Perhaps too little barley candy and too much John Barleycorn?
The gestalt I see: realization that you married a family and not just your wife, and the family is abnormally dysfunctional. You have changed, not Taiwan. IOW, whatever brought you here (Mandarin?) has become subordinate, so revisit your impetus. If you married a local (which I suspect, given your progress in oral Mandarin), your language skills have now gone on afterburner, and you can get a long term visa. You can start a business based on your experience and degree. You could even start your own language school. You don’t have to be anyone’s monkey now.
Great words of wisdom. I am happy that I finally left Taiwan. Taiwan is a safe country and people are generally friendly but unless you create your own job in Taiwan, working life in Taiwan blows in my opinion.
Indeed.
One would think that someone near the top of their class would have figured that out already. But perhaps they were just a clone on that score.[/quote]
Most people that finish at the top of their class are not really that bright. Some will come into their own later in life but earning money in the real world and repeating some rhetoric to get a first mark are two totally different things.
Your life is not turning to shit.
You just had one bad day.
We all have them from time to time.
Hope you’re feeling better today.
Today is Sunday, and the weather is cool, so go up to Baolai or somewhere around there and spend the day relaxing with your partner in the peace and quite of a hot spring.
You’ll be so glad you did.
Remember most of Taiwan is very beautiful, not like what you see from the train window between Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Living with your in-laws sounds like a bad idea.
Go to rent.sinyi.com.tw/ and find a nice place of your own.
As far as teaching English is concerned …
Demo classes are not part of your normal routine, so don’t worry too much about it.
Teaching your regular students is alway going to be much easier.
Find another way to teach animal vocabulary if you’re not comfortable doing the sound immitations.
Get out of contracted teaching.
Discuss with your partner what you would like to be doing in, say, 5 years time, and figure out a way to get there.
Hope “there” can be “here”.
Just my 2 cents. 
Good luck
You aren’t a monkey. You’re teaching small children something…and if you do it the right way, you may even take some time to teach a kid to tie his shoes for the first time… watch them freak out when blue and red paint turn into purple. Something a parent is supposed to do, but they are so busy here. Like it or not, you play an important part in your student’s life. On really hard days, I try to think back to my own childhood and how chill it was in comparison to what the kids have to endure here…and see what I can do to make them smile.
A lot of expats get offended here when people talk in front of them in Chinese. The cheek of the people here to do that. Can’t they see we are foreigners and switch to English ffs. Why should we ( many of us who have lived here for many years and refuse to learn anything more than rudimentary Chinese ) have to listen to people speak across from in front of us in Chinese when they should be doing it in English… Instead of playing the monkey the OP could swtich to playing the dead cockroach. OP can make himself better by talking about the locals in English.
Last time I behaved like that the MP’s were called and I spent months in a ward with some very unusual people. I wasn’t sure what shots and pills they gave me but the little children still seem to run away in terror when I practiced imitating animals.
Now the best things about living in Taiwan are the fact that there are so many temples one can go to to pray to the various gods. You can even make your own up as well. Then there are the foot massages that help you get into a blissful state. Plus there are really so many good eateries and the food here is cheap and delicious. Sometimes I try to imitate the locals instead of that elusive monkey I’ve only seen on animal planet.
Stop moaning and be glad you have a wife, food in your stomach and a roof over your head. People here are willing to pay you to jump around like a monkey and you are willing to take the work so stop you bleating and be grateful for what you have. Many people dream about your situation. Be grateful that you are healthy, married and have WORK.
I agree!
But there is an issue with his salary, still.
If I understand this correctly, your hourly wage is 300NT$. Some people are ripping you off.
First of all you have a JFRV and therefore can work anywhere you like.
You should not be a monkey for less than 600NT$ per hour.
In case I misunderstood you and you got 600 + 300 NT$ an hour, 900 pays for more bow-wows and oink-oinks.
Stop looking at your boss while teaching, he is not important at all while doing your job. If you look at him for reassurance he’ll lose respect that’s pretty sure.
Just focus on the kids and smile at the parents. And get paid properly.
He got paid whatever he agreed too. Go tell the Chinese teachers who often do more work for less money they should be getting NT$600 an hour to monkey around.
Ok then, he agreed to get ripped off and lives an unhappy life.
Stop agreeing to getting ripped off!
He didnt agree to being ripped off. He doesnt claim to have been ripped off. Who cares is he is unhappy on NT$300 an hour? Not I and certainly not you hamletintaiwan. We all get paid different rates. It’s our contractual negoations skills what we are paid. I’ve got my 401 covered, my housing and allowances and some other tax free benefits. I still think I deserve more but my US employer doesn’t agree.
I felt the same as you when I was in Taiwan 3 years ago. I used the exact same word to describe myself (a jumping monkey)
So I went back home to Canada, and while I get paid more in my original trained field of work, at the end of the day I get paid about the same amount due to high Canadian taxes, and I still feel like the jumping monkey in my job.
At the very least, in Taiwan, after a day of jumping around, I can go mountain climbing, hiking, hot springs, etc to unwind. What exactly would I do in Toronto? Walk downtown and spend money?
All in all, unless you are your own boss, all you will ever be is a monkey, generally speaking. 
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I’ll ask a psychic what I did wrong in my past life. :ohreally:
Good thread. I like the mix of new 'mosans and old 'mosans.
so so true…cept… some of us are APES 
Hahaha. We all go through days like that, OP. Thing is, in SA I woke up almost everyday wondering, “WTF did my grandfather move from England to this godforsaken continent? Couldn’t he have gone to Australia or something?”
It’s all relative and perspective. Personally, I think I came out well moving to Taiwan.
I used to have to do demo lessons for free. The point is that if you do a good demo then the kids sign up and you get a class to teach. And what is wrong with teaching little kids about the wonders of life? I still fondly remember those classes. The kids don’t ask dumb questions, they just want to play games and sing songs. What better way to put some coins in your pocket? Better than hours trying to explain to adults that they need to stop fretting and start producing. You can’t shut the young 'uns up bless 'em. And one day you’ll have your own kids and teaching them songs and playing games will not only be unpaid, it will be a joy. Think of this as practice and ignore the fact that you feel ashamed in front of adults who you don’t know. Besides, you could be in an office in the UK right now getting a bollocking for not filling in the correct form in the correct coloured pen.
ok. I want to apologize for my post. I totally get it. The only way I got into the ‘oooh, but I’m playing such an important part in their lives’ mode was propably trying to pull myself together before a class. And when you have days like those, sometimes you just need a ‘I hear you’ response.
“I hear ya.”
Nothing wrong with your post though, as far as I can tell. :eh:
If you couldn’t think of going through these stages you don’t deserve to be anywhere if you ask me.
I am going to move to Taiwan in March, and I am already weighing out good and bad. Me being Japanese and growing up in Japan til 10 I am not worried about most of things though. I also look just like a local so I guess it won’t be as obvious about me being wei guo ren.
I understand about having a bad day, we all do! In the end when the bad is over coming all the good, then it is time to do something! I am doing just that. I am at a dead end corporate bitch job and before my son gets too old I need to make a move. I’ve been bitching for far too long and I decided not to be a loser and make actual action.
Maybe you can do the same, and weigh out good and bad. Take your time and if you see more bad in Taiwan you can move back. Like many said, year is nothing and you still have options. Good luck there…
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