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I lived in Korea and Japan, both for many years. But, personally, I think you'd have to have a strong interest in Japan to live in Japan. It's a very expensive place, and it's worth it, if you like Japan. But, if you are indifferent with Japan and Japanese culture, why bother? It doesn't seem you have any particular attraction or interest in it.
South Korea is really best for English teachers. Not much other opportunities around for foreigners. For teaching English, South Korea pays relatively well compared to most countries on the planet, with many set benefits for teaching English. That being said, it's a hard culture to work and live in. One of those things that ESL teachers do, because it pays better than most. But if ESL work isn't your history/past/future, than I'd cross it off the list.
Singapore seems like it has the most variety of jobs, combined with your father's background. Definitely I'd go with SINGAPORE.
Regarding India and China. Those two I haven't lived in. But, India seems best if 'call centers' is a line of work you're interested in pursuing. China has a lot of options, but more strongly for extremely low-paid teaching english work, or business and business networking, etc.
Yeahh.
A little background about me.
I was born in Singapore but from birth I was only there for a few months, right after my papers were done we left Singapore (I was only born there because my father was on a project there) for Chicago where I grew up the first 4 years of my life (where my brother was born) and then we moved to India for somewhere between 1-2 years and lived in Mumbai. I grew accustomed to Mumbai quickly but even as a kid noticed the downsides to the place (many of which are no longer there now). When we moved back to the United States it was to Chicago where we lived for a few more years. Then we moved to Dallas, where we lived for 6 months and then eventually Houston, where I lived for over a decade where I finished high school. Then it was off to college, my first year I went to Ann Arbor (Michigan) and due to the lack of "comfort zone" I transferred back to Texas, and went to school in Austin the remainder of my undergraduate where I dual majored in engineering and journalism, specifically mechanical and political for each respective major.
After college, I moved to Washington DC and have been here for the last 6 months. I don't have so much an obligation to stay however, while I love Washington DC the official rosary and honeymoon period has worn off and I've been contemplating moving back to where my roots are in either Singapore or India.
Over the years I've visited both plenty of times and know both very well, more so India in this regard and am extremely familiar with Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Jamshedpur, Patna, Pune, Lucknow, and Calcutta and to a lesser extent Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, Ranchi, and a couple of others. I would have no issues living in India or securing a job, specifically in IT/computer engineering or media there and my uncle is a huge politician there so my future there is a set launchpad if I choose to live there. I also really like the culture and as much as it pains me to admit, I sort of truly love Mumbai quite a lot as well as Bangalore and Pune.
As for Singapore, same deal. A career in IT or media, probably more of a slant on IT in Singapore than media because of their job market.
Overall though, from what I've experienced of both India and Singapore, I wont have any issues living in either. More or less, I'm a bit more curious about Hong Kong, Seoul, Japan, Malaysia, and the Chinese cities. In Asia I have been to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok in addition to Doha (Middle East), Singapore, and a multitude of Indian cities.
Also yes, I'm deeply influenced by Japanese culture, Asian culture in general is a way of life for me. I have yet to live in a city that had a paltry Asian population (well except Austin and Ann Arbor) so I've been around plenty of people.
For me though, there's a void in my life. Amongst all my friends, regardless of where they are from they all have an idea and experience with their hometowns (mine being Singapore), for me I don't. As well as being so culturally detached of my ethnicity (Indian) that I just feel a void culturally that I want to fill in. I would love to live in either and sort of "find" myself but I also have priorities too which are best geared towards a longterm career only sustainable in London, New York, Washington, Singapore, Seoul, Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Chicago, Toronto, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Vancouver, Nagoya, Shanghai, Melbourne but that is much more later down in life.
For now, I would like to just get this started.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 02-24-2013 at 05:06 AM..
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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We were both born in Singapore but left at very young ages. The difference being I have roots in Singapore since my mother is from there. I believe it was her grandmother and grandfather, though, who migrated from China sometime in the 1910s or even early 1920s. My grandmother is 90 and was born in Singapore. It was a vastly different place then. Covered largely in forest and rubber plantation, tigers still roamed much of the island and at one time were killing at least a person every day!
While I long to live in different places, I haven't been been as fortunate as you and aside from when I was very young and a stint in the country (where if you want to talk about lack of Asians I was literally one of the only ones in that town) I've lived in Perth, one of the most isolated, dullest cities on the planet. Hopefully this will change, as I'm determined to move to Melbourne very soon. I've dreamed of living overseas, Italy, Japan and Peru are three countries that come to mind. My love affair with living in the US isn't as great, but it still might be a possibility.
I'm not really career focused at all, although I probably will still go back to planning. I'm more of an artist/searcher who's really curious about the world in general and hopefully will make some sort of different to this global community we live in.
Marketable for what? Teaching more English in China? Teaching English as a Second Language is a fairly dead end career blahblahblah
Have you ever taught English? Of it being a 'dead end career' depends on you basically, if you think there
is any upward mobility by sitting on your backside with an unrelated degree (which most people do) and having no intentions of upgrading your qualifications
then you will stay right where you are - at the bottom. Upgrade your qualifications, get yourself a PGCE or a
MA in Linguistics or TEFL and you will see a vast improvement in opportunities and salary.
