Your first day as an efl tutor can be a very bad one or one for you to remember all your life; it just depends on what you make it to be. You should know that taking Taiwanese students or to be more general Asian students may be harder than what you are normally accustomed with. To start with, Asian/Taiwanese students are usually very shy when it comes to asking questions in class and when they eventually do, they need to be encouraged or else you may have to cope with statures for the rest of your class. Not that it is bad they do this; it is something more like a cultural thing. Asian and western cultures are very much different so you should be able to imbibe the Taiwanese culture and use it to your advantage if you are really positive about making your career as a tutor of English as a foreign language in Taiwan a success.

Sleep well before taking the class. You need to be refreshed

This is a basic rule for tutors everywhere on the planet earth. Fatigue will only help produce a mentally drained, less productive, less energetic tutor and you do not want this on your first lesson. Make sure to have adequate sleep the night before your first lesson and if possible rest appropriately during the day of your first lesson. This will ensure your brain remains as agile as needed for your first lesson. It will also save you the embarrassment of yawning or dozing of while teaching. If possible try to get at least 6hours of sleep the night before and make sure not to engage in any stressful activities the day you are to take your first lesson. Know that not having enough rest may cost you your newly found job and am sure you sincerely do not want to get thrown into the labor market as fast as that. 
 
Know a little mandarin

Depending on the setting and/or institution where you are to provide your teaching services, a fellow Taiwanese tutor may be provided to assist you while handling classes. If this is not going to be the case for you, having a little understanding on Mandarin is quite necessary for your first lecture. Maybe words like hello, my name is…, I am from …, I am your English tutor would do but this is solely dependent on you so you have to choose the what you want to know before your  first lesson. Though for most foreign tutors, who usually get a job within a month or less of arrival and by then don’t have enough exposure to mandarin, it is necessary they learn the little they can as soon as they arrive while expanding on their vocabulary as times goes on. Remember, it may be appreciated if your students know that as you are teaching them the English language you are also learning their own native language which is mandarin.
 
Prepare well for the class

Do not do this and you are bound to be screwed for the rest of your teaching days with that particular class. I am very certain of the fact that I would not like to be taught by a person who comes in, cannot even remember what he came to teach and especially as a language lesson is concerned, the person does not show any level of concurrency or relationship between each and every topic he teaches. Be sure to make out a good plan on what you intend to take on your first day. It is also important to know that as your students will probably be meeting you for the first time, they are bound to need some time to adjust to your teaching and/or talking patterns so it is advised you do not do anything intense on your first day. It should be spent asking random friendly questions,  asking and noting the names of the students in your class and socializing with your students. If socializing is not your style, learning the students name, giving them a short description about yourself would do just fine but you should know that in other for you to excel especially when it comes to teaching Asian children, a familiar more friendly face has more potential to succeed than a strict dictator-like tutor.. Like was stated earlier, you would most likely have a person with you who would help translate what you say into a language your students understand.

Set out your rules before the first day

If you are the kind of tutor that likes setting boundaries to your students, you should probably do it before your first day. Though Taiwanese students are more likely to be respectful to tutors, asking your fellow efl tutors (preferably in the same school with you) of any patterns you might want to stamp out is a welcome idea. There is nothing more important than first impression and waiting till your 10th week before announcing your rules may not be as effective as doing it the very first day of your lesson.

Be friendly as well as firm

This tip is usually the trickiest in that most people weigh friendliness as inability to stamp authority. This should not be the case. Depending on your teaching style, it is important you start in a friendly in other to gain the trust needed to successfully teach your students while at the same time using the opportunity to set any boundaries between you and them. Know that strictness or firmness should be graduated and suited for the age-grade you intend teaching. For an elementary class, you should be friendly as well as strict with a tilt to the former. You might want to impose your firmness on classes involving teenagers but note that asides from the fact that Taiwanese students are generally not disrespectful to their tutors, being overly strict may aid their refusal to ask questions during classes hereby impeding the progress you will be making.

If you are to teach an adult class, it is best for you to take a friendly approach even if you normally do not teach this way. It is advised you do this because while you are a tutor to the adults you teach, they may be your superiors in other works of life. This does not mean you should show friendliness to any particular student during classes as that is also a wrong approach. In short, it makes no sense being overly strict in an adult class. Just show them you are in control of the class and that will be all that is needed.