Is it better to learn Chinese in China or Taiwan?

With global interest in China and their language at an all time high many people are wanting to learn how to speak Mandarin to learn more about Chinese culture and to open up business opportunities. One of the best ways to learn Chinese is to go abroad to study.

While most students immediately think of going to learn in China, there are some pretty good reasons to consider learning in Taiwan that this article will examine.

Schools and Teacher Quality

Taiwan currently wins hands down on this point. Schools in Taiwan has been teaching Mandarin to foreigners for over 50 years while China has only recently opened up to foreigners again. Some of the language programs at the universities in Taiwan are very well established and the teachers in Taiwan often have decades of experience teaching foreigners.

On the contrast, the concept of learning Chinese in mainland China is relatively new with schools opening up rapidly to meet the demand and new teachers starting to learn how to teach Chinese to foreigners. While the quality of the teachers and courses offered in China is without a doubt improving, the quality still varies wildly and finding a good school and teacher is luck of the draw.

What kind of Mandarin?

Only in Beijing do they speak pure Mandarin, with other parts of China and Taiwan speaking Mandarin with accents. No matter where you learn teachers will usually help you to pronounce the words with a Beijing accent as well as the local accent (it is like the difference between British English and American English).

Some courses just offer spoken Chinese while others also teach writing. As far as writing goes, if you study in Taiwan you will be learning 'traditional Chinese', the characters used for 6000 years of Chinese history. This is great if you want to study Chinese history of art but for business Chinese it is better to use the more modern 'simplified Chinese' that is taught in mainland China and most mainlanders are familiar with. However those who have mastered traditional Chinese can usually pick up simplified Chinese quite easily.

Schools in both countries will also teach 'Pinyin' which is a way of writing Chinese words using the roman or 'English' alphabet that you are already familiar with.

Price

China is without a doubt a cheaper place to study compared to Taiwan. Some local University programs in China offer accommodation and tuition that costs almost nothing although they still have language school chains that have have moved into Beijing and other tourist cities that charge top dollar. The cost of living and tuition in Taiwan is generally higher but still cheap when you compare prices to Europe of North America.

Living Environment

Taiwan has a much better living environment compared to China. Taiwan is a modern democracy with a free press where as if you live in China your access to media is restricted (some websites are blocked etc).

The quality of air and water in Taiwan is much better than in China. While the natural environment in Taiwan is still polluted in places it has actually cleaned up a lot over the past 10 - 20 years as factories have closed down and moved to China. China on the other hand has almost unbreathable air in some of its cities.

While some Chinese cities such as Shanghai are very modern on the whole Taiwan is still ahead of China in terms of infrastructure, services and health.

Culture

While a lot of Chinese tradition and culture was destroyed by communism and the cultural revolution it has continued to flourish in Taiwan.

Student Visas

Taiwan has recently become more strict with their policies regarding the issue of student visas. While students from North America, Japan, Australia or Europe should have no problems maintaining a student visa if they attend classes, students from developing countries can face difficulties and would probably have a much easier time dealing with immigration authorities on the mainland.

Both destinations offer the student of Chinese amazing opportunities to learn and explore a different culture and in the end how much of the language a student learns ultimately depends on their effort. Think about your reasons for learning Mandarin and the cultural experiences that you are looking for to help you decide if you will learn Chinese in China or Taiwan.

No matter where you decide to go to learn Chinese it is highly beneficial to learn a little before you embark on your travels and start your course. Click here to see how Rocket Chinese can help you quickly get up to a level where you will have a basic understanding before you even arrive. Having the solid base behind you before you start classes with a native speaker is the best way to start.

http://www.rocket-language-chinese.info

Steve Sutherland has lived in Taiwan for seven years and has studied Mandarin Chinese extensively. He has travelled throughout Taiwan and China.