Taiwan Language Schools

Taiwan’s better-known Mandarin Chinese schools are listed below. But you’re likely to hear about many others if you ask around.

China Language Institute

Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies, Taipei

The Stanford Center is located at Tai Da, the National Taiwan University, and is considered the world’s best Chinese language institute. It is very intensive and expensive. Interested graduate students should have at least one year of college-level Chinese.

Mandarin Daily News Language Center

As the name suggests, Mandarin Daily News is a newspaper publishing company; however, it also runs an excellent language school.

The school emphasizes proper pronunciation and applies the same methods used to teach Chinese youngsters to read and write. Some classes use Chinese grade-school texts.

Classes begin on the first day of each month, but registration begins a week earlier. Classes – especially smaller ones – fill up quickly. To register, bring 3 passport photos and money to cover any costs and the amount needed for tuition.

The Mandarin Training Center (MTC)

The popular Mandarin Training Center (MTC) at National Taiwan Normal University (Shi Da) offers classes for students of all levels. Credits transfer to many U.S. and Canadian colleges.

National Cheng Kung University Chinese Language Center

There are two instructional tracks at this school: one focuses on culture and the other on language. The language program has three levels and all classes have five or fewer students; in fact, most of the instruction is one-on-one.

Pioneer Language Institute

Pioneer is quite good. Their one-on-one classes are a bargain.

Taipei Language Institute (TLI)

Except for the Stanford Program, TLI is probably the best and most rigorous Chinese language school in Taiwan.

Language Exchanges

It is easy to arrange language exchanges, because so many Chinese people want to learn English. In most situations, a Chinese speaker and an English (or German, French, Spanish, Japanese, etc.) speaker get together once or twice a week and converse in their respective languages for about two hours. This enables you to get free conversation practice and meet new people at the same time.

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