Terry Roe

Once I was in receipt of my TEFL certificate I did not hesitate further and booked my flight immediately to Taiwan where I now live and work as an English Teacher. I left the UK on February 11th 2005 with my wife whom incidentally is Taiwanese - one of the reasons as to why I choose Taiwan as my country to settle.

Once I was settled here in Taiwan I was getting job offers left right and centre and therefore could pick and choose which school I wanted to place myself in.

I found a School in a town called Douliou, which is around 45mins from my home and they teach English to adults, college students and this is where I ended up. I work at two schools one in Chaiyi City and the other in Douliou, the School also pays for my traveling costs between the two Schools.

I have a full weekly teaching schedule so I am able to command a huge monthly salary which is currently around $95,000.00 TWD. This will be subject to a review based on my performance and upon resigning a new contract in March 2006, so it is expected that I will break the six-figure monthly income barrier eventually.

On the whole, living standards here in Taiwan are incomparable to that of the UK and I enjoy a cheap cost of living and a Tax rate of just 6%, I am also lucky enough to be able to save around 90% of my income, now that is something which was near on impossible to do in London, UK.

My wife also works in Chaiyi, currently we combine our monthly wages together and are saving for our first house in the mountains on diar road looking down on Chaiyi city. It's a sought after area and most westerners that work in Taiwan settle in this area. Our aim is to buy next year and pay in cash!!

I have only been in Taiwan 7 months and I/we have come a long way in a very short space of time, new doors are opening for us all the time and things can only become better. I can honestly, openly say that for the first time in my life I am really, really content and enjoy getting up for work each morning. Oh yes, and I must not forget mentioning the glorious weather here during the summer and winter.