Taiwan Mandarin is the one to learn for a job in Taipei or a semester in Tainan, though Duolingo's Mandarin course is written in simplified characters.
Both grew out of one standard from the early 1900s, based on the speech of Beijing.
| Taiwan | Mainland China | |
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Traditional | Simplified |
| Spelling out sounds | Zhuyin symbols, like ㄅㄆㄇ, which most people in Taiwan learn | Pinyin, in Latin letters |
| The -兒 ending | Very rare | Very common in Beijing |
| ㄓ, ㄔ, ㄕ | Often said like ㄗ, ㄘ, ㄙ | Kept apart |
| Light, toneless syllables | Fewer, so more syllables keep their tone | More |
For how the characters themselves changed, see simplified vs traditional Chinese.
| Meaning | Taiwan | Mainland China |
|---|---|---|
| Video | 影片 | 视频 |
| Air conditioner | 冷氣 | 空调 |
| If you want to… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Live, work or study in Taiwan | Taiwan Mandarin |
| Take the TOCFL | Taiwan Mandarin |
| Do business in Shanghai or Shenzhen | Mainland Mandarin |
| Take the HSK | Mainland Mandarin |
Taiwan Mandarin: Hello
你好
Hello!
Hello! How are you?
I'm fine, thank you.
Thanks, goodbye!
Goodbye!
Mainland Mandarin: Greetings and Goodbyes
打招呼和道别
Hello!
Hello! How are you?
I'm fine, thank you!
Goodbye!
Goodbye!
The two say nearly the same thing, so you can compare the characters: 謝謝 and 再見 in Taiwan, 谢谢 and 再见 on the mainland. Poppy, your AI tutor, has written this small talk twice for Bubblegum, a language app, once for each journey.
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Each journey starts in its own characters: traditional for Taiwan, simplified for the mainland.
- Tell Poppy you read zhuyin when you start, and your Taiwan lessons show it over the characters.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- Import Vocab saves new words from a photo of a page in a novel by a Taiwanese author, though the novel's chapters aren't used as lessons.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Is Taiwan Mandarin the Same as Taiwanese?
No. Taiwanese usually means Taiwanese Hokkien, a different Chinese language that more than 70 percent of people in Taiwan speak natively. Mandarin is a national language of Taiwan as well.
Which App Should a Beginner Choose?
If you are serious about learning a language, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. The Taiwan Mandarin app comparison covers apps made for Taiwan.
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Taiwanese Mandarin (written with traditional characters; Guoyu and Putonghua derive from the same early 20th-century standard based on the Beijing dialect; most Taiwanese learn Mandarin sounds through zhuyin, while pinyin appears on signs; erhua is very rare, and very common in Beijing Putonghua; the retroflex sounds merge with the alveolar ones in most contexts; the neutral tone occurs less often)
- Wikipedia, Standard Chinese (the official lingua franca of the People's Republic of China, a national language of Taiwan, an official language of Singapore)
- Wikipedia, Taiwanese Hokkien (a variety of Hokkien spoken natively by more than 70 percent of Taiwan's population; one of Taiwan's national languages)
- Wiktionary, 捷運 (chiefly Taiwan: metro, MRT)
- Wiktionary, 地鐵 (subway, metro; simplified 地铁)
- Wiktionary, 影片 (Taiwan: video clip)
- Wiktionary, 視頻 (chiefly mainland China: video; simplified 视频)
- Wiktionary, 冷氣 (regional: air conditioner)
- Wiktionary, 空調 (chiefly mainland: air conditioner; simplified 空调; its dialectal synonyms list 冷氣 for Taiwan and 空調 for Beijing)
- Duolingo: course list (read October 24, 2026; the Mandarin course is called Chinese (Simplified))
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
