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Atlas Hugged posted:Same sex marriage, recognition from the American president-elect, and flushing toilet paper all in the same year. Taiwan, that's progress. Huh, didn't realize that was a legal issue. I always thought it was more of a "is this building's plumbing new enough to handle it because Taiwan bought all of America's 2nd hand and unused piping."
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Dec 8, 2016 17:27
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Pandemonium posted:Or else I get to fly to the US and go into extreme debt to have a specialist repair it. Fun times! That's Capitalism! 
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Dec 19, 2016 06:01
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Thanatosian posted:Would it help if I said I was a moderately adventurous eater, looking for new experiences? I wouldn't mind going to one or two expensive places, but I'm a big street food fan. Night markets are where you'll get your street food on at. There's Shilin and Raohe (Songshan) that are big, popular, and conveniently located at MRT stops. Smaller night markets like the one by my apartment will probably have food more focused on Taiwanese tastes rather than that of tourists. Still, oyster omelette is a good choice, and if you feel adventurous, maybe try some stinky tofu.
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Dec 31, 2016 11:30
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If you're going to do a ton of traveling on the MRT each day, you can buy unlimited passes for the day. I think you can buy those from the info desks at any station.
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Jan 23, 2017 09:31
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I don't remember having to change over from landing to visitor's visa, but I also didn't have to do any of the paperwork, so...
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Mar 25, 2017 15:24
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I thought the more recent trend was Taiwan getting into Korean pop-culture. So Taiwan is "Good China/B-List Japan/Fake Korea"?Moon Slayer posted:I've always thought of it more as "Japan's Mexico." But that would make Korea Japan's Canada, which doesn't check out when Taiwan is Asia's Canada.
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Apr 9, 2017 02:56
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Atlas Hugged posted:I think most goons do it honestly. Schools want to see a demo lesson and that's not really possible over the phone. Hess will hire sight unseen, but that's because they have you do a week of mandatory training when you arrive and want you to be a robot that follows their lessons down to the gesture. Hess isn't as bad once you get out of the training and find a decent branch (most are, but there are some horror stories). Otherwise it's follow their structure and lesson plan, but you'll eventually be able to figure out what to ignore and what to keep. Otherwise, yeah, guys at the main branch do often come across as though they haven't actually had to teach the material in a classroom in quite some time, and many of their demos only flow smoothly and crisply because they're demoing to native speakers. I and several other goons are current and former Hessians and can give tips/advice about them (if you can't find a better school than Hess, don't go for a school worse than Hess. Hess is the bar you want to jump over). Be careful of any fly-by-night operation; if they won't give you work permit+ARC walk out. I ran into a 19 y/o at Revolver that managed to get a job at a buxiban. Kid is so far rear end backwards that he doesn't even know the name of the school he works at, and didn't know what an ARC was (not to mention the extent of the illegality of a 19 y/o with no college working as a teacher). You should not be doing Visa runs if you're working at a legit place. Otherwise, I think Dave's ESL Cafe and Tealit are still the number one sites to look for jobs in the area.
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May 25, 2017 04:01
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If you're thinking of practicing for KTV, you're putting way more effort into it than anyone else. They'll probably have that one artist you liked growing up, just not the song you remember liking.
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Aug 18, 2017 06:43
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I know the buses don't run it, but isn't there a road that links up? I know one of the better maintained roads has been left in disrepair after a few earthquakes and typhoons, but I think it's possible to drive a scooter or car across (though I take it that's not what you want to do.)
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Sep 3, 2017 16:02
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Line chat only chat. Though I think we migrated from one group chat to another. Otherwise, most everyone still in the bae area.
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Sep 12, 2017 15:58
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Xerxes17 posted:Cool, I've got a BSc, CELTA and by that time, 2.5year experience. Is that in Taipei? If you've got a teaching certificate/license in your home [$undefinedgeopoliticaldivision] you can get on some pretty swank jobs with international schools and even actual public schools if that's your thing. If you don't, but think you might between now and when you're expecting to come, then by god do it son! Otherwise, your experience should get you some decent jobs, at least better than what Hess will offer. If not (or if you're just looking for the path of least resistance for coming to Taiwan), PM me and we can talk more about working for the big yellow hippo.
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Oct 9, 2017 16:40
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PaybackJack posted:You'll hear horror stories about buxibans but in the 9 years I've been here I've never had a situation where my school refused to pay me for hours that I worked or failed to live up to the terms of the contract, and I've had 2 positions where I fully expected that they might. Although Hess and Kojen are both fairly notorious for not giving you the 1 year bonus they promise unless you sign a new contract with them, which they start asking you about 4 months before your current one is set to expire and if they think you're going to leave they'll cut your hours and immediately start looking to replace you before you've necessarily decided. I've never heard of that happening at Hess; at least not a corporate branch. The Hess franchises can be pretty scummy, but corporate ones give you avenues to appeal lovely behavior to (and they're pretty decent about getting stuff fixed).
