Basics

There are several dialects of Chinese spoken around the world (Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese, Hakka...) but Mandarin Chinese is the official language of Taiwan (and mainland China). The Mandarin dialect in Taiwan is called 'Guo-yu' or 'National Language.' Mandarin is commonly referred to as the 'best sounding' of the various dialects.

About half the population in Taiwan prefer to speak yet another dialect/Chinese language  at home, you guessed it...Taiwanese (the highest percentage is among locals in Southern & rural areas.) Mandarin and Taiwanese are completely different spoken languages and aren’t mutually intelligible.

Taiwanese is also known as Hokkien, but is actually a ‘Minnan language’. Minnan means 'south of the Min River’, which is located in China’s Fujian province, where the language originated and is still spoken in virtually the same pronounciation today.

On TV and Radio there are broadcasts in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, and less so in Cantonese and English. Schools teach in Mandarin Chinese but also have courses now in Taiwanese.

Another less-common dialect/language/culture in Taiwan which shares the written language but is mutually unintelligible to Mandarin Chinese speakers is the Hakka language which is also spoken in parts of Taiwan (particularly Taoyuan and southern Taiwan, but intermarriage and natural attrition are phasing it out (although a new all-Hakka TV station has recently started in Taiwan to help keep the dying tradition alive for the younger generation).

All Taiwanese students study English from Junior high school on, but while their reading and writing skills may be excellent, their speaking skills are virtually nil, because of the emphasis on written standardized tests and textbook learning, and of course, the lack of opportunity to communicate with English speakers (that’s why you are here!)

While most of the younger generation speak Mandarin, many older people don’t speak it at all (they speak Taiwanese and/or Japanese, due to the 50-year Japanese occupation of Taiwan.

Tones & Grammar

Spoken Chinese is very simple and direct in its grammar, the most important factor being correct word-order and context. There are no conjugations of verbs, gender distinctions, tense changes or other complex grammatical rules to master. The sounds combine to form a series of simple sentence patterns: subject/verb/object as in English. The hardest part by far for Western foreign speakers is learning the tonal system. The following is not an exaggeration; even if you master spoken grammar and written characters, mispronouncing tones will leave locals staring at you with blank expressions because you were not understood. However, the younger generation are more familiar with 'Chinglish' and will be more understanding with mispronounciation of tones. With practice and repetition tones will come naturally.

Unlike the English alphabet there are several hundred vocal sounds in spoken Chinese. Even so, many written characters must share the same pronounciation using a system of 4 different tones (actually five but one is neutral.) Chinese languages are all tonal, and if you alter the tone of a word the meaning of the word can be completely changed (other Chinese dialects and Asian languages use as many as 9 different tones!)

Even with the tones, many characters share both common syllables and tones, and the only way to differentiate the meaning of spoken words in this situation is to understand the context of what is being said or get a written explanation.

The word ma for example can have 4 different meanings depending on the tone used:

1st tone	High tone		‘mother’
2nd tone	Rising tone		‘hemp’ or ‘numb’
3rd tone	Falling-rising tone		ma ‘horse’
4th tone	Falling tone		ma ‘scold’ or ‘swear’

*5th tone

*The neutral tone uses no tone on the word at all

Mastering tones may be the biggest challenge of learning Chinese for Westerners and despite the fact that you may memorize thousands of characters and otherwise pronounce a word correctly, an incorrect tonal pronunciation can leave you completely misunderstood by all but the most Westernized Chinese speakers.

Note:	Another way of expressing written tones on the computer is through numbers
Example:	wo3 gan3 mao4    I’ve caught a cold wo3 gan4 mao1    I f-ck cats

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