If you intended to live in Taiwan for a while it might be a good investment to learn some Chinese. It really does make life a 100x times easier when you can read a menu and order food. Learning food words opened up a whole new world for me. :)
The equation is
Effort X Chinese learning = Easier time in Taiwan
There are a lot of schools out there, but I've decided only to write about the ones that I, or my friends, have personal experience with. I'll try and go into more detail about some of these later on.
National Taiwan Normal University www.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnu-eng.html
a.k.a NTNU, a.k.a Shida a.k.a Sida (If you're saying it with a Taiwanese accent)
This was the first school that I ever went to on my arrival in Taipei. It is probably one of the best schools in Taiwan (and one of the most expensive), and a lot of language school use the materials produced here. Most of the teachers are fairly good, and will teach the same material in a similar way. I did the normal course which consisted on two hours a day, five days a week, for three months. Class wasn't too difficult, and I definitely felt that my Chinese improved. If you chose to take the two hour course you will also have to take five hours a week of complimentary classes. These are either big group lectures, culture courses, or studying in the audio lab.
They also have an intensive course, which believe it or not is pretty intensive. It consists of three hours a day, plus a tone of tests, and homework. I was advised not to take this one if I wanted to have a social life.
Shida also offers many extra Chinese Culture classes, language exchange, and even some class trips. It has the most number of classes, suited to many difference language abilities, so it's probably the easiest school to find a class suited to your time and level.
Chinese Culture Univeristy http://mlc.sce.pccu.edu.tw/
The next school I went to on my quest to learn Chinese, and probably my favourite. The tuition here is significantly cheaper that Shida, with one semester costing 19,000 for three hours of class a day. It also has the flexibility of being able to chose how long you want to study. So if you only want to study for two or three weeks, you just pay that amount, instead paying for an entire semester. Recently they have also begun offering night classes on Tuesday and Thursday.
I liked this one a lot. We did a lot more conversation practice and extra things, instead of every lesson following the textbook like Shida. (I wish I could go back) A Taiwanese friend once told me that CCU students could talk a lot better than Shida students. It also has a lot less students than Shida, so I felt like I got to know a lot more people. The building is also newer and the library a lot prettier.
The downside is that what you learn really depends on your teacher. If you get a good teacher you can learn a lot, but if you end up with a not so good one you're screwed. You are allowed to change classes. It also has less classes on offer than Shida, and there are less class times to chose from.
Not to be confused with National Normal Taiwan University.
National Taiwan University, or NTU boasts the reputation of being the number one university in Taiwan, and it also has the most expensive Mandarin learning program. I have friends who study here, and the classes seem quite good. It seems like their Chinese is improving. Class is three hours a day, and the classes are smaller than most other universities. It does seem like quite a good program, but for that price, you could go to any other university like Shida or the Culture University, and probably learn about the same level of stuff. It uses textbooks produced by Shida, so none of the learning materials are original or new. But if you have the money, why not?
I knew a guy who once went here. If possible, I would advise you to go to one of the universities listed above instead of this one. The Mandarin program isn't too great, and most of the materials seem a bit outdated. But it does have schools in places other than Taipei.
Other Schools
Just to let you know, my quest to learn Mandarin isn't over yet. I may have a job which virtually rules my life, but from here on out I will be investigating other Mandarin schools, most probably night classes as well. So once I've checked them out I'll try and write about it.
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