Other Work Beside Teaching

Is there other type of work I can perform in Taiwan
other than Teaching English to survive and pay the bills ?

Is there a network on this board that helps foreigners get
together and help eachother find work in different areas other
than teaching, even joining other foreigners to start a business
together or even work for other foreigners who have businesses
here ? Thanks, Ric

What are the chances of me finding work other
than teaching English ? I do not speak or read chinese.
Can other foreigners help me Ric

[quote=“bluelagoon”]What are the chances of me finding work other
than teaching English ? I do not speak or read chinese.
Can other foreigners help me Ric[/quote]As you don’t want to teach English, why are you posting this in the Teaching English forum? :wink: I’m merging this in with the other thread you started on the same subject in the Work forum.

I was offered a job “teaching” a BEAUTIFUL woman while her man was out of town. This was a while ago… want me to see if I have her number? :wink:

maybe try for the tech industry.

pay by the minute eh?
:smiling_imp:

I’d rather lose a testicle than teach English.

Armani,sometimes I agree with your sentiments!

Buttercup can help. (It’s a useful additional income)

Buttercup can help. (It’s a useful additional income)[/quote]

Are you a Moische AND/ or a veterinary assistant as well as an English teacher? What sort of additional income do you mean? This old dog’s already been cropped, by the way.

[quote=“bluelagoon”]What are the chances of me finding work other
than teaching English ? I do not speak or read chinese.
Can other foreigners help me Ric[/quote]

Marry a local and you can do any kind of work you want (in theory anyway), as well as avoid a lot of good for us locals but screw the whitey horseshit. I won’t sign any contracts… they can all kiss my ass.

[quote=“bluelagoon”]Is there other type of work I can perform in Taiwan
other than Teaching English to survive and pay the bills?[/quote]There is. What can you do, and what kind of work are you looking for? Start from there, and network, network, network to find something. It can be done, good luck!

This topic also got me thinking lately. For those people who enjoy teaching and want to make it their career that’s great, but the thought of doing say 10 years teaching leaves me wondering, what then? I get the feeling that after 10 years that I’d probably be working for approx the same pay and doing pretty much the same job. I’m not saying its impossible and as someone mentioned above, getting married to a local does open up the possibilities of more options in “theory”. Anyway enough doom and gloom from me.

I’m so excited about coming back to Taiwan. 3 more weeks! However the thought of teaching English again is another story. If you’ve got the right background and are into research and academia, there are quite a number of think tanks and research foundations, mostly in Taipei. I’ve sent out a couple of cvs, but it’s a bit of a stretch as my Chinese is limited [one year at Shi-da]

And that’s the clincher. There are a lot of jobs for expats that are non-teaching, but it seems that the majority of them want more than just basic Chinese skills.

Putting a little life back into this. Is there anyone who started out teaching and then moved onto something else that would care to share? Other than opening your own school (in an already saturated market), I’m not sure where teaching can really take me. To those people who may tell me to pack my bags and go home, I’m married and my wife likes this little rock that she calls home :wink:

Agree lets here a few stories about folks transitioning from teaching to other career fields.

I started out teaching in Taiwan to take a break from long hours as an accountant in my home country. After teaching for a while I decided to go back to accounting, but found it pretty tough going here in Taiwan as jobs are scarce and there is the obvious need for a strong Chinese ability. I sent out probably 150 CV’s over 4-6 months, got one response and landed a very nice job working in the finance deprtament for a multinational. I guess it depends on the obvious i.e. how determined you are and the skills you have to offer. I have another posting in this forum with details.

Well… I have one meek suggestion for people who don’t like teaching. Personally, teaching isn’t so hard… but really, it leads nowhere! As creztor mentioned… at the end of ten years, where does your teaching lead you? You’ll be getting the same pay or less (let’s see if English Teacher’s hourly wages are increased along with inflation), and you wouldn’t have learnt any new skills. I am pretty sure that after about two years of teaching, you’ve gotten all the experience you can ever get out of the field!

Anyway, the jobs I’m talking about involve English, but not teaching. How about correcting individuals’ and companies’ English? As you may or may not know, Taiwan is quite an international place, and there are always people writing essays trying to get into an overseas institution of higher learning, and there are always companies pushing their wares worldwide. You could either become a freelancer (which I’m sure wouldn’t be easy), or you could work for a company that already provides these types of services. You could also try getting a job as a copy editor at one of several English publications on the island.

Either that, or you could open a Greek restaurant. If you do, tell me where it’s located and I’ll be by for some Souvlaki and Greek Salad.

I came to Taiwan 7 years ago as an electronic engineer with a two year contract with the Taiwan Air Force (true, not exactly teaching, but with the same work restrictions and shit people tied to a work permit face.)
I got married to a local, and changed my visa status to JFRV after my contract was up.
My wife and I opened a retail lighting business and we also install solar power systems.

Our business is completely legal, and we have a license as a solar power contractor.

We have never been hassled by the FAP or any other government people.
The only time we ever saw the FAP cops at our store was when they were looking for bilingual people to volunteer to help translate for people in trouble.

I also do a BBQ stand off of the back of my truck on occasions.
I have never been hassled at that either.
One time a cop came along and asked me to move down the street a bit.
No problem, he did the same to the other blue truck vendors there too.

I talked to one FAP cop about the street stand thing, and he assured me that I might get a small fine for vending without a license, but no deportation.
I asked what would happen if I didn’t have open work rights, he said that I would be deported for sure.

If there is a retail business that interests you, you can set up shop without to much trouble.
Just get your business license and have at it.

If you want to be a street vendor, just do it. Occasionally , the cops will do sweeps and fine people, but it is small, and they will not deport you if you have the JFRV.