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I talked to a guy who was a contractor for that line, he said every lunch time his workers would disappear and come back late to the job, he talked to his foreman and found out that where they were working was really close to a red light district for "fresh off the boat" Asian girls, so during lunch they'd all go whore it up. His response: "Next time invite me, assholes!"
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Aug 31, 2014 17:01
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TetsuoTW posted:The Taipei station for that is actually coming along pretty quickly now, they might actually hit this deadline. you jinxed it.
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Aug 31, 2014 18:22
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I leave for the airport in about 12 hours. Anything I should do to not stick out like a sore thumb when I arrive in Taiwan--aside from not being tall, white, and carrying three pieces of luggage, that is? Edit: I need to open a bank account in Taiwan... Any recommendations? Backweb fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 14:08
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Backweb posted:I leave for the airport in about 12 hours. Anything I should do to not stick out like a sore thumb when I arrive in Taiwan--aside from not being tall, white, and carrying three pieces of luggage, that is? I use Taishin bank. They have branches all over the city, their debit card can be used online and they don't have any ridiculous fees like you might get at Citibank. I was able to use their card in ATMS in America when I went back, but not at ones in Singapore, so that might be an issue; I didn't really explore the matter and after getting my card cloned last year I told them to put every security measure they had under the sun on it so they might have done something like "auto decline this card anywhere other than Taiwan or the USA". That said when my card was stolen they emailed me and reversing the fake charges were no hassle other than having to go to their main office in Neihu and confirm with someone there which charges weren't mine. I think I had all my funds back within a month of so. Also all the employers who used direct deposit that I've had accepted Taishin bank, with the exception of Kojen but now that I've been here a while I'm guessing they probably have some under the table deal with whatever bank that was they made me use; where the bank would kick them back some cash whenever they signed up a foreigner to the bank. PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 16:35
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I've had pretty good going with Megabank too.Backweb posted:Anything I should do to not stick out like a sore thumb when I arrive in Taiwan
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Sep 3, 2014 17:01
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Backweb posted:Anything I should do to not stick out like a sore thumb when I arrive in Taiwan--aside from not being tall, white, and carrying three pieces of luggage, that is? Take a taxi straight from the airport to the Brass Monkey in Taipei. If the cabbie doesn't understand, speak louder and more slowly. Yell at him while you pull up each word on a phone translator app. Tip the cabbie at least 20% upon arriving and every time he refuses, increase the tip by 5%. After you get into the Brass Monkey, start macking on girls 15 years younger or 15 years older than you, but not within 15 years either direction. Doesn't matter if you're married or in a relationship, in fact bonus points if you are. Loudly proclaim you are the best English teacher around but then quickly in the same sentence say teaching English is just your short-term gig until your amazing business idea gets off the ground. Talk to no one in particular about the time you spent in Korea/Japan/Sri Lanka and how it was so much better than this place. Really though, comport yourself as you would in any foreign country and assume that when there's a misunderstanding you're probably in the wrong. Be nice. USDA Choice fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 17:19
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USDA Choice posted:Take a taxi straight from the airport to the Brass Monkey in Taipei. Seconded.
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Sep 3, 2014 17:42
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USDA Choice posted:Loudly proclaim you are the best English teacher around but then quickly in the same sentence say teaching English is just your short-term gig until your amazing business idea gets off the ground.
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Sep 3, 2014 18:11
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TetsuoTW posted:Add "make no efforts to actually learn Mandarin" and the inevitable failure of said idea and I think I know this guy.  How could I forget that?KNEE HOW WHOA GEEOW JAMES WHOA SHUAY CHONG WHEN
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Sep 3, 2014 18:28
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USDA Choice posted:Take a taxi straight from the airport to the Brass Monkey in Taipei. If the cabbie doesn't understand, speak louder and more slowly. Yell at him while you pull up each word on a phone translator app. Tip the cabbie at least 20% upon arriving and every time he refuses, increase the tip by 5%. After you get into the Brass Monkey, start macking on girls 15 years younger or 15 years older than you, but not within 15 years either direction. Doesn't matter if you're married or in a relationship, in fact bonus points if you are. Loudly proclaim you are the best English teacher around but then quickly in the same sentence say teaching English is just your short-term gig until your amazing business idea gets off the ground. Talk to no one in particular about the time you spent in Korea/Japan/Sri Lanka and how it was so much better than this place. I don't know what to take seriously if anything in that first paragraph, but should I be tipping cabbies in Taipei?
