Learn Chinese Insights Podcast Episode 030: Derek McCracken

In this episode I interview Derek McCracken, an American who has been living in Taiwan for 7 years.

Listen to find out:

– What brought Derek to Asia and specifically Taiwan
– How he started teaching English, while looking for other opportunities
– How he started his first business in Taiwan
– How he compares starting a business in Taiwan compared to Thailand
– How he began learning Chinese on the side
– What benefits he found from being able to speak Chinese at a functional level
– What skill he thinks is necessary for expats to learn Chinese
– What things he did in his learning to get to the next level
– How he transitioned into his current job at an international fitness company.
– What cultural differences he’s noticed comparing Taiwanese clients with American and Thai ones
– Why he chooses to live in Taiwan than America
– What advice he’d give to an expat wanting to change their career path

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Learn Chinese Insights Podcast Episode 029: Adam Menon

In this episode, I actually interview… myself! Well not, really. I invited CLO user Joe Cooperman to interview me on my motivation for coming to Taiwan and starting this course teaching fellow expats how to speak Mandarin.

Listen to find out:

– Why Joe uses CLO
– What brought me to Taiwan
– What problem I found with many methods teaching Chinese
– How I transitioned from teaching English to teaching Chinese
– What other Chinese resources I liked and was influenced by
– Why the lesson material is limited to 7 levels
– How the usage of the site has changed over the years
– On the future of the site
–

 

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Learn Chinese Insights Podcast Episode 028: Steve Iglehart

In Part 2 of this episode, we continue our interview with American businessman Steve Iglehart.

Listen to find out:

– How he moved on to the skin care market
– What his biggest challenge was in this market
– The intense process of training salespeople to use his product
– How he learned to read people’s reactions over the years
– What the advantage of being an expat was, when it came to sales
– What businesses he has since transitioned to
– Why he thinks it’s easier for an expat to do business in Taiwan today
– Why he feels a local university degree is the best way to reach fluency in Chinese
–

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Learn Chinese Insights Podcast Episode 027: Steve Iglehart

Steve Iglehart is an American businessman from San Francisco who has been living in Taiwan for almost 30 years.

Listen to this episode to find out:

– What made Steve want to learn Chinese
– Why he chose to come to Taiwan
– His first moments in Taiwan, looking for a Chinese school
– Why he decided to stay on in Taiwan and do a university degree locally
– Why he found the degree to be one of his most challenging life experiences
– His experience job hunting after graduating
– How he learned how business was conducted locally
– What his first business was
– What reaction locals had to doing business with him

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Learn Chinese Insights Podcast Episode 026: Keiran

Keiran is a Canadian living in Taiwan, now working in the bicycle industry.

Listen to this episode to find out:

– What brought Keiran to Taiwan in the first place
– How he began learning Chinese initially
– What he didn’t like about his first school
– How he found people to practice his Chinese with
– Where the most effective part of his learning came from
– What he did to make himself more approachable for casual conversation with strangers
– Why he ended up getting a university degree in Taiwan
– What challenges he had getting the degree
– Why he feels learning more than one language at the same time is an effective way to learn
– Why getting a university degree locally in Taiwan is a great opportunity
– How he started in the bicycle industry
– His advice for expats wanting to do something different career wise
– Why being able to speak Chinese was helpful to him
– His advice for expats wanting to take their Chinese to the next level
– How he recommends you make the most of your experience abroad

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