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The quake woke me up here in Taichung, but wasn't bad enough to get out of bed so I went back to sleep right after it finished.
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Jun 10, 2012 16:13
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Just discovered that it is impossible to buy paid apps on the Android store/Google Play in Taiwan.  Does anyone have experience circumventing this?edit- Purported workaround, haven't tested it myself. USDA Choice fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jun 10, 2012 |
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Jun 10, 2012 18:05
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USDA Choice posted:Just discovered that it is impossible to buy paid apps on the Android store/Google Play in Taiwan. I bought a One X a few weeks back and encountered the same problem. No idea how to get around it.
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Jun 10, 2012 18:32
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USDA Choice posted:Just discovered that it is impossible to buy paid apps on the Android store/Google Play in Taiwan. For awhile, the Amazon App store worked fine for me, but eventually they realized I wasn't in the US. I have a wifi based tablet without a sim, so this workaround doesn't apply to me at all. I haven't rooted either, so the other potential way isn't something I can do. It's easily one of the most frustrating things about having a tablet. There have been so many times where I've wanted an app but haven't been able to access it. They really need to get this sorted. The list of countries that have paid apps is massive. Taiwan is definitely an exception.
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Jun 11, 2012 00:16
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USDA Choice posted:'Greater Taipei' is like being in 'Greater NYC,' you could be put in the effective equivalent of Allentown, PA if that analogy helps. On the other hand it might include a bunch of branches in New Taipei City that are super close to actual Taipei City, like Yonghe for example. Haraksha posted:I am in Sanxia, which is in New Taipei City, which is the "Greater Taipei Area". It isn't that bad during the week. It's quiet, less crowded, cleaner, and cheaper. We have all the basic things a foreigner could want for comfort as well as decent public transportation. I can get anywhere in downtown Taipei from my door in less than an hour.
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Jun 11, 2012 04:43
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TetsuoTW posted:Anyone in here living over on the east coast? That was a pretty good shake here in Taipei, can't imagine what it was like over there.... 6.5 at 5AM on the 20th floor ... yeah, that was the second shake I felt in my 6 months since I been here, and yeah it was kinda fun. I been meaning to update in here, but I been working a bunch lately (new job). My ARC came through and my NIH, next up is the driving test etc. Does anyone remember which page the animated flash thing (explaining the scooter test) was on, I forget if it was this thread or the last. I'm going to do both tests on the same day hopefully. also, 加油! 
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Jun 11, 2012 06:49
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Capt. Carl posted:Cool, maybe if I get in I could tell them I'll go if it's Taipei but I don't really want Greater Taipei. I don't like how you don't know until you get out there. I can always wait until next year to get something I actually want. And yeah, I just meant the HR person. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think most people end in jobs they don't particularly want their first year in Taiwan. Just suck it up and try to have as much fun as you can if you only plan to stay for 1 year. If you want to stay longer then you will have a much easier time finding a better job after your first contract is up.
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Jun 11, 2012 07:19
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url posted:6.5 at 5AM on the 20th floor ... yeah, that was the second shake I felt in my 6 months since I been here, and yeah it was kinda fun. Yeah, I was wondering what happened to you. We haven't been drinking since you landed. http://driversimtest.thb.gov.tw/DriverSimTest/mocks/index.do
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Jun 11, 2012 11:42
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Haraksha posted:Yeah, I was wondering what happened to you. We haven't been drinking since you landed. Thanks for that link, that's very very much appreciated. I'll be giving that a few goes in the next few days I was actually looking for the animation which explains what you have to do for the scooter test. No worries though, I'll have a scout through the old thread at some point. I have a pretty good idea of what's required anyways. Having said that, I have no idea what is required regarding the medical for the driving licences though. I'm hoping it's similar to the one I had to do for this job (i.e. pretty minimal). Speaking of this job, now that I have a sane job with sane hours, and where things are done by the book, I'm able to relax about my situation alot more. Up until now, I've not had any real quality time with my computer, and posting from a work machine isn't always sensible or possible (the last place had computers from the early-mid 90's so posting wasn't even an option). I'm hoping now that I'm more settled I can get back to posting and taking part a little more. I got a new phone fairly recently: 0970 22 99 02, and I have LINE/Whats App on there, so yeah, I'm looking forward to a goon session at some point fairly soon.
