Name: 住中國時看到在街上奶奶尿尿和車子爆炸， 有幸能搬回台灣成為少數成功立足且享受舒適文明環境的外國人
Uploaded: 2024-12-31T17:40:51.000Z
Duration: 10 min 55 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In my opinion, the reason Taiwan is not seen as more of a potential regional headquarters is because Taiwan's terrible with marketing itself.

China is money-driven and it's a bit mercenary and it's a bit, you know, you're below me and I'm up here and kuai dien.

Taiwan just feels really civilized and very comfortable.

My name's Alan McIver. I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland.

I have quite a few jobs. I write articles for Commonwealth and I'm a headhunter and I teach at Haida and I am an angel investor, so I invest in startups.

Did you ever think that you would be involved in stuff like this in the beginning?

I didn't really want to teach English at all. I just wanted to have fun in Asia.

I came to Taiwan, I formed a band here, playing music festivals all over, we're touring and then I realized about 27 that I needed to do something else and I panicked.

I had done really well academically as a kid, got straight A's, applied to study law at Cambridge University and then I had taught English for four years and I was like, what have I done with my career?

I felt like going from English teacher to corporate job in Taiwan was almost impossible.

Like you could apply for 100 jobs a week and they would all look at your CV and think, oh, taught English for four years, like no.

Do you think that's because of certain stereotypes people have of English teachers?

Yes, I do. I think that Taiwan is a very conservative culture in the sense that they're not creative outside the box thinkers.

So most HR and most companies want someone who's done the exact same job in a different company.

And so we moved to Shanghai and after two months, I got a job in a headhunting company.

I feel the big difference between China and Taiwan is that in China, they're willing to take a risk.

So hiring somebody like me was easier for them because they're like, oh, I see some potential here, let's give it a go.

And I started going to sales meetings when they had foreign clients.

They would do the expertise thing and then I would charm again and then we'd leave.

And they're like, oh my goodness, this YGORN is really useful.

God, I want Alan in every meeting because it's so much easier for me to do small talk.

And also I can really help with some of the lost in translation stuff.

Bit of a, they started to really use me for my full potential.

So I started being able to hire for our company, chaperone, foreign counterparts.

I was in charge of our events and I would be very much the face of the company in a lot of cases.

And it was such a good experience for the company as well that before I left, we'd hired 20 foreigners.

And after that, they're like, this totally works.

But it's just the same as hiring local colleagues.

And I meet a lot of foreigners in Taiwan who hate China because China is the political adversary of Taiwan.

And having lived there and spent time there, I really like China.

A lot of Taiwanese people have this impression that China is very bad, very authoritarian.

But at the same time, 2 million Taiwanese people work there.

I have opinions about the authoritarian control as well.

Because when I was there, China felt lawless.

People seem to be doing whatever they want, wherever they want.

I saw a granny pee in front of me in the street.

They're always letting their kids pee on the street.

And everyone crowded around us throwing things at the bear.

And this Chinese guy got a bunch of water into his mouth.

And it was a Tesco, so British supermarket.

And one of the things he's selling is a chopped off tiger's arm.

And I think the main difference between Taiwan and China is it's a bit money-driven.

And it's a bit, you know, you're below me.

And if you're in a restaurant in Taiwan, you would slowly try and get the waitresses or the waiters' eyes.

If you're in China, you shout at the waitress.

And these are really nice Chinese people.

And they're still shouting at waitresses.

As an employer, why would I want to hire a foreigner that's a lot more expensive than, like, maybe a Taiwanese person that lived in the States for a long time, speaks a lot of good English?

Westernized Taiwanese, they dominate the market.

They're the ones getting all the good jobs.

The foreigners are very much niche hires.

And so they are the price that the companies are willing to pay.

And you say, well, my salary in San Francisco was 200k.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

住中國時看到在街上奶奶尿尿和車子爆炸，有幸能搬回台灣成為少數成功立足且享受舒適文明環境的外國人

potential

massive

bunch

opinion

住中國時看到在街上奶奶尿尿和車子爆炸， 有幸能搬回台灣成為少數成功立足且享受舒適文明環境的外國人

potential

massive

bunch

opinion

住中國時看到在街上奶奶尿尿和車子爆炸，有幸能搬回台灣成為少數成功立足且享受舒適文明環境的外國人