Need some idea of family costs in Taiwan

Thanks, I learned something new. :slight_smile:

I wonder how serious he is about buying a place. Rushing to buy a place doesn’t make any sense anyway.

I think no. Iirc, you need to invest in company or government.

My mate once told me his Paris place was ‘humble’. We rocked up for a weekend and entered what I thought was the hallway and realised there were no other doors (there must have been some sort of toilet somewhere).
I immediately felt claustrophobic as hell. Still it was a fun weekend.

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What are the kids getting out of the move?
If you want them to be fluent in Chinese, its possible with the right choices. There are significant costs involved though and I don’t mean financial.
In the end they will probably study back in Canada or the US I imagine . There’s no added value for further education in Taiwan.
As for working in Taiwan later on…NO…Unless they really love living here.

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The kids are not Taiwanese descendants, for them there is no long term benefit in Taiwan, except for the language.

There are so many better options than Taiwan for your family situation. If your spouse was Taiwanese it would be a little easier.

I’m confused as to why the OP wants to move to Taiwan.

You made it clear why you don’t like Toronto. But there are many, many places in the world. Why Taiwan? Your wife is from mainland China. She should expect to encounter a lot of discrimination here. My wife is also from China but immigrated to the US when she was 10 years old. Even though she is more American than Chinese, she still faces a good amount of discrimination.

Why not move to Mainland China? You’ve mentioned why you don’t want to go to HK… but there are many places in China that would be an option. My wife and I sometimes talk about moving to China someday…

In your original post, you were asking about family costs in Taiwan. What type of costs? The cost of moving overseas, the cost of groceries, the cost of tuition? If you’re specific about the nature of the dollar figures you’re looking for, we can help to provide those.

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I am not clear at all about how a (I am assuming?) non-Chinese speaking, or at least non-fluent (?) man will get a high paying job in Taiwan, unless it’s teaching. And how would he get a visa to keep his current job by telecommuting? He doesn’t have work or residence rights in Taiwan through any other means and the wife is not Taiwanese, right? Or am I missing something?

This really sounds to me like a case where more effort and perhaps creativity are called for in Canada. Maybe we don’t know the same folks in the Toronto area, but I doubt seriously that all Canadians are so prejudiced against Asians that mixed children would have a really hard time. There is a Chinese community for the wife, apparently, if she’s insulated in it. So maybe working a bit harder and more strategically on finding social activities, new friends and a network would be preferable to uprooting the whole family and taking the financial hit that any move entails?

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this is an important point.

I wouldn’t even consider a bilingual school at elementary level. Your kids are going to need to be close to native level at Mandarin to thrive here. Speak to them in English at home, read to them as often as possible. Yes their English won’t end up as good as yours, particularly in reading and writing, but it will still be very good. Don’t waste your money on a bilingual school, unless you plan for your kids to be brought up here and then work abroad (and even then they’ll be OK).

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This is basically what we do. The kids go to a public school (all in Chinese) and I only speak to them in English. We watch a lot of English movies and read a lot of English books. Their Chinese is definitely better than their English but their English is pretty good. They can read books like by Roald Dahl and the Harry Potter series (they’re 11 and 8 years old), so that’s good.

They do need to work on pronunciation at times (especially my oldest) but I’ve started having them read out loud to me and I read more to them so hopefully that will improve.

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There’s a bunch of different foreign professional visas now, it’s probably not too difficult.

I also speak English only to my kids. It’s hard work sometimes getting them to read (because of homework and distractions) but I guess it’s a good way to have more quality time with them. Also watch lots of English movies . I’m still thinking of sending them to an English cram school like British council though.

I’ve been to both schools in Taiwan and schools in North America. I was a bit older than the OPs oldest. Don’t do this to him bringing him to public school here. It was like paradise leaving Taiwan’s public school for me. You don’t know if he will thrive in this system let along be able to take it.

I was struggling so much and teacher even thought I had a learning disability. All because I was a boy and couldn’t sit there for hours at a time focused and repeating writing strokes hundreds of times each night for hours to memorize which is what the kid will be doing here. The kids will hate it if they have any free thoughts, creatively, are outgoing and energetic. Taiwan’s public schools are for them to conform. Thes a fine line between conformity and discipline and I found Taiwan’s public schools on the wrong side. I was hit every day as corporal punishment was still allowed when I was here.

In the US I got to play sports, socialize, be creative and I got Just less than perfect in my SATs scoring in the top 5% of all students in my class that year. Got a scholarship to every school I applied in either academic or for sports. This would have never happened in Taiwan.

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The education system becomes insane after the age of 12. Up to then I think the public school system is fine.

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I’m lucky that my kids are both big readers (like their father). We actually have to force them to put the books down sometimes. Once we were all going out to the park to play and they asked if they could bring their books.

I just need to force myself to make sure I do more reading with them. I don’t think I do nearly enough. I start doing it but then it gets put to the side as other things take over (including me being too busy to do it). We have a book of short stories that we each take a turn reading a page from. That way, they get to hear me read and pick up my reading rhythm (which my youngest does much more than my oldest) and I get to hear them read as well.

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#metoo. I just never grew up :blush:

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Yes, complete madness after 12, think 7am to 10pm. Those are te hours your kid will be studying, and then some more if they have homework from buxiban. If you want the kids to have higher education here, that’s the way. If not just let them have a good time and send them for high school and up abroad.

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Regarding the question how to get a work permit here: If you manage to somehow prove over 160.000 NT$/month (including bonuses, 13th salary, or whatever else you get in Canada) you can qualify for a “Gold Card”: https://tw.forumosa.com/t/employment-gold-card-for-some-foreigners/

That means you can work whatever you want for whoever you want, your spouse and children can reside, work and have health insurance as well, and several other benefits.

Whatever you do - I wish you the best of luck. I believe if living in an Chinese-speaking but western foreigner friendly Asian society is something you look for, then Taiwan overall is by far the best destination in the world for a family (or even for single people) .

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But for a kid who is used to the canadian system? Probably never has homework on weekends, breaks are actual breaks. The kid will no longer talk about feelings a competition becomes real. He will be handed books of math equations to finish and words to copy writing 20 times each every night. And when he’s done, he will get another book to do. Breaks are not breaks, they are for studying.

20 times each may be a bit of exaggeration. It may be 2-5 times each. Breaks can be breaks for elementary kids, depending on patents.

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