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Jun 11, 2012 12:54
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url posted:
The medical is super easy, there should be a list of acceptable clinics/hospitals on the local DMV webpage. You will need some pictures and then a super quick vision and hearing test. Here's my scooter test from last year. I look super retarded with my legs out to the sides all the time, but style points don't count. At least they didn't in Hsinchu, maybe check before you do the same. You need 70/100 to pass, going off the rail at any time means you get -32 so it's an automatic fail. Other serious infractions are also -32, some are -8. I actually got -8 because I didn't turn my blinker on early enough for the second turn. The failure-sounding sirens are not for me, but rather the car test close by so ignore those. There's a simulated train crossing, pedestrian crossing, and traffic light that are all on timed cycles. If they're flashing/on then it's pretty intuitive, just stop, wait, then keep going. The part at the end is a narrow strip you have to go through in 7 seconds OR MORE, i.e. it tests your balance going slowly, you can't just floor it. You get two tries on it, and it's pretty notorious. I was the 6th person to go in that time slot and the 3rd person to pass I think, and everyone who failed did so on that last strip. PS Having a crowd is totally standard and had nothing to do with me being a foreigner, people just love to watch the agony and the ecstasy.
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Jun 11, 2012 13:32
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USDA Choice posted:I actually got -8 because I didn't turn my blinker on early enough for the second turn.
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Jun 11, 2012 14:07
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Has anyone had any experience with or know somebody who's gone through corrective laser eye surgery (e.g. Lasik) in Taiwan? Would the universal healthcare system there cover that kind of surgery? I saw the Ask/Tell thread for it in that sub-forum and I figure as someone who has had two non-laser surgeries for astigmatism and lazy eye before and currently wear glasses now (I'd prefer to go sans glasses but not have to wear contacts), this could potentially be a great opportunity to take advantage of. Considering a Canadian goon was able to do it for $2k in the Canada versus $10k in the US, I'm curious as to how it could work out in Taiwan. [EDIT]: He did PRK apparently, but the point is still the same. [EDIT 2]: And browsing the Forumosa forums, apparently surgeries for both eyes range between about $1k to $2k USD. What the hell, America? Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Jun 11, 2012 |
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Jun 11, 2012 14:39
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TetsuoTW posted:Wait, Taiwanese vehicles have blinkers? Oh yeah didn't you get the memo? They're the flashing things you turn on when you double-park for three hours on main roads. Also: Is there a minimum wage for white-collar foreigners different from the minimum for locals? I've seen a post in forumosa and some other totally unreliable forum/blog that I can't remember and both said 48k/month, however I've never seen a government website saying so  but I'd settle for a newspaper article mentioning it. I'm looking for jobs right now and that'd be handy info to have.Re: lasik, in talking to locals they seemed to thing it wasn't covered but I've seen a bus ad saying it was covered. I wasn't able to read it all however so there may have been a bunch of conditions like severity or somesuch. For prices I heard closer to $2k ish. edit- Found this outlining some plans but still haven't found anything concrete USDA Choice fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Jun 11, 2012 |
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Jun 11, 2012 15:06
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OrangeGuy posted:Has anyone had any experience with or know somebody who's gone through corrective laser eye surgery (e.g. Lasik) in Taiwan? Would the universal healthcare system there cover that kind of surgery? USDA Choice posted:Is there a minimum wage for white-collar foreigners different from the minimum for locals?
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Jun 11, 2012 15:15
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TetsuoTW posted:Wait, Taiwanese vehicles have blinkers? hahaha
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Jun 12, 2012 00:42
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USDA Choice posted:Also: There is a minimum wage set by the government for foreign English teachers that is set at $42K per month (not including part-time jobs). For any other kind of job no there is no minimum wage beyond the state mandated amount. However, like USDA choice said no foreigner is going to take job where he is making less than $25K a month and working 6 days a week like many Taiwanese people do. Its the main reason you don't really see many white collar jobs for foreigners in Taiwan. Why should they pay a foreigner level salary when there is ample (well-educated) cheap labor to be found locally.
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Jun 12, 2012 02:00
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HappyHelmet posted:There is a minimum wage set by the government for foreign English teachers that is set at $42K per month (not including part-time jobs). Why would such a policy exist. I could see it occurring naturally as a result of demand but why set that policy?
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Jun 12, 2012 02:19
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hitension posted:Why would such a policy exist. I could see it occurring naturally as a result of demand but why set that policy? HappyHelmet posted:There is a minimum wage set by the government for foreign English teachers that is set at $42K per month (not including part-time jobs). For any other kind of job no there is no minimum wage beyond the state mandated amount. However, like USDA choice said no foreigner is going to take job where he is making less than $25K a month and working 6 days a week like many Taiwanese people do. It also applies to teaching too; it's still desired to have local qualified(hopefully) teachers fill the position rather than outside labor. Don't forget there's currently an issue with graduates not being able to find work.
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Jun 12, 2012 03:22
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Typhoon Day!!! (?) http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%85%AD%E6%9C%88%E5%8D%81%E4%BA%8C%E6%97%A5%E5%81%9C%E7%8F%AD%E5%81%9C%E8%AA%B2%E5%9C%B0%E5%8D%80.html 台北市 下午停班停課。 (Taipei City) (Afternoon, no work, no school.) That's for today, June 12th. Haven't gotten any confirmation from my school, but whatever.
