Job Discussion Forums

[Miyazaki]

dangerousapple wrote

[BigWally]

I wrote this a while ago in some other post....thought it was sort of relevant to the conversation (if nothing to just play devil's advocate of sorts )

[773]

[JZer]

[JZer]

[pinkflyd7]

I can't help but agree with just about everything the OP said. After 4 years in Taiwan, I was happy to leave. Having a Taiwanese wife and two mixed kids, we were like monkeys in a cage in Taiwan. Everywhere we went, people would stare at us and take our pictures.

One day, I took my kids to the park, and I was filming them, when some people came up to us and started to take our picture. So I started filming them. You can see the video here if you want:

http://kenberglund.blogspot.com/2008/04/day-at-park.html

The only thing I miss about Taiwan these days is the food. I miss the "dan bing" in the morning for breakfast. And I miss the "jen ju nai cha" and "low bow gow" at the Chung Shui Tan restaurant. That's it. I don't miss the rude people or the annoying teenagers I used to teach. I don't miss the blue trucks that wouldn't even slow down for a pregnant woman, or the hideous architechture. I certainly don't miss people shouting "waigouran!" whenever I walked outside. I'm quite content to be back in the US, where multi-culturism is widely common and accepted.

[ramakentesh]

Wow this forum has changed - last time I was here there was a guy who couldnt handle anyone saying anything about Taiwan at all.
And at that time when i was there i must say I also had a fair bit to say about the place.
Korea was better in many ways. More interesting for a start.
I started out in Beijing which I loved - expected something remotely similar in taiwan and didnt find it at all.
And half the expats i met over there had asperger's syndrome... The hiding place of some very strange westerners...

[Richard]

I agree with a lot of what's been said already.

There are many things about Taiwan I've enjoyed and don't want to come off too cynical, but just to add a few more things I'm sick of after six years (I realize many of these aren't unique to this country):

- being given a paper receipt with my change
- the often-ridiculous stuff you have to watch out for on the road if you drive a scooter in the city
- parents and school admins who tolerate extreme rudeness from kids
- addiction to air-conditioning
- having to prepare, or rather drill, for epic gala kindergarten "graduation" shows for 3-4 months that serve little purpose other than exhausting/stressing out both kids and staff, and giving parents a big flashy bling-bling showpiece so they can "see" where all their hefty tuition went
- constant pandering to parents in general
- "Quic-KUH-ly!" "Huh?" "I want! I want!" "Teacha so hot!" "Inside have...inside have...inside have" "I want to be a ___ because I can have money."
- parents who raise their kids on a diet of fast food, computer games and TV and then wonder why they're non-verbal, fat and lethargic
- on the flip side, kids so obsessed with perfection that they break down in tears over any test score less than 100%
- those damn working Saturdays to "make-up" for previous holidays, or placing a holiday on a Thursday and then having work again on Friday

[JZer]

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[Anubis]

The things that bugged me the most was:
1) How so few people treated me human. I was the clown for the kids or the walking freak-show for folks on the street.

2) The Taiwanese English "Teachers" couldn't actually speak English (where I was). Sure, they could communicate well enough, but I wouldn't say that most were even conversationally fluent. Just because I know what you were saying doesn't mean you speak English well. It means my Chinese is good enough that I know what you're translating from Chinese to English. Sorry, but even your expert English speakers drop S from the end of words, drop articles, and can't pronounce a lot of words properly.

It feels good to vent.

[romanworld]

[Jati]

[jotham]

[romanworld]

I worked in Taiwan between 1996-8 and I found it to be OK, but my friend, who is leaving the country after Chinese NY, says it's changed a lot since I was there. I asked him why he didn't like it, and he emailed me the following list:

1. The miserable faces.
2. The complete indifference.
3. The unprofessional English teaching environment.
4. The arrogance of both the Taiwanese buxiban bosses and the Taiwanese English teachers who think they know everything about the English language and the culture from which it originates, even though they've never set foot outside the country.
5. The noise pollution.
6. The air pollution.
7. Idiotic drivers.
8. Hyper-sensitive Taiwanese women who think that all foreigners are out to rape them.
9. A lack of quality nightlife.
10. The general lack of personal hygeine and sanitary awareness.

When I was living in Taiwan, I'd have been hard-press to list 2 or 3 negatives about the place, but now people are rattling off whole lists of problems. Has Taiwan really gone downhill that fast?

[SanChong]