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TheRamblingSoul posted:True, but the point still stands, I enjoy working with kids even under bad circumstances. Don't gently caress a kid.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:20
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TheRamblingSoul posted: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? I'm like two steps ahead of you (starting training end of this month). The "teaching demo" for me was pretty straight forward, don't sweat it. Your 'criminal' check is a local town/city records check, so if your one terrible crime of doing 20 over was in a different municipality than where you actually live it may not even be relevant. I think they do these backgrounds just to make sure you're not a registered sex offender (pretty important when you're working with children).
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Sep 5, 2014 18:33
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Spanish Matlock posted:Don't gently caress a kid. He did say working with kids, not just working kids.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:38
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Moved into campus today. Holy crap was that a boondoggle. International office: "Go to the dorm. They have your temporary ID" Dorm: "Go to your international office to get your temporary ID" International office: "Oh, we don't have your temporary ID ready... maybe we can have a temporary one for you at your dorm." Dorm: "This is your dorm? Okay. Here's your temporary ID" Suppose it's a sign of things to come, but that international office has been less than helpful with my entire masters program integration from day one. Loving this heat though.
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Sep 5, 2014 19:29
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Backweb posted:Loving this heat though.
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Sep 5, 2014 19:36
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Alright, submitted my HESS application and questionnaire.  Would they turn someone down for using counseling once a month for a few months back in 2012 for family issues? I am totally fine and healthy now and not using counseling/medication/etc now, just wondering if that would be an issue.[e]: What are Taiwanese internet speeds like compared to US connections? Is it like South Korea where every nook and cranny has an ethernet port and gets crazy good speeds as the norm? Also, are there temples or sanghas for English-speaking people wanting to learn more about Buddhism in Taiwan? I've seen some majestic and awe-inspiring temples in Seoul, Korea (not enough time to actually talk to people there, though) so I'm curious about Taiwan and Buddhism. Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 21:36
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Alright, submitted my HESS application and questionnaire. Trust me(us), you're overthinking it. If they were as selective as West Point they wouldn't have any English teachers. There are a lot of round pegs escaping square holes at Hess, if you will. quote:
quote:Also, are there temples or sanghas for English-speaking people wanting to learn more about Buddhism in Taiwan? I've seen some majestic and awe-inspiring temples in Seoul, Korea (not enough time to actually talk to people there, though) so I'm curious about Taiwan and Buddhism. I never saw any real resources, but I also never looked. The closest I've seen is some poorly Chinglished literature available free at some bigger sites. edit \/\/\/\/\/\/\/ It's no problem to ask, I'm just trying to set your mind at ease. It's not a lock you'll be accepted or anything, but your chances are good and if they don't accept you it's not the end of the world. I got a ping of ~175 to US West on Dota2 and ~200 to US East which was just barely acceptable. IMO that's unplayable for an FPS though. USDA Choice fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 23:04
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USDA Choice posted:Trust me(us), you're overthinking it. If they were as selective as West Point they wouldn't have any English teachers. There are a lot of round pegs escaping square holes at Hess, if you will. Sorry, just been in a rut recently job-wise here in the Midwest and would be better off working in Taiwan now while I'm still young. Conditions probably make me come off as over-earnest. v  vAlso, goony question, but is Taiwanese Internet good enough to get a decent ping with a US East or West server? I'd still like to be able to play on my old TF2 servers. How are Taiwanese/East Asia game players/servers? [e]: Personal favorite restaurants? I was a fan of street food in Seoul and India, but curious about local cuisines you all like. Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 23:07
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Backweb What school you at? In my experience the international students' office is by far the most useless office.  TheRamblingSoul Expressing opinions about Tibet is fine in Taiwan. Expressing ANYTHING is fine in Taiwan. Hell you will get bored of people dumping their political views on you. Also in my experience from friends at HESS they don't really have requirements beyond a BA degree and a minimum of social decorum. They can even wear shorts and such. Don't let embittered old-timers here discourage you, children ARE adorable and Taiwanese kids are way more focused and polite than inner-city kids I taught before. I'm not an English teacher so I'm not around kids 99% of the time though. Just occasional tutoring.
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Sep 6, 2014 01:43
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hitension posted:Backweb What school you at? In my experience the international students' office is by far the most useless office. National Chengchi University in Wenshan district. Beautiful scenery, but holy crap is the university OIC impotent. Edit: today is freshman move in day so all us internationals are watching from our  fourth floor balcony.
Backweb fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Sep 6, 2014 |
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Sep 6, 2014 03:19
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USDA Choice posted:I got a ping of ~175 to US West on Dota2 and ~200 to US East which was just barely acceptable. IMO that's unplayable for an FPS though. Join us, practice your nerd/web mandarin, and play on the China servers to reach true Dotes Domination.