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Oct 14, 2017 04:23
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incogneato posted:Awesome, thanks for the answers. I'm specifically avoiding larger cities (except getting out of Hualien I suppose) and just driving the coastal highway and possibly Rift Valley (11 and 9, according to Google Maps?). We'd be renting a small car for the day, not scooters. I haven't driven in Asia before, but I was hoping that the more rural east coast highways would be less scooter swarms and crazy traffic situations. Last time I went to Hualien, it was okay. Driving up the gorge is fine, just during the day as tourists flow in, there will be backups where the road narrows and where there is construction going on. The road through most of it is a better quality than most Taiwanese mountain roads, but quickly changes above a certain point, back to atypical Taiwan mountain road, where you'll need to be careful and vigilant. Generally speaking, unless you're going to Hehuanshan (or traveling the cross central highway) there's no reason to be driving at that point. If you want to head up, I'd suggest going up in the early morning, before it gets filled with busses and other tourists. As it has already been mentioned, enforcement of driving laws is more lax outside of Taipei, and there's more people willing to drive like assholes. Thankfully, there'll be less people on the road in general. Just general advice of don't let assholes pressure you into driving outside of your comfort zone and what is safe.
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Apr 26, 2018 02:12
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senbe1 posted:I have visited several HESS branches in Taipei for next semester for my 4 y.o (speaks chinese but no english so international kindys are ruled out, no ARC yet so no public schools I understood) and so far the spectrum is quite large in terms of school size, fees and quality of facilities. Which area of Taipei are you thinking about? General rule of thumb with Hess is to go to a corporate controlled branch instead of a franchise; but even then there's some variation in the curriculum (generally, I think, if it's on the Hess website, it should be corporate). If you want more focus on English, go to a branch that offers SPARC. There are also a few Hess schools that are run like international schools. Otherwise, I can help look into any potential branches. e: missed your post about being in Neihu. Xinhu kindy branch is basically the premier Hess branch outside of main branch. Otherwise the branches in Neihu are all supposed to be good, afaik. If you have any questions about a specific branch I can still help out. CovfefeCatCafe fucked around with this message at 07:11 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 07:06
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senbe1 posted:Xinhu branch topped the list of Hesses I visited, so your message kinda confirms my first impression. Do you know if they provide any school bus service (as it is quite far from any MRT station)? They should, as all Hess branches have busses afaik. You'll just have to inquire with the branch directly about how the service works.
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May 22, 2018 09:29
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And just to clarify, you can purchase a reserved seat literally up to the time of departure.
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Sep 22, 2018 11:25
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GoutPatrol posted:Does anyone have any experience/know anyone who has actually bought a car here? I've been thinking about getting a used supermini. I owned a car in Chiayi for a short period of time until it decided to dump the contents of its radiator on the freeways in Taichung. Even in Chiayi parking was always either further than you'd really like to walk or paid for (so I typically stuck to using my motorcycle except for things like trips to Costco). It's nice to have something to use on the freeways. I think dealing with scooters isn't too hard. You can still get around with scooters; check your blind spots and make predictable maneuvers and you'll avoid 95% of the idiots out there. Otherwise, I would totally get something like a Polo if I were to buy another car. Much easier to deal with parking and the craziness of traffic in cities if you have a smaller car.
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Nov 15, 2018 17:09
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GoutPatrol posted:I assume you mean High Speed? The regular train is not THAT much cheaper and would take 5-6 hours longer. HSR tickets do give a discount for booking early, and I think that includes single tickets. HSR you can book up to 1 month in advance as I recently learned. I don't think TRA gives discounts for booking early, and you can only book 2 weeks in advance. Otherwise, Tze-Chiang is generally half the price of the HSR, and will be 5-6 hours to Kaohsiung. If you can grab Puyuma tickets, it'll be about a 4-5 hour trip depending on which stops the train you choose makes. Puyuma usually makes fewer stops than the Tze-Chiang and runs faster (130km/h vs 110km/h). Also, mountain line is generally faster than coast line.
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Sep 15, 2019 07:05
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I'll check with local sources/friends. Keoni hasn't exactly been the most sane ship in this storm.
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Mar 17, 2020 03:52
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Same, I grew up in NW Florida and I would say Taipei is on par, often worse in terms of heat and humidity.
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Apr 10, 2021 03:33
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