The oddest foreigner you've met here -- share your story

They were real men. But now? :banana: :scissors: :scream:

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It would break the ice at parties.

Probably just an English teacher judging by the description.

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You realize you just insulted, like, half of Forumosa, right? :hushed:

Especially if they had some of those big blocks of it that needed smashing.

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#Me too.

Literally. :sunglasses:

What, the dirty-with-a-beard part, or the English-teacher part?

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Calling someone an English teacher is a pretty serious accusation, y’know. :unamused:

Knew this teacher who was visibly hard in the yearbook photo, taken with his flock of elementary school students.

:open_mouth:

True story. I went to an international school from K-7; he was there all 8 years (I think) but we never heard anything bad about the way he behaved so I’d like to believe it was an inconvenient coincidence.

wasn’t there an English guy, who tried to burn down one of the hostels and was always fighting with gangsters? I think he tried to rob a bank or something ?

I can vouch that can actually happen

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OK if true that would definitely take the prize for craziest foreigner ever in Taiwan.
Got any articles on it?

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you’d have to go back a long way I think it was that hostel near Taipei Train Station, Lucky family? And the fight with the gangsters was at Spin Disco, he and about 20 black guys beat up the owner and all his body guards after his buddy got glassed by a gangster for drinking with a his girlfriend. Early 1990’s I think. It was about a year before the infamous Shadow and his Liverpool Girlfriend got shot. It was in the China Post before the Internet

Well, I am totally new to Taiwan. I did see a few odd characters walking around when I was in Taipei last week - including one that looked homeless.

I, fortunately or unfortunately (not sure which one), only taught for a short time while I was studying at a Korean university (late 80s). There were a bunch of us studying and none knew about teaching English. One day a fellow foreign student - from Sweden - said he got a job teaching English. We didn’t know the industry existed.

So off I went to interview for a job. I arrived at the office and an American guy who used to be a foreign service officer with the US Embassy interviewed me. It was a language school. Anyway, he first asked me if I did martial arts. Apparently, he stopped hiring Karate guys. And we talked about fishing and whatnot - the job, teaching, etc. was never discussed. And in the middle of a conversation he would just space out and look off to the side for about 30 seconds. Then start back in the conversation. Anyway, at the end he handed me a book and a schedule and said I can start in 30 minutes. I still know the guy and he has become really off the wall. Still decent guy but very perverted and a lifer in Korea.

At the school I met a lot of guys that were “on the edge.” One ex-army guy form shitsville USA was fairly normal when he arrived. He was the super boy scout type - straight as an arrow. Really nice guy. He moved out to the Korean country side with a girl he had met (probably lost his virginity to her). About 6 months later he was back at the school working again. He started speaking in super pigeon English with no articles on his nouns. At first we thought he was just joking - mocking the Korean - but he wasn’t.

I knew another guy who lived 8 or 9 months in the Philippines and only came to work at the school during the busy season (12 hours a day, 5 days a week for USD4000+). He then took his cash and went back to his hut on the beach in the PI. One we on vacation in the PI and walking down the beach. Ahead we seen a guy standing on his head. Not a hand stand, just his head in the sand. it was this guy. Turns out he was big into Yoga and mediation. Oh, rumor was that he couldn’t go back to the US as he was a Vietnam War draft dodger (or he went to Vietnam then went AWOL). Nice enough guy, though.

Gosh, my odd foreigners seem pretty normal to the ones written about in this forum.

Oh, there was a few guys who interviewed at my company that were teachers trying to move up. One guy came in and he was sharp. We were going to make him a decent offer. But as usual, I Googled him (this was before that term existed). I still remember everyone crowding around my screen. The guy had previously was “partnered” with a guy that was put in jail for raping a boy. His partner looked like Grizzle Adams. The story went much deeper but I will avoid the details as the guy is still out there. But when he arrived at our desk he was engaged to get married to a Korea lady. What a convenient switch.

Then we had a guy that had applied at our company but he never made it to the interview stage - but we had his pic and resume. He was teaching at a school somewhere in Korea when his face was front page news. He had posted pics of himself having sex with young Thai kids - but he “swirled” his face using Photoshop or similar software. Well, some German software geeks were able to “un-swirl” his face. His pic was front page news. Turns out he bolted to Thailand and was caught there and sent home for jail.

One overall theme we found was that a lot of people were RUNNERS (as we classified them as).

Something happened to the or they did something uncool or illegal and the only place that would hire them were schools in Taiwan or Korea. Had a lawyer from a good law school - he had multiple DUIs (law license suspended of course). Actually had many business guys with DUIs that couldn’t keep their jobs so ended up in Korea. Many people with substance consumption issues, too.

We hired a lot of foreigners. In the end we had to Google them before even considering them for an interview. Many ended up having DUIs or this and that. Some were simple divorce refugees. But the most common tory was they met a Korean girl studying in their country and followed her to Korea (or girl following Korea guys on occasion).

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The foreigner screaming in Chinese like a madman in a telephone company shop this afternoon. What a dumbass. People just trying to do their job and this guy acting like he is going to blow the place up or something. The entire place was freaking out at this guy looking around trying to figure out what to do. I distanced myself by moving the the other end of the room while waiting for my number to be called. Didn’t want to be associated.

Chunghua office corner of Dunhua and Heping.

Didn’t have a Tattoo of Taiwan on his forehead?

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I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.

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