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A Student’s Perspective on Studying Chinese in Taiwan

 ( Jeff Russell )

I studied in Taipei on an exchange scholarship, whereby two students from Taiwan would attend the University of Arizona, and the Ministry of Education in Taiwan would fund two U of A students to study in Taiwan. After attempting to study Chinese in the U.S., I realized the only possible way of learning to speak Chinese was to go where the language is spoken.   

Taiwan proved to be an ideal location for me to concentrate on tones and pronunciation.  Anyone can learn Chinese characters by rote memory, but speaking Chinese takes complete immersion.   Many people would argue that because the capital of Taipei is an international  cosmopolitan city and most of the population can speak enough English to get by, it is not a complete immersion in the language.  In my opinion, as long as you do not spend all your time outside of class with people from your home town of Watabe Michigan, the international atmosphere can actually be an advantage.  There are also many other cities in Taiwan that are quieter, and quite charming.  Many students find a city which isn't twenty-four seven more conducive to their studies.  Tainan, and Taichung are just a couple of the smaller cities worth taking a look at.  There is more of a chance that the average person you encounter in these smaller cities will not speak much English at all, so you need to weigh your options. 

Although most people in Taipei can speak some English, almost everyone is good natured enough to humor the beginning student of Chinese.  It is this friendly atmosphere, which is most conducive to the study of Chinese.  The people of Taiwan are very eager to assist foreign visitors and most will go out of their way to speak with you.   You needn’t go past your front door to find someone interested in a language exchange, especially if you speak network standard American English.  The people of Taiwan find learning English a necessity when it comes to doing international business, going abroad, or just generally expanding opportunities.   As they are quite eager to learn English however, it is very important that you have a detailed schedule of how your language exchange will be conducted, with equal time placed on both Chinese and English.

In the classroom, I found all my teachers to be equally affable.  They would go out of their way to spend time with their students outside the class.  I found these close student/teacher relationship extremely beneficial.   When it comes to learning Chinese, taking what you have learned academically into a more daily interaction, is the key to becoming fluent. 

In the classroom, many of the teachers use traditional Chinese teaching methods.  The average western student may find these methods hard to adjust to.  Once I had accepted these methods I found them to be an essential part of my learning the language.  Dating back to before the Tang Dynasty, Chinese students would learn all their lessons by rote memory.  They would learn their history, poetry, and just about all academic subjects word for word.  Extended into language learning, I was asked to come to class on a daily basis, prepared to quote one or two pages of Chinese text by memory.  Although quite frightening at first to the westerner, these methods were indispensable to my learning correct pronunciation and tone. If you are learning the Chinese language,  I suggest that you consider studying abroad in Taiwan. 

If you have any questions, feel free to respond with any questions and either myself or someone else will try to answer them for you.

Jeff Russell in San Francisco