My mind has been occupied over the past 9 days.
Last week Wednesday I received an email from Canada that says I have been
offered a teaching position. However this teaching position is an occasional
(supply) teaching position, and it will not guarantee me 5 days a week for work.
Most people tell me that I am better off staying here in Taiwan because there is
no havoc over the COVID-19 pandemic, and here in Taiwan I am guaranteed
a 5-day workweek with a cheaper cost of living and a steady monthly salary.
But aside from the bad air quality, the disadvantage I have with living and
working in Taiwan is that I do not have a pension. I am sure that I can get a pension
if I was a permanent resident of Taiwan right? Because currently I am not a
permanent resident in Taiwan, just an ARC card holder. So no pension for me.
I will surely be looking down a fork in the road to see where I will be for this
September 2021. I say this because I don’t know if I will get my contract renewed
here or not.
I have a Zoom interview scheduled soon. That is for another teaching position
back in Canada, teaching for Indigenous people. I don’t know if they will offer me a position. Also on the last week of April I am supposed to be scheduled for an interview from British Columbia. But I will worry about that later. The concern is, if I do get a job offer from the
Indigenous school board in Canada, then I will have a better deal than the other school board offering me the occasional position.
If I do not get another chance in Taiwan, I will definitely head back to Canada for good, and if I get both offers in Canada, I will make that tough decision. If I only have no choice but to fall back on the occasional teaching position, then I will do that.
If I do get a chance to renew my contract in Taiwan and I have the other one or two options in Canada, that is when I will be faced with a tough decision. You see, as a teacher I can get a pension in Canada, here in Taiwan I will not get a pension. If I go for the occasional teaching job, I will need to get a part-time job just to make ends meat. The majority of people are telling me that I should stay in Taiwan.
If you were in my shoes, would you rather be in a place with clean air or dirty air? Would you rather have a job with a pension or have a job that provides no pension? Would you rather be in a country where COVID-19 is low and there are no lockdowns, or would you rather be in a country where they will restrict your movements during lockdowns?
how old are you?
pension is important, and I will consider it seriously, in addition, there is no job security for you in Taiwan.
if you wake up one day 45 and unemployed in TW, you won’t have enough time to go back to Canada and save even with a pension.
if you are under 35, you can stay in TW longer with limited risk.
over 35 and you risk not having enough savings horizon in CA to get a decent pension.
You seem to have this all figured out. That’s solid thinking. Do you see the better deal than this that is measured on a different scale, say not solely based on money/pension, etc?
This is confusing. You seem to have good qualifications for work. That shouldn’t be an issue. However if you ultimately hope to retire in Canada and you’ve done TW for a bit…go back. NO one said you had to stay here forever because you like it a little. lol
I’m not familiar with the Canadian teaching certification though. Are you certified to teach there, just unsure of being offered a FT job?
If I get the job working for Indigenous people in Canada, that particular employer will provide me with housing even though I have to pull my own weight with utilities and a subsidized rental cost.
I am certified to teach in Canada. But the job offer I currently have is only occasional and
not FT. However I read an article that this particular school board that offered me the job is
cutting 34 teaching jobs, and 100 more will be cut because of reduced enrolment caused by
more kids being homeschooled. So if I get the offer to work for the Indigenous school board
(In case Taiwan does not give me a chance), then I will go for the Indigenous school board
job in Canada.
I do however have an option to go for broke and work in Thailand.
If it is me, and this is only my opinion, I would take the indigenous teaching position IF it becomes available.
Resources (financial and otherwise) in N. America (U.S. included) are focusing a lot more on the minorities and that is good for job security near term.
Set up the pension in Canada, and if things do not work out, you have the experience of teaching in Asia, and so you can always come back if you want.
Don’t make a decision based on COVID situation/handling.
Again, this is just my
Firstly, I apologize! I replied to Izzy and thought it was you. So, you ARE certified. Will that help you get a better paying gig in Thailand? My feeling here, as it was the path I followed, is dance with the one that brung you. The degree is great, the certification is better. Both choices sound exciting…Thailand to me a bit more, but I like SCUBA diving and traveling in SE Asia.
That’s a good thing obviously, just been reading about this kind of stuff recently. Real estate is through the roof, rent isn’t much better, and it’s leading in part to this.
Half of Canadians are on the verge of insolvency, according to a survey on household debt levels in this country.
The latest MNP Consumer Debt Index published Monday shows 50 per cent of respondents said they’re within $200 of not being able to cover their monthly bills, and nearly an equal proportion of participants in the survey (49 per cent) said they aren’t confident in their ability to cover expenses without going deeper into debt.
“Our findings may point to a shift among some Canadians from debt apathy to debt hopelessness. Feelings of hopelessness can make people feel like giving up on ever paying down their debt or, worse, ignoring the debt as it piles up higher,” said MNP President Grant Bazian in a release.
The survey, which was conducted in early December and involved interviews with 2,000 Canadians aged 18 and higher,
The survey underscores the extent to which household balance sheets have become stretched in Canada, but it’s by no means the only indicator as the Bank of Canada prepares to release its next interest rate decision on Wednesday.
One week ago, the central bank’s survey of consumer expectations revealed a widening gap in spending growth expectations versus anticipated income growth, suggesting consumers will either have to borrow more or cut their spending plans.
And the most recent data from Statistics Canada similarly exposed mounting vulnerabilities, with the seasonally-adjusted credit market debt to disposable income ratio rising to 171.84 in the third quarter. This means Canadians, on average, owed almost $1.72 for every dollar of disposable income.
So if you’re thinking about settling long term, something to be aware of.
The east coast of Taiwan and everything south of Fangshan in Pingtung has clean air. Even some parts of the west coast aren’t bad.
Of course everyone would rather have a pension.
No lockdown is of course preferable.
No trying to sound snarky. I’ve been there. When facing this kind of decision it takes a while to sort out your priorities.
I moved back to the States a couple times after first moving to Taiwan. The first time was for graduate school, and I knew I’d be moving back. The second time I really tried to move back there, and I found that my heart just wasn’t in it. After living in Taiwan for almost ten years I realized that living in Taiwan had made me into a different person, and trying to fit back into that place I remembered (which really wasn’t a place that existed anymore) involved the kind of sacrifice I wasn’t prepared to make.
Working full time and barely paying rent? Having to decide whether or not I could afford to visit the local bar on a Friday? Deciding between car insurance and day care? For me it just wasn’t worth it.
If I am going to settle in Canada for the long term, I would rather live in a house located in the middle of nowhere in which real estate is cheap than to get ripped off living in Mississauga.
I just found out that the school board in Canada where I was offered the job to work as an occasional teacher, is now going to cut 34 elementary teacher job, and 100 more later.
How could I be offered a job as an occasional teacher when this same school board is
cutting jobs? Something here doesn’t make sense.
Budgets, and supply and demand. They can cut full time teachers that they don’t need in order to save money, and still need supply teachers for when the full timers they do have take some of their copious paid time off.
Ontario teachers used to be able to bank sick days and get cash instead. When that rule was changed, suddenly a lot more supply teachers were needed…
based on money/pension, etc?