D) Their languages
The Peking dialect, called mandarins was used by the government officials during the 17th century Qing dynasty period. The success of the efforts put in to spread this language was limited. After the founding of the ROC in 1913, the government established a national standard of pronunciation based on the Peking dialect. Since then, Mandarin has been the national language of both the ROC on Taiwan and the PRC on the mainland.
The usage of Mandarin varies among the different groups of people. Mainlanders usually speak Mandarin. The native Taiwanese, who forms about 85% of the population, speaks Mandarin outside but not necessarily at homes. About half of these people communicate in other Chinese dialects with their families.
The older native Taiwanese may not speak Mandarin at all because they grew up during the Japanese Occupation. Living in different parts of the country can influence the language they used. For example, young people living in the northern parts of Taiwan typically speak Mandarin with their peers; on the other hand, those in the southern areas tend to speak a mixture of Taiwanese and Mandarin.
Taiwanese Mandarin has been influenced by the dialects spoken on the island, especially the Fujian (Hokkien) dialect.
Dialects
The 2 most widely spoken dialects are the Fujian and Hakka dialects. Each is derived from particular areas in China. The Fujian dialect comes from the Fujian Province on the mainland and is more commonly spoken in the southern part of Taiwan and in parts of the western coastal region that have historically absorbed immigrants from Fujian.
Hakka originated from the Hunan province on the mainland and is widely spoken in Taiwan’s Hsin-chu, Ping-tung, Miao-li, and Tao-yuan counties, which consist of a considerable amount of Hakka population.
In the 1960s and 1970s, greater emphasis was made on Mandarin rather than the Chinese dialects. However, this has made people gained more interest in learning the latter. This interest was fuelled by the existing television and radio channels which have introduced more programs in the Fujian and Hakka dialects during the 1980s.
Other languages
English is not widely spoken in Taiwan although it is part of the school's curriculum. Many who do speak English are not proficient in it. However, people have begun to recognize that English is very important.
