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url posted:His youtube stuff is OK, just skipped around in the first video I saw and aside from the unreadable poo poo font to start the video, there's a nice slow DRAMATIC ZOOM on his mouth as he mentions that you have to work weekends and your weekends will be ONE DAY LONG. OH GOD NO how DARE teaching work like this even though yeah that's kinda how it works as do a lot of part time jobs now that I think about it for that matter, hmm. Anyway, not linking the video because it's basically "bitter guy giving a lecture" and may cause brain damage.
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Apr 10, 2013 10:57
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| # ? May 15, 2024 16:26 |
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So am I just some kind of outlier since I've always worked only four days a week, never worked a Saturday, and almost always got plenty of hours during my three years here? Anyway, I think it's been way too long since the last Goon Meat. EDIT: I have occasionally had some ridiculous split shifts, though. Oz_Bonus fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Apr 10, 2013 |
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Apr 10, 2013 12:20
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I'm going to go ahead and put this out there, I've never seen that dude at a bar, or the gym, or the seven eleven or anything, so I'm guessing the reason he's so loving aggro about poo poo is that he's allergic to fun.
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Apr 10, 2013 12:27
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Oh dear http://kilikabeast.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/the-challenges-of-internet-dating-for-foreign-guys-in-taiwan/ quote:If you’re a foreign guy living in Taiwan or China, chances are you’ve done it: internet dating as “language exchange.” For many of you its your primary means of meeting women. It is for me at the moment. And I’ve had success! In the period of less than a year I’ve taken four girls from the internet into my bed. All of them were Taiwanese and their ages ranged from 19 to 44. One of the four was knockout hot and a Geisha in bed. Another amiable, sweet and about a 7 out of 10. One was of questionable sanity! I’m currently with a nice woman from Thailand I met on here. I would consider this a modest success. I certainly could do better.
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Apr 10, 2013 12:29
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The raises being predetermined and the numbers being filled in to fit the end number is exactly right. It's mostly a popularity contest (with the boss), and how high your return rates are. I'd like to see a video to see if I recognize him. I've been in Hess for a few years, though I don't really interact with coworkers much. Also, a "PUA" having sex only 4x in a year, as a white man in Asia? Wow. That's sad.
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Apr 10, 2013 12:55
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Obviously the internet is your primary way to meet girls, I mean if you've never heard of a bar that is.
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Apr 10, 2013 13:02
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Bars are full of Taiwanese people who clearly and self-evidently hate you because you're white though! Well, I say "clearly and self-evidently," but of course only to those who are as savvy, smart, and worldly as this permaFOB.
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Apr 10, 2013 13:42
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hitension posted:Oh dear I'm glad I noticed there was another page cause I had something all written up for this! What a cool guy. The embodiment of all socially inept, completely unqualified, entitled western dudes in Asia right here. Also he's bad at Taiwan since he doesn't even know that Taiwan girls are easy.
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Apr 10, 2013 14:20
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I've been here ten years and have always had split shifts. Mornings until noon. Afternoons until 4:30 or 5:00 and then evenings until 9. If you want a lot of teaching hours it's a must. I've never worked on Saturday though. Five days a week is enough
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Apr 10, 2013 14:21
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5 days a week here, at Hess. Mon,Wed,Thurs: 2-4,4:40-6:40 Tues: 4:30-6:20 Friday: 2-4, 4:40-6:40, 7-9 So I basically either work 1:30-7, 4-6:30, or 1:30-9. 20 hours a week, not bad.
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Apr 10, 2013 14:48
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Ravendas posted:5 days a week here, at Hess. Oh drat, when you guys said split shifts I thought you meant like 7-11am and 5-10pm like here in Korea. These seem barely split shifts, more like you have time to run out for a coffee between classes instead of sitting at your desk rearranging files on your desktop. DontAskKant fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Apr 10, 2013 |
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Apr 10, 2013 14:55
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I've had the same 5 day a week schedule for almost four years now. M 9:00-10:50, 2-6:30 T 5-8 W 9-11:50, 2:30-6:30 R 11-11:50, 2-8 F 11-11:60, 2-6:30 I'm not counting the little 20 minute breaks mixed in.
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Apr 10, 2013 15:00
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Ravendas posted:The raises being predetermined and the numbers being filled in to fit the end number is exactly right. It's mostly a popularity contest (with the boss), and how high your return rates are. Or it will be 20 NT, no matter what, because.
