Here is part 2 of "Where should I teach? Taiwan, Korea, Japan or China? If your contemplating teaching English in one of these places then you might find this useful.
Here is a transcription of the video:
Cleanliness... If cleanliness is important to you then... I have written a bit about this on my site. Japan is the cleanest, then Korea, then Taiwan and then China at the bottom. In that order as far as pollution goes, general cleanliness in the environment and stuff like that. If that's important to you. Those things can get to you.
For me in Taiwan it was the scooters. Scooters could drive me nuts. I had a scooter too, but the noise... I had an apartment my first year in Taiwan and there was an internet cafe across the street. People would soup up their scooters really loud. People probably do that to cars in your country too. They mess with the muffler to make it really loud. Scooters really got to me in Taiwan. Just the noise and the exhaust.
China... I lived in Shanghai for 6 months and surprisingly considering how big it was it didn't really get to me. There were times when I would find myself packed on a bus, but in all those places you could find yourself packed on a bus or subway like in Seoul or Tokyo. It would just be packed. All of those places. Populations... If that's going to get to you then you might be better off in a smaller city.
Where should you teach? Culture... for me Chinese culture is much more interesting than Korean culture. I am not interested in pop music. Pop music is big in Korea and some other countries like Korean pop music or soap operas. Korea is famous for that. I am not into K-pop and all that. It's the most superficial country out of all of those. Korea is... So many women get plastic surgery. There are clinics all over the place. Plastic surgery is big. My ex-girlfriend said that maybe 60% of women aged 18-35 have had at least one plastic surgery. The most common one is the eye... The double eyelid. Appearance is important to them. I think appearance is important across all cultures, but not like in Korea. I think Korea compared to these other places: China, Japan and Taiwan is the most superficial one.
Friendliness. Who is the most friendly? People say that Taiwan is the most friendly. I thought people were pretty friendly there. It was my first place that I went to in Asia. I think wherever you go though people are going to be curious about you. You are a foreigner and you are going to stand out. A lot of people will come up to you to talk or speak English to you. Really study the culture. If you want to go to China get on Wikipedia and read about it. Find out what's going on in China. Really spend some time because it can really make a difference with where you go and what kind of experience you want to have. The language too.
Most people say that the Korean language is pretty easy. For me, easy or not it doesn't matter. You have to have an interest in the language. That is first and foremost. For me I just learned a few words to get around on the streets, order food and had just a really low level of Korean. With Chinese, I had an interest. I made friends and could speak with them, people on the streets and get what I wanted. I had an interest so I learned. I never studied Chinese formally, but I would keep a little notebook and write things down.
Where should I teach English: China, Korea, Japan or Taiwan? Watch the rest of the series.