Wow wow wow, this is a REALLY interesting thread.
OP:
Listen to the people here (inbetween everyone dealing with this ninman person), they know what theyre talking about. There might not be any perks to working at a university here, the system is very different. However, Taiwan is an excellent place to go if you are…inbetween solid arrangements persay. Many people come here and make their lives here, some people come here for only a little while. I personally feel that Taiwan is an incredibly wonderful place to maybe spend a couple years (at least) if you have the time. Living here is easy in many, many ways, you can make enough money to live…maybe not be some rockstar, but you can live here, eat, all that for relatively inexpensively. Its not free, its not AMAZINGLY cheap, but its doable. I dont know about your home country, but things like health insurance and even food costs back in my home country are so cost prohibitive that spending a year inbetween jobs/degrees would be downright miserable. Here, I’m learning something, were making enough to make it, and we’re able to experience something that we would never have been able to otherwise.
The culture here is rich, the people are pretty neat (its not a magical wonderland or anything, shit happens) but, its a good place. If youre interested and youre unemployed, I would seriously consider…what do you want out of the next year or so? If you want to get into a faculty position or something somewhere and make good money and do great, maybe Taiwan isnt it for you, you have to figure that out. But if you want to come over, maybe work at a university and chill out, or say you wanna just teach English (the popular choice, though definitely if you went that route, I’d learn from the people here, its not that simple) you can give yourself some time to DO something.
Honestly, I might only be here for a year or so, but when I go back, I’ll have a little saved up, if not that, we will have at least broke even. If you can make a decision for you and get into a situation where you can go out and do something that interests you very much with very little overhead, hey, I would look into it.
This may or may not be the same for everyone here or you, I am just telling you what my experience has been, but my way is one way to look at it you could say! Everyone else here has WAY MORE Taiwan experience, so I am no person to really talk to about that, but hey, I made the decision to come here, and this is how we’re doing it. From one newb to the other, its not a bad gig here 
You just gotta decide, do you wanna pursue career, or kinda pursue career and do something neat/random, or just say, hey, f*** it, I’m gonna go do something different for a while!
[quote=“ninman”][quote=“Mucha Man”][quote=“ninman”]It’s important to remember, this is Taiwan, not China, and Taiwanese culture really is completely different from Chinese culture in so many ways. For example, nobody spits in the street in Taiwan, people are much friendlier and much more polite than Chinese people. The streets are cleaner, and it’s just a nicer environment to be in. Remember what my friend tells me every day “we look like Chinese people, but we are not Chinese”. While it’s really very hard to find any stores that sell anything Chinese, (trust me, I looked, and I had a local from 台中 helping me), I wouldn’t recommend you go to China at all. China has far bigger problems than Taiwan.
The night markets here are great, if not a little crazy, and the food is so much better than in China. If you want to eat in China you really have to lower your standards of personal hygiene considerably. Here the stalls are relatively clean, and it’s still not altogether expensive. As I’ve said, if you walk down any street in China you will find tea shops, chopstick shops, buddhist style jewellery, and loads of stuff that is “Chinese”, here you just don’t, and I’ve looked, really, really hard. There isn’t a place like 豫园 in 台中, at least not that I’m aware of. Yes I know exactly what I’m talking about, despite what some 笨蛋 here will tell you.[/quote]
No you don’t know what you are taking about. You’re an ignorant newbie who’s been exploring for a whole two weeks one of the culturally dead cities in Taiwan and is now trying to argue with people who have loads of experience both in Taiwan and China what it’s all really about. 
And will you stop writing in characters. Some of us can read but many cannot and it is grossly rude to use script on a foreign chat site.[/quote]
Thanks for backing me up. Yes I know exactly what I’m talking about, 笨蛋。[/quote]
Oh man, arent you the witty one. I wouldnt mess with MuchaMan, seriously. This guy knows his shit. And dissing someone in Chinese? Come on.
Taiwan’s culture is incredibly rich. Do you expect every single town in Taiwan to be dripping with culture? Lol, if you experienced culture in every city in China, then youre freakin’ out of your mind you havent been there, stop lying to us. Not every city in every country is a bastion of culture. Surely you know this, surely you are aware of this. Yeah sure, you may feel that MM “backed you up” by saying “youre right”…well, good for you, you live in a culturally dead city. Where we are finding you at fault is you actually telling someone to not come here because “There is no Chinese culture”. I walk down the street every day and I pass by tea shops, calligraphy supply shops, art shops selling scrolls, jade shops, little neighborhood temples, restaurants, yes, there are a bunch of people practicing taiji down the street from me every day. I’m sorry you live in a crappy area, but hey, you have to travel to see stuff. What do you think, ALL of Taiwan is fuckin’ disneyland? This is a country, people have to live here, work here…I dont get what you are expecting. You have been here two weeks, your friend is telling you shes not Chinese…wow, I am not surprised. DUH, shes NOT Chinese. You would have to spend some time learning and living here to understand that. Its such a complex topic, you have absolutely no idea what youre talking about. Even the words Chinese, Taiwanese, ROC, Mainland…all of that is a whole shitstorm of stuff that no foreigner can understand after two weeks here. I am at least smart enough to have some idea, but moreso, know that I really have to spend some time with this country to ever really understand the dynamic of “what is Chinese” and “Taiwan” and “PRC”. Thats not just something someone, even a native, tells you in a simple sentence. Its called “culture goggles”. Thats only a fraction of it.
. Many Taiwanese want western fashion and western goods. The same could be said about your average girl in Shanghai.
