Taiwan is an awesome place. When traveling or living in Taiwan, there are certain things you need to know. Either to avoid misunderstanding or adopt local custom easily.
Hack 1 When traveling of living in Taiwan, you needs to know when and how to pay
In Taiwan, if you walk into a local food shop, there are 2 ways to pay.
The first way is to pay first. The shop owner or the clerk will tell you how much in total and ask you to pay. They will say：請先付款(qǐng xiān fù kuǎn)or請先買單(qǐng xiān mǎi dān), which means “pay first, please”.
The second way is pay before you leave. You can either ask the shop owner/ clerk to collect your money or go to the counter with your bill. Under this situation, nobody will ask you to pay before you leave.
If you feel confusing about when to pay, the best way is to ask：先付錢還是吃完再付(xiān fù qián hái shì chī wán zài fù)？which means: pay first or after finish?
Hack 2 how to mark “amount” when ordering food in a local small food shop in Taiwan
There is a fun way that Taiwanese mark amount in the food shop or tea shop. We will use one Chinese character–正 to represent “5”. If the amount is 1, then we will make “一”, if the amount is 2, then we will mark as “丅”…till five. Then we will write another “正”。
Hack 3 how to pay bus fee when living or traveling in Taipei
Here, I specially indicate Taipei, because Taipei has the most convenience and popular public transportation system.
Before you take bus, try to buy the “easy card”. You can storge money in advance. Then you can use the card to take bus、MRT、train、boat. You can also use it to pay your bill in some shop, like convenient stores.
When you take bus with easy card, you need to punch your card(刷卡/shuā kǎ) both get in and out. The machine will charge automatically.
Hack 4 greeting words
Except 你好(nǐ hǎo)、早安(zǎo ān), there are still other popular greeting words, like：
吃飽了嗎(chī bǎo le ma), which means did you have your meals?
去上班啊(qù shàng bān ā), which means are you going to work?
Hack 5 frequently asked question in Taiwan
There are some questions may lake you feel uncomfortable, but are popular questions here.
你幾歲(nǐ jǐ suì): how old are you?
你有沒有男/女朋友(nǐ yǒu méi yǒu nán /nǚ péng yǒu): do you have a boy/girl friend?
這個多少錢(zhè gè duō shǎo qián): how much did you buy that?
你喜歡台灣嗎(nǐ xǐ huān tái wān ma): do you like Taiwan?
Hack 6 customized service~one of the very special service in Taiwan
In Taiwan, there is special service is you can ask to adjust the flavor of your order. Like the following items are the most popular things:
半糖(bàn táng): which means half sugar.
少冰(shǎo bīng): which means lesser ice-cube
不辣、小辣、中辣、大辣(bú là、 xiǎo là 、zhōng là 、dà là): which indicate how spicy your food will be, from not hot at all to very hot.
Hack 7 “wait for a while” doesn’t really mean “short time” in Taiwan
When a Taiwanese tell you: please wait for a while, it never means “a while”, especially in a restaurant or food shop. People always tell you: 快了(kuài le), which means very soon, but nobody knows it will take how long actually.
When you hear people tell you “等一下(děng yī xià)” or “馬上(mǎ shàng)”, it literally means very soon or quickly, but actually means “wait” only.
Hack 8 Taiwanese does not used to say “NO” directly
If a Taiwanese doesn’t like something or doesn’t have the intention to do something, he/she will not say no directly. How to know their real idea? Normally Taiwanese use the following ways:
If they don’t like the flavor: they may say, 很好吃，可是我不習慣那樣的味道(hěn hǎo chī ，kě shì wǒ bù xí guàn nà yàng de wèi dào). It means: the taste is good, but I am not used to eat that.
If they don’t feel comfortable to join an activity, they will say the following sentence first: 我先看看我那天有沒有事哦(wǒ xiān kàn kàn wǒ nà tiān yǒu méi yǒu shì o)! which means let me check my schedule first.
After that, they say: 不好意思，我那天有事(bù hǎo yì sī ，wǒ nà tiān yǒu shì). Which means: sorry I can’t go with you because I have appoint with the others.
Think about: why do I learn a new language? The answer should be very easy: I want to communicate with the others. Check out the following five effective ways to practice Mandarin Chinese speaking skills.
Open your mouth
Unless you would like to open your mouth, you won’t have chance to improve your Mandarin Chines speaking skills. Here what I say “open your mouth” has two meanings.
First, really open your mouth and try to talk to somebody. Nowadays internet is a very popular and simple way to find someone all over the world.
Second, you can try to talk to yourself, but not in your brain, need to say it “loudly”, as least can hear your voice.
Repeat people’s sentence
If you are not confident about what you say, you can try to start from “repeating”. Even I will not say you are really “communicating” with the others, but at least you are “speaking”.
By repeating the others, you are also practicing how to speak. Think about how a child learn a language? They have no idea about grammar, they don’t really understand what people said. They just listen and repeat.
Read more Mandarin Chinese materials
Before we can say something, we need to have something in mind. It means, if we don’t know what to say, no matter how good I am in a language, there is no way that I can speak well.
Read more Mandarin Chinese materials bring us few benefits. Fist, we can improve our reading skills. Second, we will be more familiar with Mandarin Chinese speaking people’s logic.