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Sep 6, 2014 03:50
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Sorry, just been in a rut recently job-wise here in the Midwest and would be better off working in Taiwan now while I'm still young. Conditions probably make me come off as over-earnest. v I get 160-180 ping on Valve servers in Washington, and 210-230 on Valve servers in Virginia. Good enough for the Washington servers, but not ideal. Taiwan is 12 hours ahead so a lot of private servers probably won't have people when you want to play. Hong Kong has some servers that I get 30-40 ping on and Japan/Korea have quite a few that are 40-60 ping. HK servers are great because people speak English, but there aren't very many compared to the US/Europe. Taiwanese street food is much better than Korean street food. I've lived in both countries, and there's much more variety here. It's very different though. Sometimes I miss being able to easily find a shawarma stall, hotteok (the sweet pancakes) or tteokbokki.
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Sep 6, 2014 06:10
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Slowpoke! posted:Hong Kong has some servers that I get 30-40 ping on and Japan/Korea have quite a few that are 40-60 ping. HK servers are great because people speak English, but there aren't very many compared to the US/Europe. quote:Sometimes I miss being able to easily find a shawarma stall, hotteok (the sweet pancakes) or tteokbokki.
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Sep 6, 2014 06:49
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USDA Choice posted:I paid less than NT$1000/month for 25up/10 down plus a mid-tier cable package
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Sep 6, 2014 07:01
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TetsuoTW posted:If you're lucky, there are a few games that run Australian servers too, which give decent ping. Not amazing, but decent. I'm in Taipei and I'd love to know where to find it. I know there is a guy in Shida night market who does it, but I've moved apartments so I'm not really close it anymore. Granted, my opinion of Taipei is that I don't really miss out on any food, since you can find almost anything here. It's just pricey compared to cheap, Taiwanese food and I really haven't saved as much money as I should have because I have a penchant for eating delicious things. But mostly I miss being able to go out drinking in Seoul and then being able to walk outside and my choice of 2-3 shawarma stalls nearby.
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Sep 6, 2014 08:05
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Shawarma is 沙威瑪. Tonghua night market has it. Just keep interactions with the international student office to a minimum. In my experience they are mainly there to hold the hand of the students who can't speak enough Chinese/generally be competent enough to do things on their own. If you have a problem with your student ID, go to the whoever issues student IDs (might be something like 教務處). If you have a problem with housing, go to the housing people (eg 住宿組). ARC problems, go to the immigration office. Etc. I avoid the international student office like the plague.
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Sep 6, 2014 08:11
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hitension posted:Shawarma is 沙威瑪. Tonghua night market has it. Indeed, the international office is by stupid for stupid and all stupid.
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Sep 6, 2014 08:21
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Slowpoke! posted:I'm in Taipei and I'd love to know where to find it. I know there is a guy in Shida night market who does it, but I've moved apartments so I'm not really close it anymore. Barto posted:Indeed, the international office is by stupid for stupid and all stupid.
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Sep 6, 2014 08:39
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Moon cakes are the fruitcake of Asia. They are accepted with a big smile and a show of appreciation, then get regifted until they end up with someone who will actually eat them. I got a box of them, and one of them is fish. I won't know which one it is until I bite into it.
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Sep 6, 2014 13:59
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Horatius Bonar posted:I got a box of them, and one of them is fish. I won't know which one it is until I bite into it.
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Sep 6, 2014 14:39
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Horatius Bonar posted:Moon cakes are the fruitcake of Asia. That's why my boss bought me coffee instead.
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Sep 6, 2014 15:40
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Horatius Bonar posted:Moon cakes are the fruitcake of Asia. Haha this is truth. I hate those drat things, and I think most Taiwanese secretly do too. More Taiwanese like 粽子, but even then the boss usually shows up with a garbage bag full of them and they never get eaten because there's so many.
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Sep 6, 2014 16:52
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I like moon cakes I have been eating moon cake for breakfast for a few days now. Think of all the 50NT pieces saved on breakfasts! gently caress those ones with the practically raw egg though. That's nasty.
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Sep 6, 2014 17:15
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The only good mooncake is an ice cream mooncake.
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Sep 6, 2014 17:25
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I dunno I know lots of people who really like mooncakes. When I was in the states in school I gave all mine to a Taiwanese friend of mine who ate them overnight. How she was not 800lb eating mooncakes at the rate she did I will never know. I really like the really, really expensive fancy ones Starbucks has cause they're like chocolate and peanut butter flavor and are basically super rich peanut butter cups or some other nice sweet flavor. They're like the equivalent of 9USD each though so gently caress that.