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Sep 3, 2014 19:14
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Backweb posted:I don't know what to take seriously if anything in that first paragraph, but should I be tipping cabbies in Taipei? No. Taiwan is almost entirely a non-tipping country. Except for perhaps nice western hotels around the 101 there's nowhere you should tip. You can round a 195 taxi fare up to 200 of course but don't tack anything on. The best way to show appreciation for a service is to be a repeat customer or say you'll direct business to them. And nothing in that first paragraph was serious, just painting a caricature of the worst possible foreigner.
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Sep 3, 2014 19:27
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It's worth noting that if you travel to Taichung instead of Taipei you have two options on what you can do: 1) Take a fist full of E, snort some coke, take a cab out to "The Refuge" (which is an hour away from anything), and then wander around telling everybody about the awesome band your in/starting before awkwardly banging on a bongo drum for a couple hours*. *Also acceptable: Wandering around telling people about the "'zine/newsletter" your starting, and handing out copies of some lovely poem you wrote to everyone in sight. Bonus points if you try to charge them for the lovely poem your handing out. 2) Get raging drunk at a 7-11 with your "buddies" while wearing matching t-shirts before going to *insert foreigner bar/restaurant" and awkwardly hitting on the waitresses. When you finally get so drunk that you can barely stand get on your scooter (or better yet, car!) and drive home swerving all over the god drat road. Anything less than 6-8 accidents a year means your a pussy.
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Sep 3, 2014 20:35
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TetsuoTW posted:Add "make no efforts to actually learn Mandarin" and the inevitable failure of said idea and I think I know this guy. Was this guy willing to work for Also, I am actually trying to learn a little bit before I go over, and can now count to ten. I probably sound like a tone deaf monkey or a dying cat (I think I'm speaking in a higher pitch, too, because all of the apps on my phone use women). I wonder if I can convince the lady at my favorite take out place to let me practice on her 
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Sep 3, 2014 20:49
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USDA Choice posted:No. Taiwan is almost entirely a non-tipping country. Except for perhaps nice western hotels around the 101 there's nowhere you should tip. You can round a 195 taxi fare up to 200 of course but don't tack anything on. The best way to show appreciation for a service is to be a repeat customer or say you'll direct business to them. Good to know. I started reading that first paragraph as something serious, but then didn't know where if anywhere things took a turn for the caricature. I've experienced the haggling aspect of buying things in Taiwan before so I thought that arguing up a 20% tip could have been one of those weird cultural things. E: Re-reading it, that's a pretty funny paragraph now that I'm not confused about the context. Backweb fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 21:18
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Backweb posted:Good to know. I started reading that first paragraph as something serious, but then didn't know where if anywhere things took a turn for the caricature. I've experienced the haggling aspect of buying things in Taiwan before so I thought that arguing up a 20% tip could have been one of those weird cultural things. To be fair tipping is getting more and more popular in Taiwan. Especially places that serve more Western style food. When I first moved there I only ever saw tip cups at the foreigner owned bars/restaurants. However, around the time I moved back to the USA it wasn't uncommon to see them in coffee shops/pizza places/whatever as well, regardless whether they were owned by a foreigner or not. quote:E: Re-reading it, that's a pretty funny paragraph now that I'm not confused about the context. It's funny until you live in Taiwan a few years, and you start realizing that really is how a lot of foreigners behave. Then you start getting jaded about everything, and suddenly the people posting on Forumosa start making a lot of sense too you. At which point you realize you've got to get the hell out of the country ASAP before you lose yourself too far down that rabbit hole... ...So you move back to the USA, and even though it's