Blogs

Being an Irishman With a Beijing Accent in Taipei

In 2011 I took the dive to study Chinese and International Business for my undergraduate. Many people ask me “why did you study Chinese?” and my answer has always been “I really don’t know.” I didn’t put much thought into my future at 17 and I chose 10 courses, and I came out with Chinese […]

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Blogs, University & Scholarships

Tools for learning Mandarin: Pleco

Recently a friend asked me what are the best tools for learning Mandarin and I gave him a long list of apps to download. Some free, but most of them are going to cost you a pretty penny. Some of them are justifiably expensive because the functionality and usefulness of some apps for Mandarin learning […]

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Blogs

Mandarin is Not Worth Learning: Unless You Have a Good Reason

I can’t find any statistics on what percentage of foreigners (Westerners) speak Mandarin in Taiwan, but by simple observation I wouldn’t expect that number to be quite low. When I say “speak Mandarin” I am setting the standard to be able to work in an office with a decent amount of Mandarin or to be […]

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