I arrived in the early 90s knowing no one and speaking minimal Mandarin. I had US$400. Quickly started teaching privately and in schools.
Yep – again, early 90s. No culture of entitlement of living in a nice apartment on Day 2, having a scooter right away, or going out every weekend. (Of course, work conditions were laxer then too for sideline jobs.)
Give me back the 1980s with no work permits. People would “proposition” you to teach their English class at very attractive rates of pay if you so much as got into an elevator with them. :s
[quote=“ironlady”]Yep – again, early 90s. No culture of entitlement of living in a nice apartment on Day 2, having a scooter right away, or going out every weekend. (Of course, work conditions were laxer then too for sideline jobs.)
Give me back the 1980s with no work permits. People would “proposition” you to teach their English class at very attractive rates of pay if you so much as got into an elevator with them. :s[/quote]
I remember those days well!
I came here with the $1000 dollars my dad gave me at my graduation party and a little bit extra from working third shift all summer. This was back in 2001 and I already had a well-paying job ($92,000/mo.) waiting for me here so money wasn’t really an issue.
Please tell me what that job was and how you got it!
I arrived here with just under NT$5,000 about ten years ago. Started work within a week and got paid my first salary six weeks later.
Lost about 10 kg on a diet comprised of 7-Eleven tea eggs. 
[quote=“Anubis”]I arrived here with just under NT$5,000 about ten years ago. Started work within a week and got paid my first salary six weeks later.
Lost about 10 kg on a diet comprised of 7-Eleven tea eggs. [/quote]
Now that sounds familiar! :roflmao:
10 years ago you were working a teaching job that paid NT $92, 000 a month?
Where?
I arrived with a job more or less setup to teach roller-blading, with AUS $70 in my pocket. And no, I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone!
Back in the day you could get away with stuff like that, but nowadays it’s wise to show up with enough money to support yourself for a while in case work doesn’t pan out as you had planned right away.
The market was peaking ten years ago. Opening a buxiban was a license to print money. Things have been in a steady decline since then. Many , many schools have closed, and salaries have been stagnant for years. Or decreased.
Did you write about it before or someone else had the same experience. LIving in a shop with those steel doors that you can pull down and once down is dark as heck without interior lights? Cockroaches coming thru on the bottom etc? Man some of you guys do “edge” onto the island thats for sure.
But hey i came to live in the usa this time bout ten years ago with tens of thousands in debt and now… im in MORE debt. Ahh life in Merica.[/quote]
Yeah, I did write about it before. I guess it was something to write about, which is always good. 
Ha! I came with over $3000NT in my pocket, and since then I’ve more than doubled my nest egg! :discodance:
I came with about 20kUSD, no idea that a teaching market here even existed, and a plan to stay for one year…
In 1986.
[quote=“MJB”]I came with about 20kUSD, no idea that a teaching market here even existed, and a plan to stay for one year…
In 1986.[/quote]
One heck of a loooong year 
Ha! I came with over $3000NT in my pocket, and since then I’ve more than doubled my nest egg! :discodance:[/quote]
My investments in Taiwan have since squared up that tally very nicely, and then some.
Taiwan up!
HG
I had fifty USD in my pocket. I was so broke…I taped a sign to the back of my shirt stating “English classes $400NT per hour” and rode up and down the escalator at the department stores. Taught in the park.
I remember that story. And if you didn’t have a family that would suffer because of it, you’d go back to that day in a minute, wouldn’t you?
How many years ago would that have been?
ballsy.
I arrived with about US$1500 in local currency, which I bought at Heathrow in London. The first time I tried to buy a drink at 7-11, I found out they had (unknowingly) sold me old currency and that it was all useless until I could change it at a particular bank – which was way beyond me at the time.
So I starved for a month. It was fun!
[quote=“Brendon”]I arrived with about US$1500 in local currency, which I bought at Heathrow in London. The first time I tried to buy a drink at 7-11, I found out they had (unknowingly) sold me old currency and that it was all useless until I could change it at a particular bank – which was way beyond me at the time.
So I starved for a month. It was fun![/quote]
that would have been a great time to read Knut Hamsen’s Hunger