My experience after four years in Taiwan, studying at four different institutions, is very different from yours. The accent is much less of a problem than you make it sound, at least for the majority of people I know. Rather than being “slurred”, it’s actually a lot clearer than many northern (e.g. Beijing) accents because they don’t reduce syllables as much and use erisation less. Naturally, it will differ a lot depending on who you speak to, but accent has rarely been an issue for me, at least no more than it is in other areas. The problem of accent will arise regardless of where you learn Chinese, including Beijing. Very few people follow the standard anyway, and even the standard is just an accent that has official recognition.

The Taiwan standard differs a bit from the mainland one, but typically not enough to make it a practical problem. I usually tell students that it’s a little bit like the difference between General American and Received Pronunciation in terms of how hard it is to understand (i.e. no difficulty at all) and that the difference in vocabulary and grammar are on a similar level to American and British English as well (this is based on my own experience, not a quantified comparison, which would be very hard to make). As noted, not all people speak according to the standard, but again, that’s true anywhere.

I don’t even know where to start with “a very superficial understanding of the language and a lack of creativity with the language that stems from that lack of understanding”. I find it hard to take such a statement seriously.

I’ll keep recommending Taiwan as an excellent place to learn Mandarin. Is it the best place to learn? That will depend on many factors, and accent, traditional characters and so on are all part of the equation when choosing where to study, as are many other factors such as quality of life, quality of institutions and a myriad of other things.

Each of my classes is one-on-one so it forces me to interact. There is no one else to take the pressure off! At first it was tiring, but I have since come to love it! I am certainly not as motivated as you, and I’m certainly nowhere near any level of fluency; however, I can hold a conversation at a basic level for half an hour to an hour in Chinese. This has been deeply satisfying to me.

To me, it seems the most basic principle of language learning is finding opportunities to completely immerse yourself in that language. When my brain has no other option than to try to use Chinese, it will! And best of all, conversations offer context which makes it easier to remember words. For instance, today I just learned 乱七八糟. It was in the context of a conversation I was having with my cleaning lady. My apartment was a mess, and she used this word. I did have to look it up on Pleco because the meaning is idiomatic, but once I did, we both had a good laugh. It’s now stuck in my head because of that interaction.

I know that I would definitely appreciate an article like that.

I think that I did learn a lot while in Taiwan because even though I was not consistent enough with my study. I went out of my way to immerse myself as much as I could. I believed that my approach was working well at the time. I thought all I needed was Anki, Pleco and trying to make local friends, with a few kung fu movies and dubbed animes thrown in for good measure. The problem was I was just not disciplined or consistent enough to maintain my peak levels of study I went through. Looking back I realise I could have made much greater progress with the pressure of a course in addition to my self-enforced cultural immersion.

I hope the second time works out slightly better.

This is an interesting discussion I’ve had with several students. The structure and framework that a course offers is extremely valuable for most learners. It might not be for the professional polyglots, but those make up 0.01% of the population and are largely irrelevant. For the rest of us, courses are great, they are just not enough. So, there are two options if you live in Taipei (just a concrete example):

1) Go to ICLP
2) Go to Shida or simila

The first is roughly four times as expensive. This is wasted money if you are a disciplined and/or highly-motivated student. You can hire a tutor for many hours a week and still spend less money if you go to Shida. However, by going to ICLP, the minimum requirement of effort increases a lot, which matters for most students.

So, pay for as much structure as you need (which might be very little or very much). Use any remaining budget to pay for high-quality tutoring in areas your course doesn’t cover (enough). Fill the rest of the time with things you shouldn’t do in class (reviewing words, learning characters) and interaction with native speakers.

I should probably turn this into an article. 🙂

I’m not entirely sure what you mean, but I Had a great experience too (otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed and kept learning Chinese). However, there are major problems with how Chinese is taught, both in Taiwan and elsewhere. While going to class provides you with a basic structure, it’s far from enough, unless you go to a school that requires you to spend a lot of time on your own, such as ICLP or similar. Those institutions are really expensive, though, and you might be better off going to cheaper schools and just pay for extra tutoring.

Still, it’s a great psot, thanks for sharing your experience.

I’ve been back in Australia since 2014 and my Mandarin has been gradually regressing while I work and complete further study here. My listening is still okay, but I have lost a lot of active vocabulary that I used to know. I might end up back in Taiwan to teach in another year or two and I am interested in applying for a scholarship and spending 6-12 months getting my Mandarin to where I would like it if I am going to live in Taiwan permanently.

A lot of it relies on the learner, but a positive learning environment and good teachers are a huge boost too. Without going to ICLP (too expensive) would you recommend Wenzao or anywhere else in Taiwan that you or others had experience with?

I am also interested in your input on the matter if you don’t mind Gwilym.

Just being on one does not guarantee success. It’s the time spent out of class using and adapting what you learnt in class.