A big thank you to everyone who participated in the first Taichung Expat Survey. I’ll be releasing the results over the next week or so as I have time to process all the different categories. I’ll also follow up with some commentary on the results and look forward to hearing from you as you have insights also.
First, obviously this is just an informal survey. With 175 respondents, the survey is far from a thoroughly accurate view of the city. But it is a start and it does give some insight into the areas queried. Here are a few of the initial results that were easily tallied:
Where are you from?
It’s no big surprise that the majority of the responders are from the USA, UK and South Africa and Canada.
Australia 3
Austria 1
Belgium 1
Canada 17
France 4
Germany 2
Indonesia 1
Italy 2
Mexico 1
New Zealand 6
Other 4
Philippines 1
Russia 1
South Africa 15
United Kingdom 26
USA 88
What’s your current job?
This next question did show a little more variety than I anticipated. Some of the answers were surprising to me. Unless otherwise indicated, only one person holds the job listed.
Chief Technology Officer
College professor
Commercial director in a manufacturing company
Employee
Engineer (4)
Finance
Freelance editor/writer/voice actor
Housewife (2)
Housewife
I also am a manager of the school in which I teach.
Voice Recording Artist
General Manager of an agricultural biotechnology R&D company that is headquartered in ChangHua County.
Bushiban owner/operator
Private Art Teacher
English Marketer and go to school full time.
International translator and bodyguard.
Marketing Consultant
Missionary (4)
Other (2) Didn’t provide details
Own a Business (15)
PhD student, therefore do only private tutoring
provide sports stadium and other feeds to sport betting companies
Psychotherapist
Restaurant
Student (4)
Student. Part time teacher.
Teach chinese on YouTube and on website.
Teacher (113)
Teaching but also attempting to start my own small side business not teaching.
Technician
Trader (3)
Unemployed (2)
Various online businesses
How long have you lived in Taiwan/Taichung?
Now here are some interesting numbers. I was really surprised at the longevity that some of the group has in Taiwan.
Less than 6 month 5
Less than 1 year 29
Less than 2 years 18
Less than 3 years 13
Less than 5 years 28
Less than 10 years 39
Less than 15 years 25
Less than 20 years 8
Less than 30 years 5
Greater than 30 years 2
Driver’s License
Here’s where I was probably most surprised. And maybe we’ll see what the discussion is on this one.
41 of you drive without a license (of the 41, 12 have lived here 10 years or more, the rest 5 years or less)
18 don’t drive at all
27 of you use an International Driver’s License
13 have only a Taiwan Car License
37 have only a Taiwan Scooter/Motorcycle License
24 have both a Taiwan Motorcycle/Scooter & Car License