Age Issues

      The Taiwanese (and all Chinese) believe a person is one year old the day they are born, thus if someone in Taiwan says they are 20 years old, they are actually only 19 in the West.

      Also as in the West, if you are familiar with someone it is okay to ask their age, but in general is is not polite to ask if you don't know that person. However, this doesn't stop most people in Taiwan from asking a foreigner's age upon meeting them and shouldn't be taken as inpolite, but rather as a form of friendly curiosity.

     Technically speaking, if you ask a Chinese in Taiwan when their birthday is, you will need to know whether it is according to the Western solar calendar or Chinese lunar calendar. The Chinese calendar was first created during the reign of the Yellow Emperor, around 2,700 BC.  According to the Chinese, they are still living in the 49th century, not the 21st.

     Furthermore, the Taiwanese started recounting the year from zero beginning in 1911 (in the Western calendar) as that is the year the modern Chinese nation was founded (the ROC) by Dr. Sun Yat Sen in mainland China. Thus the year 2003 is actually the year 92. If a friend tells you he was born in 73, they were actually born in 1984 in the West. Even more confusing is the fact that since they start counting from 1 year old at birth, one's actual age can be a little confusing to calculate if you don't get the facts straight.

      Although English cram schools (Bushibans), public schools and Kindergartens may prefer a foreign English teacher be under the age of 30, this is definitely not the norm or enforced by anyone, and you will undoubtedly notice quite a number of teachers well over their 50's teaching regularly in cram and other schools. In general, the average foreign English teacher (which includes a high percentage of 'backpacker', traveling expat types) tend to be in their early twenties to thirties with the older, longer-term teachers working as managers, professionals, and even owners of their own bushibans.