What happens when you are planning to teach abroad and then a global pandemic hits? What is it like to move to a new country amidst the uncertainty? Is it even possible to go? These brave new teachers moved to Taiwan to teach in 2020. We asked them to tell us about their experience.
Video transcript below.
Amanda: Moving to Taiwan during a pandemic. It was kind of scary.
Julia: Not easy.
Nathaniel: Stressful.
Amanda: All of my friends were asking, "Are you excited to go?" and I was like, "I am but, I don't know if I'm getting on the plane, will they let me in?"
Alejandro: Well, moving during a pandemic, that's a good question. I think, at first, it was scary. I signed my contract maybe when the news of COVID was just starting in Canada, so there were like, a few local cases in Quebec, where I was at the time, and there was a lot of, like, media scare around that - obviously.
Julia: I signed a contract before the pandemic was what it is now, so, it was just a lot of uncertainty.
Stephen: I'd been through the lockdown in the UK and I was also working in a high school. We had a lot of uncertainty with exams being cancelled, and also, were they going to lockdown, weren't they going to lockdown?
Nathaniel: You know, you're thinking about moving halfway across the world and you're not sure about so many things.
Nicole: Nothing was open in Ontario for us to get documents and visas together, health checks, and it seemed like it was an impossible task.
Amanda: The whole time I was doing my paperwork, I was in constant contact with Foresight who was great about it, they were there day and night, whenever I had a question
Julia: Every time I was freaking out about, like, not even knowing if I would make it here, they were just reassuring, said, "Don't worry about it, it'll be fine, it'll be okay."
Stephen: There was a constant stream of information that was really useful, and I know that's not always people's experiences with employers, but with Foresight, there was just open lines of communication.
Julia: So I just put my trust in this company and let them guide me through how to navigate getting things like health checks, your visa when the visa office is closed, all these things that I was uncertain would work or not work, it ended up working out, because I made it here, so clearly I could trust them and they were just so supportive. I could have not done it without the HR team here at Foresight, they're amazing.
Nicole: Knowing that Taiwan was so safe, there was like that light at the end of the tunnel.
Alejandro: It turns out that Taiwan is one of the best places to be. So the longer I was in Canada, and, you know, more or less lockdown, coming to Taiwan got easier and easier. It was a dream to come here where everything's open, everyone's safe. It's great.
Amanda: Then I came to Taiwan, I remember looking around and being like, "Oh, so this is what it's like to see people again."
Nicole: Once we got over here, everything started rolling and we felt so safe. It was actually the first time we had felt safe in a long time.
Stephen: It was a relief to arrive in a country where the virus is very much under control.
Amanda: Once I got here, it was so good. Everything was opened up, there was so much you could do, and it was probably the best decision I could have made for the time.
Our HR Team is committed to supporting our teachers through every step of their teaching journey with us. Although changes can be unpredictable at this time, our staff stays up to date on the latest updates and immigration requirements from Taiwan’s government so we can best guide our teachers through the necessary steps to arrive here safely.
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