Im thinking of coming here mid November, and stay for about 4 months.If one has the credentials ie Celta, degree, and experiece plus the right “look” which everyone says is so important, is is possible to pick up work and save some money in that short period of time??
thanks for your help
In order to stay in Taiwan, you’d need an ARC. This means a 1 year contract from a school. You could have trouble getting this considering you’d only be staying for four months.
Your other option is to study at a visa approved language school like CLD which will let you stay on your visitor visa for your four months. You would be working illegally though, and also be paying for your school fees of around $NT10-12K for 4 months. Buxiban work should be easy to find though.
Saving money? Most don’t start saving until around the 3rd month anyway but I suppose if you were really tight with your money, ate gan mien every day, found cheap accomodation at a hostel ad found some decent hours of work, then you still wouldn’t save a lot. Maybe $NT70K. Forgot, you’ll be here for CNY. 2 wks of probably no work too.
Mmm doesnt sound so promising, I was thinking that you could work "illegally"without having to go to school,doing part time jobs as most do in Korea… anyway thanks for your input,most appreciated. I may have to head back to Osaka 
I don’t think you’d save any money in four months. Better rethink your game plan.
I can’t agree more. I know of nobody that made money…not to mention saved money in the 1st four months.
You could of course:
If you follow these simple guidelines, you may actually save money in 4 months.
No wonder I’m still here…came over for a quick buck…just for 6 months…
Thanks for the advice guys, that being the case, how long before you
can start saving money and also having a life? When I went to Korea
last year I got a job on the second day and I saved over 4 grand in 3 months and went out twice a week and ate well etc etc. I did stay in a hovel but that didnt bother me
I managed to save quite a bit when I was in Taiwan, but I also lived pretty simply. I stayed in a hostel for the first few months, cooked for myself pretty regularly and limited my eating to slop shops and street food. When I drank, I did it at home or with friends OUTSIDE of bars. Truly it depends on how you live and spend your time & money. You can live simply and have a great time while making good money, although four months is really just getting started. I, too, had work in my first week, although it took a few months before I had a solid schedule that fit my wants and needs. Best of luck to ya!
Perhaps you should stay where you are unless you are planning to teach adults (which isn’t as lucrative as teaching children) or to stick around for a year. There are already lots of fly-by-night teachers here trying to make a quick buck by signing a year contract with no plans to fulfill it. Why encourage more?
ImaniOU wrote:
Lots? Try almost all. Let the kid have his chance to put his snout in the trough.
I disagree with the 7-11 food bit. Learn these three words ji rou fan and you can live on eating $60 NT worth of food a day. Too bad you’ll probably spend more on drinking water.
About not fulfilling a one year contract… don’t a lot of schools want those fly-by-night teachers, at least as fill-in for the teachers who left before even their first 3 months were up? But I wonder if there’s a Big Brother in Taiwan who will recognize a previous fly-by-nighter when he tries to return to Taiwan later.
I know of more than one person who has managed to come here and save almost 200,000 in 4 months or less. It means coming here, to work ,work and work only though. It may not be the greatest living experience but it’s certainly do-able.
I don’t know where you work, but in my first four months I had $3200US in the bank. I happen to think 7-11 will cost a lot more out of you budget then you think. I’ve been here more than two years now. It’s very possible to eat well and have fun using less then 1/3 of my monthly salary.
In my first 4 months I spent $1000NT a week and no more. 
But then there were moths in my wallet and I didn’t know anyone.
My original intention was 6 months tops as a fly by nighter… now, it’s almost 6 years. 
Was he the brother of a cousin who was the acquaintance of your next-door neighbor? I think I heard of him too. 
In my first 4 months of living in Taiwan, I saved US$1600. And this doesn’t count what I spent on a 2-week vacation in Southeast Asia.
But mind you, this was in 1990, and I had a free place to stay.
[quote=“Chris”]In my first 4 months of living in Taiwan, I saved US$1600. And this doesn’t count what I spent on a 2-week vacation in Southeast Asia.
But mind you, this was in 1990, and I had a free place to stay.[/quote]
Exchange rate in 1990: about NT$25 per $1 USD. Rate when I arrived in 2001: about NT$35 to $1 USD so making $500/hr back then would be like making $700/hr now.
Okay, now it makes much more sense. 
[quote=“ImaniOU”][quote=“Chris”]In my first 4 months of living in Taiwan, I saved US$1600. And this doesn’t count what I spent on a 2-week vacation in Southeast Asia.
But mind you, this was in 1990, and I had a free place to stay.[/quote]
Exchange rate in 1990: about NT$25 per $1 USD. Rate when I arrived in 2001: about NT$35 to $1 USD so making $500/hr back then would be like making $700/hr now.
Okay, now it makes much more sense. [/quote]
But I’ve been told that new teachers are working at NT$500 or less. I have no idea what teachers are paid but I’ve hear of some really low monthly salaries of 40K… not a lot to be saving on unless you’re just eating the cockroaches in your quarters for breakfast lunch and dinner
Roaches: the other…er, meat.
I’m sure that some people do manage to save up $3,200 USD in their first four months, but I prefer to not have to squat in a studio apartment with 5 other people, eat from cheap food stalls in some filthy rat-infested back alley every night, and work every waking minute of the day (ergo, eliminating any expeditures on entertainment because you have no free time)
Look, I wasn’t stupid before I came. My job came with an apartmant. A nice one. We got one meal (dinner) during working hours. I did my research before I came in '01. There are plenty of ways to save money in the first four months.