I have been made to feel that way in Taiwan, also (although, not by gay men). Although, I guess I might have made one or two people feel that way, too.
Met an Aussie girl like that in Tainan. Can’t say I complained much, though…
That happens after school and/or university.
Hmmm…
Are you planning on coming here after college? If not, how are you expecting to support yourself here? Sure, you could come on a student visa to study Chinese, but if you get caught teaching without a work permit you may find the only happy people surrounding you being the FAP who make the arrest and accompany you to the airport.
Could be a lesson and/or opportunity for growth in that, also, I suppose…
That’s for damn sure! Can’t see how chou dofu could make anyone happy let alone provide contentment.
Ok, nevermind…
And, regarding the question in the OP.
Saw an ad in the paper. They were looking for native speakers. I’ve yet to meet one from my homeland.
Seriously, though. I had a naive interest in Chinese language and culture. Got here and was punched in the face with an extremely heavy dose of culture shock. Gaoxiong. Say no more.
Wanted to turn back and head home right there. Stayed for a year. Went home for Chinese New Year. Came back and haven’t left since.
It’s been my experience that visitors to this island generally fall into two categories:
Arrive. Hate it. Leave.
Arrive. The place gets it’s hooks in you. You never leave.
[quote=“bismarck”]And, regarding the question in the OP. Saw an ad in the paper.
[color=#0000FF]They were looking for native speakers. I’ve yet to meet one from my homeland.[/color][/quote]
:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
We leave in coffins, unless you get buried at my Cemetery for the Wandering Expats, nice ocean views, good breeze to coold off the greiving or those applauding your death.
[quote=“bismarck”]
It’s been my experience that visitors to this island generally fall into two categories:
Arrive. Hate it. Leave.
Arrive. The place gets it’s hooks in you. You never leave.[/quote]
What does “get its hooks in you” mean ?
That you got to love it ? As in genuinely love it, or love it as Winston “loved Big Brother” at the end of Orwell’s 1984 ? Or did you stay because after a time, returning home was no longer an option from a financial point of view ? And that over the years you had established a good social network here and didn’t want to throw it all away and start from nothing again.
Obviously I never got that warm fuzzy feeling about Taiwan, but I would be interested to know how you and others have fallen in love with the place, albeit in a love-hate kind of relationship.
Loads of reasons! Mountains, sea, hotsprings, good people, food, temples, convenient transport, good weather, easy to fly to other places in Asia, coffee shops, techyness, street markets, weirdy Daoist parades, strippers at funerals, towns like JiuFen and Jilong, Taroko, massages, sashimi, cheap housing, safety from crime … honestly, I can think of a million things.
[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“bismarck”].
It’s been my experience that visitors to this island generally fall into two categories:
Arrive. Hate it. Leave.
Arrive. The place gets it’s hooks in you. You never leave.[/quote]
You forgot
3. Arrive. Stay for a fair few years. Have a nice time then move somewhere else. [/quote]
I was generalising, but sure, there’s that.
[quote=“pgdaddy”][quote=“bismarck”]
It’s been my experience that visitors to this island generally fall into two categories:
Arrive. Hate it. Leave.
Arrive. The place gets it’s hooks in you. You never leave.[/quote]
What does “get its hooks in you” mean ?
That you got to love it ?[/quote]
In my case, yes.
Nothing at all like Winston. I really love Taiwan (if I didn’t I would’ve left by now, and I certainly wouldn’t be applying for citizenship!), but sure, returning home with a wife and a child isn’t really practical for me right now from a financial/career point of view. At a push I could do it if I really wanted to, but all in all I prefer being here than back there.
That said, there are some things I miss about the “old country”, but if we left I would feel the same way about Taiwan. And the older I get and the longer I stay the harder it becomes to pack up, go home and start all over again. I’d like to take my family back for a year or two to study and spend some time with my grandparents before they die, but even that is a huge undertaking with loads of sacrifice that might make it improbable.
