Taiwanese is a variant of the Min-nan (southern Min) Chinese dialect/sublanguage. A majority of Taiwanese people know how to speak it, or at least understand it. It is mostly used in informal and family settings. Especially in rural areas Taiwanese is more common than Mandarin. People born before 1950 often only know how to speak Taiwanese.

Here are some random phrases in Taiwanese I picked up. The "pinyin" is my own interpretation of the sounds as I heard them. Perhaps eventually someone who knows one of the Romanization systems for Taiwanese can use the proper system to describe the sounds.

Taiwanese has 8 tones (7 in the North), these are not represented here. You'll need a local to help you get it straight.

• Lim Ji Le , 喝一下, drink a bit
• Lim Jiu Jin Bo Dong , 喝酒進步黨, drinking democratic party
• jiu zui giu tai wan , 喝醉救臺灣, drink booze to save taiwan
• gao za, 早安, good morning
• ti a bo, 聽不懂, I don't understand what you're saying
• jia ba bwei, 吃飽了沒, Have you eaten
• mmzai, 不知道, I don't know
• wakiem, 沒關係, no problem