Foreign Teachers in Taiwan: The Good, The Bad, The Why G. Benjamin White (白班哲明) National Chunghua Univeristy of Education (國立彰化師範大學)
[email protected] dfltit.blogspot.com (blog) Abstract Important things to know about the foreigners living and working in Taiwan are the reasons that they had for coming to Taiwan, along with what they see are the good and bad parts of the living in Taiwan. This paper colleted data from a group of foreigners working as English teachers in Taiwan. The participants in the study took an online survery. The survery was created using google docs and included both open ended questions and four-point Likert questions about their life in Taiwan. This paper used mostly the answers from the open ended questions. To assits in the anaylsis, the open ended questions were group together in similar categories. The data produced nine main reasons for why people came to Taiwan, along with a list of 20 good and 20 bad parts about living in Taiwan. While the participants gave high marks overall to Taiwan, more needs to be done to ensure that the foreigners living and working in Taiwan feel welcomed.
“Mackay had often heard of Formosa even before coming to China, and knew that it was famed for its beauty.” (MacGregor, d.u.; p.8) Every foreigner who is living in or has lived in Taiwan has had to, at some point, enter the country for the first time. There are a multitude of reasons for coming to and staying in Taiwan. The quote at the start of the paper is from a book on George Leslie Mackey who came to Taiwan in 1871, in order to see the place that the Portuguese had called “Illha Formosa” or beautiful island and stayed to spread Christianity. This paper will look at the reasons that a group of foreigners had for coming to Taiwan in the first place, the things that they find good about Taiwan and also the things that they find not so good about Taiwan. This paper contains part of the data collected for a larger study on the lives of foreign English teachers in Taiwan. A note on the use of the term foreigner(s) in this paper to describe the participants. Many foreigners in Taiwan use the term 'expat' (which is short for 'expatriate'), when discussing themselves. Expatriate comes from the French word expatrier which breaks out as ex- (out of) and patrie (native land). It was first seen in 1768. “The noun is from 1818, 'one who has been banished.'” In the early twentieth century it changed from that meaning into meaning someone who chooses to live abroad. The specific term expat was first used in 1962 and is described by Merriam-Webster to be chiefly British.1 Pennycook (1998) also gives a very good discussion on expatriate (expat) and is the main reason behind the avoidance of the use of the word in this paper. The term 'expatriate' itself is an interesting one, on the one hand distinguishing a certain group of people clearly from 'immigrants' and other darker-skinned arrivals, and on the other locating their identity not as 'foreigners' or 'outsiders' in a host community (as to the annoyance of many 'expats', do many local language descriptions: Japanese Gaijin, Chinese waiguoren, Cantonese Guailo) but rather as people whose identity is defined by a decontextualized English/American etc. person overseas. Being an 'expatriate' locates one not as an outsider in a particular community but as a permanent insider who happens for the moment to be elsewhere. The very use of term puts into play a host of significant discourses. (p.219) Participants An online questionnaire with forty-two questions was created using Google Docs. Twenty-five were four-point Likert Scale questions and the others were multiple choice and open ended questions 1 Please see references for a detail description of the different sources for this part of the paper.
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for demographics and other general information. The questionnaire was posted, in late 2010, to the web along with a consent form and additional information on the study. A link to the study was posted to Forumosa (forumosa.com), which is an online message board created by and for foreigners (expats) living in or interested in Taiwan. It was considered the best place to find participants for this study. The link to the questionnaire was active for about two weeks. By submitting the questionnaire the participants agreed to allow the data to be used. All questions on questionnaire were required, in order to ensure uniformity in the numbers for each question. At the end of the two weeks, twenty people had completed the survey. Two similar studies in Japan had sixteen participants (Rennie, 1993, p.10) and sixty-seven participants (Scully, 2001, p.13). More males (14 (70%)) than females (6 (30%)) took the study. Eleven (55%) of the participants were married. Of these, nine (45%) were married to a Taiwanese (one of the nine is female). The two other married participants were married to a non-Taiwanese. The ages of the participants ranged from twenty-three to forty-five years old with the age of thirty-six being the medium age. The participants had been in Taiwan for a period of between four months and twenty-one years. The medium amount of time was interestingly seven years. This is the same amount of time as the author. Each participant was also asked how much longer the participant planned on staying in Taiwan. All but three (15%) gave an answer that ranged from 'unsure' to 'forever' (one (5%) participant is in the process of becoming a citizen of Taiwan). The other three participants stated that they plan to leave in the next 3 years (all three had been in Taiwan for less than 3 years). Six nationalities were represented in the study: American (30%), Canadian (25%), New Zealander (10%), South African (10%); British (10%); Australian (10%); and Irish (5%). Nine (45%) of the participants worked in a cram school. Three (15%) were self-employed, one (5%) was a publisher, with the rest (35%) working in an elementary school, a junior high school or a senior high school. The purpose of this study is to look at the lives of foreign English teachers in Taiwan. The author has chosen to keep the publisher in the survey as it is assumed that the person works in the English teaching publications area, as the participant discussed issues with language school bosses. One final item that was asked dealt with the Chinese ability of the participants. Of the twenty participants twelve (60%) of the participants stated that they were learning Chinese now (seven (35%) of the participants self-reported that they speak Chinese well). The Why The questionnaire asked for the participants reasons for coming to Taiwan. This was an open ended question with no limit on the number of reasons. The twenty participants developed a list of thirty items. The thirty items where grouped together into nine categories. Table 1 shows the breakdown of the items.
