Taiwan

I moved to Taiwan from July-December and worked in a Kindergarten/Cram school in Ching-Shuei near Taichung. Things seemed nice there, my wife stayed in Japan hoping to quit her job in Japan and come live with me.

I guess I imagined Taiwan to be much like Japan but much hotter.
I was almost right it was much hotter and it was a little like Japan. You could often see Japanese writing and hello kitty and it was probably more like Japan than it was like China. The trouble was it was like Japan 30 years ago. Things were a little outdated such as Karaoke and the train system although I was not in Taipei.

I had a nice place though, big, very big. If anything it was too big!
I had two rooms with a double bed in each, not bad but I am only one man. The best part was it was rent free and my salary was decent for the countries economy and I had room to save.

I did some private teaching on the side and made some money that way although I didn't charge very high rates. My day job was teaching 2-5 year olds in the morning. 8-10 year olds in the afternoon and 8-16 year olds in the evening.

The kids were very different from Japanese. They were louder and showed more confidence, a good sign as I believe it is why they had much higher English than children in Japan. The downside was they did tend to misbehave a lot although nothing too drastic. Overall they were good kids and they learnt well and participated in lessons. I have to say I really enjoyed teaching them.

My problems started in Taiwan when I found they hadn't set up my working visa after 1 month. This meant I was working on a tourist visa. Eventually they did get my working visa.

The next problem came on pay day, it was a little short but I let it go until next month it was still short so I reviewed my contract and quizzed them on it. Upon asking about it I was told by the manager I would be paid the next day, the next day came and they changed their minds so I asked to speak to the owner. The owner arranged to meet with me later that day but later came and he had already gone home. I asked the manager again and she phoned him and again promised to pay me the next day I asked her to sign to say she would pay me which seemed to offend her but I just wanted to make sure they would keep their word.

The next time I got paid all was ok but the other teachers still had problems.

What finally did it for me was the bad management of the school. I would be told about changes moments before they happened. I was often in trouble for not doing what I didn't know I was supposed to do. It annoyed me so much that I set up weekly meetings between me and the manager to talk about the weeks progress.

Maybe their system works for some people but it wasn't for me. I like to plan things out so I have a clear goal. I saw a lot of teachers leave this school but I wanted to make sure I handed in my notice before I did.

I liked Taiwan and the people in Taiwan but it wasn't the place for me. I left in December bound for Japan to meet my wife in Aomori and take her and her family to England.