Even though reading Mandarin directly seems harder than reading your mother language, but it worth you to do in this way.
Don’t ignore tones
Mandarin Chinese is a language with tones. It is very important to pronounce it properly if you don’t want others to misunderstand you.
There 5 tones in Mandarin, and lot of word have same pronunciation but with different tones. Anyone who doesn’t care about tones will have problem sooner or later.
I don’t mean that everyone needs to pronounce perfectly, even myself sometime may pronounce some words wrongly. What I want to say is don’t ignore it.
Use it more often
it is very simple, but we always forget. If we want to see the improvement, we have to do it day by day, year by year. There is nothing we can learn it well without practicing.
The last secret I am going the share is “use it”! The more you use it, the better ability you will have. There is no shortcut way. We all understand that if we learned something but not using it, that ability will disappear in the end.
Taiwan is a nice and beautiful place. If you are considering to visit Taiwan, you better know the following 10 need-to-know Mandarin Chinese sentence in Taiwan.
Need-to-know sentence 1 我要全糖
When ordering drink in Taiwan, you normally can decide how sweet you like.
So, you can say： 我要 + 全糖 / 半糖 / 少糖 / 無糖
wǒ yào +quán táng /bàn táng /shǎo táng /wú tang
It means I want normal sugar content/ half sugar content/ less sugar content/ no sugar content.
Need-to know sentence 2 我要正常冰
When ordering drink in Taiwan, you normally can choice how “cold” you want.
You can tell the clerk：我要+ 正常冰 / 少冰 / 去冰
wǒ yào +zhèng cháng bīng /shǎo bīng /qù bīng
It means I want normal ice cube content/ less ice cube content/ no ice cube
Need-to-know sentence 3 對不起
When you accidently hit or push somebody, or make any mistake, you need to say ”對不起(duì bù qǐ)”, which means “I am sorry.”
Don’t worry, Taiwanese are very kind people, if you disturb anyone or make a mistake, just say “對不起” to them. They will not really get mad to you (normally).
Need-to-know sentence 4 謝謝
When somebody help you or give you something or after you request something, you can say “謝謝(xiè xie)” to them, which means “thank you”
Need-to-know sentence 5 我要這個，謝謝
When you want to see or buy something, you can point out that and say “我要這個，謝謝(wǒ yào zhè ge ，xiè xie)”, which means “I want this, thank you.”
Need-to-know sentence 6 你好
It is just “hi”, “hello” in English, when you want to talk to somebody, or before you request something, you can always start form “你好(nǐ hǎo)”
Need-to-know sentence 7 我要去這裡
When you are in the street and don’t know how to go to the place you want，you can show people add and tell them “我要去這裡(wǒ yào qù zhè lǐ)”, which means “I want to go here.”
Need-to-know sentence 8 我吃素
If you are a vegetarian, you can tell the food shop “我吃素(wǒ chī sù)”, which means “ I am a vegetarian”.
Need-to-know sentence 9 這個多少錢
When you want to buy something, you better ask the price before you really want to buy it. You can ask the shop owner “這個多少錢(zhè gè duō shǎo qián)”, which means “how much is this?”
Need-to-know sentence 10 這個很好
If you want to commend something, you can say “這個很好(zhè ge hěn hǎo)”, which means “it is great”.
Why learning Mandarin Chinese is a smart decision? Let’s check out the following 5 reasons. You will know why you batter start to learn Mandarin Chinese now.
Reason 1 Mandarin Chinese speaking population is in the very top ranking over the word.
If you can speak Mandarin Chinese, your world will become wilder than your imagination. You will have bigger chance to communicate with a foreigner because both of you may both can speak Mandarin.
Reason 2 Increase you chance to gain more opportunities either in finding a job or developing your business.
Mandarin Chinese is one of the most popular language in the world. Also, there are a lot of Chinese Businessmen and enterprise all over the world.
Learning Mandarin Chinese won’t help you to get a job directly, but will increase the possibility to impress others.
In the other side, knowing Mandarin Chinese can assist you build up a closer relationship to a Chinese-businessman compare with those who don’t know any Mandarin Chinese.
Reason 3 Getting the “first hand” information- not through any translation information.
You may interest in Chinese culture, songs, movies, food or anything. But, how you get related information? How you learn it?
The benefit in learning Mandarin Chinese is you can review the information that you are interested directly. You don’t need to wait the others.
And, you don’t need to worried about if the translation is good or not. You won’t be miss leading. Sometimes, even the translator can really do their job well, but, just not like the original.
Reason 4 Break your limit
Mandarin Chinese is very a different language compare with English or Spain. When you try to understand Mandarin Chinese’s logic, you are also break your old habit, experience another new system.
If you want to learn a new language, why not Mandarin? It is not hard, as long as you find the right way, it is a commonly used language, and can bring you more chance to know different people.
Reason 5 Easier to build up your interpersonal networking relationship
It is a common sense that if you want to make friend with somebody quickly, speak his/her mother language is one of the best ways. Speak that language good or bad is not important, let them feel you are “part of them” is the key-point. Again, since Mandarin Chinese is the top 1 popular language, why don’t you choice it to learn!
