Cantonese community in Taiwan

[Tavis Allen]

Hello all,

I am an American from Indiana and am so glad I have found this site. Anyway, my question is does anyone know how many people speak Cantonese in Taiwan? I may go to teach English or something like that, and I prefer Cantonese to Mandarin (or Taiwanese for that matter). Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Tavis+

[Thomas Chan]

Tavis Allen wrote:
> I am an American from Indiana and am so glad I have found
> this site. Anyway, my question is does anyone know how many
> people speak Cantonese in Taiwan? I may go to teach English
> or something like that, and I prefer Cantonese to Mandarin
> (or Taiwanese for that matter). Any help would be appreciated.

It's so very little that it's not significant to count them.

Here's SIL's Ethnologue report on Taiwan:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Taiwan

It says: Southern Min 66.7% (15 million), Mandarin 20.1% (4.32 million),
Hakka 11% (2.36 million). Cantonese isn't even on the list, nor other
Chinese languages. (The balance are aboriginal non-Chinese languages).

You might want to reconsider either your destination, or the language you
want to work in/with.


Thomas Chan
tc31@cornell.edu

[Tavis Allen]

Thank you. Actually I will be visiting Guangzhou this December. I had been there 2 years ago. I am new to this forum and I rather enjoy it. I was wondering, what do you do? Are you a student or professor at Cornell?

Thanks,

Tavis

[Thomas Chan]

Tavis Allen wrote:
>
> Thank you. Actually I will be visiting Guangzhou this
> December. I had been there 2 years ago. I am new to this
> forum and I rather enjoy it. I was wondering, what do you
> do? Are you a student or professor at Cornell?

A former student. I get to keep the email address as a forwarding
address (typical of many places nowadays).


Thomas Chan
tc31@cornell.edu

[James Campbell]

The only Cantonese speakers who show up here in Taiwan are those that have a specific interest in coming or their companies arrange them to come, for example Karen Mok obviously likes Taiwan and is staying here. But generally speaking Hong Kong companies are not interested in Taiwan at all because the market has low potential or is just too small, so you just don't find that presence here. I've met a few people from Hong Kong doing jobs such as reporters here, but I'm sure it's only a one or two year stay and then they will go back. They don't have a community that I know of, and I've rarely heard anybody speak Cantonese here unless I'm standing in a hotel or run into tourists.

There is a relatively small interest among Taiwanese to learn Cantonese (very small). The closest to Cantonese you'll get here (i.e. the language of Guangdong) is Hakka. There are quite a few people around Taipei who speak it (which is outside of the Hakka speaking area), and some have a distinct Hakka accent when speaking Mandarin so sometimes you can identify someone. Besides Mandarin and Minnan, public transport also makes announcements in Hakka and English.

[Tavis Allen]

It sounds as if you are in Taiwan. Your name seems very American. What do you do there, if I may be so nosy? I just find these posts to be very interesting, as well as most of the people who are on them. I have been (more or less) studying cantonese for 2 years and mandarin, in school for 1 1/2 years. I am curious, because here in Indiana, the usage of these languages does not get me anywhere. So anyway, thanks for your input.

Tavis

[James Campbell]

Tavis,

Who are you studying with? Margaret Yan? Is she still teaching Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese in Indiana?

James

[Tavis Allen]

James,

No, unfortunately not. I am but a lowly student at IUPUI. IUPUI offers only a few semesters of Mandarin. Constraints such as money and the direction I want to take in life have kept me from going to IU Bloomington. I may possibly transfer, but I will have to see what life dishes out for me first. I actually only know her name. What do you know of/about her. I checked out her credentials; quite impressive. I knew there were courses for Cantonese there, but not Taiwanese. Very interesting.

Thanks,

Tavis

[Tavis Allen]

Sorry, something else to add. I am currently borrowing a copy of the workbook, 'Interactions' that she co-authored with Jennifer L. C. Liu. Our class at IUPUI has been using the 'Practical Chinese Reader' (PCR) from the Beijing Language Institute. Let me just say that her book is so amazing. The organizational structure is great, the hanzi, pinyin, and english are all on seperate pages, which greatly aids the learning process. The topics and choice of vocabulary are more practical. The PCR was published in 1990, and is rife with political undertones. Anyway, just some food for thought.

[James Campbell]

Well, I've read a few articles of Margaret Yan's, and she's always listed as teaching in Indiana. Good luck with your studies, if you come to Taiwan, there's plenty of Taiwanese to go around. You mentioned the languages don't get you anywhere in Indiana, and then again doesn't sound like Indiana's the best place to be.