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Table 1: The Why Rank
Reasons
Percentage*
1
See the World
36.67
2
Money/Job
23.33
3
Love
10
4
Standard of Living
10
5
Friends
6.67
6
Education
3.33
7
Language
3.33
8
Needed Change
3.33
9
Why Not?
3.33
* Based on 30 (the number of items listed) Scully (2001) found that the reasons for the participants coming to Japan were: “professional challenge, financial rewards, and the opportunity to explore Asian culture [along with] language and travel.” (p.16) All of these are similar to the ones seen in this study. “Given an opportunity to ask anything they want to know about me and my background, my students almost invariable inquire why I chose to come to Japan.” (Rennie, 1993, p.23) This is the way that Rennie (1993) begins the discussion on “Why Japan?”. Rennie (1993) discusses the reasons for coming and then discusses the participants responses. Rennie (1993) found that six (of the sixteen) participants had chosen Japan specifically and did so for the language and culture. The others came for similar reasons found in this paper (e.g., see the world, make money). The Likert Questions part of the questionnaire had two questions that specifically dealt with the participants coming to Taiwan. Question 1 “Taiwan was my only option for working outside of my home country.” and Question 2 “I took a very big risk in coming to Taiwan.”. The Likert scale used was from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). A four point scale was used as a way to make the participants pick a side and not ride the fence (neither agree nor disagree). Table 2 shows the results. Table 2: Answers to Likert Questions 1 and 2. Number of Responses^ Question
Average
SD*
SD
D
A
SA
1
1.35
0.81
16
2
1
1
2
2.35
0.93
4
7
7
2
*Standard Deviation. ^ S = Strongly; D = Disagree; A = Agree One point from Rennie (1993) that fits into this table is, “No interviewee seemed to feel he/she had taken a risk in choosing to live [in Japan]” (p.27) In this study at least two (10%) of the participants felt that they had taken a big risk, with seven (35%) feeling that they took somewhat of a risk. Scully (2001) does not mention the risk felt by the participants. All of Scully's participants were part of the JET (Japanese Exchange and Teaching) Program, meaning they had a job before arriving in Japan.
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The Good The participants were asked for “The top 3 (in order) things that you enjoy about living and working in Taiwan.” This again was an open ended question. However the participants were asked to rank the things in order (number one being the best thing). If the participant gave more than three, the extra ones were deleted. The author group similar answers together. In order to ease data analysis, the following scale was used: The top choice received 3 points, the second choice received 2 points and the last choice received 1 point. In this way a clearer picture could emerge as to the good parts of Taiwan for the foreign community. The Appendix has the list and rankings of all answers given by the participants. Table 3 shows the top five 'Things enjoyed about living and working in Taiwan.' Table 3: The Good (Top 5) Rank
Item
1
Quality of Life
2
Cost of Living
3
People
4
Freedom to be oneself
5
Safety
The top three were by far the best parts about living in Taiwan as reported by the participants. This is not surprising as Taiwan is a well developed country (quality of life) that is not very expensive in terms of costs (cost of living). Scully (2001) was looking more at the lives of foreign English teachers in rural Japan. The main aspect was looking at the culture adaptation and not specifically the good and bad parts of the country. Rennie (1993) on page 19 gives a chart with the “positive aspects” of living in Japan. The top three were: (1) job; (2) Money; (3) Safety. Again, like this study Rennie's participants were limited to three things. Looking at Table 3 and Rennie's chart shows that similar answers were given (money/cost of living; Safety.) Rennie (1993) had job as the number one good aspect, where as in this paper job was tied for eighth. This possibly shows that teaching in Japan is better then in Taiwan (see “The Bad”). Much of Rennie's list and the list in the appendix are very similar. This is not surprising as both Japan and Taiwan would share similarities for foreigners (in Asia, different language and culture from home country.) One item found in both papers is worth mentioning. In each paper some of the participants reported that something good about living in the country was the ability to be oneself or live an autonomous lifestyle. The Bad The participants were asked for “The top 3 (in order) things that you dislike about living and working in Taiwan.” The same data analysis was used for this part of the paper as was used for the section above. The Appendix has a list with all of the answers given by the participants. Table 4 shows the top five 'Things not enjoyed about living and working in Taiwan.'
