There’s good and there’s bad and you have to keep that in mind regarding any country. If you go in with rose tinted glasses you’re gonna be sorely disappointed once the slow needling of reality sets in.

The good: people are friendly and helpful for the most part, the country is beautiful, most people have some understanding of basic English (though I’m relearning Mandarin), the health care is great, rent is affordable (compared to Canada), it can be cheaper to eat out at local restaurants than to buy food at a grocery store, and things in general are very convenient and accessible. Oh and I make a good wage as an English teacher. I’m basing all of this in comparison to Canada, a local likely wouldn’t think things are “cheap” and I always keep that in mind so as to not be rude.

The bad: hotter than Satan’s taint and twice as sweaty for a good chunk of the year and when it’s not hot as balls it’s rainy and humid (in the north, south is different). Traffic is a game of roulette, rules are more like guidelines. No Good Samaritan laws here so if you help a person who’s been injured there’s nothing to stop them from suing you and blaming you for their injury even though, say, they were hit by a car and would’ve bled out and died if not for you putting pressure on the wound (hypothetical situation but it happens way too often). I think Taiwan is trying to change that though.

Anyway, if you have kids they’re gonna be in a hellish school system and go to school from 8am to 8pm, public and then cram schools. I try to make my classes as fun as possible so my students can have a chance to just be kids.

And this is more of a pet peeve but I find Taiwanese are often very situationally unaware. Like you’ll be walking through a busy metro and the person in front of you stops all of a sudden in a doorway to check their phone. They don’t look behind them to see if they’re in someone’s way, they don’t pull off to the side, they take up the whole damn doorway. Or you’ll walk on one of the rare sidewalks and say it’s three people wide, and a group of three are coming towards you. You’d expect one of them to drop behind to make room for you, but no. You either barrel right into them or are forced to walk on the road. I go for option one these days though it goes against every instinct for etiquette I have.

But overall I’ve never been happier than I am here. The cons are there but they don’t outweigh the good for me, not by a long shot. Your mileage may vary!