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The Great Toad
Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Posts: 80
Location: Formosa until Fall then... another English Crusade I shall sally off to ????
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 Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:16 am Post subject: |
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Counter these public school kids with Korean Kids... Ask yourself who is better behaved and more eager to get their work done? Then ask yourself if it is ok to get burnt on vacation time. This Taiwan school made me come in on semester breaks sit and dooooo Nothing - just because I was was paid. Regardless sometimes I miss all those yellow uniformed bunny rabbits... Christ save save all the Matsu worshipping pagans ... but for all their parents' error in missing the Proper English Way and The guiding Dogma I can not help but pray they all are saved- I did explain to them- as well as Icould the most Holy Holidays of Easter and Christmas and Good Jesu - heinously, not a one of these country kids ever went to a service. Ahh well one can only pray my shining example of Goodness, Love, Kindness, Wisdom, and Incredible English Prowess will be remembered by them and used by The Almighty to grant them Paradise as much as all these enlightened Corean kids are shown in their Mega Mega Churches.
...but of course these are deep country kids so capital Formosa students may be just as rascalish as hyper Corean city dongchim attacking students...
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6C7s1U3LU8 |
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the dakota kid
Joined: 25 Oct 2008
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:09 am Post subject: |
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The Great Toad,
Some Korean public schools make their teachers come in for the Xmas holidays as well...my school has not said anything yet, but our office of ed does not agree with the logic, you must be in Korea during this time.
In regards to which students are more studious...I teach at a vocational school, so draw your own conclusions!
tdk |
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naturegirl321
Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 9041
Location: home sweet home
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| Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| taiwan's is seeming better and better. 2.6 won is now only 1775 and last year it was 2600, whereas 65K NT is about 1900. |
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platinum peyote
Joined: 25 Dec 2008
Posts: 149
Location: Nanjing, near the bus stop
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| Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:31 am Post subject: |
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I did 2.5 years in Taiwan, and 3 years in Korea, so my advice is: go to China.
Why not Korea? The won is sucking really bad right now, unfriendly people, food gets boring really quickly.
Why not Taiwan? Terrible weather, harder-to-learn Mandarin, pay for teaching isn't really that great, worse beer than Korea.
Why China? Easy to make over 10 000RMB a month, friendly people, cheaper cost of living, more freedom (believe it or not), easier-to-get women, wide variety of food (including western goods - there's a store just up the road from where I live that sells South African boerewors, Vegemite, a host of American, Belgian, German and Australian beers, Thai spices, a ton of stuff for making Mexican food etc.
One warning about China though - choose a decent city. Nanjing, Suzhou, Dalian, Chengdu, Kunming are all good. Small towns/lesser-known cities = not good, lower pay, more stares, lack of decent nightlife and so on. |
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twiddle_dee
Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 7
Location: USA
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| Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:30 pm Post subject: Taiwan |
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| I was in Taiwan for three years. It was great and I recommend it to anyone. The nice thing is that once you're in either place it shouldn't be too hard to relocate to the other. If you're looking for a good site on the benefits of taiwan I'll recommend http://www.glowfishtw.com although I don't know about Korea. |
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meiyoubanfa
Joined: 14 Mar 2009
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:46 am Post subject: |
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1. is housing and airfare generally provided for jobs in Taiwan?
In Korea all I have to worry about is feeding myself, and the odd bill (which is cheap, less than 70 USD for heat/air condtioning, electricity, and internet).
You can eat a meal for about 2.5 USD here, at a cheapo restaurant.
My goal has always been to save about 1000 CAN dollars every month, but I am unsure if this is possible in Taiwan. Any comments welcome. |
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Tainan
Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 120
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| Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:14 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Why not Taiwan? Terrible weather, harder-to-learn Mandarin |
Having lived both in China and in Taiwan myself, I have to disagree pretty vehemently with this. If learning Mandarin is part of your goal Taiwan is far to be preferred on that score. For one thing the people are intelligible; in China half the people sound like they have marbles in their mouths. I'll never forget my first day in Taiwan, hearing people speak Mandarin slowly and clearly, enunciating--I almost cried. Then, they write using the real Chinese characters, which have a history and a story behind them and, although it takes a while to appreciate this, a kind of logic and system. The simplified characters of the Mainland, while they may look easier superficially, are often arbitrary, making long-term retention more difficult. That is my experience after five years of learing both systems. Besides, if you want to understand the "idea" behind the Chinese language you need to learn the real characters.
