When I was at university, I decided to take up Mandarin classes in my third and fourth year. By the time I graduated, I had three semesters under my belt and wanted to continue.

At first, I tried to practice Mandarin where I could — at Chinese restaurants, by seeking Chinese speakers in my city, by finding language partners online — but I soon discovered that this was easier said than done. I found myself progressing more slowly than I wished. I found that I truly knew almost nothing about the Chinese language or culture, and that acquiring a foreign language, especially one which is radically different from English would require, shall we say, stronger measures. For me, this meant seeking out an immersion environment in one of the Chinese-speaking countries (Taiwan or China), and taking rigorous coursework.

I eventually decided to go to Taiwan to study Mandarin, in part because of a generous scholarship provided by the Taiwanese government for the purpose of letting foreign students study the language.

Arrival in Taipei

I arrived in Taipei a few weeks before classes were scheduled to start at the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University (國立師範大學, or NTNU), so that I could get settled in and find an apartment. It was the first time I would be living abroad for an extended period of time, and in a country where I was not completely fluent in the language. To say the least, I could say a few things, but I found it difficult to understand when other people were speaking to me in their natural voices. For our benefit, the professors in our language classes had always spoken slowly. This made it quite difficult to catch what some native speakers were saying. In addition, switching from Simplified Characters and Beijing accent vocabulary to Traditional Characters and Taiwanese accent presented some minor hurdles as well.

Nevertheless, through enlisting the help of some more experienced students on Facebook, I managed to find myself a studio apartment about 20 minutes by MRT (Taiwan’s subway system) from NTNU, and to acquaint myself with the environs in Taipei.

Soon classes started. The first thing for me to do was to take a computerized placement exam. I also had to have an interview to assess my oral proficiency.

Daily Routine

Soon, classes were in full swing. Monday through Friday, I attended three hours of lecture/practice. Classes were fairly “Taiwanese” or “Asian” in style, meaning that in large part, they revolved around rote memorization. Twice a week, we had dictation and vocabulary tests. These consisted of writing out up to 15 vocabulary words in Traditional Characters, and their associated pinyin, then writing out sentences from the article (also in Traditional Characters). Of course, often times in Chinese, there is no other way to learn how to write the characters.

Every 10 days or so, we’d have a short test. The test would usually consist of filling in the blanks, writing out short sentences, and sometimes, a short essay using required grammar points.

After class, there was time for a short lunch. After lunch, I’d spend 1–2 hours studying course material, then go and work out. After working out, I would usually head home for a short nap. After dinner, I pretty much had a lot of free time to do what I wanted, which would usually be read (at this point I wasn’t fluent enough in Chinese to read newspapers), watch TV, or socialize.

Learning outside of the Classroom

The whole purpose of travelling to Taiwan was to be immersed in the language and the culture. So even though I was in a class, I made an attempt to socialize with native Chinese speakers.

Our class tended to focus a lot on reading and vocabulary, and I wanted to go and experience things beyond our textbook. I spent a lot of time with seeking out language exchange partners, and even forcing myself to speak with my classmates who didn’t speak English, which forced me to speak Chinese. I also tried to consume as much Chinese media as possible. In the beginning, this was limited to soap operas, but as I improved, I was able to watch news reports as well.

Moving Onwards

As I stayed in Taiwan, I began to become more comfortable speaking Chinese. I also fell in love with the culture and the hospitality of the Taiwanese people, and decided to extend my stay. At the same time, living in a fully-Chinese-Speaking environment made me realize how little I really knew. Ironically, this made me want to stay another semester and improve my knowledge.

Classes continued in much the same way, but there was a much larger emphasis on formal language. For those who don’t know, formal Chinese can diverge quite a bit from basic spoken Chinese, and in my next class, they began to introduce some more formal vocabulary and even chéngyu (成語) which are four-character figurative idioms that encompass a whole idea. For example, 亡羊補牢 (wáng yáng bu láo) literally means “losing a sheep, then mending your fence”), and is roughly equivalent to the English phrase “too little, too late”.

After my second semester in Taiwan, I decided to opt for a change of scenery, and moved to the southern tip of the Island. I attended Wenzao Ursuline University (文藻外語大學), which is a Catholic university whose main focus is language study. Being in Southern Taiwan meant a bit less convenience compared to the capital, but I feel that I also had the chance to interact with Taiwanese people more. By that time, I was also eligible to have a work permit, and I think being in the South ensured less competition for me in terms of finding cram-school work.

Conclusion and Tips for Language Learners