Coming in May, need help with plan

But didnt I hear that the lingua franca down there is really Taiwanese and Aborigini pas mandarin?

Mandarin number 1, Taiwanese 2, Other Taiwanese languages 3-7.

So there are not a lot of bushibans down there?

I went for a visit, and thought it was a great area to live, if one could find work.
But from the sounds of it (people saying it takes months of waiting to find an opening), there probably is only 1 or 2 schools, and only in the downtown areas. Would that be a correct assumption?

I’m not sure exactly how many there are, but there is a very limited number of visa jobs.

There’s also bit work here and there, small unlicensed buxibans or kindergartens, all offering a few hours a week, usually all at the same time.

The only job in town with good hours, good support and materials, guaranteed regular hours and a steady decent salary is Hess. There are no vacancies there right now, and there’s high demand from within the Hess system anyway, ie teachers already working at Hess in Taipei or whoever who want to transfer to Taidong or Hualien.

The only teachers outside Hess who have a good gig going have spent years working hard and building a reputation and networking.

There are other teachers here working a few hours at one place, a few at another. Most are happy not working much, as they want to go surfing or do pottery or something different anyway, but you need a visa job to have that kind of lifestyle. Many of them leave eventually due to not enough work.

You can come and give it a try. shrug Everyone who is in Taidong did so - unless they came through the Hess internal system. But you really need to get one of those elusive visa jobs to have a viable chance. If you get one, you can hustle and try to get more work to make ends meet; or spend your time surfing, but if you can’t get one immediately, as other people have said, you could be waiting 6 months to a year for one to come up.

Hmm well damn… I wonder where I read that about there being 4 universities…

there probably is, one is a leisure and tourism uni, i think another is nursing, I guess the other two are also service based

and err why is the choice only between thailand and taiwan

ever thought of medan in sumatra? That’s right next to my favorite place in asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba

Yeah?

And how many other towns with a population of 100,000 have four universities?

:laughing: :laughing:

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I am just going to scratch me head.

[quote=“itakitez”]

ever thought of medan in sumatra? That’s right next to my favorite place in asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba[/quote]

Yeah. Not forgetting jobs/life in Malaysia and Brunei. If you don’t like nightclubs Strider, prefer the countryside and the ocean and want good fuss-free pay and conditions, Brunei is the place, imho. Check out http://brunei.cfbt.org/bn/. Nice clean air, no earthquakes or typhoons, little traffic, good Chinese restaurants. But there is no booze, except in one’s home. You can learn Mandarin there if you want, but you don’t need to. You will also pick up some Hokkien, and Malay, and if you like a challenge, Fuzhou, a 7 tone conjugative language or dialect, all by private tuition. For more info on Brunei generally, have a look at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bx.html. It is a small rich country, and the per capita GDP (PPP), according to the ref., is about 65% higher than Taiwan’s and there is not much to spend it on, so you can save more, or you can fly to Singapore, Hong Kong, KL, Bangkok or Kaohsiung at the weekend, when the mood takes you. If not to your taste, there is always Malaysia, but you can spend a good proportion of the day in traffic there. Of course, Taiwan can be more interesting and diverse, and the weather is better in winter. Good luck.