all the same poo poo different country it's a hell of a lot easier to pretend those people don't exist. You feel like a weight has been lifted off your soul, and your actually happy... ...Except now your problem is that teaching English in Taiwan means exactly "jack" and "poo poo" to employers back in the states. Those years you spent dicking around in Taiwan, your peers spent gaining REAL job experience. Which they used to move on to better jobs with livable wages that are out of your reach. So your forced to except some lovely entry level job, living hand to mouth like you did in college, and trying to work your way up from the bottom... ...Then you start remembering the quality of life you had back in Taiwan, and maybe... if I just move back to Taiwan for a little while... maybe it won't be like before... [/circle of life in Taiwan]
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Sep 3, 2014 21:59
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... And then that's when I tip the cabbies?? drat that sounds soul crushing. Are you still in Taiwan? Backweb fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Sep 4, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2014 00:02
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Haha it's just this weird cycle a lot of foreigners go through in Taiwan. They get fed up with Taiwan, decide to move back home, realize poo poo isn't much better then go right back to Taiwan. I'm going through it myself, but I'll be staying in the USA. If I could find a job there doing something other than teaching I might go back, but that's easier said than done.
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Sep 4, 2014 00:27
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USDA Choice posted:Talk to no one in particular about the time you spent in Korea/Japan/Sri Lanka and how it was so much better than this place. AtlasHugged has anyone done this about Korea?
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Sep 4, 2014 02:24
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HappyHelmet posted:Haha it's just this weird cycle a lot of foreigners go through in Taiwan. They get fed up with Taiwan, decide to move back home, realize poo poo isn't much better then go right back to Taiwan. On tipping: There's no tipping, and in most sit-down restaurants(excluding mom 'n pops/hole in the walls), there's a 10% service charge automatically added to your bill. Some places have a tip jar, but it's never required or expected. It might be nice to tip in specific situations like if a hotel employee or cabbie is helping you with your bags, but it's never expected. Random cabbie advice: don't need to tip them, but know when to say "uhhhhhh stop here this is fine" and get the gently caress out and get a different cab if the driver is fuckin' nuts/unable to figure out GPS/falling asleep/stopping to buy lottery tickets. It's ill advised to start poo poo with a cab driver; if you have a problem, you call the cab company later instead of yelling at the guy. Also, I don't thiiiiiiiink cab drivers bother trying to cheat customers by using unlicensed meters or trying to take a long way to get somewhere anymore, at least not in Taipei.
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Sep 4, 2014 03:08
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duckfarts posted:We're still looking for a technical writer if you wanna try for it. Nah, I've looked into that sort of work before, and it's not really what I'm looking for. Also I hear it's pretty wishy-washy on how long you can hold down those jobs, and I'm at a point in my life where I should really be working toward a career. Running off to Taiwan isn't going to help with that. Now if I find a good job here that wants to transfer me to Taiwan, that would be another story. quote:Random cabbie advice: don't need to tip them, but know when to say "uhhhhhh stop here this is fine" and get the gently caress out and get a different cab if the driver is fuckin' nuts/unable to figure out GPS/falling asleep/stopping to buy lottery tickets. It's ill advised to start poo poo with a cab driver; if you have a problem, you call the cab company later instead of yelling at the guy. Also, I don't thiiiiiiiink cab drivers bother trying to cheat customers by using unlicensed meters or trying to take a long way to get somewhere anymore, at least not in Taipei. I had a cab driver who started doing the whole Mario Andretti routine flying down the main street of Taichung at close to 110kph during heavy traffic flip on the TV in his dash and start watching a soap opera. After almost rear ending 2-3 people he finally decided it was best to turn it off.