Again, being single (or childless) simplifies things a lot and makes it easier to stay here or move back home, I think.
I can only speak for myself. I love South Africa, but I’m not sure it’s all that great unless you have a really good job or some form of a business/income that can afford you and your family a good standard of living, i.e. good schools, house in a decent safe neighbourhood and small things like private medical coverage etc.
It doesn’t help if I go back for the sunshine, rugby and braais without little hope of making a decent living, constantly worrying about crime with an unhappy wife because she misses everything about our life here.
That said, married (with children) or otherwise, I fell in love with the place after the first year I spent here. Particularly Tainan. I can’t imagine living in Gaoxiong or Taipei, but this city just feels like home to me. If we go away somewhere for vacation and head back home I get that feeling of “I’m home” once we start to enter Tainan city.
In the last seven years I’ve really become a “Tainan boy”. I feel completely at home here. I have everything I need or want all around me, even the local rugby club. My friends (locals and expats), my wife’s family, the 7-11 where I walk in when the clerk sees me he/she reaches for what they know I want without me needing to ask, my favourite tea shops around the city that start to make what I want when I arrive and instead of asking “Yao shenme?” ask “Nide erzi hao ma?”. Going out for hot pot with my wife and MIL, my favourite foods on every corner and the friendliness of the laobans. The lady who cuts my hair while she rabbles on in Taiwanese whether I understand or not and patiently listens when I answer in my crap Chinese. Winters so short they are over in a matter of weeks. Summers that stretch on for months, lying on the beach, being able to play with my son on weekdays and being able to go to the park with him at twilight without having to worry that he’ll have to see me knifed in the guts for the NT$100 in my pocket and the four year old cell phone on my belt.
And strangest of all, the feeling of belonging. This is something I can’t explain, but Tainan has always made me feel this way. I just feel “right” here.
If I was from England, or Australia or anywhere else, and if I didn’t live in Tainan, perhaps I wouldn’t have felt this way, and perhaps I would have gone home long ago. But I’m not and even using the word “home” for South Africa seem wrong to me. This is home. Tainan is home. Taiwan has it’s faults, and it’s not perfect by a long shot. There are things that irritate me, and there are aspects of the local culture I’ll never understand. But for better or worse, somewhere along the line, I changed. Formosa got it’s hooks in me. And I don’t even know if I could go back even if I wanted to.
Then again, out of seven years and change, more than four have been with my wife. Maybe it’s just her. We’ve had our ups and downs, as have Taiwan and I, and maybe I’ll feel different somewhere down the line. But now. Here. This is home and I somehow just fell in love with the place.
And honestly, if I could change any one thing, it would be this: I’d have started studying Chinese full time at NCKU when I first got here, instead of intermittently on my own. My biggest irritation is that I’m not anywhere near as competent in the language as I could or would like to be.
[quote=“candro”]I’d say I’m somewhere in between Buttercup and Mother Theresa. I understand what Buttercup says, about happiness coming from within. That is definitely true. Just changing locations is not enough. It can be a temporary fix, but it is in no way something that can be a root cause of eternal happiness. There is no key to happiness, either, and not one thing you can do to make yourself happy. If you think moving to Taiwan will solve all of your problems, you are wrong.
However, I definitely think there is a whole, whole lot to learn in Taiwan, and other countries. And I think that changing location, while it cannot be a root cause of eternal happiness, can teach you a lot about life, the world, and best of all: yourself. [/quote]
The individual’s perspective is the key. Travel, including extended stays in other countries, broadens one’s horizons and makes life richer. It is not, however, an escape. So if someone were to say ‘I want to go to Taiwan because I’m unhappy in San Francisco’, I’d doubt that it would help. However, if someone were to say ‘I want to go to Taiwan for a new experience and new adventure’, then I’d say they would get one.
I’m happy no matter where I am, but I’d rather be in San Francisco. Maybe one day, when gay partnerships are recognized for immigration purposes, my partner and I can move back.
