The Wild East Magazine

Taiwan’s English language education: A living dinosaur

July 9, 2015October 4, 2026Trista di Genova6 Commentsacademia sinica, buxibans, cram school, cram school industry, English language acquisition and theory, english language education, Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky in Asia, TAS (Taipei American School, US State Department

By Trista di Genova, The Wild East / Editorial The Taiwanese fare abysmally in international English scores. Why? Part of the reason could be attributed to the difficulty of learning such a vastly different language. According to the US State Department, Mandarin is one of the world’s most difficult languages for English speakers to learn (rivaling…

The Meltdown of English Teaching in Taiwan

Strait-Talk Taiwan News

May 29, 2009October 4, 2026Trista di Genovabushiban, cram school, economy, education, employment, engish teaching, foreign workers, jobs, language, linguistics, Taiwan

by Trista di Genova Exclusive to The Wild East It’s not just the economy; Taiwanese have money. They are among the best savers in the world, and have invested, thrown money at the bushiban (cram school) system of English education in Taiwan. Mr Chandler wrote on our pages about the days when foreigners were nabbed…

The Rise of The Bushiban in Taiwan

Beautiful Island Strait-Talk Taiwan News

May 15, 2009October 4, 2026Trista di Genova2 Commentsbushiban, cram school, english teaching, language, taipei, Taiwan

By Jonathan Chandler Originally published in The China Post, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008; this is the exclusive online publication for The Wild East. In 2007, after 23 successful years my Taipei English language school and UK Study Travel business, along with countless other Taiwanese SMEs, suddenly collapsed. Now in Shanghai having established a thriving base…