This how I know time flies by fast. I made that statement about 25 years ago. Then I went to my in-laws area…
My mother in law never learned to read and write Chinese well nor did she speak much Chinese.
There are a lot of people who could not read or write and that’s why a lot of the village signs had pictorial icons for the services.
I’m not sure about now. I know a lot of the far East Asian brides who come here seem to pick up Taiwanese very quickly. I don’t know anything about their writing ability. Except when I was in the immigrant training class, they were among the best students.
But, they were only Grandma’s and foreign spouses in my class anyway. But I was left struggling with my little Chinese dictionary while the teacher explained things in Chinese and Taiwanese to the students.
I hated the pre-class discussion. The teacher would ask the students if they want to have the class conducted in Chinese or Taiwanese. I would of course say please Chinese,. or how about English. Not.
The literacy rate is almost 99 percent.
Still quite a few old people that cant read or write. I see a few everyday at places like the post office, bank etc needing help to write.