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Jun 12, 2012 03:42
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My school woke me up at 8:30 this morning to say I didn't have to come in. I don't work until 5PM. They just couldn't wait until the afternoon.
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Jun 12, 2012 03:49
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Haraksha posted:My school woke me up at 8:30 this morning to say I didn't have to come in. I don't work until 5PM. They just couldn't wait until the afternoon. I don't work until 4:40. I probably won't get notice until I walk in the front door and people go "Huh? Why are you here?" Our school's unofficial motto is "Teacher, you didn't know?"
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Jun 12, 2012 04:02
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^^^haha that is exactly how my school is too. I'm lucky if I get a days notice before I have a day off from work. I'm pretty much always last to know with everything that goes on there. ^^^hitension posted:Why would such a policy exist. I could see it occurring naturally as a result of demand but why set that policy? I think its mostly a formality in that most buxibans realize they need to pay foreigners a reasonable wage, or they simply won't teach at their school. However, the key word there is "most." I know the first school I worked at the boss straight up didn't understand why she needed to pay the minimum $42K a month, and often openly complained about it to me. That school used a recruiter who basically openly prayed on desperate foreigners who were having difficulty finding jobs. HappyHelmet fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 04:09
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Seriously, I would love it if someone at my school was on the ball enough to call me, even at 8:30. Especially because our boss typically has us come in for some stupid reason unless the conditions outside are likely to be like, fatal, or something. I don't get it because half the kids usually don't show up which just seems like it causes a ton of havoc as far as scheduling make-up classes and stuff are concerned. But lately he's been a bit more generous as far as "typhoon day--sure, take the day off!" is concerned so I really don't know what I should bother doing. edit: and as if the gods wanted to prove me wrong, literally as soon as the post submitted I got a call telling me it's a day off. Guess they waited exactly until noon. Cool, less pay!!
POCKET CHOMP fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 04:59
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Is it actually a typhoon day? I was under the impression it was because of the heavy rain warning.
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Jun 12, 2012 05:22
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Yeah they told me it was due to heavy rains, not a typhoon. I guess the only other times I've been in this situation it's always been a typhoon so I'm just used to calling it a typhoon day.
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Jun 12, 2012 05:31
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Fair enough. e: Holy poo poo, the news is showing a cop in Taipei holding up a catfish he caught swimming around Keelung Rd. (I think.) sub supau fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 05:57
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It was really bad in Sanxia when I got the call, but it doesn't seem to be any rainier now than on any other day. I'm actually kind of annoyed I'm losing out on 3 hours of pay.
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Jun 12, 2012 07:02
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Yeah days off for weather really do suck. You don't have them in advance so it's impossible to plan something and going outside usually sucks. Except for those who are salaried, in which case huzzah.
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Jun 12, 2012 07:11
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Count yourselves lucky you don't freelance/work from home 
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Jun 12, 2012 07:13
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Tetsuo what's your visa? APRC? Did you found a company of your own through which you 'work' and thus have a work permit and regular ARC? It always seemed to me that freelancing and self work in Taiwan would be hard to get into if only due to visa issues.
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Jun 12, 2012 08:06
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Nah, just a regular work visa. Officially I work for a school in Taipei doing translation stuff and freelance on the side, but for a good six months a year the freelancing's the bulk of my (pitiful) income. I don't remember the specifics - and should probably look them up - but translation comes under one of the parts of the tax code (editing/writing, IIRC) where it's fine to do alongside actual work. The 勞委會/CLA did try and step a couple of years back, but since everything's legit and above-board (I even pay tax on the work) the client involved and my ARC sponsor got it sorted with them.
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Jun 12, 2012 08:40
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TetsuoTW posted:Nah, just a regular work visa. Officially I work for a school in Taipei doing translation stuff and freelance on the side, but for a good six months a year the freelancing's the bulk of my (pitiful) income. I don't remember the specifics - and should probably look them up - but translation comes under one of the parts of the tax code (editing/writing, IIRC) where it's fine to do alongside actual work. The 勞委會/CLA did try and step a couple of years back, but since everything's legit and above-board (I even pay tax on the work) the client involved and my ARC sponsor got it sorted with them. Besides the officially sanctioned side-work, how restrictive are Taiwanese laws on foreigners and editing/writing jobs? Are there opportunities for translating/editing/writing outside of schools, such as with businesses, periodicals, think-tanks, film/entertainment industries, etc? Could being a (white American) native English speaker with some (not that great yet) Mandarin Chinese language training and good writing skills be a way of "breaking in" into different industries/organizations in Taiwan? Also, how does Taiwanese law regard interning or volunteering alongside English teaching, editing/writing, or some other regular job? I'd really want to try and build up a network and otherwise get involved in Taiwan in ways that could help me in the long-run. When I interned in Washington D.C. last summer, one of my bosses (a former congressman) had mentioned about how his nephew went to Taiwan after college to do English teaching, came back to the US to do an MBA at Harvard, and then went back to Taiwan to become a lead project manager for Apple there. I would hope there could be likewise long-run opportunities in other areas through living and working in Taiwan. Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 14:35
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Along those lines, how is one supposed to go to school part time and work part time in Taiwan? Something I have been considering, if it is even possible. I saw that those on student visas are not allowed to work outside of specific situations (research assistant), yet I see English language teacher positions claiming you can work part time and take classes part time. What's up with that?
