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Welcome to Working in Asia, a series featuring people doing all types of interesting jobs throughout Asia. We’ve interviewed people work as English teachers, tour leaders, yoga teachers, working for large corporations like Google, and more. The opportunities and options for work in this part of the world are endless! If you work in Asia and would like to be featured in this series, please contact us.
In this interview Nick Kembel from Spiritual Travels shares about living in Taiwan, working as an English teacher in Taiwan, and making the transition to becoming a full-time writer and travel blogger.
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Tell us a bit about yourself. What first brought you to Taiwan?
Hey, I’m Nick, a Canadian who found my second home in Asia. I moved to Taipei, Taiwan in 2008 as an English teacher, but now make a living editing and writing for educational publishers, travel media, and my own website, Spiritual Travels. My wife, Emily, is Taiwanese and our kids, Sage and Lavender, were born in 2014 and 2015.
What were you doing in Canada before you moved to Taiwan?
In university, I studied cultural anthropology with a focus on Asian culture. After I graduated in 2004, I went backpacking off and on for a few years, covering over 40 countries on my own. When in Canada, I’d typically live with my parents and work several jobs at once, mostly in cafés and travel gear shops, to save up money as quickly as possible for travel.
Of all the countries you traveled to, why did you choose Taiwan?
It was a series of unplanned events that brought me here. At some point in my travels, I took a TEFL course in Bangkok, but I wasn’t ready to settle in one spot yet. Later, I had a girlfriend in Canada, and when we broke up, I decided to finally go make use of that TEFL certificate. An old friend of mine was teaching English in Shenzhen, China, so I moved in with him and got a job teaching there.
That was 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics. Because Shenzhen is right across the border from Hong Kong, most English teachers just came in on tourist or business visas. But with the Olympics coming, the government cracked down on that, and many teachers decided to leave instead of waiting around for months for the proper paperwork. My friend wanted to move somewhere else where Mandarin was spoken, so we chose Taipei, Taiwan.
If you’d like to read more about Taipei and why it’s such an incredible place to live and work, see my article on 50 awesome things to do in Taipei!
Click the picture to view MyTEFL courses. MyTEFL also offers help with teacher placement once you complete your course. Note: Most schools in Asia require teachers to complete 120 hours of training or more, so be sure to choose that option.
When you first moved to Taiwan what were you doing for work?
With a few exceptions, the majority of Western expats in Taiwan come as English teachers. Some of them do other things on the side or move into other fields after they stay for five years and get a permanent residence card (or get married to a local) and are no longer tied to their schools for a visa.
My friend and I applied for and got cram school jobs before we arrived. I ended up working in that school for five years, and my friend is still there after 11 years and managing the school.
What was it like to be a teacher in Taiwan?
Experiences vary depending on what kind of institution you are teaching in, but I, like the majority of new teachers living in Taiwan, was teaching kindergarten and elementary students in cram schools. Kids that age are the same anywhere in the world; inquisitive, silly, full of energy. Teaching was usually fun for me, but could also be frustrating and tiring.
On the plus side, the kids could be really funny and sweet. I got to watch my students grow and improve over time. The teaching environment in most schools is quite lax; you can show up in shorts and sandals, and play lots of games in class. In many ways, you are kind of treated like a clown who shows up to entertain the kids for a few hours a day and put a Western face on the school’s ads.
On the downside, because these schools are businesses first and foremost, they are run as such. Pleasing parents and getting repeat customers is often given more importance than the quality of education. What bothered me most was how long the students were in school every day. Taiwanese kids spend more time in classes than any others in the world.
Over time, I moved away from teaching kids and did more private tutoring. Most of my students were high school students or young professionals in computer companies. I also lectured in a technical college for a year; the pay was awesome, but I hated it because the students were really unmotivated and terrified of speaking English.
What are some of your favorite places that you’ve traveled to in Taiwan?
One of my favorites is Alishan, Taiwan’s most famous mountain resort. A lot of expats here snub their noses at Alishan because it’s a popular tourist attraction. But the area has amazing old growth forests with huge cypress trees, remote hiking trails through bamboo forests, incredible sunrises, homestays overlooking beautiful tea farms, and you get to ride a small gauge wooden train to different areas of the park. Here’s my complete guide to Alishan!
