Taiwan

[流]

Hi everyone! I've been pretty quite as far as this forum is concerned. But, I have just found out that I'll be going to Taiwan in August for a year, to a Taiwanese school...

How do you all think it will by for a person who speaks very little 普通話? What is Taiwan like, and does anyone have any advice/recommendations?

Thanks!

Oh, also: will I be able to continue to use my Japanese in Taiwan (...I hope...)??

[jukebox]

It will be fine since you could speak English.

When you can't express yourself, it may be functional to write words down (in 古文 way) imho.

Oh, also: will I be able to continue to use my Japanese in Taiwan (...I hope...)??

I don't think so, except for those old people who studied Japanese at school in their childhood.

However, modern Taiwanese (namely, Min dialect in Taiwan) have reserved some Japanese words, such as 料理, ケチャップ, 玄関 and I don't know how many there are of this type of words, but I'm sure not too many.

[wix]

Japanese is the second most popular second language for people to learn in Taiwan (after English). There are probably not that many old people left in Taiwan that speak Japanese these days, except for Lee Teng-hui ;) You are more likely to meet young Taiwanese people who have learnt Japanese or Japanese people living in Taiwan for work or study.

Taiwan Ho and Forumosa are good sites to get an introduction to life as a foreigner in Taiwan.

[流]

Good advice, both of you, and thanks for the links, wix.

Taiwan looks very fun! I'm not going until August though, so I'll have plenty of time to prepare.

I have been told that in Taiwan, you really have to force yourself and others to speak Chinese if you an American, because everyone/most people are learning English. Has everyone ever been to Taiwan? Is it like that?

Wow, this is going to be amazing, Taiwan for a hole year...

Hopefully by the time I come home, my Chinese will be to the extent that I can add some helpful things, and not just questions!

[DaTou]

Hello,

I've been to Taiwan, and you will not have to force yourself to speak chinese : you will HAVE to speak chinese because I met very few people there speaking english when I was there !

Even in CKS international airport, the person at the hotel reservation counter couldn't speak english!!!

Have a good time there! If Taipei is not a pretty city, the countryside has some very nice places!

[Lu]

There is an English craze in Taiwan: just about everybody is learning English. Which means that a great many people will want to practice their English with you. Some foreigners complain that they never get the opportunity to speak Chinese, as all the people they meet insist on speaking English.

In own my experience, it's not that bad. The people that did come up to me and wanted to practice often quickly switched back to Chinese when they found out I spoke that quite fluent. Also, not everyone there speaks English, there are still plenty of locals who only have rudimentary English, or none at all.

If you are a native speaker of English, and your Chinese is not that good yet, you might have trouble getting to speak Chinese. What can you do about this: you can get a language partner, and make sure you get at least as much practice as s/he; you can try and befriend some non-English speakers; you can tell the people who want to practice that you are from Iceland or some other obscure country; you can be very stubborn and simply refuse to speak English and always answer in Chinese; you can explain your need to practice to your Taiwanese friends, and ask them to speak as much Chinese as possible to you; you can speak Chinese with your classmates, wherever they are from (it's still practice). Some of these methods are nice, some are not-so-nice. One sure to work method is to talk to the taxi drivers: they have a lot to say, and they rarely know any English.

Personally I usually answered in the language that people spoke to me in, they don't have much opportunity to practice their English, whereas I was in a country full of native speakers of Mandarin. Also, they maybe gathered all their courage to start talking to a complete stranger in a foreign language, it's just not nice to get angry about that. My Mandarin was better than the English of most Taiwanese, and they of course felt more comfortable speaking Chinese than English, so the language often switched to Chinese within the first few sentences.

I had a great time in Taiwan, hope you will enjoy it too!