How long are you here for?

What’s your plan? Some planned to stay here for a few months, and have been here for a few years. Others call it home. How long do you plan to stay in Taiwan for, including how long you’ve been here for. Me, 4 years coming up with the possibility of another 3 at least. By that time, the great Aussie dream will be more than dreamable.

what’s that ?

what’s that ?[/quote]
A ranch in the middle of the outback, a 500 gallon beer tank, and a herd of cute ewes. :stuck_out_tongue:

As far as I can tell, my stay is going to be indefinite. Assuming I can ever get my *#&$ing Seattle house sold.

This is a serious question and I am not being trying to be facetious …

I am posing this to foreign Enlgish teachers in particular. Lets say you spend 4-5+ yrs in Taiwan and manage to save enough $$ for the ‘dream’ in your home country… what happens once you go home? You have many years out of your home country work force and unless you are a professional teacher, what real chance of getting a job back home exists?

As I said, I am not trying to start a shit fight, I am genuinely interested in what plans long term English teachers have? The cash in Taiwan for an English teachers seems resonable enough (I dont really know exact numbers tho) for a local wage?

I’m not an English teacher and I won’t be arriving in Taiwan til November, but, I will be staying at least 2 years. Maybe more.

[quote=“AWOL”]This is a serious question and I am not being trying to be facetious …

I am posing this to foreign Enlgish teachers in particular. Lets say you spend 4-5+ yrs in Taiwan and manage to save enough $$ for the ‘dream’ in your home country… what happens once you go home? You have many years out of your home country work force and unless you are a professional teacher, what real chance of getting a job back home exists?

As I said, I am not trying to start a shit fight, I am genuinely interested in what plans long term English teachers have? The cash in Taiwan for an English teachers seems resonable enough (I dont really know exact numbers tho) for a local wage?[/quote]
I wish I knew.

Maybe it’s just the Seattle economy; it’s been swapping places with Oregon and Alaska for the last 2-3 years as “the state with the worst unemployment in the U.S.” (although there are isolated pockets in other states which are worse). I don’t have a clue of what to do in the U.S. any more, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.

Miltown was asking about being an actuary in another thread; I PMed him to mention my theory that there will be no jobs in the U.S. outside of the personal-services industries in another decade. Software has gone to India. Accounting is starting to move over there as well. The larger multinationals have been moving their engineering departments overseas for some time now – Boeing was planning on doing its “Sonic Cruiser” in Russia; GM has its “twenty-four hour engineering” scam which is moving its engineering work to India. Actuarial work seems like an excellent candidate for “offshoring” – purely numbers-based, high pay, few people; send some Nepalese prodigy a laptop with a modem and let him crunch numbers for five dollars a day (that’s a fantastic wage in the Himalayas! and he won’t have to risk death by hauling oxygen up Everest for some tourist climber).

Nursing requires hands-on work for the most part, but the U.S. government has declared it an occupation for which there exists a “critical shortage” of workers – meaning that soon every Indian, Indonesian, and Malaysian who has ever heard of the term “intravenous” will be granted an H1-B visa to come to the U.S. and take over a job at low pay.

I wouldn’t be moving to Taiwan if I didn’t have some interest in the people and the country (one of my mother’s coworkers taught me to use chopsticks when I was six, and it’s all gone forward from there), but at this point I’m more interested in surviving the immediate future than I am in “where will you be five years from now”.

Sorry, my query may have been a little fuzzy…

What I mean is - lets say you are from the US and have a degree in economics. You then decide to live life abroad and end up in Taiwan teaching English for whatever reason. 5+ years later with $$ in hand and keen to head home to live the ‘dream’ you move back to the US. 5+ yrs out of the workforce and with no relevant experience what do you do? Where can you work? Your degree is worthless basically. Again I am not trying to start a brawl just curious.

As I said, professional teachers are different.

A ranch??? I think your’e confusing Australia with Texas. It’s a station mate. a station.

Brian

Been here 5 months, having a good time so far. I plan on being here a year and 1/2, 2 years at the most. Once the novelty wears off I’ll head off to another adventure in another foreign land.

I’ve been here a year and a half. I hated the first 9 months here, turned down the opportunity to extend the contract for a further year, have loved the last 9 months, and now really don’t want to leave (next month), but such is life… :frowning:

I’ve been here for just over a year now. It sure hasn’t been easy.
The English teaching is starting to suck big time. I would really love to do something else, but I don’t know what.

I planned on staying here for at least 5 to 7 years, but I think I’ll go insane by then.

The money side of Taiwan is ok, but not as good as I had first hoped.

there’s a lot of 'but’s there I know… but…but… I don’t know
What else can I do? I plan on doing a Chinese course (a light one, if possible), and then I’ll see where my job aspects go from there.

It’s not that I hate teaching English, it’s fun most of the time. But (yeah another but)… but I don’t really enjoy it. My true love was retail :?
Fast V8 cars, computers and generally mucking around <-- those were the times, but you have to grow up some time.

I planned to stay for two years at most when I first came, have stayed for more than 17 already, am well content with my life here, and it’s quite likely I’ll never leave.

[quote=“AWOL”]This is a serious question and I am not being trying to be facetious …

I am posing this to foreign Enlgish teachers in particular. Lets say you spend 4-5+ yrs in Taiwan and manage to save enough $$ for the ‘dream’ in your home country… what happens once you go home? You have many years out of your home country work force and unless you are a professional teacher, what real chance of getting a job back home exists?

