A simple guide to Taiwanese for pointy-nosed foreigners

You’ve spent hours of lessons drilling tones and vocabulary, and you feel like it’s paying off. That green bat thing on Duolingo is telling you you're smashing your Chinese, and you believe it.

Armed with your middling Mandarin and a pocket full of dreams, you book your flight to Taiwan, ready to put your language skills to the test in the real world. You’re practically vibrating at the thought of dropping your first “Ni hao” to a real, live Taiwanese local, and who knows? They might even say it back.

However, soon after landing, something feels... off. On the streets of Taiwan, you see and hear locals, young and old, communicating in a strange, uncanny tongue.

It’s same same, but very different. A faint echo of a Mandarin word you know gives you a fleeting sense of reassurance, but these sounds are nasal, nearly all nose in fact, and you don’t understand a word they are saying.

Don't panic

This is your first run-in with the Taiwanese language or “Taigi”. But like Coldplay said: don’t panic! After reading TCN's simple guide to Taiwan's best-kept secret, you’ll sail through this linguistic plot twist and ease right into the bold, beautiful world of Taiwanese.

Taiwanese at home in South

Taiwanese is Taiwan’s second most widely spoken dialect after Mandarin, the country’s official language. The 2020 Population and Household Census showed that over 80% of the population speaks Taiwanese.

Although Taiwanese is very much alive in all corners of Taiwan, it enjoys greater popularity in some cities than in others. The 2020 census revealed that the southern cities of Kaohsiung and Tainan have the largest populations of Taiwanese speakers, with approximately 1.199 million and 948,000 speakers, respectively.

Origin story

Taiwanese traces its origins to the Minnan family of Chinese languages, which are widely spoken in China’s southern Fujian province. In fact, the name “Hokkien”, a contentious name for Taiwanese, derives from the pronunciation of "Fujian" in Taiwanese (“Hok-kiàn")

Despite a common Hokkien root, the development of Taiwanese has been characterized by the unique historical context of the island nation. Taiwan’s various periods of foreign occupation have been crystallized in the Taiwanese lexicon.

The effect of the Empire of Japan’s 50-year occupation of Taiwan (1895 to 1945) can be seen in a large number of Taiwanese words. The Taiwanese word for radio, “la-jí-ooh” (sounds like "la li oh"), comes from the Japanese “rajio” (ラジオ), itself originating from the English word “radio.”

Earlier still, from 1624 to 1662, Taiwan fell under the colonial rule of the Dutch Republic. The island was occupied by colonial “red heads” (紅毛) (âng-mn̂g), the name the Taiwanese gave to Dutch settlers on account of their fiery locks.

Survival Taiwanese

Time to get practical. Here are a few must-know expressions for your first linguistic foray in the land of Taiwanese.

Tsiah-pá-- buē? (食飽未) (Sounds like “ja-ba-bway”)

You’re sure to hear the question “tsiah-pá-- buē?” when people greet each other in Taiwan, which literally means "Have you eaten?"

On the surface, the meaning seems clean-cut. In reality, the expression is rich in cultural nuance.

In most cases, “Tsiah-pá-- buē?” really means “How are you?” Dating back to times when food was scarce, “Have you eaten?” was and remains a way to show care for someone’s well-being.

So, have you Tsiah-pá-- buē? To answer this question in the affirmative, you can say “Tsiah-pá-- ah” (pronounced “ja ba-ah”), meaning, "I've eaten." If you haven't eaten yet, you can express that by saying "Bē tsiah (袂食) (pronounced “bay jah”).

But remember! Given that this expression represents a polite expression rather than a real wish to understand your eating habits, in most cases, the most polite answer is “Yes, I’ve eaten,” even if you haven’t.

What does the pie say?

Pháinn-sè (歹勢) (Sounds like “Pie say”)

Taiwanese people are infamously polite. The habit was explored in a 2018 BBC article headlined “The island that never stops apologising.”

When you awkwardly squeeze your way past people toward the door of your sardine machine MRT train at rush hour in Taiwan, you are sure to hear “Pháinn-sè” hundreds of times. Anyone wishing to get to grips with Taiwanese and Taiwan’s culture should be prepared to eat some humble “pie say”, and use this expression to apologize, again and again.

Concrete head

A-ta-má-kóng-koo-lih (阿搭馬孔固力) (Sounds like: “Ada-ma kongu-li”)

The Taiwanese expression "a-ta-má-kóng-koo-lih" is a good descriptor for the times when you meet people who aren’t making the best use of their gray matter, or for those whose gray matter is a little too gray. The phrase literally means “your head is filled with concrete,” and it is often used humorously or affectionately to describe someone perceived as slow to understand, inflexible in thought, or resistant to change.

