I’m looking to move to either Taiwan or Korea soon to teach. My dilemma is that I want to move to learn Mandarin, but also to save money. From what I’ve heard, I could fairly easily leave Korea with $15,000USD in savings, all said and done (including flights, housing and other expenses covered in Korea). I was reading the newbie thread on here and gathered that saving $10,000USD would be possible Taiwan if I’m frugal, and I can definitely be frugal. I figure I’d take the advice on that thread and live outside of Taipei, if I choose Taiwan. But if flights and all the extra expenses are included, would I really be able to save that much in the end? If I were to leave right now, do you think I could return with $10,000 more than I left with? If so, I think I should go to Taiwan so I can get the exposure to Mandarin.
Working at a public school in Korea you can easily save over US$15,000 for one year. No problem! I did it! Close to impossible in Taiwan for newbie. 
I’d be willing to sacrifice a good chunk of that, I think, for the exposure to Mandarin that Taiwan would offer. If I could save $10,000USD in Taiwan including all utilities, flights, food and extra expenses, then I’d probably go for it over Korea. As a side note, where did you apply in Korea?
I’d be willing to sacrifice a good chunk of that, I think, for the exposure to Mandarin that Taiwan would offer. If I could save $10,000USD in Taiwan including all utilities, flights, food and extra expenses, then I’d probably go for it over Korea. As a side note, where did you apply in Korea?[/quote]
EPIK, GEPIK, and JLP. Ended up working at a Foreign Language High School in the JLP program. Also had a few job offers for cram schools, but would advise against it. They will cheat you out of your last cent.
If saving money is the goal and staying only a year is your time frame, try a chain school, like Hess, Joy, etc. They hire from abroad and help pay for your flights. Some also offer accommodation.
But Hess is likely to put you somewhere far from where you can take Mandarin classes. ‘Exposure’ is not enough. You need classes and they are not available everywhere in Taiwan. I think if you lived frugally you could save US$10K in a year.
Living under the Kim Il-Sung cult of personality would wear you down after a while.
Oh… you mean South Korea?
But you could probably find a tutor, and pick up some textbooks next time your in a city. A fairly decent base + exposure is quite a good way to pick it up quickly, particularly if you’re in a place with no foreigners and little to no English ability and you’re also forced to learn.
I think in Taiwan you wouldn’t be likely to save any money at all for the first 3months, and then only limited money for the next 3. At about the 6 month point you could start to save regularly and substantially. For 10K USD I’d say 18 months, then 10K a year after that if you have reasonable discipline.
Korea is supposed to be great for money, but people often find the Korean attitude to foreigners highly annoying. From what I’ve heard.
If you want to learn useful mandarin a year is not enough.
I’ve never taught in South Korea, but pretty much every person I’ve met here has and can’t make their mind up which is better, but when it comes to contract renewal they always stay in Taiwan. Decide whats more important saving or learning Mandarin, remember you can always do both so which would you rather do first.
Personally I don’t care about saving, everything I read about the western economy is just depressing and I have no faith in my currency at all so I’m just enjoying my money here while watching the western to world go to pot, but thats just me.
Theres a lot more University positions available in Korea but competition is tough so get some experience in Taiwan, grab some more qualifications for the Taiwanese Uni’s which from what I hear are cheap, then get a high paying job in Korea where you can save easy. (I’m assuming you have no teaching experience, or no international teaching experience, I apologise if this is not the case).
I have no idea about the money situation. I can only share this:
On our trip to Seoul, Korea as a family last year, we found Koreans to be reasonably polite when dealing with you one on one, where the relationship is somewhat defined.
Where there is no clearly defined relationship, where we were strangers, we found Koreans to be the rudest people we’ve ever encountered. Many were aggressively rude. They made mainlanders look positively friendly and Taiwanese angelic by comparison.
Maybe it’s different in the countryside. Based on our experiences, we would go back to Seoul for a vacation, but we would never live there.
I disagree with this. If you live in the boondocks you need to use Chinese in your daily life and it would improve. You would need to find a good tutor or setup a skype or similar tutor for the basics though. I wouldn’t want to live in the boondocks because of the isolation though.
I almost moved to Korea last year but I found a good job at the last minute. The key to saving money in Taiwan is a) controlling expenses b) finding a 25+ hr/wk job instead of the more common 16-20 hr/wk jobs. In Korea almost every job seemed to be a 25-30 hr/wk contract position with better benefits. You can come close to matching that in Taiwan if you can match the # of hours.
I worked in Korea for one year and have worked in Taiwan for a little over a year now. As far as money goes, there is no comparison whatsoever. You can save much more in Korea mainly because the salaries are a good bit higher and the housing in paid for. Also, they pay for your flights as already mentioned.
