I started a Ph.D. in electronic engineering at a prestigious Korean university.<p>When the professor refused to pay my scholarship, I took it up with the international office. 
The international office had a word with the professor. 
The professor&#x27;s &quot;solution&quot; was to fire me, for &quot;disrespecting his authority&quot;.<p>I lost my professor, so I lost my lab. So I lost my university. So I lost my student visa. Suddenly, I had to leave the country.<p>Korea is my ex-country. We had so much in common, but it&#x27;s over. The whole culture is judging based on appearance. Cheat in tests, do plastic surgery, copy shamelessly - just get the results, and nobody cares how you got there. Students would typically stay in the lab until 3 am and return at 6 am, if they ever left. Fold-out camping beds were very common. One professor even put a GPS tracker on an international student in his lab &quot;for research purposes&quot;. Gender equality is abysmal. Forced after-hours drinking was one part where I actively refused, and I probably only avoided judgment for that because I&#x27;m a foreigner.<p>Contrast that to Taiwan. Hours here (9 am to 7 pm) are longer than Europe (9 am to 5 pm) and holidays are short (8 days per year), but the culture is infinitely better. All opinions may be aired. Elders are respected, but are not considered infallible. Gender equality is excellent in both the corporate world and the rest of society. Stereotypes do exist, but abusive racism is rare. Foreigners are welcomed: I will never be a true local, but it&#x27;s not a bad thing to be an outsider. The lack of a deep-seated culture makes society more welcoming, as is common in young countries e.g. Canada, New Zealand, Australia, even the US. So in short, while Taiwan and Korea seem to get the same results, in Taiwan, the end does not justify the means, and people here generally do things the right way.