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Jun 12, 2012 14:57
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I am pretty sure that if you have an ARC you can just enroll because what you do in your free time is up to you. There's no restrictions that way. But if you are here on a student visa, your priority is to the university and you're expected to take a much heavier class load with extracurriculars and stuff. Most people who work and study take classes in the day and work evening shifts. They also tend to live closer to downtown to make the daily commute doable.
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Jun 12, 2012 15:36
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OrangeGuy posted:Besides the officially sanctioned side-work, how restrictive are Taiwanese laws on foreigners and editing/writing jobs? Are there opportunities for translating/editing/writing outside of schools, such as with businesses, periodicals, think-tanks, film/entertainment industries, etc? Could being a (white American) native English speaker with some (not that great yet) Mandarin Chinese language training and good writing skills be a way of "breaking in" into different industries/organizations in Taiwan? hitension posted:I saw that those on student visas are not allowed to work outside of specific situations (research assistant), yet I see English language teacher positions claiming you can work part time and take classes part time. What's up with that?
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Jun 12, 2012 17:14
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TetsuoTW posted:Being an English speaker alone doesn't make you all that special here - there are already thousands of us. poo poo, there are even plenty of English-speakers here who speak amazing Mandarin. That is a good point, unfortunately. I mean, would you say there are more opportunities for a foreigner in Taiwan versus the mainland or Hong Kong or not? I'd still definitely prefer to be in Taiwan for extended working/living arrangements for sure, but I'm also very much open to and committed to finding opportunities for networking and career building wherever they can be found.
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Jun 12, 2012 20:50
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I read a bunch of the pages of this thread, and it looks like most people are working in Taiwan, but maybe someone has experience being a student here. I'm planning on studying at a Mandarin program in Tainan from September of this year until June next year. The BoCA website is really confusing and I can't figure out for the life of me: 1) Should I apply for a visitor visa here in the US and eventually switch to being a resident when I run out of time on that? (And I will run out of time since I'm planning on staying over half a year.) 2) Should I apply for a residence visa while I'm still here in the US? 3) Is there a visa specifically for students? It doesn't look like it. All I could find was "resident" and "visitor" and both of those had information stating that they could be used by students. I realize (probably) none of you are Taiwanese immigration lawyers, but I'd like to even just hear someone else's personal experiences.
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Jun 13, 2012 01:45
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Me and gf took it upon ourselves to brave the rains and hunt down KGB burger. (recursion intended to avoid cagey burger) Trust me when I say it was entirely entirely worth it. I saw KGB mentioned in the last thread, and I been hankering to try them out. I've heard Bravo burger is equally awesome, but, allow me to suggest that "Black Sheep" (V. close to Minquan Road West MRT) is all kinds of awesome. They've only been running 6 months or so, and I meant to post earlier. But, decent clean spacious, and reasonably priced. Back to the rain though. The Plum Rains were awesome to be in. I had just started working at new firm, and I got caught, there was no escaping it, and tbh, after 10 seconds in it, I didn't have a yellow thingy on me, so there was nothing left to do but enjoy the ride home (35 mins). I didn't get caught in y/days too much. I have a yellow thing in the scooter seat,a blue one for the gf and a pair of blue pants in there too (if you're sitting behind, you get wetter legs because the poncho can't cover your legs as much as it would if you are in front). So yeah, getting into work y/day was really really slow the section from xinzhuang -> Minquan W was flooded and the normal volume of traffic was trying to fit in around the flooded parts. It wasn't terrible but my journey time was around 40% longer so no biggie. Having put in a bunch of extra hours for the new job, having the half day off was much appreciated and sorely needed. I'm tossing up whether to get a car or a big bike after the test. E: I r speel gud url fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jun 13, 2012 |
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Jun 13, 2012 02:33
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quote:Being an English speaker alone doesn't make you all that special here - there are already thousands of us. poo poo, there are even plenty of English-speakers here who speak amazing Mandarin. Caveat: Being an English speaker (especially a white one) will make it easier to get free drinks at a bar and sometimes help with the cops when you're driving a scooter without a license.
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Jun 13, 2012 03:16
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USDA Choice posted:Except for those who are salaried, in which case huzzah.
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Jun 13, 2012 03:19
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