Go with Henry: 2004

Friday 24 December 2004

Teaching English in Taiwan Highlights

English Teacher in Taiwan

Luodong

June 2003 – December 2004

Background

In June of 2003, I accepted my first ever TEFL teaching job in Taipei, Taiwan with Jump Start English. They picked me up at the airport in a black 500 class Mercedes and took me to a hotel, where I slept most of the day due to jet lag. It was summer in Taiwan, meaning hot, humid and sticky.

I started my TEFL career by doing a summer camp in Taipei. When I started a month later with regular classes, the school wanted us to teach diphthongs and inflected endings, complicated Grammar concepts, to 3 and 4-year-olds. Needless to say, it did not go so well and I decided to move on to another school.

I found a language centre, called Koala Educational Institute, in Luodong, a couple of hours away from Taipei by train, on the East coast of Taiwan. I relocated to Luodong in October of 2003 and taught ESL to Primary school children and Kindergarten kids early mornings and evenings.

During the day, I either took my scooter, or my bicycle, and explored Luodong. I had a 50cc Honda scooter, with which I travelled everywhere, even Ilan mountains and to Taipei, taking pics along the coastal drive.

I made good friends with Chris from New Zealand, Elma from South Africa and Sandy from Romania, and we travelled all across the East Coast on our times off, sometimes by train, other times with our scooters.

East Coast scenery - Taiwan

The cycling tour

In July of 2004, I was one of 5 expat cyclists from 5 different nationalities to cycle approximately 1000 km around the coast of Taiwan, in a circular route from Taipei back to Taipei. We raised funds for the Red Heart Foundation of Taiwan.

The tour took about 11 days across the industrial coastal Western plane of Taiwan and back to Taipei across mountain ranges of eastern Taiwan. I had Bronchitis for most of the tour, but managed to complete the long ride.

I changed teaching jobs at the end of the tour and worked for Cathy’s American school as an ESL teacher for High school kids, where I stayed until December of 2004, before I accepted a TEFL position in Zhongshan on the Chinese mainland.

Taiwan is indeed one of the highlights of my TEFL career across many countries. It is ‘little America’ on a tropical island, with all the modern amenities, yet with a natural beauty that was ripe for exploration. I particularly enjoyed my scooter rides and all my visits to natural hot springs.

On the Taiwan cycling tour - July 2004

About Taiwan

Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbours include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and also possesses the largest economy of any state outside of the UN. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy.

It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare, public education, economic freedom, and human development. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree (Wikipedia).

Rural scenery - Luodong

About Luodong

Luodong Township is an urban township in the central part of Yilan County, Taiwan and is located on Lanyang Plain. It is the smallest township in the county.

Its name derives from the Kavalan word rutung, meaning "monkey", referring to a large population of monkeys there a half-century ago. It covers an area of 11.34 square kilometres and as of 2014, it had a population of about 72,000 people.

It has a large, landscaped sports park and a large night market - Luodong Night Market - containing many varieties of local food, such as scallion pancakes.

Luodong has an excellent natural environment and is close to both urban Yilan and Su'ao Township, popular for its cold and hot springs (Wikipedia).

Rural estates - Luodong

Living in Luodong

My home

View of Luodong from my apartment

Apartment interior

Chris and Elma visiting me in my second apartment

Tuzi, my pet rabbit looking for a snack

Teaching in Luodong

My first ESL job in Taipei

One of my kindergarten classes - Luodong

Playing games with my kids at Koala Educational Institute in Luodong

One of my kindergarten classes - Luodong

One of my kindergarten classes - Luodong

Downtown Luodong

Night market street - Luodong

Main street - Luodong

Luodong train station

Scenery near my apartment - Luodong

Luodong street scenery

Tony's shwarma shop in Luodong where I regularly bought Lebanese shwarma's

With Tony and Chris

Luodong Sports Park

Luodong Sports Park is a large park in Luodong, Yilan County, Taiwan. The park covers 47 hectares of land and it includes a range of facilities for sport including basketball and a swimming pool.

The park is divided into four sections that include; forest area, sport area, waterscapes, and other landscapes (Wikipedia).

Don and Daniel, friends of mine from the Taipei church at the restaurant section of the park

View of the park lake with fish

View of park

View of park's lake with an apartment complex in the background

Luodong countryside

Every spare moment I had, I spent either cycling or taking my scooter out to explore the area.

With my little Honda scooter taking a break alongside the road

River - rural Luodong

Rice paddies - rural Luodong

Farmlands - rural Luodong

Nature scenery - I-lan county

Lake scenery - Rural Luodong

Mountain scenery - Ilan county

Traditional Taiwanese pancake with ice cream and fresh coriander

Valley scenery - Mountain in Ilan county

Winding road in the woods - near Luodong

Coastal rides & Taipei

Exploring the beachside corniche with my scooter - Ilan

Pit stop - East coast road to Taipei

Pointing to Turtle island from beach near Luodong

Pit stop - East coast road to Taipei

Taipei street scenery

Exploring Yilan county

Yilan Mountain

Dry river bed - en route to Yilan mountains

With my scooter - Ascending Yilan mountain

Chris & Sandy on Yilan mountain

Yilan beaches

With Sandy

Sandy & Elma - Yilan beach

Yilan Harbour scenery

Elma & sandy near Yilan beach

Tarako Gorge

Taroko National Park is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park carved by the Liwu River (Wikipedia).

Clear cool water - Tarako Gorge

Under the red bridge - Tarako Gorge

Jiufen

Jiufen, literally: "nine portions", is a mountain area in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan.

During the first years of the Qing Dynasty, the isolated village housed nine families, thus the village would request "nine portions" every time shipments arrived from town.

Despite the earliest reference to the production of gold in the island dating to 1430, and multiple rediscoveries by early inhabitants, visiting Japanese, Dutch occupiers, and Koxinga's retainers, awareness of the wealth of Taiwan's gold districts did not develop until the late Qing era.

In 1890, workmen discovered flakes of gold while constructing the new Taipeh-Kelung railway and in 1893 a rich placer district was discovered in the hills of Kau-hun that produced several kilograms of gold a day (Wikipedia).

Jiufen stairs

View of the valley below and East-Coast of Taiwan - Jiufen

Night time street scenery - Jiufen

Su-Ao

Su'ao Township, located in southern Yilan County, Taiwan, is an urban township that is famous for its seafood restaurants and cold springs.

It has two large harbors: Su'ao Port, a multi-function seaport that also houses a naval base; and Nanfang-ao Port, a major fishing port of Taiwan (Wikipedia).