The opportunity to spend six months in beautiful Taipei augmenting my Mandarin language skills has been invaluable to my PhD research journey. Enabled by the SWDTP difficult language training grant, from September 2025 to March 2026, I have based in Taipei, Taiwan, where I have taken daily Mandarin lessons at Chinese Culture University’s Mandarin language training centre, based just opposite Da’an Park in the centre of the Taiwanese capital.
Having already laboured tenaciously with Mandarin for several years, six months of dedicated language training spent sharpening my axe at the Mandarin grindstone has been the perfect opportunity to reach a high degree of fluency. For my research, this is an absolute necessity. Since I research Chinese interpretations of the international, understanding the Chinese world past English translations is a requirement for originality and depth of research. At Chinese Culture University, I was enrolled in the top level class aimed at achieving a high level of Mandarin across all four areas of speaking, reading, listening, and writing.
The intensity and quality of classes meant that just as “steam rises all day long” (蒸蒸日上), progress was quick. Having presented in Mandarin on everything from the renowned historian of the Confucian tradition Yu Ying-shih (余英時), to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, I now feel confident to present at conferences and to conduct high level academic conversations at conferences in Mandarin. Likewise, writing academic Mandarin that employs complex syntax and a full range of lexis, feels more comfortable than ever before. Perhaps most useful of all, areas in which future improvements to my Mandarin can be made are now clear to me; After all, three feet of ice does not form in a single day (冰凍三尺非一日之寒), as they say, and the sea of learning has no horizon (學海無涯). There are always plenty more words to learn.
Pursuing language training in a Mandarin speaking country has also been a wise move for cost reasons. Taiwan is an extremely cheap place to learn Mandarin, and being able to leave the classroom and apply Mandarin directly has been crucial for improvement. The return for the investment has also been made by particularly outstanding teaching at Chinese Culture University. The first semester offered two-on-one teaching, and therefore a high degree of intensity. Many chengyu (成語) have been learnt. The second semester included studying alongside more students from around East and Southeast Asia, allowing many opportunities for cross-cultural interaction and greater understanding. Discussing contemporary topics with students from Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand has allowed for my learning to go beyond the language itself.
Taipei is an excellent place to visit, live and study in, and it has been valuable to be able to live here for six months. I have been able to connect with Taiwanese people, from losing at Mahjong on Thursday nights with my Japanese and Taiwanese friends, to spending the Spring Festival in Hualien with a Taiwanese family. Since my research is focussed on Chinese international politics, being based in Taipei and experiencing on the ground reactions to the consequences of Chinese foreign policy has been highly useful. Watching Taiwanese news discuss the “Justice Mission 2025” Chinese military drills taking place off the coast, while enjoying a delicious bowl of spicy wontons (紅油抄手) in a crowded restaurant can in itself be an important education in understanding international politics.
For those considering the grant, this offering from the SWDTP is well worth taking up.