However, the scenery and in general list of things to do in Taiwan IMO is much better. All of Korea pretty much looks exactly the same and it’s not a tropical climate. Though the weather is not that bad…much better than in Taipei. But overall, Taiwan is a much prettier country IMO.
As far as the people go, Koreans are definitely more rude to strangers and foreigners in general, but they are also more brutally honest and straight forward. So take it for what it’s worth…but they are a lot more racist and nationalistic than Taiwanese people and believe that Korea is literally the best at everything…whether it be food, healthcare or whatever you can think of. Other cultural differences, drinking…Koreans drink a lot more than Taiwanese people. It’s not uncommon to see drunk businessmen stumbling/falling down in the middle of the streets late afternoon or early evening. Big drinking culture there. Every restaurant sales rice wine, beer and their national liquor, soju. Here, it is not uncommon for restaurants or food outlets to not sale any beer or liquor.
As for the food, I like Korean food much better than Taiwanese food, but there is a much less variety of international food in Korea than compared to in Taiwan unless you are in Seoul.
Now for the women… both countries are good and full of great looking ones. Though, in my experience, it is easier to meet girls in Taipei than any part of Korea…just my 2 cents.
Also, in Korea, there is an abundance of jobs and you will likely work without a co-teacher unless you are at a public school. Personally, I prefer this…because Taiwanese co-teachers are just there to monitor you and make sure you follow their agenda. However, from what I hear, there are more shady Korean cram schools than in comparison to Taiwan who will try and cheat you…but as long as you research the school, it’s no problem because there are still a lot of good ones. Overall, my job in Korea was a lot more pleasant than any of my 2 jobs in Taiwan so far…especially my first job in Taiwan. In Korea, no one meddled in my business that much at work and let me do whatever I wanted to do in class as long as the kids appeared happy.
But like I said earlier, all of Korea looks the same and the people’s nationalistic views and attitudes can really wear you down. It’s not uncommon to be knocked out of the way by old women, or ajummas while waiting in line for the bus or standing in the MRT or anywhere walking that matter. Also, old people who don’t like foreigners will spit in front on your feet as you walk past them…it’s basically their way to flip you the bird. But like another guy said…one on one they are very friendly and helpful. Also, you get a lot more strangers in Korea who want to strike up random convos to practice their English or just to touch your arm hair…no joke.
So to sum it up…the jobs in Korea are much better, but the quality of life isn’t.
I was watching We Bought a Zoo this morning and I pressed the wrong button for the subtitles and got Korean. If I had lived in Korea I could have saved myself today’s heartache.
Great summary. And I agree 100%. 7 Years in Taiwan and 2 years in Korea.
Jobs are better - sometimes much better in Korea, but the quality of life sucks compared to Taiwan. However the money is much better.
True and not true as I mentioned above. IF you match the number of hours that you work in Korea (25-30) in Taiwan then you’ll actually make more in Taiwan. Korea will be a slightly better deal once housing and flights are figured in but it’s really not that much especially if you live outside Taipei.
The problem is that it is difficult to get jobs with 25+ hrs/wk in Taiwan whereas in Korea almost every job is a 25-30 hrs/wk. A newb should expect to land a job working 16-20 hrs/wk. That paycheck won’t even be close to what you could have made in Korea factoring in benefits.
I worked for more than 5 years in Taipei, and more than 3 years in Korea. IMO, Korea is a terrible place to work. You may think you are going to make more money there, but you can’t actually count on anything. It was very common to pay absolutely no attention to the contract in the city where I lived (Ulsan), so few people actually got their completing-the-contract bonus, sometimes the boss would take off the price of the ‘free’ flight from your last pay, lots of bosses didn’t pay on time, and so on. As well, most of the schools were fly-by-night establishments, heading quickly toward bankruptcy. Lots of people I knew (Korean and foreigner) didn’t get paid for the last month or three they worked because the place closed up or the boss ran off with whatever money there was. Every school in the city took taxes off our pay, but none of the bosses actually handed over this money to the gov’t.
On the plus side, you could make a lot of money teaching private lessons. On the minus side, the immigration authorities in Korea worked hard to catch people working illegally, and I knew people who were fined and deported for teaching privates.
I met one man who had to beat his boss up to get the money that was owed him - his boss had formerly owned a brothel, but found fleecing foreign teachers and Korean students to be more lucrative, I guess. I myself only got paid at one school after I punched my boss in the face (I’m a woman, BTW). Another boss I had would hire Korean teachers, not pay them, they would quit after three or four months, then he’d just hire new ones. I spent the whole time I worked there worried about whether I would get paid and what to do if I didn’t.
Plus do you want to learn Korean? If you really just want to learn Mandarin, come to Taiwan.
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