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The Digital Nomad’s Guide To Teaching English Online In Taiwan: What It’s Really Like
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February 19, 2026
Is teaching English online in Taiwan as a digital nomad calling your name? Let’s find out…
What comes to mind when you hear the name Taiwan? To be honest, the only things that came to my mind a year ago would be the usual – Taipei, boba tea and street food.
But, after spending several weeks in this beautiful island country while teaching English, I can give you a different description – surprising, tranquil, bustling, delicious and, of course, a hidden gem.
Imagine waking up to the hustle and bustle of Taipei to teaching on the beach in Taitung to lesson planning from the hills of Jiufen (that inspired Spirited Away – if you know, you know).
In this post we’ll have a look at what it was like for myself and my partner to live in Taiwan and teach English online.
Why Taiwan is 2026’s top hub for online educators
If Taiwan isn’t on your list of potential online TEFL destinations, I am here to tell you that it NEEDS to be! Out of all the countries that we have lived in for an extended time while teaching, Taiwan is at the top of this list. It offers great eats, diversity in landscapes, cosmopolitan cities and affordability.
Taiwan is a country that really brings so much to the table even while being a relatively small island. It’s safe, clean, full of culture, filled with incredible food, and it’s a stunningly beautiful country. It’s a hot destination for expats around the world due to its high quality of life, so you will never struggle to find a community. It’s the perfect location to visit other surrounding countries and it’s an easy introduction to the region.
We spent three weeks in Taiwan: teaching online from Taipei, Jiufen, Taitung, Taichung and Kaohsiung. We basically looped around the island, which gave us a great feel for its overall layout.
Read more: A Digital Nomad Story: My Life-changing Experience With TEFL
Navigating the legalities: The Tourist Visa, The Digital Nomad Visa and the Employment Gold Card
The Tourist Visa
As we were teaching online as American tourists, we can only really speak on this from our perspective. Speaking for ourselves, Americans can be in the country for 90 days on a tourist visa.
No matter where you are from while reading this, we encourage you to read up on your own situation.
Can I teach online in Taiwan on a tourist visa?
Technically, no. Working on a tourist visa is illegal. However, many digital nomads who are staying in Taiwan for a short time work on a tourist visa. So much so, in fact, that it’s currently a legal grey area.
Note from the editor: If you would like to stay in Taiwan for longer than a tourist visa allows, there are two other options: the Digital Nomad Visa and the Employment Gold Card.
The Digital Nomad Visa
The Digital Nomad Visa allows you to live and work in Taiwan for up to two years. Initially you are allowed a stay of 180 days, but you can apply for long-term residence if you wish.
Who qualifies?
Only nationals from visa-exempt countries can apply for a Digital Nomad Visa.
You need to provide proof of remote work experience, as well as proof of an annual salary of at least US$20,000 (if you’re 20 – 29 years old) or US$40,000 (if you’re 30 years old or older). Your bank balance should average at least US$10,000 over the last six months.
Alternatively, you must have previously been granted a Digital Nomad Visa from another country.
Read more: The Digital Nomad Visa: A Ticket To Your Best Life
The Employment Gold Card
The Employment Gold Card is a 4-in-1 card. It includes:
- a resident visa,
- a work permit,
- an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), and
- a re-entry permit.
With the Gold Card you can undertake any work legally. You can stay in Taiwan for longer than 180 days, with unlimited entry and exit.
Who qualifies?
The great thing about this visa is that you don’t need to have a confirmed job in Taiwan to apply for this visa.
There are a list of fields which qualify for the Employment Gold Card, with further requirements related to your specific area of expertise. You can check these out on the government website.
It costs between $100 and $300, depending on the length of the visa (one, two or three years) and your nationality.
A day in the life of an online teacher in Taiwan
While we spent time in different landscapes (city, beach, mountains), our days generally started the same as we tried to establish a routine – much like we do no matter which country we are in.
A typical morning means waking up around 8:30 and going out to secure some yummy Taiwanese eats in hole-in-the-walls scattered around both the cities and towns. Our go-to’s were:
- dan bing (a savoury egg crepe, often filled with scallions, cheese, corn, or pork floss, and lightly drizzled with soy or sweet chili sauce),
- shaobing (a crispy, flaky baked flatbread, usually stuffed with egg, scallions, or youtiao), and
- youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks, commonly dipped into warm soy milk or wrapped inside shaobing).
Then, we would head to a cafe (there are so many no matter where you go in Taiwan) to get some lesson planning done. When in Taiwan, naturally you HAVE to get Taiwan’s most famous drink – boba milk tea.
After hours of eating, drinking boba and lesson planning, we would return to our AirBnB to get to teaching.
