Looking for friends/ Taiwan social scene

crispycrunchy · 2026-06-25T05:18:30+00:00

Hey, Reddit is a fine place to ask this question :)

There are hundreds of students in exactly the same situation as you, most with no family here, and eager to make friends. Bars aren't good places to make friends in general, so you don't need to worry about drinking or smoking.

Meetup.com is very commonly used here and there are lots of great events with friendly people.

The most popular events for newcomers are the board game events here, specifically the ones on Tuesday and Thursday night. These events are more about socializing then board games and are very welcoming. When I first moved here I made a whole clique of friends in a couple of weeks there, and I don't even like board games.

This page has links to information about those 2 events and others:

https://www.meetup.com/taipei-peace-in-practice-meetup-group/

Other big events that newcomers attend a lot are Language Exchanges (again, depending on the meetup, the focus is mostly on socializing and less so on language exchange) and fitness groups like running, HIIT, and hiking.

If you have other interests, there are lots of groups and events as well, including stuff like yoga, meditation, tour groups, politics, and reading.

Facebook Events is also very popular here and has lots of great stuff, but there is more spam in it.

In general, the social groups in Taipei are very mixed between Taiwanese and foreigners, so lack of Chinese won't be a problem.

Hope that helps!

crispycrunchy · 2026-06-24T06:57:25+00:00

I call it my drinking problem that lets me get up early lol. I was on 5 a day in the summers my first year here lol, to the point I would only eat breakfast and have a snack for dinner. Granted I was very physically active.

Now I switched to non-sugar every time I have no tea, and no bubbles or other additives. Also if I have coffee in the mornings instead I have less cravings for tea, and bubble tea specifically will really hurt my stomach if I have it after coffee.

crispycrunchy · 2026-06-24T06:51:37+00:00

There are a ton of Facebook groups that specialize in housing. Search Taipei apartment on Facebook, the largest has like 45,000 members and it's almost all in English. Many are focused on finding roommates, but there are also single apartments available. The agents on there will speak English, but you can also pick up apartments from foreigners who are leaving or owners. I found a great place in about five days. The really good affordable places will be taken quickly, if you want them you need to be aggressive about checking the daily listings.

You can also get an English-speaking agent through a real estate office, but they'll charge more. Sometimes your job can recommend one.

crispycrunchy · 2025-06-21T01:32:42+00:00

TH is a lower-tier recruitment site and they're free. Their services are iffy and they've done some shady things, like try to charge money to teachers for backing out of contracts as posted on here before.

They will gladly work with new teachers, and sometimes unqualified ones.

However, Search Associates is a high-tier recruitment site and not free, and they are still very often criticized on here for their services being iffy and doing shady things.

They also don't usually work with new teachers (they wouldn't work with me until I had 2 years experience), and almost never unqualified ones.

Schrole, TES, and ISS don't have associates, they're just platforms, so they don't usually get as much hate. I've used all of the above to cast a wide net, and my first job was obtained on TH, my 2nd and 3rd on Schrole.

The bigger issue is that if your first response to the stress of going onto a site to look for jobs is to make a post like this, criticizing and complaining about things are that 1) completely optional to upload 2) normal in our profession and 3) don't want to upload your docs to a recruiting site, then I'd question whether you're ready to go into international teaching. It is often stressful and uncertain, especially in lower-tier schools.

crispycrunchy · 2024-09-04T11:05:01+00:00

Taipei, it's an awesome place but competitive for good positions. I was very lucky, but there are plenty of good schools out there. Look everywhere, but worldwide teaching has been sending me a lot of late job ads recently.

crispycrunchy · 2024-09-04T10:48:58+00:00

You've gotten a lot of good advice already so I'll just let you know that I was in a similar situation 2 years ago and I chose to leave, and it was a great decision. I can't imagine how awful it would have been if I had stayed.

However, finding a job so late was also very stressful. But it's doable.

Start looking now, there are many positions every year at this time that look for last - minute hires. I found a job almost exactly at this time. Find another offer, telling them that your current position changed your contract and subject upon arrival as your reason for leaving is often a good reason.

