[quote=“dzhefri”]I was in Taiwan for 3 years, up till last summer, teaching English. I enjoyed it (both my job as well as Taiwan itself) a lot, but I realized that if I were to stay there much longer, I’m going to be in a position where teaching English is pretty much what I’ll have to be doing for the rest of my life. That scared me, so I decided to pack up and move back to the US for grad school, which is what I’m doing now. I was very happy to be back in the states for about 2 or 3 months – right when I was ready to fly across the country to where the university I’m attending is – and then it hit me how badly I missed Taiwan. But I decided I had already filled out all the application forms, gotten letters of reccommendation, taken the GRE, been accepted to grad school, quit my job, flown back to the US, etc., so I shouldn’t just move back to Taiwan like that! So I decided to go to grad school anyhow, thinking maybe these feelings would just go away. They did, for a while; I guess the novelty of moving across the US to a new city distracted me for a while, but sure enough, they came again and again. So now that I’m only a few months away from finishing my master’s degree, after which I would be able to get a decent job writing software, I’m very seriously thinking about heading straight back to Taiwan and teaching English again, but this time permanently.
So I guess what I’m asking everybody is, is it that bad to be sucked back in to Taiwan? Have any of you consciously decided that it’s okay if you get yourself into a position where you can’t easily find a job back where you came from? Will I regret it if I move back? Am I ‘thinking too much’? If I don’t move back, am I going to spend the rest of my life reading Forumosa instead of doing my schoolwork? Will I regret it?[/quote]
Sounds very similar to my current situation (except that you’re in the US, I’m in South Africa). I’m also currently doing my master’s degree, after leaving Taiwan last year after 2 and a half years there, and will hopefully be finished at the end of this year. I’m terribly bored here, despite the clean air, good food (kinda… I’m missing some Taiwanese food surprisingly enough for me), beautiful surroundings (both natural and the fantastic Victorian architecture) and lots of open space. Yeah, it’s a great place to retire… but I’m only 24 (going on 25…), and this place lacks the energy and pace of life in Taiwan. And half of my friends have gone overseas anyway, and the remaining few are also planning to leave ASAP, lest they become like many of my school-and-university-mates who are getting married and paying off houses, cars, etc etc. I don’t want to sink into a rut here.
Taiwan is definitely calling again. Like this poster said, as each year goes by I worry a bit more about starting a “career”… although in all honesty, there aren’t too many “careers” open to me considering that my master’s is in English Literature, with the exception of joining the university as a junior lecturer in the English Department, which would essentially mean settling down here… and getting a doctorate asap, I guess. I would like to do a doctorate at some stage, but not now.
Oh yeah, and the fact that the cost of living is geting higher and higher here, whilst salaries are not that great also makes Taiwan seem like a far more attractive option, at least for a few years while I’m still in my 20s. At least I could save some cash there. Here, it’d all be going into rent and petrol with a bit left over for food and boozing.
Returning to Taiwan next year seems like a better and better prospect the more I think about it…