Job Discussion Forums

[greent]

hi all,

I'm looking into jobs in both and am wondering what the pros and cons of each country are. Any advice appreciated! thanks...

[teacherger]

I am currently teaching in Taiwan and from what I have heard from other teachers here is that Taiwan is better. I have heard mostly that the people are more accepting here and that schools do not own you like they do in Korea. The weather is also warmer here. I have never taught in Korea so I do not know first hand.

[Tiger Beer]

There is a great page on the internet somewhere describing in detail the differences between Taiwan and Korea and Japan. It describes it in detail.

I've lived in Korea off and on for a long time. I've visited Taiwan, and met many people who've been and lived in both places.

From what I gather, Taiwan is more comfortable, more laid-back, and just all around agreeable. But on the negative side, its also said to be 'boring' compared to Korea.. the food is said to be 'greasy' and.. this one speaking from first-hand experience, the beer sucks! Taiwan is said to be more of a 'tea-drinking culture' as opposed to the chronic alcholic 24-hour bars all over the place thing going on here in Korea.

Korea is a more intense place.. memories stick with people a lot longer.. jobs are EXTREMELY easy to find here.. the job market is explosive.. on the negative side, its also xenophobic and can really grind on people negatively at times. Personally I like Korea myself.. but not everyone does. The place turns you into a drinker quick.. its all over the place within the culture.. and the money seems to flow pretty easy up here.. the food is extremely healthy and the bbq meat tastes great!

Korea is also weird on people.. when you are here, you wish you were somewhere else.. but when you are somewhere else, you start to miss Korea (many foreigners who have had a long-term relationship with Korea say that). I'm the same way. I really miss the place when I'm not here. I've also took off to either live or try to live or do this and that in a lot of different places.. but for various reasons I end up back in Korea again (and happy each time I do). But even now, I'm still thinking of where I want to go next.. hehe.

[chinwubachu]

tiger beer is right, i thought i was the only one who kept going back and forth to Korea lol.
after having `escaped` twice from bad schools ( in the middle of the night!) I am going back again next week.

I also popped over to taiwan and found those peeps really helpful and friendly and like tiger said `laid back`. probably a little more accepting of foreigners. I was thinking about going to taiwan to teach, but having just got over two bouts of malaria, I was a bit worried about getting ill again.

Korea is a bit touchy on the foreigners side. some are fine others are down right two faced. generally koreans are fairly racist i found.

I also checked pay in Taiwan and found it about the same as korea which surprised me.

I have found recently also that the working hours in korean jobs have got much later, many starting about 3-4pm and ending around 10pm.

I wonder tiger what the quality of life is like in taiwan compared to korea? eg accomodation etc etc

good luck in your decision.

[demaratus]

I haven't been to Korea so I can't comment on it, but I will comment on Taiwan. I live in Kaohsiung (the second biggest city in the south of the island). The weather here is really nice, hot in the summer and cooler in the winter. There are most amenities a person could want here for living, such as good restuarants (there are tonnes of great restaurants western and asian), entertainment (theaters, bars, ktv and various sports teams), and the expat community here (at least the one I know) is really cool. Generally Taiwanese people are accepting of foriegners (at least on the surface were I see them), and getting a job here is quite easy and painless to do. People have debated the taiwan-korea thing for quite a while and I believe that Korea does probably end up as a better financial deal (free airfare and accomodations). However, Taiwan generally gives more vacation (I get 5 weeks plus civic holidays), and while you do have to pay for accomodations you can find a great appartment quite inexpensively, versus having a basic bachelor pad provided which may or may not be a very livable place.

I hope this helps,

dem