No. This can actually be quite a boon for an interior designer. Since people can’t afford to buy new homes, they often end up renovating their old apartments, and that’s where the interior designers come in.
True, but for foreign interior designers who don’t even speak the language ?
I see real estate developers promote their foreign design collaborations for new developments but for local regular concrete hacker jobs doubt they will give a shit ie bargain basement or connections all the way.
Basically companies in Taiwan need and would benefit from your skills and whole bunch of other’s skills. They would easily get a return on whatever you cost as well.
But they wont, because… who knows? This is the crux of why Taiwan is why it is like it is. Little motivation to change or do anything about the problem but to complain. The whole place is run by dinosaurs who have no interest in adapting to a globalized world. They would much prefer to complain about young people being lazy while increasing working hours and decreasing pay.
Even with the cross-straits issues, Taiwan could be a really vibrant economy. Especially with all the engineering and manufacturing expertise here. But its not. And you either need to come to terms with that or move on.
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Cambodia?
Yeah Cambodia for sure it would be a bit wild west of course.
This.
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I would say the dinosaurs want this place to fail.
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They don’t want it to fail, just to keep ticking along as it is with low costs , culture that obeys seniors above all elss, keep up good healthcare, civil servant pensions and find somebody to sell their extra apartments to at inflated prices. Beyond that they don’t care too much about anything (expanded this to cover people over 50 basically).
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That could be the problem.
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Hmmm… a BA degree is not really equivalent to actual skills. A BA qualifies you as a commodity in the TW market - just like a 7-11 cup of coffee - easy to get and cheap. If you want to command Starbucks’ prices you need up the experience. 21st century personal branding stuff, i.e., blog/website/portfolio, online research/e-commerce skills, social media & email marketing, etc. Give your target market something that your competitors can’t. Doesn’t really matter what country your going to live in as the New Gig economy is global and companies have an ever growing pool of potential applicants to choose from. The key is - like Starbucks - you need to demonstrate and sell what differentiates YOU from the general commodity labor pool.
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Yep from the top down as well. From the bosses, to the government, to the retired civil servants… the same blaming of Taiwan’s moribund economy on uncompetitive young people.
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It can be an incredibly trying country that chews you up and spits you out. But so can any other country. It’s probably worse because you don’t speak the lingo. Learn some conversational Mandarin. Do some language exchange with some of the younger folk that are still at uni. Go out and meat some people. But also expect idiot young men to assume you are stealing their girlfriends, even when they aren’t even dating, that then threaten violence and often follow through when you aren’t looking. Westerners are a bit of a punching bag all round in Taiwan. From the bosses to your local co-workers that usually get paid more but complain they get less to the landlords (mostly), to trying to get a credit card to ordering food in perfect mandarin only to get some shy kid on the other side of the counter reply bu tzi dao…
If she can and willing to relocate to the states to be with me than I would NOT bother coming back and struggle like I did last time. In addition, I am not in favor of her kid and don’t have any intention to take care of it.
Hate to say this but you must remove yourself from this equation ASAP
One plus two equals,three simple math.
Her kid and her should be a unit. You will have to love her and her kid.
You remind me of the new lion in the pack killing off the old lion and killing the lionesses new born so he can mate with them
For the good of all you should find a lady with no kids and who is willing to live with you in a country outside her own.
She’s in a bad spot hanging around with a guy who doesn’t want her kid and who is unable to be on the rock
Or that is how she likes it, you are her toy
Your situ does not compute. There are other fish in the sea.
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Listen to Uncle Tommy he knows what he’s talking about…Sometimes
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Dude run don’t walk away from that relationship. I dated a single mom in the past. Gorgeous woman and I really did give it an earnest try to accept her kid too. But ultimately I just didn’t wanna waste years of my young life raising another man’s kid… and what actually should be his responsibility in the end.
Now I like kids and would stick by my own, but it takes a great man to be able to take on someone elses kid and love them as their own. But it wasn’t me, and perhaps not you also. Absolutely no shame in that. You seem to have a conscience and gave it your best shot. But you don’t like the kid and as another user said…they are a unit. She’ll not be getting rid of it.
Also, seems kinda unfair you’re the one trying to make all the effort here. Should be 50/50
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@Tommy525,
I hear you on this but it is not as simple as how you word it. I did tried to treat the kid as though he was my own in first couple months of the relationship. Played w him and we got along ok…even bought him toys, etc. Than the kid start to pull this “don’t steal mommy away” and treats me like some enemy even tried to hit me while playing in the park.
yes it’s only natural for a 9 year old kid to behave this way but I am factoring that he is generally considered an ugly kid in standards and not even a likable so it’s more of an obstacle to force myself of accepting the idea of raising it.
I admit that I am not being a decent human being for commenting on the kids looks but he is by far the ugliest kid I 've seen to date with mental behavioral problems.
Yes I do love my gf and only want her. if I let her go due to her kids flaws would rather seem unfair to myself would it?
It’s tough to give up a woman but that is the only way here
You are unable to love this child who needs his mom more than you do
Don’t be a baddie let her and the child go
I see grief in your future should you persist on this path
We all have choices ,recognize this one is a bad choice
Your words say you are only thinking of yourself not about her child and her well being
You don’t see the forest around you because of the trees
I don’t mean to be harsh but I speak from experience
Life sucks sometimes and love hurts
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You are juggling two problems that appear unsolvable at the moment.
- You can’t find an interior design/architecture job in Taiwan that satisfies you. Honestly, don’t think you’ll ever find one to your liking, given that you’ll probably be paid low low low local wages. At least you have citizenship, so they could hire you IF you want that kind of job, but you don’t, right? So, sounds like if your only goal is to maintain this career path, then Taiwan is not for you. I personally don’t think you’ll be able to do the same career in China or SE Asia. Same problems, perhaps worse. So, back to U.S. if you absolutely want this kind of job for next 20 years.
- Your relationship with single mom and child. I’ll presume you have told her what he tells you (“Don’t take mommy away”) and that she is actively trying to explain the situation to him. You need a frank talk with her very soon, if not tomorrow, if you still have that mentality of “he will never be mine and I don’t want to take care of him”. I am not saying it is wrong to have that feeling. Some people are not up to becoming a step-dad ever. If you are not, then leave and it’ll be better for everyone.
How to solve 1) if you want to stay in Taiwan: Pick a whole new career. There’s plenty of them out there. You can certainly get hired as Taiwanese and then build a resume and then get hired at good pay by foreign firm. Consider tech firms.
Good luck!
Thanks for the great input. To be concise, I was intending on a career change in the States so coming to TW was part of the plan. Unfortunately, my extensive experience is in this field and I applied for numerous foreign sales jobs which have even worse luck with that. At this point, I don’t have much alternatives with my work experience that can lead to any decent paying gigs in TW besides teaching English.