Thanks Nick! Have to agree with all your points above as well. Actually we go over a lot of similar ideas in our eBook. You might enjoy it if you are in Taiwan! Have you had a chance to check it out? Thanks for leaving so much great advice in your comment!

1. In terms of salary, you can make more than enough money get by, especially if you stay beyond your first year and don’t have the normal set up costs.
2. Living in Taiwan is much cheaper in the West. You can get by fine on $2000 a month and can certainly spend less (or more) depending on your lifestyle and where you live.
3. The food can be very good and cheap. There are so many different things you can eat for $3-5 that are tasty and reasonably priced.
4. Taiwan is the safest country I’ve ever been to by far. You can be almost anywhere on the island at any time of day or night and not have to worry about personal safety. Of course it’s not perfect, but as far as safety goes it’s very good.
5. If you like nature then there is so much to do once you get outside the cities. I highly recommend a scooter to go exploring.

It was a great experience, although I must say there wasn’t as much playing as I would have liked. Those kids start studying quite intensely from a very young age, and there is much less emphasis on creativity than memorization. Luckily teaching kindy it is easier to play lots of games :)

It really is! We still don’t have our TEFOL certificates, but if we decide to teach again we will definitely get them, both for the training and higher paying jobs.

Thanks Andrew! Glad to hear it is helpful. Let us know your thoughts on the eBook, and don’t hesitate to ask any questions! There’s a bit more about the taxes in the book, but basically all foreigners are taxed at 18% for the first 183 days. After that, your tax rate drops to 5%. If you are in the country longer than 183 days, you are eligible to get back 12% of the initial 18% taken out of your paycheck. So, if you time your arrival in Taiwan around the start of the year, you’ll receive a nice refund the following year. However, if you are in Taiwan for 182 days or less, you will still be taxed at 18% but you won’t get any of it back. We arrived in Taiwan in the end of July, which meant from July to December we were taxed at 18% and there was no refund. Hope that helps!