Success stories of returning home

Discussion Greater Forumosa
1

Anybody have anything inspirational to say…

I’m planning on returning to US in September after teaching here off and on in Taiwan nearly 3 years. I just feel Taiwan is a cool place to be when you’re young but long term there’s too many things in this society that just pisses me off. After reading one of the latest posts in the ‘Teaching english’ section about a man who is barely making it along back in USA after teaching in Taiwan for several years, I’m kinda disheartened and a bit frightened to return home.
Job wise I really only have professional experience teaching english here in Taiwan (graduated and immediately travelled to Taiwan to teach), and my prospects back home are seemingly dire.

I’m thinking of going back to school and going for law enforcement but my folks can’t financially support me in this venture-so it will be a bit difficult with how the market has made college prices in US nearly impossible to afford. If not that I don’t know what a guy who can speak chinese decently and has a degree in Chinese studies can do back in USA.

So I need some inspiration and hope…any success stories of people who made it off well back in their home countries after spending time teaching English in Taiwan?

2

I think the trick is to make sure you have a solid plan in place. If that requires you to stay in Taiwan and save some loot, then so be it. I’m not sure I’d be racing back to the US now ahead of a likely recession without a very good plan.

From memory Miltown Kid and Namahottie were teaching in Taiwan and have returned and seem to be doing very well. Check some of their posts.

HG

3

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I think the trick is to make sure you have a solid plan in place. If that requires you to stay in Taiwan and save some loot, then so be it. I’m not sure I’d be racing back to the US now ahead of a likely recession without a very good plan.

From memory Miltown Kid and Namahottie were teaching in Taiwan and have returned and seem to be doing very well. Check some of their posts.

HG[/quote]

Thanks HGC but to the OP I would take that advice to heart. The economy sucks here big time and things aren’t looking up for this year, $$$. I can’t complain not one bit, as I have been very very blessed. Come back with a SOLID plan and at least 6 months of savings. If you don’t have skills that transfer easily, then it will be hard to find decent work. I’d also try sending out resumes now, if you’re gonna come home soon i.e. in the next 3 months or so. Otherwise, I would wait until next year, save save save like a fish needs water, buff up the skills with an online course and then come back.

Best of luck.

4

Absolutely what she said! At least in Taiwan you have a job and, if you hustle a bit, can find lots of sweet on the side. It’s going to be very hard to find a good job here and you will need to find a place for yourself and then convince someone they they can’t continue to function without your special skills. The will not be able to relate to your time or experience in Taiwan.

And you need loads and loads of cash! If you want to go “home,” I hope for your sake it’s a metropolitan kinda place. If not, consider just moving back to the States, but to a big city where your odds are better. It’s going to be tough right now, but especially if “home” is a smaller rural place.

Good luck! And remember, the world is bigger than the U.S. and Taiwan. There are other places that you haven’t seen yet that might be options if you can’t make plan A work out for you.

5

[quote=“housecat”]Absolutely what she said! At least in Taiwan you have a job and, if you hustle a bit, can find lots of sweet on the side. It’s going to be very hard to find a good job here and you will need to find a place for yourself and then convince someone they they can’t continue to function without your special skills. The will not be able to relate to your time or experience in Taiwan.

And you need loads and loads of cash! If you want to go “home,” I hope for your sake it’s a metropolitan kinda place. If not, consider just moving back to the States, but to a big city where your odds are better. It’s going to be tough right now, but especially if “home” is a smaller rural place.

Good luck! And remember, the world is bigger than the U.S. and Taiwan. There are other places that you haven’t seen yet that might be options if you can’t make plan A work out for you.[/quote]

Thanks for advice everyone…

Luckily, I do go back to a Metropolitan area. But a question I have, where else could I go? Only place else would be Korea, China, Japan or Thailand to teach english and each of those places according to what various people have said are horrible places to teach(Taiwan is not that much better either though). As for any place else seeing as I don’y have networks developed, I have no clue what I could do there–so do you have any ideas or pathways I could consider in countries besides US and Taiwan?

6

More advice, just hit reply once and wait.

Japan is an excellent place to go.

I returned back to the UK about 18 months ago. I have a great job at a school in West London, and although I pay through the nose for my flat, you can’t express piece of mind in monetasry terms. I can see my family, my friends, etc. Stuff money can’t buy.

Go home, but have something to go back to.

Or stay, and find a better pharmacist.

7

No kidding. It was a bit sobering this morning to come across this article in MarketWatch:

11 reasons Bernanke’s recession lasts till 2011

Yikes!

