| Teaching adults,
at least this is how it's worked for me so far, means that you prepare
the lesson, arrive five minutes early in order to chat to your boss, teach
the lesson, and then you leave. It's great. And it means not having to
deal with demanding parents asking why their daughter can't read page four
of book 7B, and no shouting at nine year olds who take ten minutes just
to open their text books.
Plus, when
you teach kids, you just teach kids; teaching adults feels like it can
go somewhere. You may become friends with your students (if you start meeting
your five year old students for dinner, something has gone a little wrong),
they can recommend you to their friends, tell you about events, help you
find a house, or explain odd Taiwanese customs. And when you teach Business
English, you feel less of a monkey or a refugee from real life (you discuss
long term yield curves with MBA students), which is nice for the self esteem.
6. Make
Taiwanese friends. Unless you are unusual, you will arrive in Taiwan and
make friends with your fellow foreigners first. It's simply far easier,
as the cultural divide between you and local people is quite real. But,
making an effort to get to know a fair number of Taiwanese people is worthwhile
for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it
will make you feel less of a loser, teaching English during the day and
then chatting to English teachers in the evenings, probably with the main
topic of conversation all your complaints about this strange, rude country
and your awful boss.
Secondly, Chinese/Taiwanese
culture is often harsh and, yes, rude towards strangers. Walk around some
countries, just observing people in the street, and you will be left with
a good impression of the population (Thailand springs to mind as an example
of this), but I'm not sure that Taiwan is one of them. Around Chinese/Taiwanese
people, you will probably get exasperated and pissed off, unless you get
to see the other side - how they treat people they know well, how they
treat you when they consider you a friend. Taiwanese generosity and hospitality
are amazing, almost overwhelming at times, and once you've experienced
that, it's an antidote to the frustration of having people pushing in front
of you in queues, it stops you feeling alone in a weird place.
7. Eat
a lot of Chinese food. Life in another country is easier when you enjoy
the culture around you. My feeling is that it's worth picking some part
of Taiwanese life and getting into it a bit - why not food? Maybe you'll
never enjoy Mandarin hip hop, or Korean soap operas, but you already eat
Chinese food, right? When you arrive in Taiwan, make it a goal to learn
the names of all kind of dishes. Learn three ways to eat aubergine, three
ways to eat tofu, where's good for beef noodles, where's good for beef
pancakes, where you can eat Sichuan food. This is hardly full immersion,
but I find these little things give me such a sense of warmth about my
new home, and make living here feel more real. It's especially nice when
I surprise Taiwanese friends with a request for "fish flavoured aubergine"
(aubergine=egg plant). And the more dishes you know, and you start to build
up a list of what you enjoy, maybe the less you'll feel like taking refuge
in McDonalds and wishing for home.
And as continuation
of this, especially if you live in Taipei, make sure to explore the great
bars, cafes, parks, music events all over the city. Don't confine yourself
to a few foreigner bars and ShiDa nightmarket.
And as continuation
of this, especially if you live in Taipei, make sure to explore the great
bars, cafes, parks, music events all over the city. Don't confine yourself
to a few foreigner bars and ShiDa nightmarket.
8. Tie
your shoelaces. An unfortunate part of being in Taiwan is that a lot of
the English teachers, are, I'm sorry to say, colossal losers. People who
seem to have no interest or respect for the country at all, dismiss the
women as stupid and the men as weak, who eat in Burger King everyday, who
show up to work drunk. From a social point of view, it's annoying, but
from a professional angle, it's great, as it means that Taiwanese people
can be impressed by a foreigner with even moderately serious work habits.
Appearances
seem to matter a lot in Taiwan - people react far better to me when I'm
wearing a shirt with the sleeves rolled up than when I'm in a t-shirt.
Bring all your smart clothes from home, calculate your monthly salary on
a spreadsheet and let your bosses notice you doing it, keep track of appointments
on a calendar, show up on time - and you will already stand out from a
lot of the competition. There's a wonderful feeling, when you realise you
don't need to look on websites if you need extra work - people will recommend
to their friends as soon as they hear you're looking for more students.
If you are good, there are a lot better deals here than the standard big
"chain schools" like Hess.
9. Expect
culture shock. People sometimes talk about culture shock like it's a temporary
thing, that it's something you can just think yourself out of. But, after
two years in Asia, I feel like it never goes away - because wherever you
go, you have an ingrained sense of right and wrong that will be foreign
to how local people think. Some Taiwanese people will stare at you in the
street, others will not meet your eye until they feel comfortable around
you, others will cover their mouths and giggle in embarrassment when you
talk. People will push past you on buses; people will decide that they
want to be your friend and start buying you things; people will tell little
lies to avoid telling uncomfortable truths. I find it very hard to adjust
to, emotionally. There will be some days where you want to go home - I
think everyone has them. They pass, and the next week, you feel great for
the cool life and adventure you're having.
10.
Have something creative to do. Or learn Chinese. My belief is that you
cannot satisfy yourself just teaching English. You beat all the problems,
get a job, sort out your life, make friends - but what then? You need to
have something from within to be occupying your soul, and for me, that's
my writing. For other people it's learning Chinese, or painting - I don't
think it matters what. But being a foreigner in a country where you can't
speak the language, where you will be away from all your connections and
background, it helps to give yourself a reason for being there. Otherwise,
the time will pass and when you come to re-write your c.v., there's nothing
to put on it except a gap. And you start to wonder why you came to Taiwan,
was it just to mess around and work fewer hours a week than your friends
who stayed in their careers? I've seen from other places in Asia, that
unless you are a happy beach bum, you need to use the easier life you build
for yourself to do something, to use your free time and energy to do the
things you really want to do with your life, or you will not be happy.
Daniel
Links:
Forumosa: http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/
Tealit: http://www.tealit.com/
Currency conversion:
www.xe.com
PS If
you are coming to Taiwan, I would be happy to meet for a coffee and offer
suggestions on job hunting, but beyond that, I'm sorry I can't offer general
advice for would-be teachers (I'm too busy, plus I'm tired of how many
people never reply or say thank you to the responses I've sent in the past).
Ask your questions on forumosa.com!
If you would
like to email Daniel or read more of his stories, visit his website at
www.suitcasing.com
The following
are Daniel's previous articles for the magazine:
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