I’m happy no matter where I am, but I’d rather be in San Francisco. Maybe one day, when gay partnerships are recognized for immigration purposes, my partner and I can move back.[/quote]
yes that can be a problem. My mandarin chat partner is a white gringo girl (lesbian) and she had to break up with her Taiwanese GF because they could NOT marry and therefore she (the taiwanese GF) could NOT stay in the USA.
yes that can be a problem. My Mandarin chat partner is a white gringo girl (lesbian) and she had to break up with her Taiwanese GF because they could NOT marry and therefore she (the taiwanese GF) could NOT stay in the USA.[/quote]
Which, as I said before, and getting back to the OT, is the reason I moved to Taiwan. It’s easier for me to get residence here than it is for my partner to get residence in the US. I’m not “unhappy” here. There are things I like and things I dislike, which is the same everywhere. We would both simply prefer to be in SF, or maybe Phoenix where we have a group of close friends.
OP Question:
In urban, big city USA middle school, I was fed up to the point of having an aneurysm or ulcer from all the political, teach the test but don’t teach the test, federal and state money grubbing, standardized test, newest repackaged pedagogy slop, meeting, meeting, meeting, micromanagement, diversified teaching methods, special ed mainstreaming, money saving measures, administrator big bonus, decreasing insurance coverage, rising insurance costs, etc. bull crap in the public school system on top of the worsening economy.
Plus I lived here 20 and 25 years ago, speak Mandarin, and was feeling homesick for my 2nd home. Teaching public school here is WAY less stressful than back there. People are mostly nice, especially as compared to young, angry, urban youth. Life is overall easier, at least for me.
This place isn’t bad at all. I would even go so far to say that it provides the perfect environment for my development at the moment. I just couldn’t see myself settling down here long term. I think my end destination is probably closer to Luleå.
I had no reason. Must there be a reason always anyway?
All what I knew 7 years ago about TW were my old plastic toys and fighting politicians on TV.
Only faith was the reason…
When being in Korea in 2004, some of our chiefs put my name on 3 cm Square yellow post-it and arrived here 3 months later, now being almost 5 years ago.
I hated it the first year, saw my Ex and boy leaving and damned the place and its people.
I got acquainted, married a local and recently refused a posting to the Philippines.
Taiwan UP
The reason of staying: Quality – Comfort – Convenience and the $$$$ cashing each month for god sake
[quote=“freethinker83”] I have made some really close and good friends here but I guess not as many as I had back in High school. I think im still trying to recover from the loss of a ton of great friends down to around 5 or so haha
[/quote]
That’s pretty normal anywhere, isn’t it? I know lots of people, but in people I’d call great friends, there wouldn’t be that many. That’s just part of adult life.
Worked just fine for me, but then I wasn’t chasing Asian cock like the OP. Oops sorry, I mean experiencing the wonderful Chinese culture and people from a first-person perspective. In my pants.
[quote=“ceevee369”]I had no reason. Must there be a reason always anyway?
All what I knew 7 years ago about TW were my old plastic toys and fighting politicians on TV.
[/quote]
They still fight. Wasn’t it just a while ago that some DPP legislator bitch-slapped another guy while they were in session? Also some other woman had a press conference and openly said that “no” means “yes” in Taiwanese women speak?
[quote=“kjmillig”]OP Question:
Teaching public school here is WAY less stressful than back there. People are mostly nice, especially as compared to young, angry, urban youth. Life is overall easier, at least for me.[/quote]
They pay teathers very well in Taiwan apparently, so well that there is no shortage of schoolteachers. As a matter of fact, I was told that NTNU (Shida) graduates were no longer guaranteed teaching positions upon graduation compared to 20 years ago, when they were pretty much able to pick any place they wanted to work, and got super duper bonus pay if they wanted to teach hillbillies in the boondocks.
[/quote]
