Taiwanese (台語 dai-ngi)

In Taiwan most people outside Taipei speak Taiwanese as their first language. The majority of people also speak or at least understand Mandarin, though some who don't. While living in Taiwan I sometimes had to communicate with monoglot Taiwanese speakers and found the little Taiwanese I managed to learn very useful. Even Mandarin speakers really appreciated my efforts to speak Taiwanese.

I learnt Taiwanese through the medium of Mandarin using a textbook called Sing-wa Dai-ngi ("Living Taiwanese") which is only available in Taiwan, and with some help from Taiwanese-speaking friends. I have yet to acquire more than a basic knowledge of the language.

Occasionally I chat to Taiwanese people on Skype in a mixture of Taiwanese, Mandarin and English.

Information about Taiwanese

Taiwanese language courses

Other languages I've studied:

Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Esperanto, French, Hungarian, Gaelic (Irish), Gaelic (Manx), Gaelic (Scottish), German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Turkish, Welsh