There was a time when I really liked this place. After all, Taiwan is super convenient, the nature is amazing, and people are friendly - at least, more people are friendly here than in other countries. It's also a very safe place, unless you leave your umbrella unattended, which is the number one item that gets stolen here 🤣. Of course, not as often, but things can get stolen in Taiwan, such as bikes, although it’s rare to hear about pickpockets like you would in other countries.
To be honest, the number one danger here is the drivers, and when it comes to that, Taiwanese people don’t seem friendly at all!
It really pisses me off when I want to cross the road, I have a green light, but so do the cars. One car after another, scooters, and whatever else - everyone passes and turns, giving me no chance to cross the road. On several occasions, I’ve had to wait until the light turned red again. What’s even sadder is that this often happens near schools, where there are many kids crossing the road. Only in the morning and at noon do the lights stay green for pedestrians, but even then, there are people who don't follow the rules and run the red light, straight into the kids. Luckily, nobody’s gotten hurt, but I’ve been scared several times when a scooter almost hit me while I was crossing.
The lights aren’t fixed for pedestrians in the afternoon, so when I pick my son up from after-school classes, it’s even crazier. If it’s a rainy day, it’s even worse. I don’t know why, but I feel like drivers in cars get wetter than I do, and they make it even harder for me to cross the road. And the people who constantly park on pedestrian crossings - oh, so annoying. In the several years I’ve lived here, there’s been zero improvement. It’s as if getting a driver’s license here is too easy. You just pass the test, and you’re done - learning how to drive is a separate thing. This issue is now more noticeable abroad, as I’ve seen news about countries stopping agreements with Taiwan to just exchange licenses, meaning Taiwanese now have to take exams in those countries to be able to drive there.
Anyway, that’s not the biggest issue. More than the lack of empathy on the road, it’s the workaholic culture here! And bosses who force their employees to work until they drop, as the company is more important than anything else in their lives.
Seriously, it’s been crazy recently. For quite a long time (about half a year), my husband has been working overtime. It started slowly, with him working longer hours sometimes, but not every day, as he still worked from home 1-2 days a week. However, in recent weeks, he hasn’t been at home at all and has been working overtime on a daily basis. Sometimes he gets back around 7 PM, but often it extends to 8 or 9 PM. Recently, it's even been later - 10PM to 11PM. To top it off, right after Christmas, his company told workers they would be working weekends and New Year! What kind of slavery is that - asking people to work 12 hours or more, 7 days a week? They soon changed it to 6 days after the first working weekend, because they realized it’s illegal to work for 7 days straight, but still, my husband gets up at 7 AM, gets home around 10 PM, and often still has to write reports or attend meetings (fun fact: the company doesn’t count meetings as overtime!). When he finally goes to sleep, it’s past midnight. No surprise that he’s been constantly sick lately, visiting doctors and taking pills.
This is how we lost even weekends together. Our son barely sees him lately because he goes to school before my husband wakes up, and often when my husband comes home, our son is already in bed. I feel so fed up with Taiwan at this point. How can you even have a family here? There are so many people in their nearly 40s who are still single, and seeing news about how the government doesn’t know why fewer people are getting married and having children made me laugh. Of course, news like overtime working will be often hidden, or the numbers will be lowered. From my husband’s experience, workers are asked not to write overtime hours, even though they didn’t come home at normal hours! It’s all because of one company that controls the whole country, a company whose name everyone probably knows, so I don’t need to mention it.
Of course, not every job is like this, but if you want a higher salary, this is mostly the case. To be honest, the lowest salary, which will be around 28,590 TWD after the New Year, is extremely little. The housing market is crazy; houses and rent are so expensive. For example, in our area, the rental cost for a 3-room apartment is 25,000–30,000 TWD a month. So how can people with the lowest salary afford a normal family life? And we are not living in a huge city, but one with 100000 residents. Unless both people work, maybe, but once they have kids, they still have to rely on grandparents to take care of them. I see this a lot. Kids barely get a chance to see their parents at home, which is really hard to think about. Many kids stays in afterschool classes until 8PM or even longer.
Well, at some point, it's better than my husband's previous job since he hasn’t been staying overnight at work, which happened before. In his previous job, there were several times when he’d come home after midnight or even in the early morning. Since they couldn’t use phones at work, he typically wouldn’t contact me. That changed when they got company phones, and at least then he could call me (if he had time to do so), which relieved me. I used to wait and worry at night, wondering if he was working late, had an accident, or something else had happened to him. For a long time, I had sleep issues because I’d get anxious if he wasn’t home by midnight and I couldn’t sleep. There were several times I woke up in the morning and got scared because he wasn’t in bed yet. Sometimes he’d return or he'd come home at night but be too tired to shower, so he’d sleep on the floor in the living room. What kind of quality of life is that in Taiwan? Probably many people's dogs have better places to sleep than the cold ground!
Now it’s better since he at least has a phone, and I always call him to check in. He’s always home to sleep, but that’s it - except for sleeping and working, he doesn’t have time for anything else, he doesn't even eat dinners. At least we’ll be flying to Poland soon, so he’ll get a 3-week break. That brings up the question: will he get fired afterward since he’s taking time off during the busiest time? In his position, there’s only one other person besides him. But is that really his problem? To save on the budget, the company would rather exploit people than hire an extra person. At least he’s allowed to take time off because he informed his boss well in advance (October). Recently, though, another person asked for time off to travel during Lunar New Year, and the boss asked how much the trip would cost, saying the company would pay for it if he stayed and worked. What’s going on? People can’t even have a day off these days? Seriously, if you’re reading this and thinking of working in Taiwan, think twice! Maybe it’s fun at first, but sooner or later, you’ll experience the Taiwanese work culture...
That's how I’ve recently started to dislike many things about Taiwan... I don’t know why many people idealize this country. The funny thing is, most of them live in Taipei, so maybe that city is better than the rest of the island, or maybe the people there aren’t working as engineers. Well, English teachers’ lives are way better here, and since it’s typically foreigners who speak highly of Taiwan and not Taiwanese people themselves, that might explain it. Not to mention the many YouTubers who can list 100 good things about Taiwan, and when you watch the video until the end, you may notice that it’s a government-sponsored video. To be honest, those who don’t get support from the government will often tell a different story - one that’s not all about how great life is here.
Kids in Taiwan don’t have it any easier, as the amount of study is enormous - not to mention the homework they have to finish after school and the extra work during holidays. Yes, holidays are full of homework! The kids have no life except for studying. In comparison, as of April 2024, Poland has banned homework for students in grades 1–3 and made homework optional for students in grades 4–8. The goal is to give children more time for hands-on learning, reading, and pursuing their passions, something that is lacking in Taiwan.
Today is the first day of the new year. My husband came back home at 11 PM yesterday and almost at midnight today (11.47PM!). Due to that, I’m also sleep-deprived as I go to bed well after midnight and still have to be up by 6:20 AM at the latest to prepare our son for school.
It doesn’t feel like 2025 is off to a good start...
