# Taiwanese in your area in Mexico



## wanghaozhi (Nov 9, 2017)

Do you know if there are Taiwanese expats in your area? My wife is from there and she'd prefer to have some contact with her mother culture.:wreath:


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

wanghaozhi said:


> Do you know if there are Taiwanese expats in your area? My wife is from there and she'd prefer to have some contact with her mother culture.:wreath:


There are quite a few Chinese in Guadalajara. But the only one I knew was from mainland China. I don't know if there are Taiwanese here. However, Mexico City undoubtedly has a larger Chinese population and is quite likely to include Taiwanese as well as mainlanders.

There apparently is a Chinese community in Mexicali mostly descendents of Nationalist Chinese who fled when Mao took over.

Another forum lists Taiwanese living in Mexico. Of those listed, 7 live in Mexico City and one each in Guadalajara, Monterrey and Cancun.

The Wikipedia page has some information about the Chinese communities in Mexicali and Mexico City, but doesn't distinguish between those with origin on Taiwan versus mainland China.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I met a Chinese lady who lives in La Floresta. I cannot remember where she was from but from some reason I keep thinking Hong Kong or Taiwan, There are a few Asians lakeside but the people I know are Korean and Japanese, I think I only met ne Chinese woman.. she was recetly widowed and is really nice . If you move here let me know I will put you in contact with her. She lives in La Floresta, a nice fraccionamento on the east side of Ajijic.. maybe an area you would be interested in.
There are also Chinese from Canada and the US but I do not know if they speak Chinese..
On a historic bit, the Chinese were brought here to build the rairoads and there is a Chinese community in Chiapas near Tapachula but there are all from mainland China and they still do business with China.. There are new immigrants from China, many of them from Hong Kong who handle the export business.. but that is far away from here.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Speaking of mainland versus Taiwan, I once published a paper with a Taiwanese scientist. When I listed his address I somehow used the "People's Republic of China", instead of the "Republic of China". It was a big mistake. But it didn't seem to have any long term repercussions. He went on to a distinguished career and became head of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Academica Sinica in Taipei.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Not exactly Taiwanese but they do share a language, the Kia factory in Monterrey is in the process of bringing in expats from Korea and plans to create a community there for them so they can be close to people familiar to them. At least this is what I was told by a taxi driver there who knows Monterrey well the last time I was in Monterrey. 

In your case, it might be worth looking into.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Zorro2017 said:


> Not exactly Taiwanese but they do share a language, the Kia factory in Monterrey is in the process of bringing in expats from Korea and plans to create a community there for them so they can be close to people familiar to them. At least this is what I was told by a taxi driver there who knows Monterrey well the last time I was in Monterrey.
> 
> In your case, it might be worth looking into.


I'm confused. What language do Koreans and Chinese share?


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

a little like saying the Germans and the French share a common language.. yes I guess it is English..


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

My bad, I should have said "similar" as Chinese and Koreans probably can understand more of what the other is saying than an American and a Mexican with no knowledge of each others native tongue. I did a search before I spoke but I can't find it now, but did find this one...

Korean was influenced by China over 3,000 years, in culture, customs, language, etc. Korean used Chinese characters all along since antiquity until replacement by Hangul alphabets in 1970s (or earlier in North Korea). The pronunciation of 70% korean words of Chinese origin is similar to Southern chinese dialect Min (闽) as spoken in Fujian or Taiwan.

But they are two different languages with some similarities.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Zorro2017 said:


> My bad, I should have said "similar" as Chinese and Koreans probably can understand more of what the other is saying than an American and a Mexican with no knowledge of each others native tongue. I did a search before I spoke but I can't find it now, but did find this one...
> 
> Korean was influenced by China over 3,000 years, in culture, customs, language, etc. Korean used Chinese characters all along since antiquity until replacement by Hangul alphabets in 1970s (or earlier in North Korea). The pronunciation of 70% korean words of Chinese origin is similar to Southern chinese dialect Min (闽) as spoken in Fujian or Taiwan.


That is interesting. I didn't realize there was that connection.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

TundraGreen said:


> That is interesting. I didn't realize there was that connection.


