I’m moving to Taiwan this September to teach and continue studying Chinese, and I have been advised to find a Chinese family to live with – even if it is just temporary-- with whom I can speak Chinese. The consensus among professors at my university is that this is the best method, by far.
I’m wondering if anyone has ever done so, or knows of this being done. If so, please share your experience
Also, where should I advertise/look – websites, ext. (Chinese language sources are not a problem) As to what city I’m planning to move to, well… that’s still up in the air (I’ve bought my tickets, however!!).
Side note: I suspect finding a family to live with cannot be that hard since I can help the Children with their English; and perhaps this can even be worked into the rent.
it might be fun for a while if you find the right family, but I’m sure if you are like most people you’ll want your privacy soon.
Try it out and just tell them you only plan on doing it for a month…that way nobody will feel offended when you leave. You could make very good friends this way. Of course they will be practicing their English all the time but most Taiwanese would also go out of their way to also show you around etc…
Poagao wrote: [quote]Yeah, then you can end up sounding like the opposite sex when you talk[/quote]
I don’t really baaa… think this is a baaaa… big problem. And, of course, there are some folks who would have a “sleeping dictionary” of the same sex.
I lived with a Taiwanese family for the first year I was here. Didn’t learn a jot of the old Chinee but did develop an unhealthy taste for Taiwanese brandy, thanks to the old Japanese-speaking grandpa. He was a great old bloke who spent his life working as a forester in Nantou.
His son’s wife had THE cutest little titties I ever saw (and I saw them OFTEN).
My advice? Rent an apartment or a dorm room.
I lived with a young couple (who didn’t speak any English) for 5.5 years upon arrival here, and made great progress in speaking that way. I highly recommend this method.
For me, the main drawback was that since I actually learned a lot of my vocabulary that way, I was at risk of picking up their Taiwan-style pronunciation (mostly incorrect retroflexing, or lack thereof), so I had to frequently check new words in the dictionary in order to learn them the right way. And for a long time I called cockroaches ‘zang1lang2’, imagining that it was zang1 ‘dirty’. LOL
Yeah,… I’ve given some thought to the differences between the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan and that of Beijing, and have concluded that it doesn’t really matter: I may lose my retroflex affricates and fricative, and I may not. If I was to move to Chongqing, for example, my tones would switch around; Beijing, I would use the syllalbe final -r more; and so on. So I figure I’ll just go with the flow – I intend to spend some time in the mainland anyway, so my Mandarin will surely have artifacts of various regions. And a side note, most Chinese “dialects” don’t have retroflect consonants but palatal sounds instead, but beijing hua is a prestige form (outside of Taiwan), so I will be make effort to recognize which syllables have retroflex initials and which don’t – that way it will be easier to relearn them if necassary.
Nothing wrong with having a regional accent; fluency is really the key. Even here in Taiwan though, the official standard preserves the retroflex, and there are many speakers who pronounce that way (although not in an exaggerated fashion as in Beijing). As long as you’re living in Taipei and choose your language exchange partners and/or tutors carefully, you can still learn Mandarin with retroflex.
A mate did this upon arrival also. I was a bit concerned for him at first but as it turned out, he had his own entrance to the house, directly into a studio. A connecting door gave him access to the toilet (shared) and the kitchen - also shared. Mom did the cooking and would knock on his door to “Come and git it”.
If you don’t have this kind of privacy, I would pass. WHen I think of trying to live with an unknown family in a strange country with no “alone time”, I simply cringe.
Most of us get by fine by doing it ourselves. Find a simple place at a reasonable price near convenient transportation and food sources. You will change after a few months or a year so just get into the swing of things on your own. Do the pro language instruction if that is your goal. I have never found language exchange to work well for me but, if you want, try it for awhile. Living with a family is not to my liking but . . . . I’m sure the good points exist. I just don’t see them.
I did it once and was placed in an apt built on the roof of a building. No elevator mind you. They had a daughter my age. The first day the daughter told me that nothing would ever happen between us. The following day she told me something quite contrary to her remarks on the first day. I quickly moved out in 3 months and found my own place to ensure no conflict of interest.
My rule of thumb for these types of arrangements is to make sure there are no psycho xiaojie in the family.
[quote=“ac_dropout”]I did it once and was placed in an apt built on the roof of a building. No elevator mind you. They had a daughter my age. The first day the daughter told me that nothing would ever happen between us. The following day she told me something quite contrary to her remarks on the first day. I quickly moved out in 3 months and found my own place to ensure no conflict of interest.
My rule of thumb for these types of arrangements is to make sure there are no psycho xiaojie in the family.[/quote]
Well if she was cute??? That could be an asset? Friend of mine (Taiwanese) came up to Taipei to go to school and rented a room with a family in Taipei. Ended up marrying one of the daughters. And they are still happily married. So? It can work? Another friend had a Japanese language exchange student staying at his house who ended up marrying one of his 4 sisters !! And they too are happily married.
Taiwanese girls are in the majority so they gotta work every angle to get a guy
And you shouldve read her lips when she said “nothing will happen between you and me” . The fact that she said that means her mind is exactly the opposite in Taiwanese girl speak. She is gauging your reaction to such a thought, or at least putting such a thought in your head !
[quote=“sandman”]I lived with a Taiwanese family for the first year I was here. Didn’t learn a jot of the old Chinee but did develop an unhealthy taste for Taiwanese brandy, thanks to the old Japanese-speaking grandpa. He was a great old bloke who spent his life working as a forester in Nantou.
His son’s wife had THE cutest little titties I ever saw (and I saw them OFTEN).
My advice? Rent an apartment or a dorm room.[/quote]
Taiwanese brandy? Never heard of such a thing? And please dont leave us hanging with the titties. We want to know more!! Tell us how you happened to inadvertently (of course) happen upon them??
I did not know that – I just assumed the Taiwanese do not make retroflex sounds. One of my friends (Taiwanese) in the states said it sounds bad to him; at that time I shrugged it off as “island mentality”. (“That’s strange, communist speech” was the impression I got.)
I’ve noticed something going on with the alveolar fricatives (such as in the initial consonant in zao) of this same friend: it sounds similar to a palatal sound – which I think corresponds to the retroflex sounds in mandarin – but I’m not sure. Any ideas? (In Cantonese palatal and alveolar voiced and voiceless fricatives are in free variation, so it might be the same situation.)