Finally, in Taiwan you'll just meet more people who are able to explain the language in a more reasonable way--again, this is my experience at least.
And for what it's worth, after two years in Manchuria I found the weather in Taiwan pretty delightful too!
| Quote: |
Why China? friendly people, cheaper cost of living, more freedom (believe it or not), easier-to-get women, wide variety of food (including western goods - there's a store just up the road from where I live that sells South African boerewors, Vegemite, a host of American, Belgian, German and Australian beers, Thai spices, a ton of stuff for making Mexican food etc.
One warning about China though - choose a decent city. Nanjing, Suzhou, Dalian, Chengdu, Kunming are all good. Small towns/lesser-known cities = not good, lower pay, more stares, lack of decent nightlife and so on. |
Amazing how different two people's experience of the same country can be. Yes, there were lots of friendly people in China, but it was a passive and rather limited kind of friendliness in my experience; I made more really vibrant interesting friendships in one month in Taiwan than in a year in China. More freedom? To cross the street recklessly or drink wherever, sure. As long as you don't mind opening the Economist (which you've just paid for with 55 RMB) and finding that articles have been scissored out by a censor. In Taiwan you meet people who have independent thoughts and opinions about things--it's really possible! And I, for one, had a far richer romantic and sexual life in Taiwan than in China. And far better and more varied cuisine, both local and international.
I don't want to sound as if I dislike China; I liked it a lot and may well go back. The people I met were very decent to me and I would never say anything against them. The experience of working for a university with really limited working hours and no red tape, leaving the teacher free to dispose of ample free time his own way, was great. But there is a mind-numbing uniformity of opinion after which Taiwan was a breath of fresh air. Working conditions in Taiwan, alas, are far worse. I would rather work in China, save up a little money, and then go and enjoy it in Taiwan. And Platinum, I don't mean to contradict what you say, but my experience was just, it seems, quite different from yours. |
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TJA
Joined: 09 Apr 2009
Posts: 27
Location: Greater Taipei
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| Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:38 am Post subject: |
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| meiyoubanfa wrote: |
1. is housing and airfare generally provided for jobs in Taiwan?
.....
My goal has always been to save about 1000 CAN dollars every month, but I am unsure if this is possible in Taiwan. Any comments welcome. |
Housing and airfare are not provided or paid for by most schools in Taiwan. It's up to you to pay for those things. Schools often help to find housing, but the "help" can run the gammut from useful to less than....
IMO, saving CA$1,000 a month would be hard for people unless they are living quite frugally in comparison to the general teacher here, and likely you will need to work 30+ hrs a week to save that much. IE, IMO it's possible, but not probable, to save that much in Taiwan.
In fact, saving a consistent amount per month in Taiwan has gotten harder with the recent change in tax rules (20% for first 183 days every year, then 6% for the rest of that year). However, this does provide a kind of "forced saving" as you will get a chunk back when you file (although that's many months after you could have had the money in hand....). |
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calgrl471
Joined: 13 May 2009
Posts: 36
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| Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| right now the korean won is horrible... I am currently working with epik and it has been great i am in a rural area. You miss the city but you can travel. What I have heard is go to korea first and they you will appreciate all the other asian countries. If you plan on teaching abroad more then a year do both! |
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Mr. Kalgukshi
Mod Team
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Posts: 6613
Location: Need to know basis only.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:37 am Post subject: |
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Some postings have been deleted. Postings on this thread on the Taiwan Forum must focus on Taiwan, not Korea.
Questions and comments regarding living & teaching in Korea should be posted on the Korean Job Forums where seperate registration is required. |
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