Taiwan is a place where English is not a dominant language so learning it may sometimes need the assistance of a qualified tutor. A tutor who teaches his students the English language may or may not be certified. But in the average case, they usually have a degree and TEFL or TESL certification. As an individual located in Taiwan and looking to learn the English language, the very first place you might want to look at in beginning your education is a nearby school.

These schools are locally known as bushibans and they usually have tutors who train students on how to improve their English speaking and writing skills. Registration for these courses are most times in-expensive but the cost largely depends on your

- Foundation knowledge of the language,
- The tutor that will be taking you,
- Depth to which you will learn the language.

Your foundation knowledge of the English language will largely determine where your tutor will start teaching from and this in turn will affect the price of your study classes. Someone having knowledge on alphabets and a little on the words but with problems in pronunciation will be considered to start at a more advanced level than someone who can’t call out the all English alphabets correctly. This also means that the person who would be starting with the very basic learning of the language would have to cough out more money than someone having a little knowledge.

Before you enroll for any courses or study classes, you should be able to evaluate your knowledge of the language and the depth to which you are willing to learn it. If you would like to learn it for fun sake, then you need not go far with the learning process. But if you intend becoming a translator or want to use it for business purposes, it becomes imperative that you learn the language with aspirations to becoming as fluent as a native speaker. Once you have been able to decide on the level of your fluency in speaking and writing the English language and you know the reason why you want to learn the language, you can then step into a school and begin registration.

 The tutor that will be taking you lessons will also affect the price at which you would be learning the English language. As with all other tutors, a more experience person is most likely to demand higher pay and working conditions than an inexperienced tutor. The pay in this case shouldn’t deter you because you know you are paying for quality. Getting an experienced tutor to teach you the English language will definitely make your journey much smoother and you are likely to learn the language faster.

Just incase you are thinking; but how will I know the schools that are good for learning English as a second language and those that aren’t; below are a few tips to guide you in your search.

The first thing you can rely on when looking for a good school to learn English language as a second language is “word of mouth.” Before you just walk up into any school of your choice, try getting background information on the school and good or bad feedbacks from people you know have either attended the school or have useful information for you. If you don’t personally know anybody who has attended that school to learn the language, a little asking around wouldn’t be so bad. Try asking neighbors, friends, or any other persons you feel may have the information you are looking for. In doing this, you should try not to be sentimental when you hear some feedbacks. As with almost everything on earth, people are bound to bad mouth something. You should try as much as possible to be able to differentiate that bad mouthing from actual facts.

Another thing which might help you in deciding a good school to attend would be the internet. The use of search engines, blogs, and etcetera cannot be under-estimated and you should use this to your advantage. Try visiting popular educational forums and try to get feedbacks or advise on the schools in your area. You can also use a search engine to look for a school but you should have it in mind that not all schools would have websites. There are also some websites which serve as monitors for schools all over the world teaching English as a foreign language or second language. You can try to gain access to these sites and look for any information which might help you in your search. Most of these sites usually receive comments from internet users on their experiences from various schools and these schools are later categorized based on these feedbacks. You should try looking for a school with good feedback. Avoid getting attracted to the very best as the feedbacks may be in-genuine, a mixture of great feedbacks and little bad ones should do just fine.

A third method which you might use in deciding which school to attend is the good old learn from experience method. You can visit the various schools you have short-listed and see how they respond to your demands. Though this might not always be a working solution, it usually is a very good one as you would be able to see things for yourself thereby making you able to come out with an informed decision. Things like proximity to your home, cost of transportation to the school, the environment surrounding the school. All this factors should also be taken into consideration before making a decision.

The last but not the least method you may use is to compare your schedule with that of the school. If you are a working-class citizen, it would make perfect sense to select a school with courses available that don’t clash with your schedule. Some schools take lessons on weekends and others don’t. Look for the one’s that suite your needs and make a decision from there.