A very abridged Chinese (Beijing) to Chinese (Taiwan) dictionary

I spend much of my life embarrassing myself in one form or another, but there is nothing quite so embarrassing as going to a place and thinking you speak the language only to draw blank stares. When I showed up in Taiwan earlier this year, I thought I spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese — only to learn that people in Taiwan have different words for just about everything. It was not the harsh, guttural, and “r”-inflected accent that gave away the fact that I learned all of my Chinese in Beijing; instead, it was the fact that I used the wrong word for everything. (The accent probably didn’t help, though.)

Language skills are very malleable, and my accent quickly veered toward the more mellifluous intonations of Taiwan. Expanding my vocabulary took a bit more effort. I gave up trying to order specific types of fish at sushi restaurants (all the fish words seem to be different in Taiwan, and, let’s be honest, I want the chef’s assortment anyway). I came to understand that the reason I could never find a trash can in Taipei was not only because there are basically no trash cans in Taipei, but also because I wasn’t using the right word for garbage. (It’s the same word, but pronounced differently. The difference in pronunciation does not explain the lack of trash cans, however.)

I spent much of the next four months chronicling every time people raised their eyebrows at me and said, “We don’t use that word here” or “What the heck are you saying?” I developed the following handy (but nowhere near comprehensive) dictionary to translate Mandarin Chinese as spoken in Beijing (putonghua 普通話) to Mandarin Chinese as spoken in Taiwan (guoyu 國語). I am sure some of these are wrong, and I am happy to take suggestions to add more.

I cannot guarantee that I will spare you any embarrassment, but at least you’ll know why you are embarrassed.

Updated/expanded 1/12/24 — they keep coming…

BeijingTaiwan
Trash垃圾 (pronounced: laji)垃圾 (pronounced: lese)
Public Transit公交車公車
Subway/Metro地鐵捷運
Hotel酒店飯店 (saying 酒店 means something much seedier than a normal hotel, which I found out the hard way when I told everyone I was staying in a 酒店 for the first few nights when I arrived)
You’re Welcome (No Worries)不用不會
New (place name)新 (as in New Zealand, 新西蘭)紐 (紐西蘭)
Eat In在這吃內用
Pick a name起名 (pronounced qi-mingrrrrrrr)取名
Taxi出租車 (rental car)計程車 (meter car)
Bicycle自行車 (self-driven vehicle)腳踏車 (foot-stamping vehicle)
Butter黃油奶油
Phone signal信號訊號
Farmhouse for tourists農家樂土雞城
Draft beer扎啤生啤
Stir fry with random stuff you have around隨便炒黑白切
Village
Pretty good挺好的蠻好的 (You can’t say 挺…的 in Taiwan, they think it’s weird)
Percentage成/百分之趴 (According to Wikipedia: “趴 as “percent” originates from Japanese パーセント pāsento. This usage is also unique to Guoyu”)
Good morning/good night早上好/晚上好早安/晚安
Profile picture頭像大頭貼
Video視頻影片
Charging pack充電寶行動電源
Scrolling on the phone玩手機滑手機 (no matter what phrasing you use, people do a lot of it in both places)
Software app軟件軟體
Avocado牛油果酪梨
Potato土豆馬鈴薯 (土豆, or dirt-bean, means peanut in Taiwan. To be fair, they are both dirt-beans, of a sort)
Basil羅勒九層塔
Undergraduate本科大學
Kindergarten幼兒園幼稚園
Rollercoaster過山車 (passing-through-the-mountains car)雲霄飛車 (flying-through-the-clouds car)
Italian pasta意麵義大利麵 (意麵 somehow means an egg noodle dish from southern China, not Italian pasta)
Authentically local地道道地 (reverse, reverse!)
Project項目專案
Laptop電腦筆電
Electric scooter電動車 (electric-powered vehicle)Gogoro (a brand name)
Electric-powered car新能源汽車 (new energy car)電動車 (electric-powered vehicle)
Forearm胳膊前臂
Broccoli西蘭花花椰菜
Instant noodles方便面 (convenient noodles)泡麵 (soaked noodles)
Salmon三文魚鮭魚
To hire招聘誠徵
Tissues纸巾 or 餐纸衛生紙 (this means toilet paper in China, and it means all tissue related products in Taiwan. The lack of specificity here does not work in Taiwan’s favor)
Snail蜗牛(pronounced wo niu)蝸牛 (pronounced gua niu)
Ping pong乒乓球 (ping pong)桌球 (table tennis)