Teaching English in Taiwan
Taiwan is a good place for English language teachers to gain teaching experience, while enjoying interesting cultural and sightseeing activities. The English language is in demand in Taiwan, and so are good English language teachers. If you are interested in teaching overseas, you might want to consider Taiwan.
Life in Taiwan
Most Asian countries display a mixture of the old and the new but these contrasts are probably so obvious anywhere as they are in Taiwan. The modern industrialised megalopolis of Taiwan cannot conceal a rich and robust an ancient culture. Franchised convenience stores sell traditional foods. Aboriginal people wear modern clothes. Everywhere in Taiwan, old meets new amid the clang and clatter of modern life.
History of Taiwan
Originally Taiwan was settled by people of Malay-Polynesian descent, who settled in the low-lying coastal plains. They were the ancestors of the present-day aborigine groups. Taiwan's modern history goes back about 400 years, to the day when the first Western ship passed by the island, and Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch navigator on a Portugese ship, exclaimed "Ilha Formosa" (Beautiful Island).
When Communist forces took control of China in 1949, the president, General Chiang Kaishek, and his nationalist party, the Kuomintang, fled to Taiwan to plan their reconquest of the mainland. One and a half million Chinese also left the mainland for Taiwan when Mao took control. The leaders of both Communist mainland China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) claim to be the voice of all China, but the international community has, almost without exception, chosen the mainland. In 1971 the Kuomintang lost the Chinese United Nations seat, and in 1979 the USA withdrew its recognition of the Republic.
When Chiang Kaishek died in 1979 and was replaced by his son Chingkuo, Taiwanese started muttering the word 'dynasty', and criticism of the one-party system rose. In 1986, those opposed to Chiang formed the Democratic Progressive Party, and were granted seats in the legislature. Two years later Chiang died and was replaced by the first native-born president, Lee Tenghui.
Teaching English Overseas
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