what do taiwanese's use?

Question

I am 15 years old i currently speak fluent Korean, spanish, and English.Also a little Portuguese. I want to learn Taiwanese so that I can please talk to my girlsfriends' parents and also to get to know them better(Considering to be a Translator)but What is the difference between simplified and classic? What do Taiwanese study? Can you guys give me links to learn for free?

Answer 1

help me out here...when you say, you want to speak taiwanese, you meant that you want to learn how to speak the taiwanese dialect: min; or you want to learn how to speak mandarin (chinese)?

in taiwan & hong kong, they use traditional chinese characters.
simplified chinese is popularly used in mainland china, although traditional is still actively promoted.
the differences between traditional & simplified chinese are just the characters. in traditional chinese, there are more strokes in a word compared to simplified, hence easier to master the written form.

i don't understand when you asked: What do Taiwanese study?

http://learnchinese.elanguageschool.net/course/view.php?id=2 <<< hope this might help (mandarin)

Answer 2

You need to know more about your girlfriend's parents first. The original native inhabitants of Taiwan spoke Austronesian languages (Tsou, Rukai, Hoanya, etc.). Then during the days of the Chinese empire, Chinese immigrants who spoke Min-nan settled on Taiwan. Then when the Communists took over the mainland, many Mandarin Chinese speakers went to Taiwan. So you must know something of the history of when your girlfriend's family moved to Taiwan to know which of these languages to learn.

EDIT: Min-nan and Mandarin are not "dialects" of a single language, but are entirely different and mutually unintelligible languages, although closely related. Do not be fooled by the "dialect" label that many uninformed people use to describe the Chinese LANGUAGES.

ALSO: Since your goal is to speak to your girlfriend's parents, don't waste your time in the beginning with learning to read and write whichever language you choose to learn. Focus on speaking it. Then you have a much more useful skill when it comes to communicating.

Answer 3

A colleague of mine is Taiwanese and most people speak Mandarin as well as the Taiwanese 'dialect'. Don't limit yourself by learining Taiwanese - learn Mandarin instead. As advised by others, the Taiwanese use traditional, rather than simplified, characters to write.