After a great CNY in the US, my wife and I decided to head back next year, but that depends on whether I’ll land a good job first. Unlike all those who refer to Taiwan as a stagnant deadend in ones career possibilities, I’ve found it terrific. BUT, that still doesn’t mean there will be jobs in the US. I definitely won’t leave till I have a firm, binding, written contract for employment over there.

8

Not to mention seeing Spurs beat Chelski in a cup final at Wembley. Worth going home for that alone, I reckon.

9

Not to mention seeing Spurs beat Chelski in a cup final at Wembley. Worth going home for that alone, I reckon.[/quote]

I tell you what, I fell silent after we won, I was in total shock! Come On You Spurs!

10

The other poster’s situation seems to be very different. He was supporting his girlfriend until she went back to Taiwan, he worked a job that was directly tied to the housing industry, he’s in an area he describes as economically depressed, and he seems to want to stay in that area, since he’s running for local political office. So if you were planning on making the same choices, I guess that would be worrisome.

I hesitate to call the following inspirational or a success story, but here goes.

My BA is in Asian Studies. I taught English for a year in the PRC, went home to a rural area in the States, had trouble finding work of any description (“Why do you want to be a waitress when you were a teacher?”), found some work, saved up money for a ticket to Taipei, and worked as an English teacher there for four years. I met and married my (Taiwanese) husband there, and we moved to the States eight years ago with $8000US in savings.

We stayed a month in podunk with my parents, then we moved to a major metropolitan area two hours away. I found an entry-level job in publishing three months later (two months of reverse culture shock funk, one month of actual jobhunting). I moved to a better publishing job with a sociopathic boss. My husband took classes and got a certificate that allowed him to move into a new career. He found a part-time job, then another part-time job, so he was working full-time. We purchased a house, and I moved to a much better publishing job with sane bosses. One of my husband’s part-time jobs made his position full-time, and he quit the other part-time job. We have a toddler and a preschooler.

We’re happy with our life here, but I think we would have had a good life in Taipei too.

I talked with my husband about this thread tonight, and he agreed that a plan and savings are key. I think my lack of planning contributed to the reverse culture shock funk I went through, and I wish we’d had more in savings. It would have been less stressful at certain points if we’d had more saved.

Most of the people I’ve known who’ve moved back have gotten MAs in international relations. They went to school in the evenings and worked fulltime during the day. Then they got jobs in consulting or with the government. Another set have gotten state teaching certifications and teach ESL or other subjects. I’d imagine you could work fulltime and take law enforcement courses part-time. There are some tax breaks available for adults back in school, such as the Lifetime Learning credit.

My experience has been that employers are not interested in hiring people living in the next state, let alone someone living in Taiwan. I would expect to have to a local mailing address before getting interviews to many jobs and certainly most entry-level jobs. YMMV.

Finally, my advice is to enjoy your time in Taiwan as much as possible, get out and explore, have some fun, save some money, and move back when and if you’re ready. And if you move back to the States and find you don’t like “nonstudent” life there, you always can move back to Taiwan or try living in another country. It’s your life, and a decision to change course does not mean you’ve failed in some way.

11

You will probably get back to the US and find the same. While there is plenty to dislike about Taiwan, there is also a lot to like. I have come to realise that I am someone with itchy feet, and will probably find something to moan about wherever I am (mostly because nowhere is perfect, and if somewhere is, it won’t be after I arrive) because I get bored quickly, and miss the “exoticness” of living outside my comfort zone in Asia.

So here I am in New Zealand, with a great job as an Economist, working for an amazing company, with our own house almost paid off and a rental just purchased, but I’m checking out Forumosa. Why?

  • high taxes
  • weather not much better than in Taiwan (at the other end of the spectrum)
  • boring after 5pm when almost EVERYTHING closes
  • all the “getting ahead” I did was with the investments I made while saving in Taiwan for 5.5 years. That paid for 2/3 of our first home. I don’t know how anyone here could afford to buy a nice house and pay it off in less than 25 years even on a double income.

If you’re under 30, go back to the States, start at the bottom (if necessary) in something different that interests you or, as I suggested a long time ago in another thread, stay in Taiwan a couple more years, scrimp and save, and study something you can use after Taiwan (there are plenty of distance education providers and not all of them are garbage - the UK, NZ and Australia are particularly good in this regard, but I am sure the US must have some good providers).

It sounds like you do have some Chinese - get some certification to prove it - Shida or TLI may have excellent teaching, but do they give you any real “proof” of you Mandarin skills?

Taiwan is an EASY place to pay the bills, have a drink or 2 and still have PLENTY of money to save for anyone teaching more than 22 hours a week. Use this money to save for school and to get some letters after your name if you can. After 3 years (±) in Taiwan you should have smething in your bank account to get you started anyway.

