Living and earning in Taiwan- by Jason Tonkin

Living in South Africa, one cannot escape the harsh realities of poverty, if you care to notice those kinds of things. Unfortunately, many don't and it's the "nouveau riche" expats living here in Taiwan who irritate me the most! Firstly, it is they who know least about what it means to be "broke" or I really can't "afford it." Yet, in the very next breath, they are boasting about their new iPods, cameras and notebooks they have recently bought at 3C. It disgusts me to hear how they cannot get bye when you know perfectly well what they are earning. I hear less whinging from an unemployed casual laborer you find on the corner of Warwick Avenue and Smith Street when you ask them, "Kunjani?" (isiZulu for "How are you?") Expats have a lot to be thankful for living here in Taiwan away from what ever it was that brought them here.

I have been living in Taiwan with my wife and kids for over three years. We have several kids and sometime it feels like I have to perform a miracle to feed the multitudes. My better half is a Domestic Diva (aka stay at home Mom)and we homeschool our children for our own beliefs and reasons. Financially we are very, actually extremely careful with our cash, as we all have to be, but I sometimes really wonder if other people really understand the value of money here in Taiwan. Or do they really appreciate the fact that sometimes their Chinese co-working teacher who has three times the work experience earns less than half their salary. I am sure for most of us, we do. I have just seen many starving people living on less then a dollar (US) a day and it breaks my heart to see people having to grovel even just for a glass of clean drinking water.. But do you hear them complaining as bitterly as many expats earning in excess of NT$60 000 sometimes being double income families!

But I know at the bottom line, I think most of us really do appreciate the privilege it is to be halfway around the world earning a junior executive's salary for teaching a bunch of kids, some of who don't even want to learn English but are forced to. To those "nouveau riche" expats who do not appreciate Taiwan for the lifestyle and value it offers them and constantly criticize Taiwan, go home! Negative energy can be catchy and tends to affect too many young travelers who do not fully understand their responsibility to the kids they teach. And for those 'English Teachers' from Northern European countries and that includes Russia, be grateful that your English is better than those that you teach. On that note, from an English perspective, one cannot help chuckle when listening to students who have clearly been previously taught by someone with a French, English or Afrikaans accent needless to mention American accent. I suppose surviving in the 21st Century is about knowing the value of money and how to go about retrieving it utilizing every possible resource that exists, including your English speaking abilities no matter how good or bad.