Taiwan ideal place to learn Chinese

Many Chinese-language students think that Taiwan is a better place than China to learn the language, given Taiwan's safer environment and better teachers, among other reasons.

Febrana Tanudjaja, an Australian of Chinese origin who is currently a student of Mandarin at Tunghai University in Taichung County, said that it was her parents' wish that she learn Chinese in Taiwan so she could acquire a proficient command of the language used by their ancestors.

Tanudjaja although she could have studied Chinese in Australia, she found it difficult to secure a Mandarin-friendly environment there because few people speak Chinese there.

Many within Australia's Chinese community suggested she go to Taiwan instead of China to study Chinese because Taiwan is safer and has better living conditions, Tanudjaja said.

Shida Akinobu who hails from Japan and is also a student at the Tunghai Mandarin-language center, echoed Tanudjaja's sentiments, saying that Taiwan is a better choice for foreign students trying to learn Chinese.

Akinobu, who studied Mandarin in Harbin, northeastern China during his college years, said the Chinese spoken in Taiwan is easier for Japanese speakers to master because the retroflex sounds are milder.

A Rotary Ambassador Prize winner, Akinobu said he found that the number of foreigners coming to Taiwan to learn Chinese has not declined since China opened its doors to foreign students.

Akinobu that he went to Harbin to learn Chinese on a student exchange program because he had no other options. However, he said, he decided to come to Taiwan to learn Chinese after he graduated from a Japanese university.

Meanwhile, both Tanudjaja and Akinobu said that the Tunghai center is by no means inferior to other schools in Taipei or elsewhere, because the center's teachers are superb.

Tanudjaja her ability to deliver a speech in Chinese after only three months of study to her demanding lecturers at the school, who stressed the importance of proper pronunciation and use of tones.

Akinobu that Taiwan's use of complex Chinese characters, as opposed to the simplified characters used in China, as well as its National Phonetic Symbols make it easier for foreign students to pick up the language and speak it more proficiently.

Akinobu he strongly encourages Japanese and Korean students to learn Chinese in Taiwan simply because the Mandarin phonetic symbol system used here is the most efficient system for helping foreigners pronounce Chinese correctly and eventually conversing with Taiwanese people in the shortest possible period of time.

Max Woodworth, an American who studied Chinese culture at Washington's Georgetown University, is a prominent example of a foreigner successfully learning Chinese.

Woodworth to Beijing and Nanjing to study Chinese for a year after his third year at Georgetown.

Five ago, when his Mandarin studies in China concluded and he had acquired a good command of the language, his Chinese teacher suggested he go to Taipei and attend National Chengchi University's Sun Yat-sen Institute of Humanity and Social Studies, which has maintained academic cooperation ties with Georgetown University.

Woodworth he found the Chengda Mandarin Language Center to be one of the best in the world in terms of learning Chinese.

After studying for a year at the Sun Yat-sen Institute, Woodworth joined the English daily, the Taipei Times as a reporter covering arts, literature and cultural news.

Now able to understand about 80 percent of Chinese-language news stories without the aid of a dictionary, Woodworth said he feels most confident in listening and speaking Chinese but still finds writing Chinese characters to be the most difficult part.

Woodworth, who is now venturing into learning the Taiwanese language, said that the sky is the limit in learning Chinese.

Another William Laxton from France, has been in Taiwan for more than two years, learning Chinese, which he described as "very difficult."

Laxon that he was in Taiwan three years ago working on a post-production team for the film Millennium Mambo directed by Taiwan avant-garde director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢).

Finding Taiwan an interesting place to live, Laxon decided to return to Taipei six months after returning to France.

Fascinated Chinese culture, Laxon said he has even studied the ancient Chinese philosophers Laozi and Chuangzhou.

John Vaughan, an associate professor in the Department of Music at Soochow University in Taipei, speaks Mandarin so fluently that there is no trace of a foreign accent in his speech.

Vaughan's Taiwanese wife, Liu Yi-chih (劉憶芝), a flutist, has been his Chinese teacher during their 15-year marriage.