Do most people in Taiwan speak Taiwanese?

Question

Or do they only speak Taiwanese Mandarin? And before people say "of course they speak Taiwanese! They're in Taiwan!." Taiwanese and Taiwanese MANDARIN are 2 different dialects of Chinese that are completely different. But what i wanna no is what percentage speak one versus the other, or both? I heard Mandarin is becoming more common than taiwanese. True?

Answer 1

yeah, its true. Mandarin is already more commonly spoken than Taiwanese, but I think a majority of the population still can understand/speak. My guess is that 100% speak mandarin, about 70-80% speak Taiwanese in addition to mandarin.

Answer 2

I will say the people who can understand the language at a conversational level is at more than 80%. It is spoken alongside Mandarin in Taiwan, just not as frequently. Many younger people do understand it because they were spoken at home, but when they talk to their peers they speak mandarin.

There are prime time TV shows in Taiwanese language, so that tells you it's spoken widely.

Call the Taiwanese language as a Chinese dialect is debated. See this blog. http://www.tailingua.com/language/ It can be considered as one of the Chinese language family, compare to Latin languages, for example.



When KMT came to govern Taiwan after losing to the Communists, KMT made it mandatory that only Mandarin be taught in schools. It seemed like a good idea at the time because many of the KMT population(commonly known as the mainlanders in Taiwan) came from every corner of China, speaking different dialects and accents. for example... Have you heard of Chiang Kai Shiek or his son talk? I say most of Taiwanese people today can't understand half of their speech.



The majority of population spoke Taiwanese language back then. What KMT didn't consider was keeping Taiwanese language like how the Cantonese was kept in Hong Kong during British rule. Ask the people in their 30's or 40's, students were punished for speaking Taiwanese language in school. YES! punishment for speaking their mother tongue. The older generation will also tell you, Taiwanese language TV shows were allowed no more than 30 minutes a day! One of KMT's authoritarian traits. Of course much of that has been relaxed, speaking Taiwanese is not looked down on anymore. Damage was already done, many young kids grew up not knowing how to speak Taiwanese! sad!



If you've ever been on Taipei MRT, you will hear 3 language announcements... mandarin, taiwanese, english, and maybe a 4th? don't remember.

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

i know for sure at least 25% of the population can speak taiwanese fluently.

in the more rural areas, they speak taiwanese as primary and mandarin as secondary, with a heavy taiwanese accent when speaking mandarin.



in the cities, especially among the younger generation, mandarin is the primary language, while most people can still understand taiwanese but not necessarily speak it well.



the older people tend to speak more taiwanese, especially all the grandpas and grandmas.





but mandarin is much more common than taiwanese nowadays. if you can speak only mandarin, you can go by in taiwan pretty well.

Answer 5

Yes, people in Taiwan do speak Taiwanese. However, it's more spoken by the people in the more rural areas, or little towns. In places like Taipei County, however, Mandarin is the primary language. It's true that most of the elders speak Taiwanese and most of the younger people speak Mandarin. However, not everyone speaks Mandarin and not everyone speaks Taiwanese, either.



It largely depends on where you live in Taiwan: I have cousins in both Tainan and Taipei. In Taipei, they do not understand Taiwanese, but my cousins in Tainan can speak and understand it perfectly.



It's also common for you to get on a taxi and the driver will start speaking to you in Taiwanese. They will, most likely, know Chinese so you can just tell them that you speak Chinese. That's just one example :D



Taiwanese usage is starting to dwindle, however, as Mandarin is taking over.

Answer 6

Roughly 70% of the population in Taiwan still speak "Taiwanese".

For a good clarification of this language and the difference between it and Mandarin Chinese, see:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Hokkien



Being mutually unintellible, and with Mandarin entering Taiwan MUCH later than Hokkien (Taiwanese), it's a bit like English vs. Spanish in the USA. Except... in Taiwan... the new "immigrant government in charge" spoke "Spanish" and forced it upon the people.