Forums where Taiwanese discuss learning English

Hi,

Does anyone know any Forums where Taiwanese discuss learning English, ideally written in English?

I wish to do a little investigating into the kinds of problems they often encounter.

M

Don’t know, but if you found one please post in Temp. We can crash it with discussions of why BJ is the best name and how to use both ‘of’ and ‘for’ interchangeably in the same sentence!

We should also put up a thread with definitions of txtspk. You know, like spk = sex porn kittens.

Actually I’m kind of curious what is the main discussion forum for Taiwanese people to discuss things in life. What is the Taiwanese peoples equivalent of Forumosa??

This is basically an expat forum, so any forum for expat Taiwanese (though not limited to expat Taiwanese as there are plenty of people of different nationalities here), with a handful of whatever the local nationality was.

There is a thing called PTT, which is an old-style BBS, still insanely popular here. It’s (mostly?) all in Chinese and I believe you need an email address from your Taiwan university before they’ll let you register. (I think I heard somewhere that it’s run by Taida.) You can’t access it using your browser, you need a special software.

For English language questions specifically, you could try HelloUK. This is a forum for Taiwanese wanting to study in the UK. I believe it’s associated with, or sponsored by, one of the big agents and/or buxibans. You may find that you’re not allowed to participate if they decide that you’re a threat. Or maybe you’ll be welcomed as a free resource for their members?

We use MengDa at my uni, which is the same thing. All in Chinese, good fun though. Wish I could figure out how to post!

This Yahoo forum has a lot of Taiwanese discussing learning/using English in Chinese. In many threads, it seems to be the blind leading the blind. For example, in this thread, the OP asked for help translating a Chinese passage and the first answer is some industrial-strength Chinglish.

There’s a lot of English discussion at www.english.com.tw, although most of it (not unexpectedly) is in Chinese, with English examples. The usual people giving answers that they have no basis for, but it might be a good place to see what commonly asked questions are.

[quote=“muzharen”]Hi,

Does anyone know any Forums where Taiwanese discuss learning English, ideally written in English?

I wish to do a little investigating into the kinds of problems they often encounter.

M[/quote]

I would guess that this issue has been discussed before, and there is a reason why there isn’t a ‘Learning (Acquiring?) English in Taiwan’ forum. However, I would definitely vote for one. I think that it would be a valuable addition to forumosa, and would help attract more non native English speakers. My students would certainly appreciate it.

tomthorne: Inevitably, they’d have to learn what “taking the piss” meant though.

1 and 3 look like industrial strength “babblefish” or “google transfake” to me, while 2 looks like a human being produced it. :slight_smile:

:2cents:

I posted in haste, that is, before doing the acid test: 3 IS, “google transfake”… and 1 IS “babblefish”

Oh, boy…

I posted in haste, that is, before doing the acid test: 3 IS, “google transfake”… and 1 IS “babblefish”

Oh, boy…[/quote]

Holy cow, it is for true! I can’t believe responder #3 not only copied and pasted from “google transfake,” punctuation flaws and all, but went “full retard” and self-identified as an “English teacher.” They did correct the first instance of random capitalization (Knowledge) but I guess that was chabuduo.

“So Not everything that is learned is contained in book,.”

Indeed.

Forums where Taiwanese discuss learning English in Chinese with no foreigners or English teaching professionals present? Is this were decisions on how to teach English are made?

Sounds like it fits the bill, doesn’t it!!

I remember talking to a (foreign) friend about a (local) friend of my boyfriend who I’d only spoken to in Chinese.

Me: ‘Yeah, that guy, the English teacher!’
Her: ‘…You mean the guy who can’t speak English??’

I’ve been lucky in that out of 3 CTs at Buxibans, 2 have spoken good English.

Heyyyy,
try looking up Yahoo 知識+ (similar to Yahoo! Answers.)
There is a main category where it’s dedicated to English-related discussions.
You can get all sorts of discussions and questions, at different levels as well.
Some are very basic English grammar/ vocabularies inquiries, some threads are on advanced level translation.
tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/dir/dir?d … r=24923487
I believe this is probably the main source for English-related discussions,
as you can post the question anonymously, and see many responses before you choose the best answer!

Does any of you know if there is any recommended or more popular English learning software sold in the Taiwanese or maybe Hong Kong markets that are user friendly, affordable and good? I know Rosetta has relatively good ones but just want to make a comparison

Let’s talk English is a popular one.
And on top of my head,
空中英語教室
They are not necessarily softwares, but rather monthly magazine that comes with a CD or sometimes DVD.
These two Sources are very widely used by local school and come in different levels. You can find them in all major book stores.
Can’t really think of softwares at the moment will post again once o think of one :wink:

[quote=“jampacking”]Let’s talk English is a popular one.
And on top of my head,
空中英語教室
[/quote]
I wouldn’t buy a magazine called Let’s talk English. It’s “Let’s Talk in English”, and 空中英語教室 is Studio Classroom. Both are published by the same company. Apparently, they do have a forum for learning English discussion.

[quote=“Incubus”][quote=“jampacking”]Let’s talk English is a popular one.
And on top of my head,
空中英語教室
[/quote]
I wouldn’t buy a magazine called Let’s talk English. It’s “Let’s Talk in English”, and 空中英語教室 is Studio Classroom. Both are published by the same company. Apparently, they do have a forum for learning English discussion.[/quote]

Lol I knew there was something wrong with that name, I couldn’t remember exactly what the name was and made a silly mistake, oops!
If you go to elite bookstore there are plenty of those on offer, all come with something audiovisual wise. :wink: