I’m thinking of moving to Taiwan from the U.S. for 3 months to learn Mandarin at NTNU (Shi-Da?) and I’m kind of curious how people will treat me, being Chinese and not being able to speak Mandarin very well… I’m assuming pretty much everyone will try to speak Mandarin to me since I’m Chinese and will look at me like an idiot when I say I can’t speak Mandarin. I can speak Fukien (Taiwanese) fairly ok, but a friend of mine was saying there’s actually not too many people that speak the Taiwanese dialect in Taipei. Anyone else in a similar situation?
your taiwanese will help you more than you think, although hardly everyone here can speak it (i can swear mightily, but that’s about it 
)
some humorous situations are bound to arise: i flew back to canada once, with a dude beside me from HK who couldn’t speak mandarin (but could speak english). the stewardess only spoke mandarin, so i got to translate between them for all meals/drinks etc. the guy finally burst out laughing near the end of the trip that some whitey was here translating for two chinese people - was fun though.
you’ll pick up enuf mandarin in short order to be able to explain your situation. don’t let it stop you.
Almost everyone speaks Taiwanese in Taipei. Your informant was er misinformed.
have you considered “being” Taiwanese instead of Chinese? Think about it for a while.
xtrain_01: thanks for your encouragement 
Dr Doom: I asked my friend again and she said what she meant was that people “choose” to speak Mandarin instead of Taiwanese and not necessarily that they can’t speak Taiwanese. I guess what would happen is someone would try to speak to me in Mandarin, but if I reply in Taiwanese I could probably get by?
Well, I could consider it, hehe… I have quite a few Taiwanese friends that I refer to as Taiwanese and not Chinese, but my family is not originally from Taiwan, so I don’t/can’t refer to myself as Taiwanese.
You’ll be fine.
[quote=“potatobbq”]xtrain_01: thanks for your encouragement
Dr Doom: I asked my friend again and she said what she meant was that people “choose” to speak Mandarin instead of Taiwanese and not necessarily that they can’t speak Taiwanese. I guess what would happen is someone would try to speak to me in Mandarin, but if I reply in Taiwanese I could probably get by?[/quote]
quite a few pwople can not speak taiwanese but many can, the majority of the taipei area i’m sure. you will not be able to speak to everyone but you will get by and more.
[quote=“potatobbq”]people “choose” to speak Mandarin instead of Taiwanese and not necessarily that they can’t speak Taiwanese.[/quote]I know a lot of people who can speak Mandarin, but refuse to. Maybe there’s a few old bigots from China who will give you a hard time for speaking Taiwanese instead of their mother tongue, but who cares?
Have you considered that the poster may actually be Chinese? They do still speak Hokkien in China you know.
Have you considered that the poster may actually be Chinese? They do still speak Hokkien in China you know.[/quote]
Now, now, let’s not complicate the matter with reality, ok?
BTW, I think you will be fine. Just come on over and enjoy it. People are so friendly here, I am sure they don’t care what language you speak. 
Just grope your way through any difficult moments and everything will work out wonderfully well.
Omni wrote: [quote]Just grope your way through any difficult moments and everything will work out wonderfully well. [/quote]
Sound advice from an experienced groper.
A lot of people who can’t speak Hokkien can understand a fair ammount.
thanks for all your input everyone, i guess i won’t be nearly as helpless in taiwan as i imagined.