“Hi,
I am a British university student graduating this year! With the world depression I am finding it hard to find a job next year in the UK! So i was thinking of heading to Taiwan to teach english for a whole year!
Could you tell me what its like living in Tiapei and how much an apartment in the city center would cost?
Also how did you cope with the language barrier
Thanks!!!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good questions Kush.
As far as what its like living in Taipei I’m not sure how to answer you since thats a pretty broad question. I would suggest reading blogs. Another good source of information is www.forumosa.com where people write about a ton of different topics on life here. Life is life though so to answer your question in a nutshell I’d say life in Taipei is just like life anywhere else, it is what you make it. Sorry to be so cliche.
Apartment prices really vary. It depends on what you want. We found our apartment on www.tealit.com which is where we do a lot of things. Its a great resource for foreigners in Taiwan.
Prices range on the cheapside at about 5000 NTD if you can find it upwards. Realize that space in Taipei is luxury so what you pay in rent is usually dependent on how much space you get and also has to do with where you live. I’ve found it much cheaper to get a “house” sized apartment and then split it with roommates. If you want to live alone then its hard to find something very big thats affordable.
The language barrier really isn’t hard to deal with. Many Taiwanese young people know English fairly well and many are anxious to practice. This coupled with the friendly and helpful nature of people here makes not knowing Chinese doable. Many restaurants, banks, shops, businesses, have English menus and services so its really not bad at all. Just to give you an example, when I go to Subway to get a sandwich I order in English.
You can definitely live in Taiwan without knowing Chinese just fine. Its also a great place to get employment at a fairly decent rate teaching English. Go for it!
Recent Comments