I agree with pretty much everything that Iris said.
My criticisms of the teacher:
He spoke way too much Mandarin
He let the class get sidetracked discussing interesting topics in Mandarin (intereting so we didn’t complain - but he shoudl have kept on track)
He was too proscriptive, teaching the way people are supposed to pronounce rather than the way they do pronounce (just a little I think - not a major criticism).
But overall it was pretty good. I was listening to my boss and someone we were doing business with in the car yesterday for half an hour, and could pick up the general topic they were talking about and words here and there. I can understand quite a few of the most common bits of taiwanese that get thrown in here and there. Also I’m quite confident that I’ve got some basics, and it shouldn’t be tto difficult to learn Taiwanese, especially seeing as my goal is understanding, not speaking.
Oh yeah, shoudl mention that I think I got a lot out of it just going 2 out of the three times a week, and sometimes less.
Brian