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Comment by ygouzerh | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to go nomad, let's travel! I am french, but I think that if I want to settle, I will go Taiwan : mountains, beach, city, good foods. And the life there is a mix between innovations and traditions, it's really nice.

If it's for a short term, I will go back to Philippines, the life is really sweet and enjoyable there.

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My parents are actually from Taiwan and taiwanese, but me being born and raised in CA, I would still hesitate to live in Taiwan due to the language barrier.

I'm curious why someone like you, who likely speaks even less mandarin than me would want to live there?

Language wouldn't be a really problem to you in Taiwan if you choose a more modern and bigger city to live. You probably would straggle to speak English to old people in some counties, such as Yunlin and Chayyi, but younger adults would try to speak English to you at their best effort and whether who they are and the level of their English ability, they would be very friendly and warm to treat you.

My issue is mainly with making friends and integrating with the locals. There's always a barrier here despite being able to get by with just english.

Spent 3 months in Chia-yi. People are nice. In Taipei, everyone speaks english. Should not be a problem today.

Can you recommend some locations in Taiwan? It's on my radar.

I was in Kaohsiung from 2014-2018. There's a good community of hospex (was CouchSurfing, now hopefully BeWelcome), including weekly meetups in Taipei, Hsinchu, Chiayi, Tainan, and Kaohsiung.

Just don't dare to speak up about the air pollution. It's bad, but trying to do anything about it could get you in trouble.

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