This article only adds to my confusion...


So Korean has way more Chinese influence than I had realised

Hugh Grigg2012年6月24日

I’ve been learning a little bit of Korean recently, just little bits and pieces when I’m not studying Chinese. Previously I did know that there was a lot of Chinese influence in Korean, particularly because of the spread of 漢字 as a writing system across East Asia. But it wasn’t until I actually started learning to read 한글 (hangeul, the Korean writing system) that I realised just how deep this influence goes.

It almost feels like you can see the Chinese origin in every new Korean word you learn. Obviously it’s likely that confirmation bias has a lot to do with it, but it does seem that a large proportion of words are like this, maybe even a majority. Just a few examples off the top of my head:

실내 (shil-nae) - 室内 (shìnèi)
연 (yeon) - 烟 (yān)
중국 (jung-gug) - 中国 (Zhōngguó)
일본 (Ilbon) - 日本 (Rìběn)
You can clearly see the relation to Chinese pronunciation in all of those words. I am a complete noob with Korean, so this point is probably laughably obvious to anyone with much experience in both languages. The thing that prompted it for me was a ‘no smoking’ sign at uni that was written in a few languages. I read the Korean and thought it sounded fantastically similar to the Chinese.




https://eastasiastudent.net/korea/korean/noticing-chinese-influence/


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

There are about 10,000 full-blooded Chinese in Mexicali, down from 35,000 in the 1920s. Marriage of these people with the general Mexican population is common. Nowadays, there are about 50,000 partial or full-blooded Chinese in the area. There are about 70,000 people of Chinese descent living in Mexico, as of 2008.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Mexicans


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Yes and there was a connection between all the Indo European languages and that does not mean a whole lot if you want to communicate nowadays..

I lived eight above Chinatown for about 10 years in San Francisco and many people working for me spoke Chinese. My assistant´s parents were both from mainland China and spoke different dialects of Cantonese and did not understand each other . The Chinese built up their influence and empire through the written language.

The Tong association from the San Francisco Chinatown asked us to give classes to new immigrants. One of the instructor was Japanese and he could read Chinese papers because of of the written form that was being used but he did not understand one word of Chinese and could not communicate in Chinese..

I studied Indo European , that helped me to understand the origin of languages but that did nothing for my knowledge of other European languages and yet all those languages influenced each other and improved on each other.

You can clearly see the connection between all the Mayan languages and again good luck about speaking and communicating .. Some are close than other so you can learn them more easily but again they are very distinct..


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Actually my analogy is incorrect.. English French and German are all Indo European languages , Chinese and Korean are not part of the same family of languages..


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> Actually my analogy is incorrect.. English French and German are all Indo European languages , Chinese and Korean are not part of the same family of languages..


I think that Japanese and Korean are closely related, while the various Chinese languages (not dialects) are in a language family of their own called Sino-Tibetan.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I do not know if Korean and Japanese are connected but they are not part of the same language family ( I think) either however from the distance they seem closer but I have no idea of they are or not. In San Francisco the Koreans live around Japantown but that maybe that the supermarkets in that area cater to the Japanese and Korean needs when the stores in Chinatown caters to the Chinese , Thai and Vietnamese.. It seems to be the same in Paris but again who knows..


When the Japanese maestro came to San Cristobal he asked if they were Asian restaurants and I gave him the name of Thai, Chinese and Korean restaurants , he immediately went to the Korean restaurant and made friends with the owners, never went to the other places. That does not prove anything except that it seems to repeat itself a lot around the world..


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

I'm afraid none of this is helping the original poster but the chances are slim locating a Taiwanese expat here, even if there are a few.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I do not agree, there are lots of different nationalities lakeside and chances are that someone in the Chapala area knows someone from Taiwan who lives here or in Guadalajara.