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Sep 4, 2014 03:56
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Backweb posted:drat that sounds soul crushing. Basically what I'm saying is stay out of Carnegies. Don't worry, that'll make sense pretty quick once you're here. duckfarts posted:Random cabbie advice: don't need to tip them, but know when to say "uhhhhhh stop here this is fine" and get the gently caress out and get a different cab if the driver is fuckin' nuts/unable to figure out GPS/falling asleep/stopping to buy lottery tickets. quote:Also, I don't thiiiiiiiink cab drivers bother trying to cheat customers by using unlicensed meters or trying to take a long way to get somewhere anymore, at least not in Taipei.
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Sep 4, 2014 04:00
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I've had taxi drivers try to gently caress around on me a few times, but if you call them out on it they'll usually just immediately go the right way and then cut a bit off the bill at the end. Also if you're really anal just avoid taxis that have "個人" on the top as that means they're privately owned and range from good to horrifying stink traps. Learn some Mandarin, but just be better than the guy who works for us who is married with children and still hasn't progressed past knee how and shay shay.
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Sep 4, 2014 04:23
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HappyHelmet posted:Nah, I've looked into that sort of work before, and it's not really what I'm looking for. Also I hear it's pretty wishy-washy on how long you can hold down those jobs, and I'm at a point in my life where I should really be working toward a career. Running off to Taiwan isn't going to help with that. There are a ton of jobs that would have you frequently traveling between California and Taiwan. I've been working with people who do this for a while now and my backup plan for when I leave Taiwan is to transition to one of these jobs. One of my good friends even got a job with Asus that sent him to Colombia to work on the South American team and he occasionally makes it up to Taiwan. Honestly, working in Taiwan kind of sucks because even if you have a great salary and benefits, you can get better conditions in China/HK/SG. Also, it feels like any sort of highly-compensated job is just waiting to be eaten away by China. on the left fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Sep 4, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2014 04:38
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on the left posted:Honestly, working in Taiwan kind of sucks because even if you have a great salary and benefits, you can get better conditions in China/HK/SG. Also, it feels like any sort of highly-compensated job is just waiting to be eaten away by China. Pretty much. Basically what I'm saying is that I won't be back. I enjoyed my time there and wouldn't take it back for the world, but it's time to move on.
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Sep 4, 2014 05:06
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Taiwan is the Canada of Asia. There's health insurance, everyone says sorry all the time, the largest city only has like 5 million people, and you're forever living in the shadow of the big shots next door. Life is pretty good if you don't care about money though.
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Sep 4, 2014 09:11
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hitension posted:Taiwan is the Canada of Asia. There's health insurance, everyone says sorry all the time, the largest city only has like 5 million people, and you're forever living in the shadow of the big shots next door.
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Sep 4, 2014 09:20
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hitension posted:Taiwan is the Canada of Asia. This is perfect. "Oh you're "No, actually I'm
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Sep 4, 2014 13:50
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BottledBacon posted:This is perfect.
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Sep 4, 2014 14:30
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hitension posted:Taiwan is the Canada of Asia. There's health insurance, everyone says sorry all the time, the largest city only has like 5 million people, and you're forever living in the shadow of the big shots next door.  I'm from Taiwan and this is absolutely perfect. That's how I'm going refer to Taiwan from now on when people ask where I'm from. Absolutely not joking.
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Sep 4, 2014 23:45
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Hess just sent me an infopack about the cost of living, and one particular point stood out to me. There are indoor fishing ponds where you can pay $100/hr to fish for shrimp. I am sold. It's the perfect excuse to respond to anyone looking to practice their English with an indecipherable Cajun accent.
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Sep 5, 2014 13:29
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Hell of a way to learn some gangster-rear end Taiwanese too.