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Apr 10, 2013 15:06
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That guy sounds generally like kind of a tool, and I hate that he didn't really give any specifics. W/r/t the question at hand, though, I'll throw in a couple of cents. I'm not having a good time at Hess, but if I had to break down the reasons, I'd say it's about 40% personal, 40% branch-related, 20% Hess-related, and exactly 0% working-on-Saturday-related. I mean, my biggest problem right now is that I hate teaching Kindy, and that's not really Hess's fault. I just didn't anticipate how miserable it would make me. If you're considering doing Hess, really think about whether or not you want to sign a kindy contract. You'll be dealing with 5 days a week of early morning English teaching that you have to carefully disguise as babysitting, 3-5 crafts a week that you will have to buy most or all of the materials for yourself, and at least 2 very high-stress performances that you have to write and direct with very little help and that take priority over actual teaching. A lot of people actually thrive in that environment, but I will say that almost all of the non-kindy Hess people I know are perfectly happy, and a significant portion of the kindy teacjers I know are constantly stressed. The other big reason for me is my branch, at which there is a giant wall between the Chinese staff and the NSTs that very often fucks us over. Classes get added or taken away from peoples' schedules without a word of warning, deadlines are shifted all the time. For one of my Christmas performances that started out at 25 minutes, the manager kept adding new parts every week until it ballooned to an hour. The Chinese staff at my branch is understaffed, and some co-teachers bounce between 4 different classes in the same time frame. There's a lot of silly paperwork you have to juggle when the CT's not there while managing a class at the same time. It stresses you out, and the kids pick up on that and then you have an unproductive class environment. These are all branch specific problems, and a lot of other Hess teachers don't have them at all. There's a few things I don't like about Hess itself, but a lot of them are common in other buxibans. Like the eagerness to chase money after value, and the parent rear end-kissing that enables extremely disruptive kids to go 5-6 years at a school, doing no work and learning no English but passing with 80s the whole way. That's probably a necessary evil, though. I dunno. The CT/NSTs alternating curriculum for poor kids is a stupid idea, I think. I actually really like their all-NST curriculum for the rich kids, though. So yeah, to echo the conventional wisdom, applying to Hess is a crapshoot. This is why everyone says that it's way better to apply in person and talk to the managers (and better still, the other teachers) yourself. eta: oh jeez i started writing this post on my phone like 4 hours ago and wow that dude is terrible quadrophrenic fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Apr 10, 2013 |
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Apr 10, 2013 15:23
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DontAskKant posted:Oh drat, when you guys said split shifts I thought you meant like 7-11am and 5-10pm like here in Korea. These seem barely split shifts, more like you have time to run out for a coffee between classes instead of sitting at your desk rearranging files on your desktop. FWIW, that's what I thought they meant too, because that exact schedule exists in Taiwan as well. I don't have one, but a couple of my coworkers do and they always gripe about it. I wouldn't mind it though, because the area I work at everything is so crammed together that it's conceivable to go home and have a productive 3-4 hours before you go into your next class.
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Apr 10, 2013 15:59
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DontAskKant posted:Oh drat, when you guys said split shifts I thought you meant like 7-11am and 5-10pm like here in Korea. These seem barely split shifts, more like you have time to run out for a coffee between classes instead of sitting at your desk rearranging files on your desktop. Yeah, mine isn't a split shift. I'm just pointing out that not all of us work Saturdays and have split shifts. Quadro, you sound like you could be a coworker of mine, except he actually likes kindy. It's really hit or miss, some people love it, some hate it. I don't mind subbing it, but hell no on the fun time activities and ridiculous performances.
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Apr 10, 2013 16:26
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Ravendas posted:Yeah, mine isn't a split shift. I'm just pointing out that not all of us work Saturdays and have split shifts. It's really just that I've discovered over the past few months that my favorite thing about teaching English is actually teaching English, and with kindy it's more about keeping little kids entertained long enough to slip some English teaching in. It's a deft skill that I'm terrible at, and I get hang-ups about it. Even in the first level of Treehouse there's this kind of understanding that "hey guys we're in school now and you actually need to learn poo poo and games are now a means to an end instead of an end". There's nothing wrong with the kindy modality of teaching, I'm just bad at it and it makes me sad. The fun times and performances add this really terrible daunting grind to what, for me, is more of an existential problem.
