Living and working in Taiwan

By Charles Hummel

I've left Taiwan long behind and hope never to return. It was good experience for me and I made (and most importantly saved) a good amount of money, but enough was enough. I'm now working in the Gulf. I started in Dubai and am now at a
university in Oman. The Gulf is where the real money is. I make better than US $38,000/year with nearly two months summer holiday. The cost of living is similar to that of Taiwan (read: very reasonable). The best jobs (like the one I have now) are not easy to get; the competition is very keen here. You must be qualified and experienced.

Taiwan is a good place to start in EFL. Below are some 1999 messages I used to send from Taiwan. I’d say most of them are still pretty much true today.
Teaching is lucrative in Taiwan. I live in Hsinchu, but the teaching "scene" is pretty much the same throughout the island.
I'm teaching about 30 hours a week and average US $25/hr. My living expenses are less than $1000/month, leaving me with a savings of $2000/month. My highest rate is for an hour of teaching is $35/hr! My classes are evenly divided between kindergarten, high school and adult.
Teaching kids is big in Taiwan. It's very difficult to make big money and not teach kids. I hadn't before coming here and was not particularly anxious to do so but now that I'm used to it, it's not too bad. In some ways they're easier than adults and in other ways harder. I'd probably teach only adults if I had the choice, but I don't really mind the kids and sometimes they can be a lot of fun. Like anything else it's an acquired skill which just about any teacher can learn. Keep in mind that I've been here for just over a year. I got work right away after I arrived here but I didn't start saving any real money until about six months later, although I did pay for vacations to the Philipines and to Thailand. Before coming to Taiwan I had worked a year in a Thai university (Rajabhat Institute, Songkhla) and returned for some stuff I had stashed as well as for R&R.
I was in Thailand for the '97 crash which finalized my decision to leave there. I was ready to leave anyway. The Thai working environment is often frustrating with plenty of subtle Asian underhandedness and back-biting. Taiwan is less so. For the EFL teacher Taiwanese students are better than their Thai counterparts...much less reserved and considerably more talkative and open (but still East Asian 'shy'). Management, although universally money hungry and somewhat exploitative, is tolerable; most know the value of a happy foreign teacher.
That said, Taiwan is not a very interesting place. Few Westerners really like it here. I don't. But the money makes up for the undesirable Chinese peculiarities which must be endured. I'm actually quite comfortable with my cable TV and excellent Chinese food (yes, in my opinion the local cuisine beats that of Thailand). There is some impressive country side to see, but it's not particularly accessible. The highest mountains are a hair short of 4000 meters and I've managed to climb the two highest. Extended holidays are better spent outside of the island; I just returned from Bali last week for some needed non-Chinese R&R.

All in all, I believe this is THE Asian place to be for teaching. It's less xenophobic than Japan and Korea and has a much better climate, although winters can be cool and wet. Thailand is a great place to visit, but in my opinion, as far as getting ahead financially is concerned, it's a waste of time.
Also of note, Taiwan air pollution is horrendous with PSI ratings over 50 island-wide (even in small mountain towns) and commonly over 100 in the southern Kaoshung industrial area. The traffic is also a nightmare (although Taipei traffic is mild compared to Bangkok or even Manila) while riding a motor scooter (cheap and more than abundant) is a necessary evil for at least 90% of us teaching here.

It was easy for me to get set up in Hsinchu which has higher wages and is less hectic than Taipei). I spent about $1000 in getting established, including two weeks staying with a friend in Taipei and a visa run to Hong Kong. It could take more than that, depending on apartment rent and deposits.
As I said, it did take some time to get to the $2000/month savings level, but $1000/month is a piece of cake for everyone teaching here. More money and better, i.e., easier and higher per $ hour jobs, inevitably comes with time.
The ONLY qualification you need to teach English in Taiwan is a university degree (BS or BA) from an English speaking country, e.g., US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Teaching experience helps, but is NOT necessary! Note that the ORIGINAL diploma is often required to process the teacher's permit paper-work. Oddly, transcripts don't count and are actually useless here. Although I always keep original university copies, just in case. I'm happy working in Taiwan. It's a good experience. Read: it's great making all this money. I plan on surviving one more year here. It's the money!
(From the present, 2002: I didn't make it another year. It was more like another 6 months, giving me a total of 18 months in country and close to US $20,000 in my pocket.)
Here are some other old messages:
Even though you don't have experience, make some up (read: lie). No one ever checks and it could make a difference in getting a better job. Just say something about teaching immigrants or some volunteer reading program or any such thing. Everybody lies in Asia, especially employers. Don't trust them or believe their promises. From their point of view, it's nothing personal just good business. So don't fight it...lie and get with the program!
I wouldn't take a job before I got here. It's not necessary, and you could end up somewhere you didn't want to be or working for some unscrupulous...need I say more? Hess is maybe the biggest chain school on the island. I do know some folks who work for hem...long hours and not the best of pay, but it is steady work. The Hess employee slogan is, "It's not just a school. It's a business". I think you can make out better on your own. I do, with minimal managerial and bureaucratic hassles.

You do need an established company or school to provide you with an Alien resident Card (ARC). Mine is through the Hsinchu franchise of the Jordan's Language School (another island-wide chain). They are as down to earth and honest as Chinese can be. I do corporate classes at night for them and they pretty much leave me alone. They don't care about outside classes, especially during the day when corporate teacher demand is minimal.

You can get a 60-day visa at Taiwan "consulates" abroad. There're located throughout the world in most capitals and various major cities in big countries like the US. They all have different policies for visa issuance. The one in Bangkok is so strict that I came to Taiwan without a visa and got a 30-day one at the airport. A confirmed ongoing flight ticket is the only requirement, the date of which I later changed. As 30 days isn't sufficient time to process process paper work and obtain an ARC, I made a visa run to Hong Kong where getting a 60-day visa is no more than filling out a form and leaving your passport and photos in the morning and picking up the visa in the afternoon. Although 60 days is enough time for getting an ARC, there is some rule that is sometimes applied about being recruited outside of Taiwan, otherwise you must exit and return for your ARC. It's possible that it's currently being enforced. It wasn't last year. A round trip to Hong Kong is about US $175. Manila is also an easy place for a 60-day visa, and in my opinion, a lot more fun than HK.

I live in Hsinchu and it's certainly no worse than other Taiwan cities of 250,000 people. It's just over an hour from Taipei and has a sizable foreign population because of the Science Park (Taiwan's Silicon Valley) and the two major universities. There are kindergartens in smaller towns, some even in scenic mountain or rugged coastal areas, but you're quite isolated and, believe it or not, the air pollution isn't appreciably better; there's one big cloud that covers the whole island.

There are plenty foreigners in Hsinchu, not as many as in Taipei, but the locals are used to us, which means they don't stare like in less cosmopolitan areas.

Taiwan is a very safe country, everywhere in the island. This safety applies to women and men alike. The violence that occurs, and it does, is almost always between family members and friends, never against foreigners. We are honored guests here. About learning Chinese - I'd say forget it unless you have a real desire to speak the language. It takes years to learn and is not really necessary to live here; English is "widely" spoken or at least understood.
Cockroaches? Sure, this is the tropics, but they're no worse than Florida or Louisiana. And, we have a great (and not always toxic to us) arsenal to combat them. Don't worry, nobody likes them but they're easy to deal with.

Charles Hummel