Starting today, I started putting my resume out for openings in various places in Asia.
Last 3 months or so, I've really been feeling a bit down about living in the United States and I truly am not happy with living here anymore as great as my city Washington is, I want for this to be a chance to try something new.
I just got off the phone with my father, he's been living in Singapore for the last year and a half, as he's on a project there with Accenture and he told me to just come over as soon as I can as I can always stay with him until I get my life out there started. I'm thinking about going ahead with it but I don't know if Singapore is going to be any sort of permanent stop for me.
Initially in the United States I've always wanted to live in New York and Miami and I still plan on buying a condo here in Miami in the next year or so, it'll be my first investment on a property on my own and I'm looking forward to it. New York's realistically the only city I could see myself trading up to live in over Washington and well to put it bluntly, living there is not in the cards for me in the immediate years coming up.
I am curious about the living conditions in Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai (already lived there), Hong Kong, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, Penang, Pune, Bangalore, Seoul, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, or Singapore (my hometown).
Could you guys, preferably ones with living experience in any of these shed some light on some of these places and what you think about life there. Would that city be worth it?
As for immigration, yeah I'll sort it out but right now I'm just in the planning stages.
Hi Valentro,
All the best for your job hunting,soon you will get a job as you wish.
As like you are interested its very good to live in Asia and also can lead very good life here
03-05-2013, 11:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by valentro
Starting today, I started putting my resume out for openings in various places in Asia.
Last 3 months or so, I've really been feeling a bit down about living in the United States and I truly am not happy with living here anymore as great as my city Washington is, I want for this to be a chance to try something new.
I just got off the phone with my father, he's been living in Singapore for the last year and a half, as he's on a project there with Accenture and he told me to just come over as soon as I can as I can always stay with him until I get my life out there started. I'm thinking about going ahead with it but I don't know if Singapore is going to be any sort of permanent stop for me.
Initially in the United States I've always wanted to live in New York and Miami and I still plan on buying a condo here in Miami in the next year or so, it'll be my first investment on a property on my own and I'm looking forward to it. New York's realistically the only city I could see myself trading up to live in over Washington and well to put it bluntly, living there is not in the cards for me in the immediate years coming up.
I am curious about the living conditions in Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai (already lived there), Hong Kong, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, Penang, Pune, Bangalore, Seoul, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, or Singapore (my hometown).
Could you guys, preferably ones with living experience in any of these shed some light on some of these places and what you think about life there. Would that city be worth it?
As for immigration, yeah I'll sort it out but right now I'm just in the planning stages.
Maybe you just want a change of scenery for this time of your life and new experiences. That makes a lot of sense, and I have similar opinions for my life too.
You technically lived in Asia before and it seems you did enjoy living there for wanting to go back there soon. For cities in Asia: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul are probably the best, most inviting options.
You say you like Washington DC in USA. However, that is not one of your favorite cities in USA compared to New York City or Chicago, so maybe you just have to be in those other areas of USA later on in life.
Good luck on deciding where to live next and I am sure you know very well the best possibilities for the next cities to experience.
Good luck in your future, wherever you may land yourself in.
Meanwhile, I've just accepted a job offer in Singapore and will commence my working life soon (and am writing this from the city state atm). So far so good - transportation is a breeze, and the streets are safe to roam even way past midnight (ok this is public news).
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,037,872 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kyh
Good luck in your future, wherever you may land yourself in.
Meanwhile, I've just accepted a job offer in Singapore and will commence my working life soon (and am writing this from the city state atm). So far so good - transportation is a breeze, and the streets are safe to roam even way past midnight (ok this is public news).
I hope you will find life in the Lion City enjoyable, and they don't work you too hard!
Singapore is awesome. One of my favorite cities. And the women are smoking hot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyh
Good luck in your future, wherever you may land yourself in.
Meanwhile, I've just accepted a job offer in Singapore and will commence my working life soon (and am writing this from the city state atm). So far so good - transportation is a breeze, and the streets are safe to roam even way past midnight (ok this is public news).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20
I hope you will find life in the Lion City enjoyable, and they don't work you too hard!
I hope you will find life in the Lion City enjoyable, and they don't work you too hard!
I've been told that there will be lots of OTs (a norm in my field, and often way past 12am!). Ok, sounds quite horrible. LOL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stoutboy
Singapore is awesome. One of my favorite cities. And the women are smoking hot!
They (esp the younger women) definitely wear a lot less and more revealing than their counterparts in the neighbouring countries. As for beauty though, I find the majority not much different from what I've seen in my country and other parts of SEA, just more daring outfits and lotsa makeups. :P
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,037,872 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyh
I've been told that there will be lots of OTs (a norm in my field, and often way past 12am!). Ok, sounds quite horrible. LOL.
They (esp the younger women) definitely wear a lot less and more revealing than their counterparts in the neighbouring countries. As for beauty though, I find the majority not much different from what I've seen in my country and other parts of SEA, just more daring outfits and lotsa makeups. :P
Geez that does sound horrible! What is your field?
Singaporean women are not really known for their beauty although some are pretty good looking.
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