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South Korea and Japan are certainly unique, but they are also very conventional, along with Singapore. These are the 3 most visited countries by Westerners, I think that disqualifies them as unique. I would have said he should go to Taiwan instead, but he's been living in China and Taiwan is about as different from China as Canada is to the US.
I would say unique and off the beaten path would be Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
They do not have similar laws. Taiwan isn't communist, China is so everything is easier in Taiwan even internet viewing. Probably, foods are safer too ( no fake eggs, grapes, cabbages ).
South Korea and Japan are certainly unique, but they are also very conventional, along with Singapore. These are the 3 most visited countries by Westerners, I think that disqualifies them as unique. I would have said he should go to Taiwan instead, but he's been living in China and Taiwan is about as different from China as Canada is to the US.
I would say unique and off the beaten path would be Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
Well,I disagree,I don't think Japan and Korea aren't unique just because people travel there more often,they still remain some of the weirdest(and coolest) culture.
Personally I'd go for Japan,but Japan is really expensive,so well,Idk.
If you're adventurous, Thailand. Qualified, experienced teachers are always in demand and make upwards of 60,000 Baht/month (around $2K US) and it is quite possible to live decently on half of that, even with the inflated "farang rate" prices.
-Yep, I was an English teacher in China. I graduated from a really good school in 2008, but couldn't find a job to save my life so I took the job in China. So teaching was something I did out of necessity...but it is not an actual career path for me. (If you're reading this and sitting at home unemployed, consider teaching English in China! Beats living in the basement flipping through tv channels!)
-I'm still trying to find out what to do with my life. I figured after so many years in China, maybe a change in scenery could help.
-I love visiting Thailand for vacation, but don't think I can live there!
-Never considered Malaysia. Is this just Kuala Lumpur we're talking about, or are there other cities worth looking into?
-Housing in Singapore and Hong Kong are bloody expensive. Without a job lined up, I think I'd go broke way too fast.
Singapore and Hong Kong are definitely out in the list since these 2 cities use English as a medium language. Unless you can prove your worth, which means, higher English education degree with long years of experience, then they might consider. But the demand is too small.
I suggested Penang, that's in Malaysia. Another reason why I suggested this is due to growing number of expats working in Penang mostly in the factories. You may find a good job in some international schools there. Another thing is, Malaysia is aggressivley promoting English among youth. I think they really want to catch up with Singapore.
Why not consider Seoul? There are so many English schools there. But Koreans prefer to go overseas to effectively learn English which makes sense to me, than attend the local school.
Taiwan is a good option also. A friend told me that Engineers with good grasp of English are paid higher those who don't speak English.
So it's a matter of which countries nowadays are aggressively promoting English. I can only think of Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea (and of course China).
-Yep, I was an English teacher in China. I graduated from a really good school in 2008, but couldn't find a job to save my life so I took the job in China. So teaching was something I did out of necessity...but it is not an actual career path for me. (If you're reading this and sitting at home unemployed, consider teaching English in China! Beats living in the basement flipping through tv channels!)
-I'm still trying to find out what to do with my life. I figured after so many years in China, maybe a change in scenery could help.
-I love visiting Thailand for vacation, but don't think I can live there!
-Never considered Malaysia. Is this just Kuala Lumpur we're talking about, or are there other cities worth looking into?
-Housing in Singapore and Hong Kong are bloody expensive. Without a job lined up, I think I'd go broke way too fast.
Why what's wrong with Thailand?
Malaysia is good, the salary is alright in KL i suppose but living cost is pretty high (but then your salary is probably good enough to make good living, plus its developing country's price) and its hard to get around using public transportation. Penang is average to me, if you are used to Shanghai i wouldn't recommend it since it would be quiet boring actually, maybe consider Johor? Johor is close to Singapore and Batam in Indonesia which is absolutely perfect for entertainment with living cost lower than KL.
I don't know about this but a lot of Malaysians are working in Singapore while living in Johor, but im not sure about foreigner except the Malaysian 2nd home program that allows you to stay in Malaysia if you have a house there. If you are only issued with working visa in Singapore i don't think you can do that.
Korea if you are teaching English as they desperately are working to improve English proficiency and pay the teachers rather well. It's safe, the food is excellent, and it's a developed country. I don't consider the people as friendly as Chinese though.
There's nothing wrong with Thailand, it's just that I have no self-control when I'm over there
I have a lot of Singaporean friends who constantly travel outside of their country because they find life in Singapore boring. How much truth is there to this statement? Is it just because they're very familiar with their country? As a young single guy, having a nightlife would be at least of some importance.
I also looked into working in Korea, but I'm trying my best not to get back into teaching again.
ideally, i'd like to work in some kind of business capacity, maybe in trade or import/export.
There's nothing wrong with Thailand, it's just that I have no self-control when I'm over there
I have a lot of Singaporean friends who constantly travel outside of their country because they find life in Singapore boring. How much truth is there to this statement? Is it just because they're very familiar with their country? As a young single guy, having a nightlife would be at least of some importance.
I also looked into working in Korea, but I'm trying my best not to get back into teaching again.
ideally, i'd like to work in some kind of business capacity, maybe in trade or import/export.
Singapore is just a small citystate, there's nothing much to do after a while in the city, repetitiveness of the activities there would eventually make everything seems dull and boring. The nighrlife is alright but its expensive, beside the one in Bangkok and Jakarta are more wild and fun for young single guy. Beside for them to travel to neighboring countries are easy and cheap, then why not?
After teaching/working in China for several years, I took a break to work in Australia. But when my visa is up in a few months, I'll have to plan out where I'm going next and although I really did love SZ and HK, I'd prefer not to go back to China.
Any suggestions on where I should live next, at least for a year or so? Of course, I would need to find a job in that country as well, which I will bust my ass trying to do. But I'm looking into obtaining unique experiences before I head back to the US for good.
I've visited but never lived in Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Taiwan. How is living/job opportunities for expats like in these places?
What are your qualifications? What you can do depends greatly on what you are qualified to do.
I'll assume you are a college-educated American with a Bachelor's Degree and teaching English experience in China. Is there more to it than that? If so, you are really ONLY qualified to teach English. You'd need an MBA if you plan to work at some great company in Singapore or Hong Kong. So you can basically write those off your list, unless you have some other qualification or 'in' that you haven't mentioned yet.
But since you did list those countries...I'll give you what you can expect from a teaching English at an institute level. I'm assuming you don't have a MA in Linguistics or TESOL? If you do, it'll change it once again. I think if you had that, you'd know your options more clearly, so I will assume you do not have that.
Singapore/Hong Kong - probably the only thing you could do there is teach kids at little language institutes. The pay isn't that good, and the cost of living is high. If you were significantly more qualified, you could teach at the university level, but you'd need higher education, publications, presentations, etc.
Kuala Lumpur - Lower cost of living, but ANY teaching job pays abysmally low. Even the uni/college jobs pay super low, and you still need to be highly qualified. Most likely you'd only be able get a language institute job at low pay, based on what you've said about yourself so far. There is one HOT JOB for English teachers there, and that's a language teacher trainer through the Ministry of Education in Malaysia. That actually pays well, and has some good solid perks as well. You could be placed anywhere though, KL (Kuala Lumpur) is only one of the possibilities, but probably highest in demand by those already in the position.
Jakarta - low cost of living and low pay for teaching English.
Taiwan - Mostly teaching kids. They pay is a little higher than Malaysia/Indonesia. Not as high a Japan/Korea, but higher than Southeast Asia or Mainland China.
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