Gissa job mate!

Looking for work in Taiwan is perhaps not as easy as I thought. Being a man of more mature years (apparently 45 is really old these days!) it is not easy to be taken seriously in terms of finding work. This seems to be especially the case in Taiwan where basically men over 40 cannot find a job to do, unless they are exceptionally talented, or want to work as a security guard etc. It seems that the expectation is that by middle age an individual will be compelled to start their own business in some way shape or form.

Actually that is one of our objectives, that is to develop a business idea that we can take back to the UK, but in the meantime we both need to work and I am now worried that it will take some time to find a stable job, hrm!

The two main career choices for English speakers in Taiwan appear to be either an English Teacher for some kind of educational establishment, or a Technical Writer for some kind of IT company. A good English teaching job seems to pay more, but I am applying for both to see what comes my way.

Another important thing that is working against me is that I am not American, and Taiwanese love Americans, especially when it comes to learning English. I mean, to me I don't think it is a good idea to focus on any particular accent when learning a foreign language. For me it is most important to speak clearly and make yourself understood, my first Chinese language teacher gave me this advise when I first started out learning Mandarin. Imagine if I had focused on a heavy Beijing accent (the considered standard for Mandarin speakers), I would now sound very strange here in Taichung where Mandarin is heavily influenced by the accent of the local Taiwanese dialect.

Personally I think the focus the Taiwanese have on American English comes from a desire to have some of the USA's success rub off on those that learn it, and a slightly desperate desire to be perceived as being an integral part of the international community. Hrm, I am not sure that I agree with that approach to language learning, but then I would say that wouldn't I?