Job Discussion Forums

[gooberdeluxe]

First, I will be going to Taiwan for the first time. I plan on living in Kaohsiung. Can someone give me the names of three decent schools I may be interested in? I plan on looking at KOJEN for starters.
Also, ten years ago I taught in good ol' South Korea for around five years. I go so far back that I taught there when Kim Il-Sung was a threat to the south. In relation to Korea:
a) How is the pay?
b) How is quality of life?
c) (Most importantly) How is the food?

Please, no long-winded well-it-depends-on-what-you're-looking-for answers.
Thanks,
G-Man

[Girl Scout]

The pay is good. It has been better, but currently you can send a lot of money home. Housing will be your biggest expense. You will have to decide how big a place you want to live in and if you want a roommate. After housing, you can live very, very well on 15,000nt a month. If you can spend all of that in a month you have had a lot of fun. Beer and mix drinks are a killer on the budget. That's my budget and I rarely spend it all. Even when I try.

I like the food. I'll eat just about anywhere at least once. Some of it can be pretty to plain, some of it can be very tasty. There is no typical chinese food here. A lot of rice and mien. There is also not a lot of spicey food, but you can always add the spice later. Chicken, pork and fish can be found everywhere. There is also a lot of duck and mutton.

Quality of life... Almost anything you need can be found in this country. The air is a bit polluted and the water is unsafe to drink. Most of the oceans are too polluted to swim in. You need to go to the east coast for cleaner ocean water. There has been a lot of effort to clean up. Trash cans can be found all over the cities. There are a lot fewer stray animals. Trash is picked up daily and there are even people who sweep the streets. They have just started enforcing a recycling program. It is getting better all the time.

I don't live down south, but just so you know it gets really hot down there. I have visited and I didn't like the air quality. You could actually see it hanging in the air.

[Aristotle]

Hello goober,
Let me be the first to welcome you to Taiwan. With a little luck and a lot of prior planning your experience of teaching on Taiwan should be an enlightening one.
Be advised that pay rates and available positions are declining island wide. You are not going to be making as much as teachers in previous years and considerably less than positions in other ESL hot spots. In some areas on Taiwan foreign teachers have been more heavily effected by the government ban on non ethnic Chinese English teachers than others.
Kaohsiung has been the least effected so far of the three major metropolitan areas. Positions are still abundant in Kaohsiung but the pay rates have stagnated or declined.
Please read this:
http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/Success.html
Good luck,
A.
_________________

[TaoyuanSteve]

a) Pay? Not too bad, all considered. An average rate of 600nt per hour, sometimes a little more (but don't take much less). I don't know about declining, but I'd say wages have effectively been frozen. Factors leading to this condition include economic conditions as well as supply of students, schools and teachers. It's safe to say few schools here are desperate for teachers.

b)Quality of life? Your salary will support a moderate lifestyle. You would most likely be comfortable here. The environment is not too good, however. Cleanliness is not what you're used to back home. Cities are crowded and dirty. The air is pollluted.

c)Food? Quite nice. I like it alot. Lots of affordable choices and, in major centers, fine dining is an option as well. Plenty of western food around as well.

[Ki]

Girl scout-
I guess I have the opposite problem to you concerning the food here. I cannot eat any spicey food at all. It must be BLAND. I find that restaurants always want to add a little bit of spice to my food, even when I request otherwise. Salt is often mixed in with pepper here so it is either both or none. Otherwise, I love it.

[gooberdeluxe]

Thanks all for the input. I love spicey food. Korean food does not hold back on the good ol' red pepper. One thing I will be looking forward to is not dealing with the Korean winters. Seoul was the ice capital of the world. Also, Aristotle, what do you mean there is a ban on non-Chinese english teachers?

[TaoyuanSteve]

[matchstick_man]

Re: Trash cans.......they're not widely available (maybe in Taipei) but in other towns what you assume are trash cans at first are actually ghost money burners. (I wouldn't put my trash here anymore). I've walked around for a long time looking for a trash can.

Admittedly Taiwan has improved on the trash situation but it's still far from perfect. Recycling wasn't an option a few years back and now there are trucks designed to pick up your recyclables.

[puiwaihin]