Taiwanese communities in MA

[Bettafish]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

There is a prominent difference in terms of the writing and reading though with traditional characters (Taiwan) vs simplified (China). There are certainly quite a few shared words or symbols, but in my observations, it seems easier going from traditional to simplified rather than the other way around. Traditional is also pretty good for artwork and calligraphy! I'm a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese as well as Taiwanese Hokkien who grew up with traditional characters.

I think an easier way to go about this for the OP would be to look for people who can teach traditional character writing and reading which does not necessarily guarantee Taiwanese, but has a better chance.

Yeah traditional vs simplified characters may be a factor to consider.
However, educated Chinese speakers from either side can usually read both versions without major problems. For beginners, it may not be something important either.

There is another thing to consider: in fact most people in both mainland China and Taiwan do not have perfect/standard pronunciations of Mandarin. However, among young people, mainland Chinese are more likely to have "better" pronunciations. Here "better" just means being able to distinguish all the consonants and vowels prescribed in standard Mandarin, which many Chinese speakers do not distinguish.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

Yeah traditional vs simplified characters may be a factor to consider.
However, educated Chinese speakers from either side can usually read both versions without major problems. For beginners, it may not be something important either.

There is another thing to consider: in fact most people in both mainland China and Taiwan do not have perfect/standard pronunciations of Mandarin. However, among young people, mainland Chinese are more likely to have "better" pronunciations. Here "better" just means being able to distinguish all the consonants and vowels prescribed in standard Mandarin, which many Chinese speakers do not distinguish.

I imagine it takes quite a while for people to get to the level where there is no issue reading both when acquiring the language as an adult. I'm very close to several people who grew up in China and many instances where there were times they did not know the traditional character have happened. Even though they can usually get it from context, it still happens. To some extent, this also happens to me with simplified characters though much less so these days. If OP is interested in traditional characters, then it may make sense for him to start with that. It's also possible that OP is interested in visiting Taiwan or knowing Taiwanese people specifically more so than China and Chinese people. Otherwise, it'd be kind of odd to have specifically requested Taiwanese communities in MA as the OP very specifically requested Taiwanese in the request. I do not think it was subtle at all.

I also think what I said about looking for Chinese language teachers who explicitly state they will teach traditional characters and Mandarin as something that possibly correlates more strongly to someone from Taiwan is a pretty decent suggestion.

[Bettafish]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

I imagine it takes quite a while for people to get to the level where there is no issue reading both when acquiring the language as an adult. I'm very close to several people who grew up in China and many instances where there were times they did not know the traditional character have happened. Even though they can usually get it from context, it still happens. To some extent, this also happens to me with simplified characters though much less so these days. If OP is interested in traditional characters, then it may make sense for him to start with that. It's also possible that OP is interested in visiting Taiwan or knowing Taiwanese people specifically more so than China and Chinese people. Otherwise, it'd be kind of odd to have specifically requested Taiwanese communities in MA as the OP very specifically requested Taiwanese in the request. I do not think it was subtle at all.

I also think what I said about looking for Chinese language teachers who explicitly state they will teach traditional characters and Mandarin as something that possibly correlates more strongly to someone from Taiwan is a pretty decent suggestion.

But the choice of textbooks is far more important than the birth place of the teacher, with respect to the version of characters.
The university I used to study in has a Chinese language program. They taught simplified Chinese only but the two TAs were both Taiwanese. Yes, it makes more sense to let Taiwanese teach traditional characters but for beginners, this is not really important. The Taiwanese taught simplified characters well.

I’m just trying to give people some opinions regarding picking a teacher. Maybe the OP has non-linguistic concerns too, and those reasons could be more important.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

But the choice of textbooks is far more important than the birth place of the teacher, with respect to the version of characters.
The university I used to study in has a Chinese language program. They taught simplified Chinese only but the two TAs were both Taiwanese. Yes, it makes more sense to let Taiwanese teach traditional characters but for beginners, this is not really important. The Taiwanese taught simplified characters well.

I’m just trying to give people some opinions regarding picking a teacher. Maybe the OP has non-linguistic concerns too, and those reasons could be more important.

I'm not sure you understand my reasoning here. I am not saying the OP inherently wants to learn traditional characters versus simplified. That may be the case, but perhaps not. I am not saying that one person from one place is incapable of learning the other's very related writing system. I assumed the OP is someone somewhat new to the Chinese language and who has very explicitly stated they are looking for Chinese language lessons taught by someone from Taiwan, regardless of what the actual reasons are and if they are strictly linguistic or not or if they are personal or if they are political or if they are mix. The point is, I gave background context in case the OP was new to the Chinese language and did not know this, and then stated that looking for someone who teaches Mandarin with traditional characters specifically might correlate to a higher chance of finding a Chinese language teacher from Taiwan--which is very explicitly what the OP has asked for.