I also love the small offshore islands of Taiwan. Green Island features a saltwater hot spring right on the coast. Lanyu (Orchid Island) is home to a remote aboriginal tribe with festivals honoring flying fish. Penghu island has Chinese courtyard homes with walls made of seashells. Things are more laid back on the islands, with more of a tropical feel. Riding a scooter around any one of them is one of my top Taiwan experiences.
How and why did you make the transition from being a teacher to writing and editing?
It all started in 2011 when I fulfilled a lifelong dream of writing a book. The book documents my first few years of living and working in Taiwan, and provides a general introduction to Taiwanese culture. The book is bilingual (in English and Mandarin), and it was my wife who translated it.
I had already blogged for years while traveling, but you have to keep in mind that before 2010, blogging was completely different than it is now. Few travelers had their own website. Mostly we had profiles on travel blogger websites and posted narratives of what we were doing every day. There were no “top 10” lists, and everyone used Lonely Planet as their guide. Taiwan was the first country in my travels where I stayed for a long time, so the logical next step was to write a book about it.
The book was well received in Taiwan (in no small part due to the fact that I had a mohawk on the cover and the book’s Mandarin name, chosen by my publisher, was 老外愛台灣 (“Foreigner Loves Taiwan”). After that, the jobs literally came to me. I don’t think I’ve applied for a job since. First, it was one of the top English high school textbook publishers in the country. Once I worked for them, my network grew and other publishers started reaching out to me.
My wife is also a successful English teacher and writer, and together we do a lot of freelance work for companies, especially writing English proficiency practice materials such as TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS, the kinds of tests Taiwanese have to take in order to get jobs or to get accepted into universities abroad.
While it may seem like I kind of lucked out by getting all these jobs, my wife and I are kind of (OK, not “kind of”…we really are) workaholics. We are a powerhouse team and are constantly turning down job requests because there are just too many. My wife has become more of a middleman, hiring others to do the grunt work like translating, whereas I’m a perfectionist and just want to do it all myself, but I always bite off more than I can chew.
What was the transition from having a steady teaching job to writing full-time like?
My career transition was extremely gradual and happened over the course of many years. Once I got married I no longer needed to work in a school to get a visa, so I promptly quit and started taking on more writing jobs. But for years I still hung on to several private tutoring gigs because they were easy and paid well. Some of my adult students became like friends over time, except friends who pay you $40/hour to chat with them.
What are the ups and downs of writing work?
As a full-time freelance writer and editor, I can work in the comfort of my own home and don’t have to waste time traveling to or between jobs. I can accept or turn down any job I want, and I can take holidays whenever I feel like it. I am proud of and passionate about the work I produce, which is a feeling I didn’t get from teaching because my heart wasn’t in it.
On the other hand, a lot of the educational content I write can be quite dry and tedious. I sometimes put out hundreds of pages of business English practice exams in a month, although the odd paid travel writing gig I get adds some spice to the mix. I never know when I’m going to get my next huge job; it could be the next email in my inbox, and the bigger jobs tend to always have the same deadlines. Sitting at my laptop all day every day can be rough on my body, and I’m constantly battling distractions and trying to juggle my work with raising my kids.
Where does your travel blog fit in? Is it a hobby or another job?
As I said before, I started travel blogging more than 10 years ago, but as more of an online diary, so it was definitely just a hobby. Around when my book was published (2011), I also set up my current website. I used it more as an online portfolio to showcase my book and other writing work, such as some freelance writing jobs I did for CNN and travel magazines. Back then I had no clue how to run a website, and travel blogging for money was pretty much non-existent.
I only started thinking about using my website as a blog around 2014 or 2015, but those were the same years when my two kids were born, and life became so busy that I had to give up shortly after beginning.
I only started treating my blog as a business one year ago, at the beginning of 2018, once my kids started going to school. I started monetizing in the summer of 2018 and made my first $1000 in one month in March 2019. In the last year, my traffic has grown by over 3000%.
This recent success has made me re-evaluate my career. Travel has always been my true passion, and for the first time ever I believe I could actually make a living from my website. To that end, I’ve been cutting out other paid writing jobs and the last of my private tutoring gigs to make more time for working on my site. The hourly pay is quite a bit less, but I consider it a long-term investment in myself and my business. It is the ultimate dream: the hobby that you live life off of.