“A-ta-má-kóng-koo-lih” is another example of the influence of the Japanese language on Taiwanese. A-ta-má (阿搭馬) comes from the Japanese word for head, and kóng-koo-lih (孔固力) comes from the Japanese for concrete, itself borrowed from the English.

Foreigners and their pointy noses

A-tok-á (阿啄仔) (Sounds like: “Ah-doh-ah”)

A common Taiwanese name for foreigners in Taiwanese is「a-tok-á (阿啄仔)」(sounds like "ah dow ah"). The phrase, which literally means “beak person,” reflects a common perception among Taiwanese people that foreigners have pointy noses, giving the appearance of a beak.

Taiwanese and the US

The history of interactions between US and Taiwanese culture is reflected in several Taiwanese phrases, with the word “Bí-kok”, the Taiwanese word for America, appearing in a handful of fixed expressions to express different ideas.

Nonsense

Lí tī kóng siánn-mih Bí-kok uē? (你在講什麼美國話?) (Sounds like: “Li day gong syami mi goh way?)

The Taiwanese expression “Li gong Simi Bí-kok Hue” translates literally into English as “What kind of American language are you talking?” The expression is used to suggest that what someone has said does not make sense or is ridiculous.

The expression originates from a time when English usage was not as widespread in Taiwan as it is today. The presence of US troops stationed in Taiwan, and the western culture and English language they brought with them, was at first alien and inconprehensible to their Taiwanese hosts.

American time

Bô hit ê Bí-kok-sî-kan (無彼个美國時間) (Sounds like “Bwo he lay Bi gok see gan”)

The Taiwanese expression “Bô hit ê Bí-kok-sî-kan,” literally means I don't have that American time. It means "I don't have time for that."

The expression originates in the perception of Americans among Taiwanese people as having an abundance of time and a leisurely lifestyle.

Taiwanese under fire

The Taiwanese language has proven itself to be resilient. It has survived a prolonged and determined effort of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party (KMT) to eliminate it systematically.

After the KMT retreated to Taiwan following defeat at the hands of the CCP in China in 1949, the party rolled out policies banning the use of dialects and Japanese in an attempt to consolidate rule over their new home. Educators were discouraged from teaching in Taiwanese, and from 1956, under the Speak Mandarin Movement, students who were discovered using Taiwanese were fined.

The effects of the Speak Mandarin Movement and its aftermath are stark when considering Taiwanese proficiency by age group. Taiwan's 2020 census showed that only 49% of Taiwan’s Martial Law Generation, born between 1965 and 1979, use Taiwanese as their main language.

The blow dealt by the KMT’s anti-Taiwanese language policies has continued to ripple into future generations, with only 13.1% of the post-Martial Law Generation, those born 1980–1999, using Taiwanese as their primary language. The census also found that only 7.4% of those born after 2000 used Taiwanese as their main language of communication.

A 2024 survey from the Cultural Education Strategy Research Team at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) found that 73.2% of respondents (aged 15 to 59) identified as Hoklo, a group whose mother tongue is typically Taiwanese. However, only 29.7% said they used Taiwanese to communicate at home.

Keeping it real

Recent years have seen renewed efforts to popularize and preserve the Taiwanese language.

In 2018, the Democratic Progressive Party’s National Languages Development Act was passed. Taiwan's Ministry of Culture said the Act “lays out clear guarantees for the inheritance, revitalization, and development of the native languages of Taiwan's people.”

Aligning with the National Language Development Plan, in 2022, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan announced that all government agencies should give priority to using terms such as “Taiwanese”, “Taiwan Indigenous Languages,” and “Taiwanese Hakka.” In late September of the same year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education changed the country’s Taiwanese language speaking exam standards from the “Southern Min Language Proficiency Test Fee Standards” to the “Taiwanese Language Proficiency Test Fee Standards.”

Grassroots organizations such as the Taipei-based non-profit Taiwanese Cultural Association (TCA) play a significant role in efforts to revitalize the Taiwanese language. Formed in 2021 by a group of Taiwanese language learners and teachers after the passage of the National Languages Development Act, TCA organizes regular free Taiwanese classes open to the public.

Influencing the revival

Several local and foreign influencers are using sharp editing and audience analytics to revive the Taiwanese language on social media. Internet stars like Tainan's AYO, American influencer Tristan H., and French-Taiwanese creator Remy Gils are showing thousands of followers that Taiwanese is cool, and helping to reverse decades of linguistic suppression.

Invest now!

Given trends in Taiwan toward asserting a strong national and cultural identity, learning some Taiwanese might be a smart move, whether you're planning a long-term stay or just want to make a good impression on a short visit. With the language gaining popularity and cultural significance, picking it up now could be like buying Nvidia stock back in 1999. A small investment today could offer major returns for your future in Taiwan.