There were actually 8,226,225 people born in Asia living in the U.S. according to the census in 2000. A report for 2003 gives the Asian foreign-born population as 25% of 33.5 million, which comes to 8.375 million. Obviously, it’s the foreign-born who count linguistically in this discussion–if you were born in the U.S. then English is your first language, which means you are generally not part of the linguistic pool one would want to splash into when studying a different language.
The number of people who become proficient in a foreign language without having spent any time in the country where the foreign language of choice is spoken as a native language are few and far between. Sure, you could live in Toronto if you wanted to study Chinese. New York, San Francisco and Vancouver have large Chinese populations as well. But c’mon…that’s no substitute for living in Taiwan or China.
For a smooth transistion, one of these three things must happen:
Know somebody who can hook you up with some kind of job; ESL teaching is a black hole in your resume.
Be incredibly lucky: I got a job writing for a porno mag when I went back to NYC, but that was 3 months after languishing in Barns & Noble for $7 per hour.
Grad school.
One of these 3 has to materialize, or else you’ll be checking flight prices back to Taiwan
Not really. 35k a year. In NYC, that’s squat. I did it for a year, now I’m back in Taiwan. I did make extra money selling the videos that I reviewed to smut dealers down on Canal Street, though.
[quote=“wispy swiller”]For a smooth transistion, one of these three things must happen:
Know somebody who can hook you up with some kind of job; ESL teaching is a black hole in your resume.
Be incredibly lucky: I got a job writing for a porno mag when I went back to NYC, but that was 3 months after languishing in Barns & Noble for $7 per hour.
Grad school.
One of these 3 has to materialize, or else you’ll be checking flight prices back to Taiwan[/quote]
I have been home for some time now and still have very fond memories of my stay in Taiwan. Oh, to relive those carefree days of studying Chinese and earning some quick cash on the side doing odd cram school jobs…
For some reason I still have this illusion that “when all else fails, I will head back to Taiwan”. This is not a realistic option, of course, since in my field (Biotech stuff) once you’re out for a year or two, you’re out for good.
Still, Germany is not as much my home now as it used to be. Some part of me hasn’t left Taiwan.
