsome – nothing deserving great accolades. Nevertheless, there are members of THE DWARF STAFF who have claimed (some on temporary suspensions) the boundaries of acceptable workplace practice are not clear. So, it is not their fault if they: come 30 to 45 minutes late everyday; puke up wine in the children’s bathroom; smoke weed on the tea break; read the newspaper, talk on the phone, or play computer games instead of teaching; or hang children out the window.
At first I couldn’t understand why no Chinese member of staff had any time for foreigners. Now it is clearer than I want it to be!
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To obtain the privileged ‘foreigner’ status, all you have to do is: look white, have an overseas passport, and in extreme cases, forge a degree. Incidentally, I am the ‘exemplary’ foreign staff member at my school, and according to some Dwarfs, in a plot to make them look bad. I am exemplary because: I go to work regularly and on time; I stick children’s compositions on my classroom walls; and the school laoban-niang thinks my father is handsome – nothing deserving great accolades. Nevertheless, there are members of THE DWARF STAFF who have claimed (some on temporary suspensions) the boundaries of acceptable workplace practice are not clear. So, it is not their fault if they: come 30 to 45 minutes late everyday; puke up wine in the children’s bathroom; smoke weed on the tea break; read the newspaper, talk on the phone, or play computer games instead of teaching; or hang children out the window.
At first I couldn’t understand why no Chinese member of staff had any time for foreigners. Now it is clearer than I want it to be!
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