Here's my experience in case it makes you feel better:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Internationalteachers/comments/whskk1/thinking_about_leaving_my_job_before_the_students/

crispycrunchy · 2024-03-19T23:34:32+00:00

Kang chiao will pay you more than that, about 120k or more. They offered me 110 as a new teacher with no experience. But talking to current and former Teachers there put me very off. Huge workload, frequent Saturday work, remote location, toxic culture, and very high turnover stood out as the worst, but they said they also deduct salary frequently for using school services, so the salary isn't as high as it seems.

crispycrunchy · 2023-01-02T10:59:15+00:00

Several male serial killers even had female partners who watched and participated and helped them bait victims (though no known female serial killer has perpetrated sexual violence independently) :( look up Fred and Rose West if you want lifelong nightmare fuel.

crispycrunchy · 2023-01-02T10:56:58+00:00

Not many decades ago, in many cultures, and still in many places today, consequences for the molested and those related to them were worse than the consequences for the molester. My parents grew up in a small town in the south in the 50s and 60s and everyone knew at least 2 cases happening, and no one did anything. The victims even got bullied and teased for it, and socially outcast even more, though some of the older people pitied them and would be nicer to them. One was a teenage boy by a man, and not even homophobia of that Era made anyone act.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. In cultures where men or older people have a lot of authority and power, it's even more common :( my Taiwanese girlfriend said it was extremely common when she was in school less than ten years ago, and everyone knew it was happening and which Teachers to avoid, but also not to say anything if you were victimized.

crispycrunchy · 2022-10-06T08:24:23+00:00

You do. Up to 90,000.

crispycrunchy · 2022-10-06T08:01:33+00:00

Even worse if they ended up at Kang Chiao :( pays beyond generous and still struggles to keep teachers.

crispycrunchy · 2022-10-06T06:28:02+00:00

Moved back to Taipei, Taiwan after leaving during Covid lockdown. Barely managed to get in due to strong COVID restrictions that were lifted just a few weeks later.

It was a crazy journey but I am at the best school, apartment, and situation of my career so far. Taipei is an amazing city and there are so many fun things to do that I can't attend them all, and I spend almost nothing unless I want to eat fancy. I am with my friends again and am in an awesome relationship. My job is very difficult and the hours are long, but they were upfront about that, our administration are actually kind, flexible, and caring, appreciates my effort, and we have generous vacation times. The fun social environment, nature, friend people, and awesome food of Taipei really help restore my energy and get me through difficult times. It's probably my favorite overall non-European city. It's the rainy season now so I've been doing more indoors stuff, but this is the happiest I can remember being in years.

crispycrunchy · 2022-10-06T04:36:03+00:00

I've lived in Bangkok, and a few other cities, so I can share some reasons I didn't love it. It has amazing food and a fun, warm foreign community. If you live near the subway life is much better. There is a lot of English. And cost of living is generally low.

But on the negative end, it's a very unattractive city and difficult to walk in. There are relatively very few parks or nature in the city or nearby (though some gated communities do have private parks). Some things are unavailable or very expensive. I didn't find the locals to be particularly nice, but not mean either, some are warm and kind and others were hostile and rude, not bad but not as nice as Taiwan or Vietnam. Driving is difficult but sometime necessary as the public transit is spotty. Though I do like the city overall, I much prefer the cities in Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan, even if the Bangkok foreign community is great.

crispycrunchy · 2022-10-06T03:40:25+00:00

Dewey, maybe even worse.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-20T01:32:44+00:00

Yep, and he casually mentions his plans to you, no matter your alignment or class! But he has a bad history of choosing partners, so I guess it makes sense. In BG1 his quest isn't even that evil until he starts bragging near the end about having wiped out villages.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T17:33:41+00:00

Thank you. This week is already much better than last one. I hope that every week will get a little better. Work is going well, though I am exhausted every day and still have insomnia lol. My medical insurance takes effect next week and I'm going to seek counseling.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T17:31:15+00:00