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Sep 6, 2014 17:32
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I can eat like, one of them, any more and it feels like a bag of rocks sitting in my stomach. I really hate that powdered meat stuff they sometimes use as a filling in mooncakes and 粽子. So it's a bit of a mine field hoping I don't bite into one of them.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:19
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TetsuoTW posted:The only good mooncake is an ice cream mooncake. Truth.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:32
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Moon Slayer posted:poo poo, hang on guys, I need to go cancel a business card order. Was reading through back pages when I saw this. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up becoming a Copy Editor for the China Post? Any sort of copywriting or editing or even just general writing/editing jobs I'd be highly interested in exploring once I get settled in Taiwan after a while. [e]: Also, is there a story behind betel nuts and Taiwanese? Has it been a thing on the island or mainland before the KMT rout to Taiwan? For some reason, I feel like it could make for a good plot device in a story with the title "Betel Nut Blues." No idea why, just springs to mind as something to draw on as a premise for a novel or short story. v v
Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Sep 6, 2014 |
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Sep 6, 2014 18:55
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Brought some international friends to Shilin Night Market last night. They were both starving but couldn't figure out what they wanted to eat due to the heat and humidity. They were both crying at the smell of stinky tofu. Is it true that when someone in Taiwan/China says "no" it doesn't necessarily mean "never" but when someone says "maybe next time" it always means "no/never?" We were trying to figure that one out last night... Chinese typically seems like an up-front and informal language in most cases, so I'm wondering how much of that is true. Edit: How many hours per week is "full time" in Taiwan? I'm looking at some job postings for a full-time editor in Taipei, and my entire weekdays are free due to evening classes with the exception of 3PM Mandarin courses on Tuesday and Thursday. Backweb fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Sep 7, 2014 |
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Sep 7, 2014 00:30
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Backweb posted:Edit: How many hours per week is "full time" in Taiwan?
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Sep 7, 2014 04:03
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I got some dessert flavor mooncakes with stuff like raspberry inside and it was good. Of course, it had that creeping "this is so close to being bad" taste with every bite.
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Sep 7, 2014 04:05
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Mooncakes are amazing. I do prefer the white louts paste with a bit of egg inside. It's much better if you cut them into bite sizes and pair it with some strong black teas.
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Sep 7, 2014 04:17
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TheRamblingSoul posted: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. I haven't found any, poet here, been looking for a hot minute. Let's be homies though. TheRamblingSoul posted:Alright, submitted my HESS application and questionnaire. No way, man. You don't have to bring it up, and they probably won't ask. I was getting weekly CBT before I moved here, for reasons, but it's never come up, so whatever. All y'all acting like moon cakes are a minefield act like you never heard of knives before. Cut a bitch and look! poetrywhore fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Sep 7, 2014 |
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Sep 7, 2014 04:47
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poetrywhore posted:I haven't found any, poet here, been looking for a hot minute. Let's be homies though. I used to live in an apartment with a poet. Why is there such a high ratio of middle class white people who think they're poets on this sub-tropical island.
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Sep 7, 2014 04:51
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Barto posted:I used to live in an apartment with a poet. "think they're poets" Yo, all you got to do is write a poem and you are one, man. that's like, I think I'm a scooter driver. Because I drive a scooter. I think I'm a teacher. Because I teach. Don't hate because it isn't your bag.
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Sep 7, 2014 04:54
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"Uh, no, just because you 'write a poem' doesn't make you a poet, just like writing movie reviews doesn't make you a 'movie reviewer' you need to train for years and go to the special schools and and blah blah blah blah." Speaking of which ... TheRamblingSoul posted:Was reading through back pages when I saw this. Editing jobs are out there, you just have to look a lot harder than for teaching jobs. I'd say it's the second-most common form of employment for white-collar foreigners here. I got the job because I saw an online ad and sent in my resume, that's it. And then got fired six months later because the company is awful and has gotten rid of even more people since I left while heaping the same amount of work on the remaining employees. Don't work for The China Post.
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Sep 7, 2014 05:16
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Barto posted:I used to live in an apartment with a poet. I think it's cos we're all English "teachers" and that tends to attract people who think they know one end of an iamb from the other. Also re Hess and counselling etc, that sounds fine. This is an actually creditable part of what they do; there's no point in a person coming over if they're literally unable to teach, either from Hess' or the teacher's perspective, but they're not going to laugh at the freak if you had some CBT once.
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Sep 7, 2014 05:17
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Barto posted:Why is there such a high ratio of middle class white people who think they're poets on this sub-tropical island. TheRamblingSoul posted: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. Also be careful with volunteering, at least volunteering that could be perceived as political. Keep your head down. It's technically legal, but if you draw too much attention to yourself - and if you're not ethnically Chinese you're already starting at a higher level on that - you could wind up in some poo poo. It's not common and it's of dubious legality, but it can happen. Not saying don't do it, just saying keep your wits about you.
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Sep 7, 2014 05:30
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poetrywhore posted:"think they're poets" That's not true, doing poetry doesn't make anyone a poet, it mainly makes them poetasters ^^
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Sep 7, 2014 06:09
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TetsuoTW posted:Because Taiwan tends to attract wanderers, since there's no real reason to come here for 99% of people, and wandering traveler types tend to also lean artistic. And hang out in Taichung handing out their poetry (only 50 NTD!)
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Sep 7, 2014 06:11
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