Newbie looking to bring wife and children

Hi everyone,
I read some articles and looks like teaching English in Taiwan might be good for my family. A list of schools in New Taipei City with good hours and pay would be greatly appreciated. On the Tealit website there seemed to be lower pay and long hours listed. On Nick Kembel’s article, Living In Taiwan 101, he says it’s better to find part-time positions since they pay better and shorter hours. Is that feasible for my family of 4? I’d like to set up a job before arriving because of the quarantine situation though it’s probably better to come first and look around. Any help greatly appreciated. Thx.

Your entire family of four all want to teach English? Is it a family affair?

The article by Nick Kembel called Living In Taiwan 101 said Taipei and New Taipei city are great for children. If I found work my wife and 2 children would come. According to him that’s not a problem. My wife is Indonesian and may be able to also find work on arrival.

On dual incomes, it is doable, but wife and two kids on an single income of English teacher’s salary is a bit tough.

To be brutally honest, your wife’s ethnicity and nationality will be a major hurdle for you to overcome.

Any work she finds will most likely be very, very low pay and a lot of hard work.

Unfortunately, for the vast majority, Southeast Asians are not viewed in an equal way with Taiwanese by Taiwanese. The work for them is mostly caretakers, live-in nannies, house cleaners, and factory (labor) workers.

For yourself, if you hail from an English speaking country, have a university degree, and a teaching license, you could potentially land yourself a teaching job at a private elementary, junior high, or senior high with pay in the ballpark of 70K to 90K. That salary range hinges on qualifications and teaching experience.

If your kids are old enough to attend school, you could add in free tuition or reduced tuition if they attend the school you work at. Depends on the school. YMMV.

If you aim for buxiban…with 2 kids…forget it. Life will be hard.

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I’m presuming you’ll need to start as employer sponsored, so a single job to start with in one location with block hours will be the best start IMO.

If you aren’t a licensed teacher then a chain school such as HESS is best to start with. I think you’ll start on somewhere between 50 and 70k a month. Life will be a struggle, but if you hustle you’ll be able to pick up part time gigs

If you are licensed then a government school job should provide you with 70k+ a month and you’ll teach fewer hours at more family-friendly times - with a guaranteed monthly salary. You would normally be too late for the next semester, but I think they are still hiring because of the effect of Covid restrictions.

What are your qualifications and experience? That would be helpful to know.

I couldn’t do what you are hoping to do. Good luck!

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Curious to hear your progress. I am in a similar boat, and plan on using retirement savings to buffer life. My two boys are 1 year old, so we have a few years until schooling is an issue. My wife was raised in China, and sending the boys to a public school would be our choice.

if you don’t have a citizenship of ROC, she needs a work permit.

https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/en/

Did Nick Kembel write this before he had kids or afterwards? I like the guy, but he is, and has always been, how would I say, very enthusiastic about Taiwan. So you have to balance up what he says a little. Road safety or ignorance thereof, makes Taiwan quite stressful for parents, in my opinion.

Nick’s a nice chap. The gayest straight guy on the planet?

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Being a parent and raising a family is very different than a single guy. Also if your spouse is local.or not is also something that makes a big difference…I don’t think it’s that hard but a family guy should think about teaching outside of Taipei to have an easier life. The pay is about the same .

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I just checked his website, looks like he has returned to Canada. Big loss for Taiwan, he was something like an internet ambassador. But leaving with young kids, does tell me his statement about Taiwan being great for kids, was perhaps not fully considered.

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He had kids and left lol. 2019 …Permanently.
‘Taiwan’ and ‘Canada’ based.:sunglasses:

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Coming here, building up teaching gigs, and then starting a family is more common.

I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to come here with a family and try and make it through teaching. I couldn’t do it, but that doesn’t make it impossible.

Yeah, getting a teaching job in a smallish town would be the best move in the short term.

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Definitely.more difficult but not impossible at all. I believe there are some on this forum who have done it.

But I would highly recommend newbies on average teaching incomes to focus on lower cost of living location in Taiwan especially if their spouse or kids can’t work (can work with permit though).

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Yeah I admire the adventurousness of those who have even attempted to do this. There have been a few on here I think? They might have some religious motivation or something though…

Definitely some missionaries in there but not only.

I’d concur with the points made by the previous posters.

Another factor to think about is your kids schooling. In general they tend to finish in the early afternoon with a bazillion hours worth of written homework, in Chinese…

I wouldn’t bring my children here, quite to the contrary, I’m now leaving because I have a 2 year old. I was throughout summer in the US and in Norway and, being back now, it just reminded me of how much Taiwan is Not a good place to raise kids compared to most places in north America and northern Europe. I’m moving back to Europe with my family in March. On another note, I never was depending on a Taiwan salary and always had fairly high expat salary, I think you would struggle on a teacher salary for your whole family in New Taipei or Taipei.

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That is interesting point of view. What do you miss about Europe that makes it better for kids?
I raise kids here and find it quite convenient, plenty of things for them to do. North American friends of mine miss things like camping and being outdoors, but having grown up in a city myself, I never experienced it as a child, so i dont have any feelings toward the topic.

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