Hello everyone. I am an American who is planning to move to Taiwan soon to work as an English teacher. I’ve never been to Taiwan before. One of the places I might be moving to is Nantou County. It looks like a lovely place from what I read on the internet. But I have a few questions.
-Will it be easy to make friends in Nantou? I lived in Northeastern China for three years and I can speak Mandarin. I didn’t hang out with other expats very much in China and most of my friends could speak very little English. It was easy to make friends in Northeast China, but people there are known for being very friendly. Are people outside of the big cities in Taiwan friendly to foreigners?
-Is Nantou a good place to learn Mandarin? I want to improve my Mandarin skills so I can get a good job. Someone told me that a lot of Taiwanese don’t like speaking Mandarin and will instead want you to speak Taiwanese.
Nantou can be very rural. But from my bit of experience there (erlin township edit: Actually that’s in Chiayi, not Nantou - sorry!) people are friendly and thrilled if you speak mandarin.
However, when being rural, that also means it depends on what you like and expect from new friends. Drinking and playing card games or mahjong? Sure. Going clubbing? Nope.
That actually sounds great since I don’t like nightclubs anyway.
One question though, are there a lot of young people, or are the people there mostly middle aged/old? I’m in my mid-20s and I usually hang out with people between 20-30.
Some people prefer living away from the big cities. I spent my childhood in one town of 800 and another town of 4000, and went to college in a town of 8000.
Welcome Mr. Mai.
As others noted, you’ll do fine speaking Mandarin. You may hear some Taiwanese in Puli or Nantou City, but the locals will certainly answer your questions in Mandarin when you speak it, and considering Nantou County is a bit more rural than other places, you may be a bit more of a local “hit/star” since you can indeed converse in Mandarin. Although, maybe lessen the “Rrr’s” of Beijing accent if you have one.
As for learning Mandarin, near Puli is NCNU (check its website with .edu.tw), which I am guessing could have a language school for foreigners as nearly all “National” (N of NCNU) universities in Taiwan do.
Making friends? Of course. If you’re a decent guy, the locals will really treat you nice. You may have had same experience in China. Don’t think too much about it. In general, Taiwanese people are great nice to foreigners and of course, EXTREMELY curious.
On last positive, you’ll save a lot of money, because cost of living, food, etc. are extremely cheap in Nantou.
Nantou is gorgeous. And you speak the language. You wont have any problems. Puli is actually pretty busy and dense, as are all cities in taiwan. Even most large towns. Its not taipei but its definitely far from rural. Taiwan in general likes to pack a dense punch in a small area. You can have extreme density and infrastructure and be 2km a s the bird flies from extreme mountains that kill you. Its part of the allure of taiwan in my opinion.
You wont be hard off anywhere. You can get whatever you want in a very short time. Nantou is a beautiful place, and even better…you can escape the heat with highways directly into the mountains on a moments notice. It also has a massive freeway that makes Blines (plural) to massive cities (also plural) if you get the itch for things only huge cities can provide.
First, I’ve never lived in Nantou. But I would choose Puli over Nantou City every time.
Nantou does not look a lot different from many other (horrible) places in the west coast. Closer mountains are a plus, no train is a minus.
Puli is nicer in my opinion. But, the temperature is not as cool as it may look by the map, and the air quality is not as good as it should be.
Have you thought about Miaoli? Kind or rural, a lot less industrial than almost anything in the west coast, not bad air (for the west coast), easy train connection to cities…
Regarding the language. Yes, some people will reply to your Mandarin in another language, but it will be English.