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Sep 5, 2014 14:02
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I think I'm going to start my HESS application now. A few questions: If I want to get there ASAP, should I select the Winter training term (November-December) for 3-4 months advance notice? Also, would a minor misdemeanor speeding ticket (20+ speed limit on highway in 2012) count as an offense on my criminal record history? Do they care about specific grades or GPA or just that you have completed your BA (I had a rough personal incident during my Senior year and some of my grades turned from Is to Fs before I got my BA; my in-major and College of Arts and Sciences GPA is still strong, just overall suffered)? And - this is a silly question - is there a drug screen at any point? I'm abstaining from pot now and will be okay going without while I'm in Taiwan, just want to check all my bases. Also, if anything I should know with interviews after submitting my application or what the HESS process is like. Thanks, appreciate the help. 
Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 16:17
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TheRamblingSoul posted:I think I'm going to start my HESS application now. A few questions:
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Sep 5, 2014 16:30
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USDA Choice posted:
Thanks for the response. I feel like I've got a compelling background for being a strong candidate: when I studied abroad in northern India in Fall 2010 I volunteered and taught English to Tibetan monks for two months (is that a no-no in Taiwan like it is in mainland?), I've got 4 years of (albeit really rusty) college Mandarin under my belt, I was born abroad and have lived in a few places abroad, I got a scholarship to Korea in 2011 for a Spring Break Youth Exchange program, etc. While I'm Taiwan, would there be possible opportunities (or that I could make) to volunteer and get work in copywriting while I'm teaching English for my day-job? How open are marketing/creative departments in Taiwanese companies to that sort of thing? Also, it looks here that I need to do a short teaching demo over Skype. Has anyone had any difficulty with this part? How long did the overall process from submission of application to arriving in Taiwan take? Are there outlets for English writers of fiction and poetry in Taiwan (eg communities, slam poetry, publication, etc)? I also would be highly interested in volunteering for Amnesty International in Taipei if I can get placed there. Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 16:42
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Thanks for the response. In terms of being able to get work while also teaching English, it's possible, I work in a job with no contract right now that would probably allow me doing other work, but I think with HESS if that's your chosen path it might be a little difficult. I get the impression from people who worked there that it's very by the book.
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Sep 5, 2014 16:47
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BottledBacon posted:In terms of being able to get work while also teaching English, it's possible, I work in a job with no contract right now, but I think with HESS if that's your chosen path it might be a little difficult. Even if that's the case, are there opportunities to network and get involved with marketing professionals in Taiwan? I'll probably be busy between English teaching and studying Mandarin anyways, just curious.
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Sep 5, 2014 16:49
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TheRamblingSoul posted:I feel like I've got a compelling background for being a strong candidate: when I studied abroad in northern India in Fall 2010 I volunteered and taught English to Tibetan monks for two months (is that a no-no in Taiwan like it is in mainland?), I've got 4 years of (albeit really rusty) college Mandarin under my belt, I was born abroad and have lived in a few places abroad, I got a scholarship to Korea in 2011 for a Spring Break Youth Exchange program, etc. You're taking Hess's standards far too seriously, your main qualification is that you're a native speaker, they don't much care beyond that. My application didn't include a teaching demo (I don't see how it would be practical) and I applied in September or October and was in the country in January. Sorry I can't answer your other questions. BottledBacon posted:In terms of being able to get work while also teaching English, it's possible, I work in a job with no contract right now that would probably allow me doing other work, but I think with HESS if that's your chosen path it might be a little difficult. I get the impression from people who worked there that it's very by the book. This an over-polite way of putting it, but I don't think it's the main thing stopping you from doing other jobs; that'd be the fact you can probably only work mornings.
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Sep 5, 2014 17:08
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Do HESS schools mainly teach kids from kindergarten to early elementary (or the equivalent)? I get along really, really well with kids and I think I'd do really well in a class teaching kids looking at the class videos.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:05
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TheRamblingSoul posted:I get along really, really well with kids and I think I'd do really well in a class teaching kids looking at the class videos.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:14
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TetsuoTW posted:McDonald's burgers look real tasty in their videos too. True, but the point still stands, I enjoy working with kids even under bad circumstances.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:18
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