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Apr 10, 2013 16:34
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quadrophrenic posted:It's really just that I've discovered over the past few months that my favorite thing about teaching English is actually teaching English, and with kindy it's more about keeping little kids entertained long enough to slip some English teaching in. It's a deft skill that I'm terrible at, and I get hang-ups about it. Even in the first level of Treehouse there's this kind of understanding that "hey guys we're in school now and you actually need to learn poo poo and games are now a means to an end instead of an end". I find kindy is just non-stop putting out minor fires. "Teacher, he took my" "Teacher, he touched my" "Teacher, he pushed" blahblahblah UGH. Never actually had a kindy of my own, just subbed it a lot. Yoyo is kinda awesome though because you get double ct's and the amount of teaching expected is totally negligible. Sit around, sing some abcs and some random songs, point at shapes and stuff, and play with toys. Getting paid to play with blocks ain't half bad.
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Apr 10, 2013 16:50
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My shifts are a bit more split. 8:30-12:00, 1:55-4:15 and 5:30-8:45. Weekdays. I wish I could stop working mornings.
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Apr 10, 2013 17:05
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quadrophrenic posted:The other big reason for me is my branch, at which there is a giant wall between the Chinese staff and the NSTs that very often fucks us over. Classes get added or taken away from peoples' schedules without a word of warning, deadlines are shifted all the time. For one of my Christmas performances that started out at 25 minutes, the manager kept adding new parts every week until it ballooned to an hour. The Chinese staff at my branch is understaffed, and some co-teachers bounce between 4 different classes in the same time frame. There's a lot of silly paperwork you have to juggle when the CT's not there while managing a class at the same time. It stresses you out, and the kids pick up on that and then you have an unproductive class environment. These are all branch specific problems, and a lot of other Hess teachers don't have them at all. Foreigners being out of the loop is fairly common among buxibans here. At least at the places I've worked it's not always intentional though. They tell each other things in Chinese and then forget to tell the foreigner off in the corner studying. Although lately my boss hasn't bothered telling the CTs about changes in my schedule either. I don't have to do performances. Thank christ for that. quote:There's a few things I don't like about Hess itself, but a lot of them are common in other buxibans. Like the eagerness to chase money after value, and the parent rear end-kissing that enables extremely disruptive kids to go 5-6 years at a school, doing no work and learning no English but passing with 80s the whole way. That's probably a necessary evil, though. I dunno. The CT/NSTs alternating curriculum for poor kids is a stupid idea, I think. I actually really like their all-NST curriculum for the rich kids, though. Buxibans are less cut throat than they used to be (as the economy weeded out a lot of the smaller ones), but it is still a VERY competitive/crowded business. For smaller schools like the one I work at every student that leaves is a hit to the bosses bottom line. So they end up fighting tooth and nail for every student regardless of how much of an rear end that student is.
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Apr 11, 2013 02:25
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duckfarts posted:brain damage. I'm pretty sure he has the burden of carrying an extra chromosome. I feel dirty for having given the monkey page views. Spanish Matlock posted:When is poker night? I might be in this time. Was good to see you bud, I had fun. I have promised myself that I will take USDA's money - one day.
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Apr 11, 2013 03:51
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One of these days, it's going to overlap with some random holiday and I'll actually be able to go.
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Apr 11, 2013 03:56
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quadrophrenic posted:FWIW, that's what I thought they meant too, because that exact schedule exists in Taiwan as well. I don't have one, but a couple of my coworkers do and they always gripe about it. I wouldn't mind it though, because the area I work at everything is so crammed together that it's conceivable to go home and have a productive 3-4 hours before you go into your next class. I have literally had split shifts where I come in to teach a class from 9-10:30 and then don't have another class until 8:30-10. quote:Was good to see you bud, I had fun. Yeah, I was missing a poker night. Good times. Spanish Matlock fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Apr 11, 2013 |
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Apr 11, 2013 06:37
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Bit of a random question, but do you guys know of any sites with storefront postings? I'm to the point where I need to find somewhere to open my shop. I've been using "591"/looking for places on foot mostly, but would be nice to have some other sites to browse.
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Apr 11, 2013 07:19
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duckfarts posted:OK, just skipped around in the first video I saw and aside from the unreadable poo poo font to start the video, there's a nice slow DRAMATIC ZOOM on his mouth as he mentions that you have to work weekends and your weekends will be ONE DAY LONG. I asked around and he definitely worked at the branch I thought he did and from the sounds of it he may have had brain damage himself.
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Apr 11, 2013 14:53
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Hi. I just moved here to work in Tainan's most notoriously disorganized buxiban and it's going pretty badly. Mostly because of stupid little things and not having a scooter. Also a tip for people interested in coming here: bring more money than you think you will need. Does anyone know anything cool to do in Tainan? I've already been to Hua Yuan night market and some of the bars.
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Apr 11, 2013 17:15
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There's a sausage museum in Tainan. Last weekend, I went to the first floor gift shop and got a sausage. The people I was with didn't actually want to see the museum floor.
