by Alexius Tan

Created on: December 15, 2009

Taiwanese or Tai-gi is one of the main languages spoken in Taiwan. It belongs to the Min variant of the Chinese language, and is also one of the major dialect groups in mainland China. Similar variants of the Min dialects are spoken by the Chinese in the south-east Asian region, namely Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (Min in these region are also referred to as Hokkien). As Taiwan is one of the very few areas producing Hokkien pop stars and drama series, the Taiwanese Min became the model or standard Hokkien in many Hokkien-speaking regions.

1. LEARN THRU SONGS
I am a Singaporean Chinese who belonged to the Hokkien dialect group. I could still remember how I learned my Taiwanese (Hokkien, in Singaporean context): through Taiwanese pop songs.

The very first Taiwanese pop song I learned at the age of 5 was the "Ai-pia-jia-ae-ia" ("ai pin cai hui ying" when pronounced in mandarin Chinese and spelled in pinyin) and this song was a major hit in the Hokkien/Taiwanese music industry. Even till today, it's not exaggerating to say that Singaporeans who speak Hokkien will definitely know this song. I must say that learning Taiwanese through pop song singing is quite effective for one to get a rough idea of the vowels present in Taiwanese.

Taiwanese pop songs generally have lyrics that are colloquial in nature (probably because the language do not have a uniform or standard way of writing, and certain words are not used the same way in mandarin Chinese), hence phrases appearing in songs can be used in spoke conversions. This is quite different from the Mandarin Chinese, which has a clear distinction for words used in spoken and written forms, as the written form of words can appear in song lyrics.

2. LISTEN TO CONVERSIONS
Listening to songs can only give a rough idea on how the vowels might sound, it does not give you the correct tones. Yes, tones. Taiwanese, like Chinese, is a tonal language. You can only catch the correct tones by listening and practising frequently. You can watch Taiwanese drama or movies (must come with subtitles you understand) for this purpose. If possible, approach a friend who can speak (correct) Taiwanese to engage in simple conversions with you and correct your pronunciations in the process.

I would say listening is the most effective method, because I learned my Hokkien/Taiwanese basics through listening and not knowing how to write the words. Even till today, when my proficiency in the language is much higher (i.e. Being able to read content found

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