I did a second degree while in Taiwan out of sheer boredom. Because drinking myself into a stupor was not my thing, I found that after a few months of teaching “Aa apple” I was getting bored, and that Economics degree is what got me the job I’ve now been in for 13 months, am becoming very good at, and am enjoying very much…although I still miss Asia (not Taiwan specifically, I don’t think).

Couldn’t say it better.

Exactly right. I probably applied for 50 plus jobs while living in Taiwan, but only got 3 interviews in NZ. Why did I get these? Because I said I was actually coming over and asked if they could see me while I was visiting. 3 interviews, 3 job offers. It may prove VERY difficult to set up a job before you arrive back there. Why would they give YOU the job when rising unemployment means there are plenty of other ppl who live there right now who could handle the job.

Finally, consider timing. The US is in a tailspin. Now might not be the time to move. If you really want a change of scenery, try Korea or possibly Japan for a couple of years until the US picks up. I would suggest Korea over Japan in terms of savings-ability. But use those years wisely.

12

[quote=“DSN”]

Finally, consider timing. The US is in a tailspin. Now might not be the time to move. If you really want a change of scenery, try Korea or possibly Japan for a couple of years until the US picks up. I would suggest Korea over Japan in terms of savings-ability. But use those years wisely.[/quote]

If someone in NZ can make this astute observation of America, I think you better stay put. He’s dead on.

13

Thanks for the latest replies I find them immensely helpful.

Luckily, if I go back to US, I can stay with my folks which I don’t mind at all and in fact I even prefer it, and I don’t think they mind that much either so long as I’m moving forward.

DSN, I’m curious did you get your degree in economics in Taiwan? If so, how did you do it? A big reason I want to head back is because really teaching English here in Taiwan is a pretty stagnant career and isn’t really helpful for future job prospects (ie. Aa Apple). The reason I mention this is because I wanted to pursue an MBA here in Taiwan, but I became pretty demoralized because entrance essays tend to focus on what you have done have credibly in your past career experience and honestly it’s hard to put together a convincing essay being that pretty much all my work experience has been teaching English in Taiwan in the bushiban and/or cram schools. Consequently, my other option is to go get that credible work experience so I can create that convincing essay and get an MBA, hence, the return to US-home. In Taiwan, I feel with my qualifications unless I network like crazy and sell myself to a unimaginable level, I don’t feel I’ll be able to find that credible career that can possible help me move forward in a more fulfilling way. Though getting an economics degree like you did gives me a bit more morale.

Overall, sentiments among posters here are savings and a plan…So I gotta get that going

14

I’d rather like to go home and get a smashing gig at a great publishing house. Get back into publishing/radio/TV etc.

Or climb on the 2010 Football World Cup wagon and make some sweet loot.

Or just open a tea shop like they all do here - could be my ticket.

But I will miss all the lovely young fluff I see every day - I know, when I went home I missed it every day. So, I think I’ll stick around here a bit longer.

15

I studied my degree through distance learning. As I said, there are plenty of good schools out there with distance learning / correspondence programmes. Now in NZ, I am continuing distance learning, doing my Post-grad diploma in Management through Massey University, an NZ school, through which you can study from Taiwan. If you could find a US school, though, it would be better because:

  1. you will likely pay lower fees than un-subsidised “foreign” students, which you would be if you studied through a UK, Australian or NZ provider
  2. your prospective employer won’t be as confused when you apply for a job in the States.

MBAs are more than a little overrated, and, while it may be something to head for down the road, it wouldn’t be a starting point I’d choose, unless, as you mentioned, I had the relevant business experience behind me (which it sounds like you don’t, and I certainly didn’t).

16

If someone in NZ can make this astute observation of America, I think you better stay put. He’s dead on.[/quote]

I was talking with my brother in Denver, on the phone, yesterday. I told him we’re hoping/planning to return to the States about a year from now. He said, given the state of the economy, he thinks we’re maybe 12 to 24 months early.

Here’s today’s news.

[quote]Stocks sank Thursday as investors fretted over a rise in unemployment claims and the prospect of more bank failures. . .

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in testimony to Congress that while large U.S. banks will likely recover from the recent credit crisis, other banks are at risk of failing. Three small U.S. banks have already failed since the summer, when the lending industry started losing billions of dollars as mortgage defaults soared. . .

Earlier, stocks had fallen in response to a Labor Department report that first-time unemployment claims rose last week by 19,000 to 373,000, the highest level since late January.

Scott Wren, equity strategist for A.G. Edwards & Sons, said he still believes there’s less than a 50 percent chance of a recession, but that it’s clear employers are cautious about hiring.

