As the tittle states I am looking for a job around Taipei.
I have been living in Taipei for a time and I have an open permit ARC through my wife, but even if I frequently use 104 for job hunting I have seen limited success there.
So the time has come to ask to the Internet if by any chance someone can help me.
I have been checking an existing thread (this: How do I find menial work in Taipei? ), and I keep looking around, but as I am quite desperate I am also opening this thread.
English is not my mother language, so it seems unlikely that I could be hired as an ESL teacher, right now I am studying Chinese but I am far from fluent (with an stable income I would like to properly enroll at school again, but alas!).
I speak English and Spanish fluently, and while a still a begginer in Chinese I would like to keep improving my language skills.
In Spain I had work in a warehouse, I have been a clerk and a guide in a museum, a supermarket cashier and a teacher too, while travelling I have also earned some experience at hostels, both as a cleaner and at the welcome desk.
So I am open to many different kinds of jobs, can be flexible with the schedule and I am open to do shifts.
So please, if anybody has some kind of lead, or hears about a company willing to hire foreigners not yet fluent in Chinese, please do not hesitate to contact me, I would frankly appreciate it.
I live in New Taipei City, so both Taipei and New Taipei are fine to me, as long as it is reachable by public transportation (I don´t mind long strolls either).
I second this. The buxibans mostly donât care if youâre competent let alone a native speaker.
You have open work rights, thatâs a check. Are you obviously European, preferably blonde and blue eyed? Thatâs a check. Willing to be their obedient dancing monkey while working for peanuts? Thatâs the biggest check of all.
I have heard there is also an employment bureau that matches employers with unskilled labor. Get your wife to look that up and take you there.
I have to say, while I definitely agree with everything else you are saying, âworking for peanutsâ is certainly not accurate. Lots of young people - even some old people - in this country struggle to make over $60k NT a month 40+ hours a week. Even teaching at a cram school, 60k a month is not too hard to obtain âŚall while working 20 hours or less.
As someone who has been in Taipeiâs corporate environment for about half a year now, I actually miss teaching. I was actually paid more per hour for it, and no unpaid overtime.
Depends on the industry I suppose. I miss the extra time I had to cultivate interests, learn (even if slowly) Chinese, and justâŚhave my own thoughts. Now I just feel shackled to a computer screen and an office chair lol. Truly a downgrade in more than one sense.
This is not about me though â @Blancatz I know for certain non-native English speakers teach at cram schools (buxibans) all the time here. German, French, Italian, Brazilian, you name the nationality, I have seen them working here.
Like @BiggusDickus said, donât rule it out. It * can be * a great fit for you, especially if you are trying to learn Chinese right now.
Well, thanks to all for the answers. We had no Internet at home for the best part of the weekend and the technician repaired it today. @BiggusDickus@bingobango@TT@amitkattal
While I have heard that there are a fair bunch of non-natives teaching English in different contexts, I have yet to find an employer willing to give me the chance, My guess is that it is feasible for those who majored English in the Univesity. Or those with luck.
Yes! I am aware of the free Chinese courses, I am actually enrolled and thanks to it I have had the chance to learn zhuyin, which is quite cool and useful to try to read children´s book.
I think it´s great aid, but I find it somewhat lacking in certain aspects, such as grammar, so I would like to go back to a propper language school in a future.
But I think I will try to contact the employment center again. If I recall correctly, I think I did it before and they were the ones to introduce me to the Chinese lessons for inmigrants, but I guess enough time has passed and that I can try my luck once more.
Those are often students too who am work 15 hours a week. Basically you could work in a kindergarten but if you get caught in a raid it could get complicated. It might work if youâre handsome.
It is true that a couple of years spend studying at one of the many Mandarin Training Centers around the islandis the way that many foreigners have mastered the basics. It can really help.
That said, you probably should not have high expectations about them teaching grammar and usage well. Most students think they do a terrible job and complain about the antiquated teaching methods in general.
You will probably need to buy a specialized book and teach yourself what they donât teach in the classes. Many years ago I used this one and found it incredibly useful. There may be newer ones now that are easier to find.
I did study at the MTC before, and while the rhythm was quite hard for me, having no background on Chinese at all, I managed to learn quite a bit; so I would like to go back there if money was not an obstacle.
I mean, I can get why some students donât like it, I was a full time student back then and it was exhausting, I took an intensive course. No few students are already familiar with the script, so it can be hard to feel that you are clearly lagging behind your classmates since the beginning. That being said, I did felt supportiveness from students and teachers and got a base to build upon the future.
But in the meantime I am still unsuccessfully looking for a job. So any help in that field would be much appreciated.
I actually thought it would be fun to teach English to kids (teaching in general is interesting to me and kids usually like me) but as I donât have degree and I am not a native English speaker, therefore I ruled it out.
If you have open work rights because of marriage, that saves them the hassle of getting a work permit and ARC for you. Your English seems good enough that they wonât know the difference. Only possible hiccups are your cost and appearance. If youâre blonde and blue-eyed, and willing to work for 600NTD per hour (plus unpaid stuff like marking or meetings), you will probably have no trouble finding something.
