Officially gave up looking for a stable job in TW...

Design skills can be applied to many different areas. Diversify your job search.

Repeatedly referring to a child as “it” doesn’t suggest a potential long term bond. Probably best to listen to tommy525 and call it a day.

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What are her kid’s flaws? She and her kid are unit. If you cannot accept her kid, you should not be with her. I cannot see anything unfair to you.

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If you are an ABT, work the guan xi/關係.

Throwing your CV everywhere and hoping for interviews or offers just doesn’t work. I know, I tried it. It didn’t work.

Make sure you tell all your relatives, even the ones you don’t even know are your relatives, that you are looking for a job. Make connections with old friends and let them know too! Someone knows someone who knows someone, has an open position and could spare the cash because of your guan xi.

I have a friend (also an ABT) who just landed a job at a local start up and, I’ll be quite honest, he has a BA in business from a UC system school, not too many special skills that locals wouldn’t have and mandarin is not very strong. How did he land his job?

Guan xi.

You heard it here first.

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Everytime you write this stuff it makes Taiwan look terrible.
Its largely correct too although it is possible to climb the ladder the hard way like I (partially) did.
There are employers though who value the right skillset and experience and mindset much more than any guanxi!

Although I landed a job at a start-up in Taiwan after six months here with no business experience and no Mandarin Chinese (I just sprayed my resume around and emailed about 50 ppl, a prof hired me to work in his lab and then a start up that knew the lab hired me), but I did have scientific experience and education and of course native English. Startups mostly suck but great to get experience and foot in the door.

I don’t like it as much as you do.

I haven’t been a part of a company where the guan xi post grad hire straight to management is dumb, but I remember some people on the forums have experienced it and it sucks.

OP seems to have given up the search, but I believe there’s still a chance if he works his guan xi.

Times aren’t great in Taiwan but if the OP is flexible he can find design jobs , it depends on his skillset, can he work with CAD, Photoshop , all that jazz. As a designer he might be able to market furniture, anything like that . Could he move towards more product design or general marketing design. Got to be very open-minded and push for the jobs.
I taught English for about 6 months (and on and off since for short periods ) before I got my first career job here. This stuff takes time and perseverence.
Hopefully I don’t have to ever teach English again but you never know, when needs must…must.

OP needs to base here for a while, have a few meetings with people , do a few projects maybe, stuff like that .

But I don’t recommend him to bother cos the relationship situation is not right.

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for starters ,emotional issue. Kid’s is happy and laughing and second after cries and throw fits for no reason constantly. Very inconsistent. It’s not nice for me to keep bringing this up but kid looks literally like a sewer rat. Big ears, creepy beady eyes, and messed up teeth. I wanted and tried to over look that but doesn’t help when the kid’s character is not likable.

The kid doesn’t have characters and looks that can be likable for you is not a flaw of the kid.

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If this is how you see your significant other’s son, then best to cut out and call it a day. That’s not healthy, and having such a pre-existing, negative view of him prejudices your treatment of him going forward. Also, that’s kind of a crap way to describe a kid.

For the record to others, not all relationships with single moms are doomed. I’m the product of one myself. My dad married my mom even though she had a 6 year old son from a previous marriage. They’re celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary this month.

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That’s a great story Drew well done to both of them.

What a shit way to describe the kid he’s only a kid it’s not easy for kids to have a single mom in Taiwan in the first place. Its not easy for the mom either.

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Lol this is harsh. Did he get his looks from his mom or the father? And they’ve all got messed up teeth here. Quite a few have them have them eyes like you’ve described I’ve observed.

Kids will be kids and this one may suffer from autism or something. If that’s so, raising him is a lifetime job. When he is 40 you’ll still have to take him to the park to go on the swings. Unfortunately, there’s not a good support network for people with autism or down syndrome in Asia. It’s sucks, because being seen as different in Asia is really viewed negatively by the backwards society

Did you make that armchair diagnosis based on your extensive medical expertise in reading between the lines of disgruntled posters insulting their girlfriends’ kids?

Also, I think @ironlady may have a couple words to say about your offensive description of autism.

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Love to hear how the kid describes him

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All opinions are welcome. Can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Funny thing about your last line, I was with a local friend last week and we went into a restaurant. She looked at me, and her mind immediately froze, I’m not gonna understand this foreign guy. I let my local friend talk obviously.
He ordered in the local lingo, she looked at him and said 我聽不懂. He looked incredulous.

He repeated in Taiwanese next and she shook her head… don’t understand she repeated.

I’ve got nothing to add that everyone above hasn’t covered to the OP, you don’t want to raise anothers kid, then run Forrest.

What Tommy said. I’ll add to it by saying get a new girl.

Yes it is harsh but it’s also reality. The kid looks NOTHING like the mom…took over 110% from his deadbeat father’s looks who abandoned them with gambling problems. The first time I saw my gf’s son’s pic I thought she either had an extensive surgery done on her face or the kid was adopted. Her looks is the complete the opposite…pretty face, small ears,beautiful smile with nice white set of teeth. Really baffles me how the kid can end up with a third world peasant look. Regardless whether if I am still with her or not as he gets older I hope he grows out of it.

Just wanted to say that there are some really good-looking “third world peasants” out there, and also some pretty bridge-trollish looking high-class first worlders too.

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in mexico its similar. Im happy I can call on friends and acquaintances from ten years ago to help my family land in TW.
heres a good def of guanxi and its impacts.

In East Asian societies the boundary between business and social lives can sometimes be ambiguous as people tend to rely heavily on their closer relations and friends. This can result in nepotism in the work force being created through guanxi, as it is common for authoritative figures to draw from family and close ties to fill employment opportunities, instead of assessing talent and suitability as is the norm in Western societies. This practice often prevents the most suitably qualified person being employed for the position.[11] However, guanxi only becomes nepotism when individuals start to value their interpersonal relationships as ways to accomplish their goals over the relationships themselves.[12] When interpersonal relationships are seen in this light, then, it is usually the case that individuals are not viewing their cultivation of prospective business relationships without bias. In addition, guanxi and nepotism are distinct in that the former is inherently a social transaction (considering the emphasis on the actual act of building relationships) and not purely based in financial transactions, while the latter is explicitly based in financial transactions and has a higher chance of resulting in legal consequences.[12] However croneyism is less obvious and can lead to low risk sycophancy and empire building bureaucracy within the internal politics of an organisation.