‘‘To consistently see claims up near 400,000, that’s pretty telling often-times of a recession,’’ he said. . . [/quote]

[quote] Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, signaled his readiness on Wednesday to bolster the economy with cheaper money even though inflation is picking up speed. . .

The Fed chairman acknowledged that the central bank faced increasingly contradictory pressures of slowing growth and rising consumer prices. . .

Mr. Bernanke painted a grim picture of consumers reluctant to spend, businesses reluctant to invest and banks reluctant to lend. On top of it all, housing prices keep falling.

“The economic situation has become distinctly less favorable” since last summer, he told the House Financial Services Committee. . . .[/quote]

But, no offense intended namahottie, at least if you are moving back to the States soon, don’t move to Chicago. CNN yesterday showed the temp in LA at 14% and in Chicago at -16%. :snivel:

17

That’s nothing if you were born on or near the prairies. I can remember skiiing at Nakiska (near Banff) in -30 degree celsius weather. In Alberta, it is not uncommon for it to dip to -40 for a few days. It sure is nice though when a Chinook warms things up. I’ve been away from that kind of weather for so long though, I’m sure I wouldn’t handle it so well now.

18

James651, everything you say in your first post is true. Moving back to where you came from is the hardest when you severed all your ties at home.

I don’t know if everyone who has ever taught English in Taiwan will be returning home to continue to teach. I highly doubt that. You should upgrade either now, or as soon as you return home if you only have English teaching on your resume! Teaching English overseas does not look and sound as exotic as you might think (I’m not saying you DO think so, but in case other people are reading this). As a matter of fact, potential employers could be thinking, “Hey take a look at this resume. Joe Blow taught English in Taiwan for two years after graduating from university. But what skills can he bring to our office? We don’t need his ‘passable Mandarin’ skills.”

Unless you want to be teaching English when you go home, upgrade. And why would a school want to hire you when they can hire someone local with up-to-date English teaching credentials?

When you decide to return, have a pl-ZAN. Either have a well-thought out plan or have enough savings to tie you over for a few months while you think out a well-thought out plan. Or better yet, don’t sever your ties back home in the first place: keep in touch with everyone while you’re in Taiwan so when you go back you got people to hook you up and keep you in the loop of opportunities.

The way I see it is this:

  1. Graduate from school.
  2. Work for a few years. Gain some social skills, workforce experience.
  3. THEN teach in Taiwan for a couple of years. Always always give yourself a time frame. When that time frame is done, LEAVE AND GO HOME. And always have that plan with you!

If you can’t cut it back home after some time, or if your plans take you elsewhere, you can always 4a) pack up and head to a new country to teach English or 4b) move on and do something more splendid.

I did 1, 2, and 3, and am now on 4b.

If you have no transferrable skills, you really have to work hard at upgrading. During the adjustment period back home, it’s prolly best not to keep thinking about Taiwan and how cheap and fun everything is there.

And yes, taxes are high here! Rent is crazazy! Car, insurance, food, groceries, etc. etc. But the trade-off is great. Look at the bigger picture. Focus!

19

That there are some wise words from 914.

I think it is of vital importance for folks to have something more on their resumes other than “ESL Instructor” if they are planning to move back home. Take on-line classes or something.

Compared to Taiwan it is very expensive living back home. I make about $4,000 a month before taxes and it is all gone the day I get paid (I am saving heavily though). Nickeled and dimed to death…but that’s okay.

Have a plan is also wise advice. Just because you lived overseas don’t expect people to welcome you home like some sort of conquering hero. Most people don’t give a shit…but that’s okay.

Life is much slower here…at least where I am living. That took some time to get used to. And people are less interesting. I am surrounded by rednecks whose lives, thoughts, and actions are dictated by the church they go to…but that’s okay.

I was/am surprised on how much I don’t miss Taiwan. One would think that after living there for 18 years I would have a yearning to go back. I left Taiwan on good terms but I think it is a bit strange that I don’t miss it. I must be some sort of weirdo or something…but that’s okay.

Anyways, if you are planning to move back home, print 914’s post and staple it to your forehead or something for reference.

20

Well, you’re a practical enough person to make your bed and lie in it without wasting a lot of effort trying to justify your decision or pining away for the life you left behind. I think mature people live exactly where they want (and can afford) to without spending too much time trying to justify their decision to others. One of my favorite authors, Annie Proulx, left New England for Wyoming when she was nearly 60 years old. It wasn’t dramatic, it was just where she wanted to live.

I often chuckle at those who leave Taiwan in a huff and spend lots of time telling everyone how bad it was so that they can feel better about their decision. It is pretty obvious what’s going on. No need to explain yourself to everyone, unless you aren’t too sure of your decision yourself.