The languages in Taiwan How much do you know about the languages in Taiwan? Even if I'm explaining this in my language, I can't describe it properly. But maybe I can tell you the languages that most people know. I chose two of all to talk about it. First, one is the aboriginal languages, which is also called Austronesian or Malay-Polynesian languages. That's the most mysterious languages for me. We used to have more than 20 aboriginal languages in Taiwan, yet I'm not sure how many left now. However, it's lucky some people are working hard to keep those. The second one, maybe I can call those "Chinese" in English, or "Sino-Tibetan languages"(漢藏語系). It's a family language of all Chinese. And the biggest three in Taiwan are Mandarin, Taiwanese-Hokkien(commonly known as Taiwanese) and Hakka. Those three languages are totally different. Some of my friends asked me why I have to say "I can speak Mandarin and Taiwanese", They know only "Chinese". Based on the above, if there is someone speaking Hakka in front of me, I can't understand any. Also if someone only speak Mandarin, he won't understand when I speak in Taiwanese. That's why we learn Mandarin at schools, most people can talk to each other in Mandarin now. P.S. My friend also ask me "Why is Mandarin? Why not Orange haha..."