As most of our students are currently located in either Poland or the US, we generally didn’t start working until the late afternoon into the evening during our time in Taiwan.
While every day is different depending on our workload, we would usually start at around 3pm to accommodate our first students (Poland time zone). So we would get our breakfast and lunch before starting classes to hold us off until dinner.
We would have dinner between 7 and 8pm before resuming some other classes in the evening to accommodate our American-based students.
For us, our evenings during the week were pretty much reserved for teaching and eating street food because that is all the time zone would allow us. But on the weekend we would meet many people as the digital and TEFL community is pretty strong, especially in Taipei and Taichung.
There are many teachers on the ground, as well as a ton of expats, due to the affordable nature of the country. Using FaceBook groups or even Bumble BFF will connect you with the perfect mix of expats and actual teachers. Additionally, there are many expat-organised events and meetups throughout the country.
Read more: How To Find Your Community As A TEFL Teacher
We spent our free time in many different ways. Taiwan really has all types of activities for all types of people – nature, history, culture and good food.
When we were in Taipei, we went to parks and did hikes while looking at Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the country) in awe from a variety of vantage points. While in Taitung, we would rent bikes and ride along the beautiful Pacific Ocean promenade and just soak up the views. While in Taichung and Kaohsiung, we would do a combination of temple and religious shrine exploring and, of course, eat our way around the city.
Taiwan is the perfect place to be on the weekend, no matter where on the island you are! It’s a nature-lover’s paradise with incredible trails, beaches and road trips. Being a relatively small island with great infrastructure, you can really travel most of the island with great rates on either the train or bus.
If you want to use Taipei as your base, you have many places you can fly for weekend trips including mainland China, Korea or even Japan. With an attractive year-round climate, Taiwan really has something for everyone.
The cost of living in Taiwan
Because Taiwan is quite affordable and well within our budget range, we ate out every day. This can’t be said for every country we have spent time teaching in!
No matter what you choose, you can expect breakfast to cost around $4-5 USD per person if you eat on the streets or at one of these small, local eateries.
For dinner, we would always go out for street food as every city and town we visited had them and we ate EVERYTHING – fried chicken, grilled meats, bao buns – the list goes on.
In terms of accommodation, because we both teach, we like to get apartments that have both a bedroom and a living room, which allows us to teach in separate rooms without interrupting each other. By staying in this kind of layout, we were paying around $40 a night to satisfy our needs.
Of course, if you are a solo traveller, you can get away with a lot less.
Regarding a monthly cost of living for 2 people, we would say from our experience and budgeting, about $1,300 to include accommodation (mix of hotels, hostels and AirBnB), food, travel and activities.
Of course, you can get away with spending less or more as a couple, but this would be our baseline.
With healthcare, we have travel insurance and thankfully didn’t have to use it while in Taiwan.
Challenges living in Taiwan as an online English teacher
To be honest, we didn’t face any drastics downsides while in the country, but here’s a few things we struggled with.
The language barrier
One of the main challenges we would say from our time in Taiwan was certainly the language barrier. We encourage everyone coming to the country to learn a little Mandarin and memorise some basic characters for public signs. We didn’t find English so widely spread but that made the experience more adventurous.
Time zones
The Taiwan time zone offered us open mornings and early afternoons but kind of restricted our evenings. To be honest, this can be both an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you like to maintain a routine.
Typhoon season
Typhoon season (May-November) certainly is something to consider when either moving to the country or while teaching online. However, it’s a pretty established season so really no surprise when or if a typhoon comes within the season.
Loneliness
Isolation would only really be a problem if you establish yourself off the beaten path. There are expats, digital nomads and other teachers and every mid-size city.
Culture shock
Speaking from experience, the “Asian culture shock” might occur with you if you have never been to East/SE Asia. But if you have been to this region, you will not really be shocked by anything in Taiwan.
Read more: Navigating Culture Shock: My Real Experience Teaching English In Vietnam
Is the internet fast enough for high-quality video classes?
We had no issues in the country finding sound wifi in both cafes or any accommodation we chose.
Would you recommend Taiwan to online teachers?
If you are not convinced to consider either moving to Taiwan or just spending time in the country while teaching English online, let me be frank – you should definitely give Taiwan a chance.
Honestly, what are you waiting for? Get certified, teach online and get out exploring this amazing island-country!
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The TEFL Academy was the world’s first TEFL course provider to receive official recognition from government regulated awarding bodies in both the USA and UK. This means when you graduate you’ll hold a globally recognised Level 3 (120hr) Certificate or Level 5 (168hr) Diploma, meaning you can find work anywhere and apply for jobs immediately.
