By Gregory Laslo
Although I arrived in Taiwan with the initial goal of learning Mandarin, I was always more interested in the culture of Taiwan itself. But it took me too long to realize that while Mandarin will allow you to live and get around in Taiwan, Tâi-gí is perhaps more necessary to understand the history of Taiwan and its history as experienced, felt, spoken, and written by its inhabitants.
However, I always felt the bar to entrance was high, due to the difficulty of tonal languages. Mandarin is hard enough for me! For students without experience in a tonal language like Mandarin, and those not in Taiwan to absorb the linguistic environment, the bar is much higher.
This was why TaiGiddy, a gamified Tâi-gí learning platform spearheaded by Professor Lâu Sêng-hiân (劉承賢) at NTNU, appealed to me. Individual units are small, requiring only about ten minutes to complete, which lets a learner jump in and out as they wish, and makes the experience feel relaxed and natural. Of course, a user can make the process more academic if they so desire, pairing it with a textbook or course of their choosing.
My practice immediately made a difference in my everyday understanding of Tâi-gí. Prior to beginning this process, I could occasionally understand conversations in Tâi-gí—but only with strong context clues and Mandarin vocabulary mixed in. But within just a few lessons—before even understanding any words—I could already feel my brain better parsing the Tâi-gí that I overheard in my environment, clearly hearing the seven tones and sandhi. Once you grasp the tones and Romanization, learning vocabulary and grammar becomes easy.
TaiGiddy ensures accuracy by requiring learners to complete prior lessons before moving on to harder ones. While this may make early segments feel a little tedious for those who already have some Tâi-gí background, the difficulty curve for those who don’t is well-structured, never feeling like you’ve missed something.
All in all, I highly recommend TaiGiddy for students interested in learning Tâi-gí from the ground up. Professor Lâu and his team plan to continue improving it, and they are open to feedback through the website. As the first and largest Tâi-gí learning resource of this type, I see it as a strong achievement and a crucial milestone on the path to making Tâi-gí a part of everyday life—hopefully including my own.
Start learning here: https://taigiddy.tcll.ntnu.edu.tw/
