LEARN TAIWANESE HOKKIEN WITH LTL

Taiwanese Hokkien is one of the national languages of Taiwan, and while the main lingua franca is Mandarin Chinese, the vast majority of Taiwanese people speak at least some amount of the dialect. It is considered one of the mainstays of Taiwan and its character.

To go even further, many Taiwanese of an older generation speak Taiwanese Hokkien even better than Mandarin Chinese, and you can hear the Taiwanese accent in their Mandarin speech.

People of a younger generation mainly speak in Mandarin Chinese, however they can also speak Taiwanese Hokkien, as they do with their grandparents and other elders.

To the Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese younger generation, for example, a fluent Taiwanese conversation can sound as unintelligible as Russian.

How Do Taiwanese & Mandarin differ?

Characters

While not officially a written language, Taiwanese Hokkien can often be seen written using Chinese characters.

This can be a bit confusing to Mandarin speaking however, as it is written in an informal manner that uses many homophones that only exist in Taiwanese.

Pronunciation

Mandarin has four different tones that are used, while Taiwanese Hokkien has between 5 and 8 tones, depending on location (Fujian vs Taiwan vs Malaysia).

There is an additional phonemic 9th tone, used only in special or foreign loan words.

What Book does LTL Use to Teach Taiwanese?

正港台語入門書 by 胡美津

Interestingly, the Taiwanese version of the Hokkien language adopted many Japanese words into its vocabulary due to extensive contact with Japan. Similarly, the language in Singapore and Malaysia accepted many words from Malay origin into its ranks, so there is a unique character to the language in each place.

An Introduction to Taiwanese with LTL

LTL uses《正港台語入門書》for Taiwanese Hokkien classes. We have a clear lesson structure, with 27 lessons based on different topics (discussing the weather, money, buying things, introductions, etc). Through the textbook and our classes, we will help you attain a conversational level of Taiwanese Hokkien to use on the streets of Taiwan.

This book presupposes some knowledge of Mandarin Chinese, but fear not! Our professional teachers will help you with the Chinese parts, explain the grammar and practice pronunciation and speaking with you from day one!

Taiwanese Hokkien Courses – Prices

All prices are in New Taiwan Dollars and per person. If you need information regarding company invoices. please visit our Fapiao Information page.

At LTL there are no surcharges for weekend, morning or evening classes. We also do not charge any teacher transport fees for classes taught anywhere in central Taipei.

All students are welcome to attend our weekly social events free of charge and will also have access to our free LTL Online Chinese study kit.

Students follow a regular study plan depending on work and personal schedules. However, up to 30% of your lessons can be cancelled if we are notified six working hours before your class is due to begin. It is also possible to fix the duration of a class to anything between 1.5 hours (short lesson) and 6 hours (super intensive lesson). If you need even more flexibility, check out the LTL Super Flexible Chinese Program.

Online Taiwanese Hokkien Courses

You can now learn Taiwanese from anywhere in the world because we also run our Taiwanese Hokkien courses Online.

Contact us to know more about this program.

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