Anyone recently move to Taiwan

Okay, I have read tons of posts on here and I’m still a little anxious about moving to Taiwan. Rather than ask a few questions which i have seen answered over and over again on the forums, i’d like to ask if there’s anyone who has moved to Taiwan recently with advice for those who are going to move in the future. Is there anything unexpected that you ran into? What was the biggest shock? I read these forums a bunch and I’ve read most of the sticky’s. But some of them are pretty old and I’ve seen posts from 2001. I get the impression things have changed a lot since then.

Just jump right in… the waters warm… you can feel your way as you go.

Taiwans an experience…start yours NOW>

and shaddup already :slight_smile:

W.A.R.N.I.N.G. Living in TAiwan can become addicting and can be life changing. You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave…hehehehehe…


[color=blue]
Where in Broody Hell ah you?
[/color]

Be prepared that your first months here may suck. Work may be rubbish and not what you expect, getting a new social group is hardwork unless you’re really out going, your first accomodation maybe less than you expect.

Stick it out, for most of here it turned out better eventually

You don’t say quite a lot like: what you’ll be doing, where you’ll be living etc You’ll get better advice if you give more information.

Good luck

I’ve been here two days. My main gripe- Lack of A/C where I’m living (of course I picked the hot-as-balls month to move). That will be remedying itself shortly, though. Secondary gripe- How hard it is to order food. The answer to that is a little harder, but I gotta do it to survive, so I’ll figure something out.

I’m also pretty lonely, but I have a job lined up to start sometime early next month, so I can meet people then. Also, I’m cultivating contacts online and planning to fill my schedule with LE when my living situation becomes more settled. All in all, you should be fine. I was adept at researching what will happen when I got here, and I was able to pinpoint unexpected obstacles soon after I arrived. You should be able to do the same.

Ha. You think so?

[quote=“tommy525”]Just jump right in… the waters warm… you can feel your way as you go.

Taiwans an experience…start yours NOW>[/quote]

I agree.

I have been here around a month and I think my only downfall so far was spending too much time on this site learning about living and teaching in Taiwan before I got here. It can kind of ruin the pleasant surprises and make it less of an adventure. It sounds like you have prepared enough and just need to close your eyes, hold your breath, and jump in!

Good luck to you.

I got here in November. Until two weeks before I arrived, I thought I was going to Japan. So all I really knew was that people in Taiwan speak Chinese, and that you can get cheap tofu at night markets. No knowledge? No problem!
I used an agent to line up job interviews for me. The agency was called John Dewey Institute or somesuch. I got a job in my first week, and my coworkers helped me find an apartment. I guess you should be aware that you may have to pay two-month’s rent as a deposit. So it could be three-month’s rent upfront. You should also be prepared to spend a chunk of change on getting your ARC. You’ll need to pay all kinds of fees, plus get passport photos and a medical exam.
Also, stay in a hostel. I stayed in a hostel for my first month, and I had a few friends. Now I have none. :frowning: No hostel, no friends.

Did you think that Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial control? Who finally clued you in two weeks before you arrived? Was it Forumosa.com? :laughing:

Did you think that Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial control? Who finally clued you in two weeks before you arrived? Was it Forumosa.com? :laughing:[/quote]
heh, something like that. actually, I was what some refer to as a “Nova refugee.” lousy bankruptcy…

Did you think that Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial control? Who finally clued you in two weeks before you arrived? Was it Forumosa.com? :laughing:[/quote]
heh, something like that. actually, I was what some refer to as a “Nova refugee.” lousy bankruptcy…[/quote]

So you planned to go to Japan, but decided to go to Taiwan? Can you tell us why exactly - is it because there are numerous teachers looking for a limited number of jobs?

:grandpa:

[quote=“pud”]
Also, stay in a hostel. I stayed in a hostel for my first month, and I had a few friends. Now I have none. :frowning: No hostel, no friends.[/quote]
Take a Chinese class. There’s a high chance that you’ll meet lots of English speakers with Taiwanese roots who can ease you into the social scene. You’ll have a network of friends in no time.

Did you think that Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial control? Who finally clued you in two weeks before you arrived? Was it Forumosa.com? :laughing:[/quote]
heh, something like that. actually, I was what some refer to as a “Nova refugee.” lousy bankruptcy…[/quote]

So you planned to go to Japan, but decided to go to Taiwan? Can you tell us why exactly - is it because there are numerous teachers looking for a limited number of jobs?[/quote]

pud referred to Nova, a Japanese school chain that filed for bankruptcy a few months back:
search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ … 026z1.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_%28En … company%29

Did you think that Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial control? Who finally clued you in two weeks before you arrived? Was it Forumosa.com? :laughing:[/quote]
heh, something like that. actually, I was what some refer to as a “Nova refugee.” lousy bankruptcy…[/quote]

So you planned to go to Japan, but decided to go to Taiwan? Can you tell us why exactly - is it because there are numerous teachers looking for a limited number of jobs?[/quote]

pud referred to Nova, a Japanese school chain that filed for bankruptcy a few months back:
search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ … 026z1.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_%28En … company%29[/quote]

Thanks for the info, but I already know about NOVA going under. What I wanted to know was Pud’s story.

Pud: Did you used to work for NOVA and you were on vacation when they went bankrupt? Or were you hired by them overseas and then you found out they went belly-up just before you planned to leave for Japan???

[quote]
Pud: Did you used to work for NOVA and you were on vacation when they went bankrupt? Or were you hired by them overseas and then you found out they went belly-up just before you planned to leave for Japan???[/quote]
I was interviewed and hired in Canada. A few weeks before I was supposed to leave, Nova told me that the situation was so bad that they couldn’t provide housing anymore. I knew I couldn’t just show up in Osaka anyway, since all of the ex-Nova teachers would be flooding the market. I had already left my job and given up my apartment, so I bought a ticket to Taiwan.

Limited number of jobs? Seems to me like any Freddie or Frannie Frontier can become a teacher. I’m saving more money than I would have in Japan too.

[quote=“pud”][quote]
Pud: Did you used to work for NOVA and you were on vacation when they went bankrupt? Or were you hired by them overseas and then you found out they went belly-up just before you planned to leave for Japan???[/quote]
I was interviewed and hired in Canada. A few weeks before I was supposed to leave, Nova told me that the situation was so bad that they couldn’t provide housing anymore. I knew I couldn’t just show up in Osaka anyway, since all of the ex-Nova teachers would be flooding the market. I had already left my job and given up my apartment, so I bought a ticket to Taiwan.

Limited number of jobs? Seems to me like any Freddie or Frannie Frontier can become a teacher. I’m saving more money than I would have in Japan too.[/quote]

Good thing you didn’t arrive in Japan a few weeks earlier!

[quote=“pud”][quote]
Pud: Did you used to work for NOVA and you were on vacation when they went bankrupt? Or were you hired by them overseas and then you found out they went belly-up just before you planned to leave for Japan???[/quote]
I was interviewed and hired in Canada. A few weeks before I was supposed to leave, Nova told me that the situation was so bad that they couldn’t provide housing anymore. I knew I couldn’t just show up in Osaka anyway, since all of the ex-Nova teachers would be flooding the market. I had already left my job and given up my apartment, so I bought a ticket to Taiwan.

Limited number of jobs? Seems to me like any Freddie or Frannie Frontier can become a teacher. I’m saving more money than I would have in Japan too.[/quote]

Now I’m confused :s (see the seemingly conflicting sentences in bold above).

Top sentence re: Japan being flooded with unemployed teachers. Second sentence re: Taiwan opportunities.

Oh, Above I was refering to the limited number of jobs in Japan not Taiwan.