As I said, I am not trying to start a shit fight, I am genuinely interested in what plans long term English teachers have? The cash in Taiwan for an English teachers seems resonable enough (I dont really know exact numbers tho) for a local wage?[/quote]

Ok, I have jumped over from teaching to management and a little teaching. I have been spending time developing skills such as website design, staff training, recruitment, fluency in Mandarin, course management and design, and business expansion in the development of new schools. These I believe are skills that translate into experience in any country. I am not one of those “teachers” that see their time in Taiwan as a long holiday. Spend five years in Taiwan as a holiday style teacher and you have lost the plot.

Experience is experience in my book, no matter where you got it. Sure, some employers will look down on you because they think you have been wasting years in Taiwan, but I have been gathering experience that can be proven and would be useful in any country. I am sure that any intelligent employer could see what I have really been doing if I present it well.

I could always get into ESL in New Zealand, I hope on the management side of things and not teaching, as this would be ideal for me. Otherwise it’s into real estate I go. That is assuming that I ever leave.

You can always get a job back home as long as you can show that you haven’t been playing for 5 years.

I originally wanted to spend six months here. I have been here since March 1999 - more than six months as you can see. I used to be in Production Management (it sucks) and I am glad that I made the move here.

I came for a week. Left after a week. Came back for a month, stayed too long. Plan to come back as soon as I make a killing on the world stock market. Plan to retire in Geofen and watch the sunsets alight on Chinaman’s Hat. Those of you who are still there, keep the faith. The best is yet to come.

total time spent in Taiwan = ?

Well said, Omni…

I feel much the same way. I enjoy what I do, make enough money to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. Get to see some of the world, have one whole room just for gaming, Aikido class Sat. night, kids are getting a first rate education, etc… I feel both blessed and lucky. I don’t really desire anything more. And most importantly, life in Taiwan is always interesting. I never have a boring day.

My original plans back in 2001 were to be in Taiwan for two years and then head off for Europe…now that I am in London I realize that I should have been more specific, especially since I have already signed my contract for a third year at my school…I wanted to live in Taiwan and then move to Europe. Sigh…I’m shooting for being out of Taiwan before the end of the decade although even that is looking a little fuzzy. When it comes down to it, I think the only thing that would keep me in Taiwan for more than the next year or so is finding a husband or a huge pay raise. Other than that, I think that perhaps this school year maybe my last.
As for what I will do after being out of the US for the last two years? Well, seeing as I don’t plan on returning to the US on a permanent basis for at least another three to seven years, and that I am a professional English teacher, I suspect that I will spend time working on teacher certification so that I can teach ESL or French in public schools when and if I return to the US.

I’m Vancouver bound on July 31st. I’ve only been here for a year and a half, and had planned on being here much longer, but…life happens :slight_smile: .

I like it here, and could see myself coming back. From what I gather, many do. But at the moment, I’m looking forward to going home and getting on with things. Now with the Olympics coming to my town in a few years, it could be a fun (and strategic) time to be West Coastin’-it in Canada!

A bittersweet goodbye it shall be.

I have a friend who spent a few years in Japan, and on her return to the USA was promptly hired by a major shoe manufacturer because they thought she ‘understood’ Asia. A few months later they sent her ‘back’ - to Korea! - in a management capacity at an outrageous salary. On her return to the US a few more years later she was a unique, indispensable part of the team and her career really took off.

She plans to retire at 40 and is almost there.

On the other hand, who needs a job? If you have $s, experience that’s worth anything, and any get-up-and-go at all you are in a position to capitalize on your unique qualities by working for yourself.

For instance, I teach in a variety of jobs these days - which makes me effectively a freelance teacher. As well as kids I also teach adults in a business environment. That kind of work is not hard to come by here, and, depending on the level, can easily position you to learn about how people do business here. (And make connections.)

Fast forward a few years and see yourself in NY, London, Paris (Imani) or wherever, consulting to companies wanting to do business in China. Or being a part of some or other venture selling something to the chinese, bringing students to your country, sourcing goods for your own market etc.

It’s all down to how you have used your time here. Go ‘home’ with a hangover and an inflated opinion of your own sexual irresistibility and you’re going to struggle. Move on with language skills and useful experience and the world is your lobster.

OK this topic has sort of gone off into what is the value of being in Taiwan and of what you do in Taiwan. In another way I am not too sure how you measure what you gain from what you do, and even if you can measure this, what does this measurement mean to an employer somewhere else in the world

I have always been of the opinion that by the fact you live in Taiwan whether it be in English teaching or other work that some things will stand to you in the long run:

  1. Ability to speak Chinese and familariaity to communicate with Chinese people
    OK my Chinese has gone down hill in my new job and I am losing it but I plan to go back to class. I am beginning to notice that I am missing out in a real oppurtunity here in not leaning Chinese, that will stand to me in teh future for my carreer.

  2. Exposure to different people
    Ther are alot of foreginers living in Taiwan of varied nationalities. I think by the fact you are in Taiwan, you get the oppurtnunity to meet different people

  3. Job Skills

I am not too sure of how much experince in the job sense people get here. Some people teach as a means to make money.
Some people teach to develop their career
Some people work in industry and so get an insight into how tings work here
I am a little slow to believe that here you can learn more from your employers or through training. You just apply what you know already, else make it up as you go along and teach yourself. I have also noticed here that I have developed the ability to adapt quicker. this ability to adapt has come of the neceesity to learn styuff myself