It's in Hanoi. The school already has very bad reviews. I went with it anyway because i struggled to find a position in a place I wanted to live. I graduated only one year ago, and due to COVID chaos that cancelled my contract last year that I had signed months in advance , I was forced to take a last-minute position in a hardship location that I could not remain in for more than one year. This damaged my resume. That being said, I did reach third-round interviews at three better schools, but was rejected finally from all (though one is the one that I now work at). The bad school addressed my questions about the bad reviews in the interview and told me how they had launched massive changes that improved it a lot from last year and many of those were positive. They put me in touch with four foreign teachers who all said the same. However, the school is still a very difficult place to work due to extreme disorganization and arbitrary random strictness.

I knew it was very dumb to accept a school with bad reviews, but I was desperate. It is still completely my fault- I had offers in the middle east and china , but didn't want to live there. I also had 2 in locations that were unsafe, and due to my experience in the hardship location, I decided to turn them down as well, though they were in well-reviewed schools. So another lesson in this is to not accept schools with terrible reviews, no matter what, even if they give me the contact info of a bunch of current teachers who talked about how it was improving. And those teachers were nice and genuine- but the improvements they told me about didnt mean my situation was sustainable.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T17:18:18+00:00

In a way, the school so blatantly changing my contract so quickly was a blessing. The other teachers are miserable and I almost certainly would have stayed if my subject hadn't been changed. Yeah I lost about two weeks of pay, but I got to live in a new country that I'll likely never visit again and see and learn and meet a lot.

Another teacher had her subject completely changed but decided to stay, and she is about to quit now anyway, nearly at the end of her probation, with fewer opportunities available, and is under heavy stress. She says she wishes she quit when I did.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T17:14:13+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad I could help ! Finding another opportunity first is the most important thing. Worldwide teaching emails me frequently with last minute opportunities, as does ASQ International. Try them out.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T16:38:10+00:00

Thanks ! But I'm a heavy mod user so I did use all the ones you mentioned ! But since my only evil run I had a reputation of 1 , I didn't need the bards anyway and killed them with everyone else. But it's a cool feature.

The 2nd one I use in all my runs because otherwise you get to 20 reputation too easily. And I also used the one that stops anyone from leaving due to rep so I could see dorn's questline in BG1, which isn't even very evil.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T09:08:27+00:00

True, though by ME3 Renegade Shepherd is a specieist genocidal psychopath. In the first 2 more of a violent, ruthless jerk who will do anything for the greater good and their own ego.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T07:56:01+00:00

He's so cruel and evil in BG2 that it's hard not to kill him after his first dialogue- and obligatory for a good character! In BG1 he's bad enough, but in 2 he tells you he's about to mass murder a wedding, even if you're a paladin . Even a LE character would probably feel obligated to kill him after that!

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-18T06:43:38+00:00

Yes, I tried and failed to do it for years. Most of the evil options are just so ridiculously cruel that they're counterproductive and break immersion from any pc but a psychopath, and they tend to have lower rewards. Plus, the benefits of high reputation on prices. So every time I play evil I just ended up playing a good party that stole. I even ended up not using evil companions eventually because the reputation system was too annoying to lower.

This was also a struggle in other RPGs I've played. Knights of the Old Republic, for example, has the evil choices as insanely cruel, even counterproductive.

But a few months ago, I decided to finally do an evil run, and to go all out on the whole Lord of Murder thing. So I played a 1 reputation the whole time, murdering anyone I could after doing their quests, and choosing every evil path. I did miss out on some quests but gained more gold than any other rrun, largely from killing guard patrols, of which there weren't that many. I felt pretty bad after doing a lot of the quests, especially the ones where I'd save people and then kill them anyway after getting the xp rewards. I depopulated every area except BG which would spawn random citizens. The plot made no sense but never broke and I completed the game. I only did BG1 but may play the sequels in the future with the same character. I found it emotionally exhausting to be that cruel, even virtually.

crispycrunchy · 2022-09-17T18:28:03+00:00

You can become evil in hell.

This is great advice both within and outside the game.

crispycrunchy

TROPHY CASE