Thursday, February 4, 2010

Frustration

Ahh, the frustration is setting in. Here we are living in Taipei, enjoying the city, the culture, the language, and the people, but without a job. It is one thing to travel to Asia, but another thing completely to come here expecting to find a job. Andy and I moved to Taiwan with our friends here saying that finding a job would not be a problem. We applied to jobs before arriving, but upon arriving found out that those jobs either were not good jobs, or were not hiring full time. In order to continue living here, we need to find full time jobs that will offer the ARC (alien resident card). We are finding that is easier said than done, unfortunately.

We have been here for a few weeks and every day we search for jobs. Sometimes we search, email, and call about jobs online. Other times we go out and personally find schools and deliver our resume's directly into the schools hands in hopes that they will hire us as English teachers. What we did not realize before coming here was that Taiwan was the first place in Asia to hire foreign English teachers 15 years ago. That means that now a lot of people already speak English. Which means that Taiwan is able to hire their own Taiwanese people to teach their children English, making it harder for a foreigner to find a job here. We had no idea.

As our visa dwindles we will continue to look for jobs and formulate a few back-up plans. I guess Taiwan is much further along than other Asian countries in the English language department. So we may find ourselves in another country teaching English instead of Taiwan. We really cannot tell at this point what will happen or where we will find ourselves, but we are trying to stay open.

It is crazy how things happen. I never thought that I would be starting a marriage on such uncertain grounds. At least Andy and I are both adventurous people, who enjoy traveling and experiencing new things. Oh the stories that we will be able to tell our children one day!

2 comments:

  1. I'd say there have been English teachers in Taiwan for over 20 years at least. Some suggestions:

    * Go to businesses, not schools. Offer cost effective, private English instruction ("Business English") to the bosses of Taiwan's billions of small companies - or a few you convince.

    * Chances are, one of these SMEs might help you with employment and becoming legal, etc.

    * Repeat. Save money.

    * Consider going to China.

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  2. Boyd's advice sounds good to me. I'd add that you can use some of that excess creativity you have to do some serious brainstorming and "turn your dreams into crystal clear goals, your goals into rock solid plans, your plans into a series of highly focused actions, and you'll become successful beyond your wildest expectations!!!"

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