Well, here I am in Taiwan. Specifically, New Taipei City, Linkou district. How did I come to be here? Well—
Back in July of 2023, the high school at which I worked in Beijing declined to renew my contract. To say I was bitterly disappointed would be putting it mildly. I tried at the time to find a new position in China, but I was unable to find anything before the expiration of my visa. I hired a moving company to shift my boxes. I didn’t exactly have a houseful of things, but I had far more to take with me than I could have comfortably packed into several suitcases. I obtained my kid brother’s permission to have it all sent to his place, whence I planned to move it into my storage unit near Media, on Pennel Road.
Fortunately, although I haven’t many friends, the ones I have are loyal and supportive. I spent about three or four months couch-surfing between two friends and my brother’s house. I hit the ground running, and almost as soon as I got in, I began searching for work. It took me two months before getting an interview with the Chinatown branch of the Greater Philadelphia Health Association, a system of clinics and health centers serving the ordinary and economically disadvantaged citizens of Philadelphia. During the on-boarding process, I was able to find a room for rent on Pierce Street in Philadelphia for USD$900 per month.
As I have noted in earlier posts, getting through the initial training for the GPHA was difficult. And keeping the job I had was also difficult, as I was apparently not suited to the minutiae required in the insurance confirmation phase of the patient check-in. I was so bad at it, in fact, that I left in March of ’24, after having only been in the position from October of 23.
Ignominious, to say the least.
Mind you, the management team was extremely patient with me, and very supportive. They gave me numerous opportunities, and time, to improve my performance. Alas, I was inadequate to the task.
However, by then, I had found a cram school (buxiban) that was hiring in Taiwan. I hadn’t been to Taiwan in at least thirty years, and I jumped at the opportunity. Then began another chapter of the great adventure.
Getting the documents together was a bit of a challenge, but the olnly real bother was getting the Chinese apostille for my university diploma. Once I had that, I sent scans of all my docs to the school at which I was going to teach. I was also able to “pre-rent” a room in Linkou District with the help of the hiring manager (though she resented it). By the end of March, I was in Taiwan.
Although I had lived in Taiwan before, it had been at least thirty years, as I noted above. I recognized almost nothing. And the fact that Linkou is on the other side of the city from my old neighborhoods of Tucheng, Banqiao, and Yonghe didn’t help, either. Especially since, when I had to go in for my health check, I had to take a cab across the city to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Banqiao.
When I began working, there was little to no formal training, and so many mistakes were made. A lot of this was also due to the school being a buxiban and not really a school—A buxiban is a kind of business which, for its model, uses the idea of a school. Parents are promised wonderful results for their children, supplementing their education with these specialty “cram schools—” Math, Science, Music, or in our case, English. And, there are also English language kindergarten programs, as well.
Working in a public high school in Beijing really spoiled me. In a public school, one can actually focus on actual education (at least until testing season). In the cram schools, things have to look good. Class order is valued highly—one really cannot have a “creative,” or “chaotic” classroom. Children are expected to sit neatly in rows, speak only when directly addressed by the teacher, creative individuality is discouraged, and so on. Even in kindergarten classes.
And, as in schools around the world, Middle School aged children are quite the undisciplined, disrespectful, disobedient, and self-absorbed little chaos-goblins.
I honestly deal better with the High Schoolers and Kindergarteners.
I am now approaching the end of my contract (I officially began working on the last week of April in 2025), and I do not expect to be rehired, for reasons upon which I shall elaborate on my next update. …Which, it is to be hoped, will not take another year.
Nudnik Online 