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Apr 11, 2013 18:11
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Haha, now you've got me interested in which school you're working at. During my 4 years in Tainan I heard a lot about bad schools (including the ones I worked at). As for fun stuff, there's not a whole lot. Anping can be entertaining at least for an afternoon or so if you wanna see some touristy stuff, but depending on where you are that can be a total pain if you don't have any transportation. Or you could just hop a train to Kaohsiung, lot more to do down there and there's an MRT, too.
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Apr 12, 2013 01:45
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Tainan is full of temples and broken sidewalks that bore and trip me, respectively. I'm not a huge fan of the place, but at least you're not in taoyuan, right
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Apr 12, 2013 05:41
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Atlas Hugged posted:One of these days, it's going to overlap with some random holiday and I'll actually be able to go. A few f us were talking about having a game in Tucheng - I figure that'd suit you. We didn't get to specifics yet.
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Apr 12, 2013 06:08
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e: whoops
FART BOSS fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Apr 16, 2014 |
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Apr 12, 2013 06:59
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I did thoroughly enjoy the sausage I had at the sausage museum gift shop. Then again, I am from the midwest.
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Apr 12, 2013 08:03
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Atlas Hugged posted:I did thoroughly enjoy the sausage I had at the sausage museum gift shop. Then again, I am from the midwest. The first time you mentioned it I thought "sausage museum" was a euphemism. Well now I know what I'm doing this weekend.
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Apr 12, 2013 19:29
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Oh. My. Zeus. posted:The first time you mentioned it I thought "sausage museum" was a euphemism. Well now I know what I'm doing this weekend. What could that possibly be a euphemism for?  Party full of old dudes or what?When I first came here, I brought a lovely laptop that can't play many games, and said "I'm changing! I'm going to be Mr. Cool and stop being such a geek here!" That lasted all of a year or two. Now, it's (every other) Saturday, so that means my AD&D 2e group that I run will be meeting. I spend time in coffee shops drawing maps and writing up world background and NPCs. The best is when curious Taiwanese people ask me if I'm an architect, while I flail to make my answers seem as innocuous as possible. Yay! If any other goons were interested and didn't know, there is a group that meets for boardgames twice a week in Taipei, on Tuesday nights at 7:30 at the ShiDa Caca City, and on Sunday at the QingNian Caca City. There's a Facebook group for it as well, called 'Taipei Card & Board Game Enthusiasts.' https://www.facebook.com/groups/taipeigamers/ I rarely go to the Tuesday one, and never go to the Sunday one due to my AD&D group, my wife, and my desire to keep both.
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Apr 13, 2013 00:56
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Ravendas posted:If any other goons were interested and didn't know, there is a group that meets for boardgames twice a week in Taipei, on Tuesday nights at 7:30 at the ShiDa Caca City, and on Sunday at the QingNian Caca City. There's a Facebook group for it as well, called 'Taipei Card & Board Game Enthusiasts.' https://www.facebook.com/groups/taipeigamers/ I rarely go to the Tuesday one, and never go to the Sunday one due to my AD&D group, my wife, and my desire to keep both. I recently posted in that group about a game of Neptune's Pride, but it's not looking like there are many takers. No one likes cool only 4x boardgames apparently 
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Apr 13, 2013 05:08
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Ravendas posted:What could that possibly be a euphemism for? The foreign teachers' desk area in any given buxiban. A bunch of dried-up old dicks who are more or less just there for show.
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Apr 13, 2013 06:54
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I know my humor can be a bit esoteric at times, but I literally meant that I went on a day trip with a group of people and one of the stops was the gift shop at the Tainan sausage museum. Speaking of strange places to visit, anyone interested in taking a trip to the Tucheng Nougat Museum?
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Apr 13, 2013 08:09
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Atlas Hugged posted:I know my humor can be a bit esoteric at times, but I literally meant that I went on a day trip with a group of people and one of the stops was the gift shop at the Tainan sausage museum. quote:Speaking of strange places to visit, anyone interested in taking a trip to the Tucheng Nougat Museum?
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Apr 13, 2013 10:17
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I'll have to ask my friend who went if it's actually worth it.
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Apr 13, 2013 10:28
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| # ? May 15, 2024 16:26 |
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I just put in an application to HESS as a backup in case any other teaching jobs I've applied for fall through. What's an area of Taiwan to avoid that they might push on me? I'd like to be in Kaohsiung or Taipei just for convenience but I have no problems dealing with only having buses or buying a scooter.
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Apr 15, 2013 04:50
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