4
Rank
Table 4: The Bad (Top 5) Item
1
Traffic and Driving
2
Pollution
3
Job
4
Xenophobia
5
Politics
Number one and two were not surprising, however the rest of the list was very surprising, especially number 4. The author believes that Taiwan is very welcoming to foreigners and can recall few incidents in which an issue developed due to race. Future research should include an interview in order to find out what is meant by xenophobia. The third highest response, shows what was discussed in the section above. While in Japan Rennie (1993) found that what the participants most liked about Japan was the job in Taiwan it was what the participants felt was the third worst thing about living in Taiwan. The question becomes: Why do participants in Japan like their job whereas participants in Taiwan do not? Further research by someone who has experience in working in both countries should be done. Rennie (1993) came up with the following top 3: (1) Overpopulation; (2) Ugliness/lack of greenery in Tokyo; (3) Language barrier. Neither pollution nor traffic was reported by any of Rennie's participants. Politics and racism was only reported by one or two participants. (p.21) Overall unlike in the good parts, few items were found on both lists. Rennie's study is 18 years old, so the question can be raised as to if the list would still be current today. One thing from Table 4, is that for a group of participants Taiwan needs to improve aspects of the country, especially in its environment and in regulations dealing with foreigners living and working in the country. Foreigners can be the country's biggest asset in changing the opinion of the world towards its political situation. Conclusion It is surprising that little research has been done in Taiwan looking at the reasons foreigners have for coming to Taiwan; what they find good about Taiwan and what they find not so good. This paper only had a few participants, so more research is needed to see if in a larger scale similar items are found. This paper is very relevant as Taiwan looks, for the foreseeable future, to continue to encourage the hiring of foreigners to come to Taiwan and teach English. References Pennycook, A. (1998) English and the discourses of colonialism. Oxon, UK: Antony Rowe Ltd. MacGregor, M.E.M (date unknown) The black-bearded barbarian. Retrieved from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1759 Rennie, L. J. (1993). Living and working in Japan: A study of American English teachers. (Unpublished master's thesis). School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED374656). Scully, E. (2001). Working as a foreign English teacher in rural Japan: JET instructors in Shimane Prefecture. (Unpublished research paper). University of Shimane, Japan. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED452725). For Etymology on Expatriate From Merriam-Webster online: Expat (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expat Expatriate (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expatriate From Online Etymology Dictionary: Expat (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=expat Expatriate (n.d). Retrieved from: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=expatriate
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Appendix The Good & The Bad Full List The Good
The Bad
Rank
Item
Points
Rank
Item
Points
1
Quality of Life
18
1
Traffic and Driving
19
2
Cost of Living
14
2
Pollution
17
2
People
14
3
Job
16
4
Freedom to be Oneself
9
4
Xenophobia
14
5
Safety
8
5
Politics
9
6
Climate
6
6
Weather
6
6
Family
6
7
Safety
5
8
Culture
5
7
Low Quality of Life
5
8
Food
5
9
Lying
4
8
Health Care/Insurance
5
10
People
3
8
Job
5
10
Pay
3
12
Business Opportunities
4
10
Lack of manners
3
13
Geography
3
10
Isolated
3
13
Girlfriend
3
10
Educational System
3
13
Outdoor Activities
3
10
Dull
3
13
Students
3
16
Disorder
2
17
24 Hour Convenience
2
16
Culture
2
18
History
1
18
Ugly architecture
1
18
Language
1
18
Food
1
18
Travel
1
18
Climate
1
Note: Points are total points for each item. The scale used was: • 3 Points for the Participant's Top Item. • 2 Points for the Participant's Second Item. • 1 Point for the Participant's Third Item.
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