Hello! I’m a 17 year old half American, half Taiwanese boy from the US. I was recently in Taiwan for a month and a half over the summer of 2018. I was teaching English with YMCA and I lived on my own (This was not my first time in Taiwan). I plan on studying business logistics in college and plan on working in either Taiwan or China for a few years after college. I wanted to know if there was anyone on this site who has had experience living in both Taiwan and China and I wonder, what where you had a better experience?
Do you know where are you going in China?
Well I was hoping people may have suggestions. I may not have much of a choice because I’ll be looking for a job.
You are young.
Work in China.
2 Likes
In my experience, living in China is a little bitty bit like living in Taiwan, but everything is cranked up to hard mode. Not that you shouldn’t live in China at all, I think it’s quite interesting and could end up being a good learning experience for you. Plus, I think you’d stand to be more successful in China because there are more opportunities. I encourage you to take on China. But, I personally would get comfortable in Taiwan for a bit first before making the jump.
How’s your Mandarin, by the way?
1 Like
what do your parents think of your grand plan?
I’ve gone to Chinese school for 13 years but I never took it seriously because I hated it so much. Now I’m beginning to appreciate my Mandarin skills. Unfortunately I’m nowhere near fluent but I know enough to get around. I can understand a lot more than I can say. I can only read like 30 characters. I’ve recognized that Mandarin skills are very important so I’ve returned to Chinese school, and I also plan on minoring in Mandarin in college.
you learned on average to read 2 characters per year, or 1 character every six months?
Your parents really got their money’s worth.
They are glad that I’m pursuing a career in Asia. My last trip to Taiwan, I made many valuable connections and good friends too. I’ve also been told by some of the adults that they would like to have me work for the in the future so there’s that too. I’m very grateful to have supportive parents. My mom who is Taiwanese obviously loves Taiwan. My Dad is also very eager to leave the US and live in Taiwan, and travel to China too. So basically they are completely fine with my plans haha.
It was mostly working on speaking rather than reading or writing. That horrible progress is mostly on me because I really just hated it when I was younger.
Definitely brush up that Mandarin, especially if you’re going to China. I thought I could speak and understand Chinese until I landed in the mainland and found myself barely able to communicate with the locals.
I minored in Mandarin in college too, but since I was distracted by other things (my major, enjoying college, etc.) it was difficult for me to gain much ground. I became functionally literate after taking six months of intensive courses in Taiwan shortly after graduating college in the US. Learned a lot more in that short time than was possible for me during my four years of college. You might do your language study here and get more accustomed to life on this side of the planet before shipping off to China.
Thanks for the help! Might I ask what you do, and where u currently work?
Go to third-tier cities in China if you go there. The growth will be there. Google university towns. Age of people there all younger. Central and local governments developing these cluster-type towns around higher education.
1 Like
Thank you for the help
I’d table this for now and come back to it in 3-4 years, when you’re a lot closer to finishing college. A lot can change in that time.
Go to hk, China kind of sucks
Worry about college first. Go to college in the US. Its generally better and much higher rated . The rest can wait.
1 Like
Too expensive
Yeah I’m not actually worrying about this at the moment. I was just curious about what people had to say so I could open up to some new ideas.
Or go to college in Germany where its free.