5 Unique Taiwanese Speaking Habits

Hello, everyone! I'm Grace from Grace's Mandarin Chinese. In Taiwan, most people speak Mandarin, but some of our speaking habits might puzzle you because it's different from what you learn in textbooks. So in this video, I'll introduce you to five common Taiwanese speaking habits so it will make sense to you when you encounter them in the future. The first speaking habit is When replying to 謝謝, in Taiwan, many people say 不會 to express 不客氣, you're welcome. It might be influenced by Taiwanese Hokkien where you can say 杯 which can mean 不會 to reply to a thank you. So in daily life, Taiwanese people often reply to 謝謝 with 不會 可是還是要多喝水喔! 好,謝謝! 不會! 謝謝喔! The second one is the tendency to politely decline. Taiwanese people tend to tactfully turn someone down. Sometimes you might not even realize that you're being turned down. Here are some phrases we commonly use when declining something. Number one, 我還好 When you offer something to a Taiwanese person or invite them to participate in something, but they don't want it or aren't feeling it, they might say 我還好 to turn down the offer. It expresses the meaning of The second phrase is 先不要好了 Maybe later, not for now. 先 means first or for now. So 先不要 means not for now. 好了 here is to show that the speaker thinks this is more appropriate for the situation. 先不要好了 expresses the meaning of I don't want it for now or I don't need it for now. In Taiwan, it's a polite way to turn down an offering. The verb 要 to want or to need can also be changed to other verbs depending on the context. For example, I'm feeling a bit unwell, so I think I will pass for tomorrow. The third one is 沒關係 In Taiwan, we usually pronounce it as 沒關係 this phrase is often used as a response when someone apologizes to you. But in Taiwan, we can also use it to decline offers of help or thanks. For example, The third speaking habit is This is especially common in the service industry in Taiwan. Many servers often use 幫我 when making requests to their customers. For example, 請幫我在這裡簽名 Take out your phone, please. A more literal translation would be Please help me take out the phone. So if you come to Taiwan, you will definitely need to get used to this 幫我 and understand that many people, mostly in the service industry, just add this phrase to make their requests sound more polite. The next speaking habit is In Taiwan, we have some special sentence final particles that don't exist in standard Mandarin. So it might sound a bit confusing. For example, we use the particle in many different situations. I've talked about it in one of my previous videos. Let's take a look! This shop is large, isn't it? It can also be used in imperative sentences as a reminder. It's like For instance, 今天很冷喔! It's cold today. 齁 can also be added after 對, as in It's used when someone says something to you that reminds you about something that you forgot. So it's like Alright! in English. For example, Alright! I completely forgot about that. I've reminded you many times. Alright! You've told me many times. Does this person have a goldfish brain? Or does she basically not want to give back the money at all? Sometimes 齁 is just used to add a pause when someone is speaking, and it also makes the conversation sound more casual. For instance, This Here's what's going on. Here's the story. If you want to learn more about sentence final particles used in Taiwan, check out this video. Alright! The last one is In daily life, you might hear Taiwanese people using some Taiwanese or Taiwanese-style English in conversations. Here are some examples. The first one is This Taiwanese phrase means or meaning or right The second one is means I don't know. But it's very casual, so we normally just use it with our close friends. The third one is not a good word. means which is idiot And it can also be used as an additive, meaning stupid or dumb. And because the number 87 in Mandarin is which sounds similar to so people also use this number to express the same meaning. In Taiwan, we often use to mean to post. So for example, 他好像去了瑞士。 好羨慕喔。 Another one is Taiwanese people like to use social to express to socialize. For instance, to say good at socializing, in daily life, you might hear Taiwanese people say Another example, to express I don't enjoy socializing, you might hear people say So next time when you hear Taiwanese people use social in daily conversations, remember it means socialize. The next one is In Taiwan, people often use loading to express workload. So for example, Taiwanese people might say And this means Another example, If you want to learn more Taiwanese expressions like these, check out this video. Alright, that's all for today! If you have visited Taiwan or are currently living here, I'd love to hear your impressions about Taiwanese Mandarin and whether there are any aspects that you find unfamiliar or different from what you're used to. 那如果你喜歡今天的影片, 別忘記按讚、訂閱和分享喔! And also, if you'd like to learn some daily Mandarin expressions, check out my Instagram, gracemandarin. 那我們就下次見囉! Bye bye!