I am a credentialed American born Chinese teacher, last school year I was living in Taipei, doing English Village at a public school
I came back to America looking for a job in education leadership, which is what I ultimately want to do. To make a long story short, nothing has worked out for me, and I am strongly considering a return to Taiwan. I don’t want to return to the same school and I think all of those positions are gone now. I have not been able to find a job that I want yet, but from Dewey there were two opportunities, one is to teach in Hsinchu County (they don’t specify where, just say Zhubei City, Baoshan Town, and one more place I forget where) or Taichung County (Fengyuan).
I am thinking about just taking what I can get at this point, but I have never been to either of these counties and I would like to know if anyone has any opinions about it. I do still have a lot of friends in Taipei, but I know no one in Taichung. I am not sure for either county how easy it is to get to the train.
As someone who has only lived and visited the main cities in Taiwan, it feels like they would be quite remote without anything to do or see. I guess I would just need a movie theater, restaurants, bookstore, nightmarket, and access to a TRA line to be happy for the most part.
It feels really nerve wracking to not have a definite plan for the next year. I want to hold out for some opportunity that I really want, but it just seems like it is not happening. Any advice is appreciated.
Fengyuan has its own train station and is a suburb of Taichung city, which is a larger city and seems to have a larger foreign population than Hsinchu. Baoshan is a quiet suburb of Hsinchu city - bit of a drive from Hsinchu train station though.
For your needs, I would learn towards Fengyuan (if those were the only choices). Once you’re there, you can see if you can find other positions more in the main city.
[quote=“Adam_CLO”]Fengyuan has its own train station and is a suburb of Taichung city, which is a larger city and seems to have a larger foreign population than Xinzhu. Baoshan is a quiet suburb of Xinzhu city - bit of a drive from Xinzhu train station though.
For your needs, I would learn towards Fengyuan (if those were the only choices). Once you’re there, you can see if you can find other positions more in the main city.[/quote]
The weather is also a lot nicer in Fengyuan. There is far, far more to do in Taichung than in Hsinchu. Hsinchu is really just an overgrown town. Taichung is a real city.
Just to clarify, Baoshan is a township that borders Hsinchu City. It isn’t a town and it isn’t a suburb. Probably they mean Shuangxi which is the township seat and is near where I live. It wouldn’t be a great place to work in and has very little transportation although it does give you good access to some nice countryside for cycling. Zhubei would be better since it is on the HSR line meaning you are only 30 mins from Taipei.
question as far as contracts go. The agency wants me to sign and scan and send them my signature. I was thinking once I actually do this I shouldn’t ethically back out. I’m also waiting on hearing from a position in Taipei, that doesn’t seem to be in any rush to give me an answer, but said I am a “high possibility” candidate.
My question is, once I send in those signatures and they start applying for the work visa, if I back out, are there grave consequences of some kind? I remember reading before that one agency said if you back out of a public school contract through the Ministry of Education, they can bar you from entering the country again. I’m not sure if that is true or not, and I don’t think this job is actually with the MOE.
I would say ZhuBei, even though I have never been there. The advantage to living in Fengyuen was being close to Taichung. Now, there is nothing to do in Taichung and no place to hang out, eat, or drink.
[quote=“nateliu99”]My friend said Zhubei City is an ok place.
question as far as contracts go. The agency wants me to sign and scan and send them my signature. I was thinking once I actually do this I shouldn’t ethically back out. I’m also waiting on hearing from a position in Taipei, that doesn’t seem to be in any rush to give me an answer, but said I am a “high possibility” candidate.
My question is, once I send in those signatures and they start applying for the work visa, if I back out, are there grave consequences of some kind? I remember reading before that one agency said if you back out of a public school contract through the Ministry of Education, they can bar you from entering the country again. I’m not sure if that is true or not, and I don’t think this job is actually with the MOE.
Please let me know what you think[/quote]
I’d suggest posting this question in the Teaching English forum for better responses.