The University of Guadalajara and the University of Chengchi, Taipe seem to have exchange prograSave Go Advanced Cancel

Last edited by citlali; Today at 10:23 PM.
Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote ms so I would start there and see if there are students of professors from Taiwan living here.
My husband goes to a doctor that is right next to a place teaching Chinese , that is on Calle Lerdo Tejeda , Guadalajara, I would check with that school too where the teachers are from.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Tundragreen answered this question in the first response.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I have googled Japanese and Korean and learned that, indeed, as citlali has mentioned, they belong to different language families. I had been thinking that because Buddhism was transmitted to Japan from Korea that their languages were related, but I was mistaken.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Isla Verde said:


> I have googled Japanese and Korean and learned that, indeed, as citlali has mentioned, they belong to different language families. I had been thinking that because Buddhism was transmitted to Japan from Korea that their languages were related, but I was mistaken.


Yes, completely different. Outside of expat communities it is rare to find anyone who speaks English, let alone Chinese except in the areas mentioned earlier. The population of Chinese is declining in Mexico from what I saw.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

There are plenty of people who speak English in Mexico from the people who have lived in the States to the well educated who often enough speak English and French
.May not be a whole lot in the country or on the street but many people speak English in the cities.Some just are shy and do not brag about it but they do..


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> There are plenty of people who speak English in Mexico from the people who have lived in the States to the well educated who often enough speak English and French
> .May not be a whole lot in the country or on the street but many people speak English in the cities.Some just are shy and do not brag about it but they do..


And then there are those who think [aka "imagine"] they speak English, but can barely communicate a coherent thought in my native tongue. Luckily for me, some of them realize it in time and come to me for English classes!


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

citlali said:


> There are plenty of people who speak English in Mexico from the people who have lived in the States to the well educated who often enough speak English and French
> .May not be a whole lot in the country or on the street but many people speak English in the cities.Some just are shy and do not brag about it but they do..


Why is this a sticking point? Once you get out of the large cities you can roam the streets of Orizaba or Cordoba all day long asking and not find one person that speaks English, let alone Mandarin. I have been living here for four years now and have met four people who speak English. If you live in Mexico don't expect to hear English unless you move to a " Little America" part of Mexico. 

Sure, there are plenty of people who speak English, but you really won't find them in most parts of Mexico. Education has nothing to do with it, it is their country.


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## wanghaozhi (Nov 9, 2017)

*Weather trumps language*

Thanks, all for the comments. My wife and I were talking this afternoon on our daily walk about being around Chinese people. Escaping to a warm climate from Seattle, and still be relatively close to our children trumps Chinese culture. 

She says that in her mind, her lack of Spanish is the main concern, and she has started studying. She's already been practicing, "Favor de hablarme en español".


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

wanghaozhi said:


> Thanks, all for the comments. My wife and I were talking this afternoon on our daily walk about being around Chinese people. Escaping to a warm climate from Seattle, and still be relatively close to our children trumps Chinese culture.
> 
> She says that in her mind, her lack of Spanish is the main concern, and she has started studying. She's already been practicing, "Favor de hablarme en español".


I wish the both of you the best of luck, you will love Mexico. I started studying before I moved but once I got to the Yucatan and moved into an expat community everyone spoke English, most didn't even try to learn Spanish so my learning stalled for a year.

I suggest Duolingo.com it is free and actually the best program I have found. I bought and returned Rosetta Stone because to me it was useless, a guessing game. I also bought "Instant Immersion" which was a little better but not as good as Duolingo.

I wouldn't suggest basing my location on the number of similar speaking people, just because someone speaks the same language is no assurance that you will have anything in common with them, choose to hang around with them or even like many of them unless that is particularly important to you to be around other Americans or Chinese people, that won't help if you dislike the area or are afraid to go out at night.

I would focus on the things that interest you be it the culture, history or things to do in a particular area. The fishing in the Yucatan is incredible, people pay thousands of dollars just to go there to fish for Bone Fish, Marlin and Snapper.

Mexico City is a powerhouse like Houston on steroids, a lot to see and do. 

The atmosphere, architecture and food in Oaxaca is incredible, National Geographic just named Oaxaca 5th in places to visit in 2018. We lived there for a short time and the city is very clean, you can see the article here. The downside is that the teachers are constantly on strike blocking roads and even freeways, you don't learn this until you live there.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/oaxaca-is-no-5-of-places-to-visit-in-2018/


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