It seems,as I struggle to learn Mandarin and Taiwanese,that if I wait long enough,many words will develop into “English” eventually.
Almost everyone I speak to, appears to have stopped using zàijiàn to say Goodbye in Taiwan. It is mainly “Bye bye”. Is this just the one word,or will the Language change soon?. May save me lots of learning time.! I seem to have noticed it more now,than 3 years ago…maybe I am imagining it ?.
People also like to 哈囉 (haluo) and even 嗨 (hai) as greetings, but that’s about as far as it goes. I think it’s just because 你好 and 再見 are too formal-sounding to use amongst friends and casual relations, so people are trying to be hip. Given the average English level in Taiwan (low), I highly doubt that there is any existential threat to other Chinese terms and phrases.
you can always toss in a tsia̍h-pá-buē? to throw someone off.
食飽未?
I found this interesting Wikipedia article on Singaporean Hokkien.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singaporean_Hokkien
Kobo.
anyone else remember when “ni chi fan le ma?” (have you eaten?) was taught as HELLO in textbooks?
o.O My high school teacher says that! Is it wrong? No wonder people just look at me every time I say it!
still in use in rural NE Liaoning, at least. perhaps a “mainland thing” now as taiwan is quite prosperous in comparsion to the Chinese hinterlands.
Old people still say 你吃飯了沒 to me, or some variant thereof. 再見, less often. I get the feeling that 再見 is used only for a definitive parting (say, people going away for a while) rather than day-to-day encounters.
How you say ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ depends on who you’re saying it to, I guess. 
I agree that Zai Jian is a bit formal, so it’s less used amongst people that know each other well. I say it anyway to friends, depends on how you say it. Say it with a smile and it is less formal. 
Ni Hao on the other hand, I say that every day, to shopkeepers, hikers I meet on trails, bus drivers, the guard downstairs in my apartment building (no, HE says that to me, and the cleaning lady) and so on… Not likely that Ni Hao will disappear anytime soon.
Before I came to Taiwan, everything I read about common greetings said that ‘Ni hao’ was used only with foreigners; yet, I observe Taiwanese saying this to each other every day.
My textbooks also noted that ‘Ni chi fan le ma/mei?’ was the common greeting; however, I myself have heard that only from one of my (middle aged) building guards. Actually, this is the only Mandarin he’ll use with me; usually he’ll remark ‘Li chiah pa boe?’—about the only Taiwanese that I understand—so when I answer with ‘chiah pa’ it only encourages him to rattle some more Taiwanese, whereby I give him an uncomprehending smile and act like I have some pressing business to attend to.
I must agree with the OP that while I heard ‘zai jian’ somewhat regularly five years ago, I never hear it now, only ‘bye bye.’