Job Discussion Forums

[Mark]

Hi folks,

Just wondering, is there much of a Japanese community in Taiwan? If so, is it limited to Taipei? Is it diverse or mainly limited to salarymen?

Thanks.

[demaratus]

I knew of a handful of Japanese speakers in Taiwan when I was there. I lived in the south, if you are looking for people to converse with there will be Japanese students there learning Chinese, Chinese students learning Japanese and of course expats or bilingual older people there.

[Mark]

[demaratus]

Yeah I was in the south. I would imagine like most things in Taiwan, there is probably better access to Japanese people/ language in Taipei than elsewhere.

[clark.w.griswald]

The pointer about Japanese students studying Chinese was a good one. I studied Chinese at one of the university language centers in Taipei a while back and the place was full of Japanese and Korean students. There are plenty of Japanese in Taipei but I am not aware of a community as such. There is a Japanese school in the Taipei suburb of Tienmu so there are no doubt a lot of Japanese resident in Tienmu, but as with most of the international schools they do bus students in from all over the city.

Overall many of the younger people in Taiwan are influenced by Japanese culture and you will likely see that when you get to Taiwan. Some of the real oldies speak Japanese from the time of Japanese occupation of Taiwan but I am not sure whether they like to speak it considering the history or whether they prefer to stick with Taiwanese.