I traveled around Asian from 2012-2015 and my home base was in Taiwan. The people and food are great and it's a much better standard of living compared to other parts of Asia.
Some downsides:
If you are black and want to get a job as an English teacher, you will have difficulties. Most parents will not see your English level as equal to someone that is White. Racism is still rampant in Asia. Some people see it as a difference in culture.
Government infrastructure is still in the stone age. Websites that don't work, are non-existent, or just give false information. Bus systems that all work a little bit differently and virtually no standardization across the different provinces.
If you can work remotely and get US wages, you will be in a good place. I was able to rent a luxury apartment with a security guard for ~$300/USD/month. I worked remotely for American companies.
If you are an English teacher and don't know mandarin, they will pressure you to get an apartment through them. They get kickbacks and the apartments are usually really terrible. Luckily, I studied mandarin for a few years before I went and went through a real-estate agent.
I also found many of the western English teachers to be comprised of young twenty somethings that just want to party all the time, bang the local Asian women, or people that ran out of options in their own country (issues with the law) and thought it would be easy money. These groups give all Westerners a bad name and many assume you will be the same. It's tough to break this stereotype.
Many of the cram schools don't do their due diligence and just want anyone that speaks English.
I also knew a few people that got into bad contracts with these cram schools. They would require monthly training and the training would come out of your paycheck. You can't just pay it yourself. In the end, some actually owed more money to the school than what they received.
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[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 15.8 ms ] thread[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momofuku_Ando
Some downsides:
If you are black and want to get a job as an English teacher, you will have difficulties. Most parents will not see your English level as equal to someone that is White. Racism is still rampant in Asia. Some people see it as a difference in culture.
Government infrastructure is still in the stone age. Websites that don't work, are non-existent, or just give false information. Bus systems that all work a little bit differently and virtually no standardization across the different provinces.
If you can work remotely and get US wages, you will be in a good place. I was able to rent a luxury apartment with a security guard for ~$300/USD/month. I worked remotely for American companies.
If you are an English teacher and don't know mandarin, they will pressure you to get an apartment through them. They get kickbacks and the apartments are usually really terrible. Luckily, I studied mandarin for a few years before I went and went through a real-estate agent.
I also found many of the western English teachers to be comprised of young twenty somethings that just want to party all the time, bang the local Asian women, or people that ran out of options in their own country (issues with the law) and thought it would be easy money. These groups give all Westerners a bad name and many assume you will be the same. It's tough to break this stereotype.
Many of the cram schools don't do their due diligence and just want anyone that speaks English.
I also knew a few people that got into bad contracts with these cram schools. They would require monthly training and the training would come out of your paycheck. You can't just pay it yourself. In the end, some actually owed more money to the school than what they received.