Job Discussion Forums

[tito_suarez]

Hello all,

Next year the chinese new year around February the 17th. How many days off do most people have and are most langauge schools closed at this time? I am probably arriving in Taiwan around this time and am just looking for the information on the best time to come if looking for work.

I have also studied some Mandarin and hope to study it alot more in Taiwan whilst I am teaching English. Outside of Taipei is it taught and spoken everywhere? I know that Taiwanese people may call it Taiwanese not Mandarin but it is the same isn't it?

XieXie

[Ki]

Mandarin and Taiwanese are quite seperate languages, or dialects if you please. When people speak of Chinese they usually refer to Mandarin. In the smaller towns and generally further south you go you will get more people prefering Taiwanese as the medium though everyone except gran and grumps will be able to speak Mandarin. My ex's gran spoke Taiwanese and Japanese only. There are also a few aboriginal languages and Hakka, sp? Outside the big cities it may be difficult to find a class though a language exchange or one-on-one will be cheap and easy to find.

From my experience language schools will be closed during Chinese new year and maybe a few days either side. But that is only about a week anyway.

[Taylor]

Thanks for your comments, Ki. Your post seems very accurate. I am sure that the OP and others will be helped by the information provided.

Taylor
Kaohsiung