Tell us more about your travel blog. What is it about?
I had always struggled with what niche to choose; I have traveled extensively but many years have gone by since most of those trips. When I first started my site, I lived in Taiwan, but I didn’t want my site to only be about Taiwan. I have kids and often travel with them, but I never wanted it to become a “traveling with kids” blog.
In the end, I went with the theme of “spiritual travel” because I have always been attracted to religious centers and spiritual places. But the truth is that my area of expertise is Taiwan; most of my articles are about general travel in Taiwan. Still, I’m glad that I didn’t commit to a Taiwan-related URL. I’ve always just left the URL as my name, even though people say you should use your brand name since that’s pretty much the only thing that is guaranteed never to change in my life.
Many of my articles do still focus on “spiritual” topics like visiting and staying in temples, pilgrimages, and so on. My site also has sub-niches of tea and traveling with kids. It’s kind of a mixed bag, even though I know that’s not ideal.
What are your plans going forward?
Believe it or not, we are leaving Taiwan in six months to move to my hometown in Canada. It was a complex decision with many factors, but overall we feel Canada is a better environment for raising our kids, and I want to be with my family as I get older.
The scariest part for both my wife and I was what kind of work to do in Canada, but with the recent success on my blog, I’m planning to go full-time with it. In my final year in Taiwan, I’ve been working my ass off trying to put out as much Taiwan content as possible. After we leave, I’ll be going more international on my site, and we will be traveling around Europe for two months on the way to Canada.
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Thanks to Nick for an interesting look at his transition from teaching English in Taiwan to writing and blogging full time. Opportunities abound when you have the drive to follow your passions and work hard for the lifestyle you desire!
Canadian Nick Kembel has been living in Taiwan for 11 years. He is the author of “Taiwan in the Eyes of a Foreigner” and writes for various travel magazines. He currently lives in New Taipei City with his wife and two kids. His website www.nickkembel.com focuses on Taiwan and spiritual aspects of travel. You can follow Nick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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I become incredibly enthusiastic about travel blogging once I’ve worked as a MD over one year. Bethinking myself that daily day-night shift work makes my life meaningless although I’ve made up my mind the nature of work it has.
Life has a strange way of working out and I can imagine how landing up in Taiwan wasn’t exactly a choice but happened by chance! Good to read about Nick’s experience with the kids in Taiwan and his transition to a full time blogger, I admire that he wrote a book and it was well received! I always look up to people who’re able to write a book. I haven’t ever thought about visiting Taiwan but from his description, it sounds like a great place to explore!
I found this interview very interesting. I’ve kind of wondered how one makes the transition from normal 9 to 5 job to just being a writer and getting paid for it. And it’s cool how teaching children and then adults played into that transition. I wish you the best in your next phase of life in Canada!
I find this so inspiring. First because Taiwan is everywhere right now as a hot new destination but also the fact that you can change jobs and you are not stuck to something. So interesting.
Best of luck as you return to Canada, Nick! My husband and I moved to Europe 10 years ago next month, and we can’t imagine returning to the US. Perhaps someday, but for now we’re happily settled in France which is entirely possible because we started a travel blog 10 years ago.
Sounds like a great place to teach English. I always wanted to do that but then we got settled down with two dogs.
I hope the move back to Canada goes well for you! I did get drunk 9 years ago and realised £1,200 was gone from my bank account, looked at my laptop and I had booked a trip to Thailand, a TEFL course and set myself up at a school! I managed to cancel the trip and the role, but the TEFL course couldn’t be cancelled…So I became a teacher for a while haha
Haha wow, what a story!!
You have certainly carved out a niche for yourself Nick. I think it is great the way you have integrated with the society and culture of Taiwan.
I remember that time when Lonely Planet was the only online travel resource. Less information meant more surprises and that was part of the charm of travel then. It was lovely to share the journey of a fellow travel blogger…lovely interview.
Thank you Punita!
Great interview. Very inspiring for us wanna-be travel writers. But although he makes it sound quite easy, I’m sure Nick has worked his behind off. I look forward to reading his posts as he repatriates to Canada as I also plan on returning to the US in the next few years and dragging my blog with me. 😀
Thanks for reading Vanessa! And yes, I’ve worked by butt off, but I’ve seen you in the blogger groups and I know you do too! Good luck on your future journeys and possible return home too!