Expat Corporate Executives in Taipei Eventually Become Homesick Too

Working too long as a corporate executive in Taipei brings a homesick feeling to me and fellow expats. The feeling is natural, no matter what foreign country or state you are sent to. There are so many factors in contributing to this urge to finally return home.

Having experienced being an expat in Taipei, I can say that it’s not easy to adjust moving into this place. It’s not Taipei, in general, that is hard to adapt to but the way of living here. For example, a person like me who grew up in a place where everywhere is within walking distance found it extremely difficult to get around in Taipei. Without a good sense of direction you could get lost in the stream of stores, vendors and passersby in the urban corners of the city. It might be impossible for some to adapt to the number of people flooding neighbourhood streets, but it’s possible to manage by assigning your own landmarks to arrive where you need to go.

The people are actually easy to work with, once you have found a way to interpret their language. I have to admit, it was excruciating at first. As a corporate executive there is a need to assign work forces to a certain area of the project and give them tasks to accomplish. This responsibility is challenging because it is done on a daily basis and monitoring the production needs to be done every hour. It is difficult to explain the tasks to workers with no knowledge of their language.

Some expat corporate executives shared their experience in Taipei. A friend and co-worker said that a Taiwanese interpreter had to accompany him almost all the time to assist in decoding some workers’ concerns. Another corporate executive had to write down and learn the repeating Taiwanese words in his work place. Some had the privilege though of learning with the help of their hosting company.

At the end of the day, what most expat corporate executives miss most is being able to act, decide and talk like their normal selves. Being in any foreign place, especially Taipei, requires expats to change and adapt. It means learning new languages and acting more politely than they normally do. Hearing someone speak your mother tongue is like music to the ears and is very uplifting.

In Taipei, the monsoons and humid tropical seasons can make any American or European citizen miss the predictable summer and winter seasons. It’s almost uncomfortable to go to work every day when the weather is dry and even more inconvenient when the heavy rains start pouring. The climate is easy to adapt to, after a time, as well as people. It is being far from loved ones that is extremely difficult to accept and get permanently used to.

Conversations are valuable to expats, but the physical comfort and presence of loved ones are priceless. Nothing compares to being close to those you love and care for, which is the only but best benefit in coming home.

What It’s Like to Be an Expat in Taipei for my Father-in-Law

I’ve noticed that there have been a lot of people moving out of the country, mostly because they are required by their jobs. Most of these people, usually engineers and corporate executives are inclined to live in foreign countries because the project assigned to them takes years to finish. My father in law is one of these so called expats who barely comes home in a year. Although it’s sad that we don’t get much time together as a family, the provision is quite plentiful.

Being an expat is probably not the life for everyone. And how could it be? It’s difficult enough to be away for so long from loved ones you will even have to adjust to a foreign country’s climate and culture. My father in law experienced a great deal of changes in his work as a corporate executive. It’s bad enough that there’s much work to be assigned and managed daily, but he even has to learn a new language each time he moves elsewhere. Although it’s very challenging to be thrown into a foreign place, he said that there are still some places that could be enjoyable, if not easy to adapt to.

He had spent two years in Taipei once when he received a project in Taiwan, and he said it was much easier for him to work with people there than in other Asian countries. For one thing, at least half of the workers there could speak English or understand a little. Unlike his experience in Japan and Indonesia, he didn’t have to take language lessons on weekends in order to understand what his co-workers were talking about. He’s not completely alone in his work, he has assistants and sometimes a translator to aid him but it’s more efficient to know the language anyway.

My father in law said Taipei is relatively welcoming; he even came to know of a community for expats like him which was pointed out to him by a Taiwanese friend. If there was one trouble my father in law couldn’t seem to get used to it’s the climate in Taipei. He mostly gets assigned in European countries where weather usually consists of rainy seasons and calm, cool climates. In Taiwan it’s very hot and very humid, and then there are heavy rainstorms and surprising typhoons between July and October. The apartment he stayed in had over 20 floors but a certain typhoon caused so much flooding that the lobby sunk thigh-deep in murky waters. He could not bear wearing a suit and had to go to work in an almost casual-looking polo shirt in order to bear the humid heat.