終極台灣指南! The ULTIMATE Taiwan Guide A - Z!! 26 Most Taiwanese Words!

Hello everybody, welcome back to the channel. My name is Alan. This is my life in Taiwan. And in today's video, I am going to be giving you the ultimate Taiwan tour guide using the English alphabet, A to Z. I'm going to be selecting something quintessentially Taiwanese for each letter of the English alphabet, starting with A for always open, which is the motto of 7-Eleven, the most famous convenience store here in Taiwan. But also, now that the borders are opening up and people are coming in, Taiwan is more and more open to foreigners. So yes, A for always open. Now, let's get to B for bubble milk tea. Probably one of Taiwan's most famous exports, originating from Taiwan sometime in the 1980s. It's argued whether it was the Hanlin teahouse or the Chen Shui Tang teahouse that actually invented the drink, but it has become an absolute worldwide phenomenon. It's available in almost every country around the world, but you can't beat an original Taiwan-made cup of bubble milk tea. But don't drink it too often as it is quite unhealthy, and it's definitely put on a few pounds for me over the years. Anyway, on to the next letter, which is going to be C. And for C, there were several words that came to mind when I thought of Taiwan, such as cheap, convenient, critical to the world economy. But what I'm actually going to go with is a simple thing about the language, and that's Chinese. Yes, the main language of Taiwan is Chinese. They speak many other languages, including Taiwanese, Hakkanese, several other aboriginal languages. But when you come to Taiwan, it is a great opportunity for you to learn Chinese, whether you stay here and use it in your daily life, or you go back to your own country and show off to all of your friends and family how good is your Chinese. But yeah, that's C. Now, on to D. We are bending the rules a little bit. We are using a little bit of Chinese pinyin, and we're actually going for a double D. Who doesn't like a double D? And that's my breakfast combination of doujiang soybean milk and danbing, an egg pancake. Probably three or four times a week, I come to this restaurant and order my cheese and bacon danbing, nice and soft fried. And as I mentioned, wash it down with a nice ice cold doujiang soybean milk. Perfect breakfast combination that cannot be missed. Right, let's get on to E. And for the E word, I have chosen the word English, because Taiwan is an English friendly country. And as this video is probably more likely to be aimed at tourists coming here to find out information about the country, it's important for you to know that you don't need to speak the local language to get by here. Yes, it is a little bit more difficult in the countryside or outside of the big cities, but in the cities, you're generally going to be okay speaking your native language of English. The letter F of course has to represent awesome Taiwanese food. And as I've made hundreds of other food videos in the past, I'll just link my playlist in the corner for you to check out. But yes, Taiwanese food is among the best in the world and certainly deserves a mention here. Now for the next letter. G is for gaming arcades. Not quite on Japan level. You definitely have to come try, see how the young people of Taiwan spend their time. H brings us to the world famous hot springs of Taiwan, of which you can find them all over the island. Whether that's the hotel style preferred by many people or the natural wild hot springs my good friend Xiaofei likes to share on his channel, they are a must visit for a trip to Taiwan. Okay, and the next letter in the alphabet is going to be I and the word I've chosen for that is independence. Prozzie, is Taiwan independent? It sure is. We don't need to declare independence because we're already independent. I love that little bit from Tsai Ing-wen. It's a very clever way of, um, being independent. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Onto the next letter, which is going to be B. J. Jade mountain has to be our representative for the letter J. Taiwan's tallest mountain still remains unconquered by myself, but a whole host of my friends have been up to the 3,952 meter peak. So if you still want to see me climb it, then comment down below and let me know. And although I haven't been to the top of Jade mountain, our K contender is somewhere I've been many times and that's KTV karaoke. Always a fun night out with friends and of course a chance to have a beer or two. Anyway, onto the next letter. And for L, we are talking Lotto or the Taiwan Lotto. And it's interesting to know that here in Taiwan, the Lotto is a charitable institution. Of course, people make a lot of money out of it, but it also gives a lot of money to charities. And strictly speaking, each Lotto license only goes to a person with a disability of some kind. I have heard rumors that that's a bit flexible and scrupulous businessmen will buy those licenses off the disabled people. But yeah, the point of the Lotto is to raise money for charity and give back to society. And there's two ways you can do the Lotto. You can fill out a number of tickets just like this one and take part in the daily draws. Or you can buy a Guagua Le, a scratch card of which I've bought $300 worth today. Anyway, enough talking on this. I'm sure you're all dying to know how much did I win for my $300. $100 scratch card, absolutely nothing as expected. And a $200 scratch card, absolutely zip. $300 down the swanee, but at least a little bit goes to charity. Anyway, onto the next letter, which is going to be M for MRT, Mass Rapid Transport Systems, of which every biggest city in Taiwan has their own. Now, Kaohsiung, Taichung and Taipei all have MRTs. Taichung was a little late to the party having taken maybe 10 or 12 years to build theirs. But yes, we have our own line now running right around the city. Very convenient for me as I live on the line. So we're going to use the MRT to get to the next spot. And that next stop is going to bring us to the letter N, which stands for night markets, of which there are hundreds, maybe thousands all over this island. And they represent the beating heart, the energy, the atmosphere of Taiwan and how the always open attitude continues right through into the night. And luckily for me, we've arrived at the next letter, which is going to be O for Oyster Omelette, an absolute night market staple, full of greens, big chunky oysters, eggs and a sauce, which I'm told is Hua Shen Jiang, a pinky coloured sauce. Absolute night market heaven. Wowee. Absolutely delicious. 10 out of 10. But no time to hang around in this video. Time to get on to the next letter, which is going to be P for Parks. And I'm not just talking about the nine amazing national parks that Taiwan has to offer its citizens and residents, but also around each city and towns, there's hundreds of smaller escape parks, which what I mean by that is it's a place where you can be in the middle of a city the hustle and bustle of busy Taiwan, but then you come to a place like this here at Wenshin Forest Park, and it's absolutely peace on earth, heaven on earth. And somewhere, like I say, just where you can escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. So if you're coming to Taiwan, definitely spend some time in the national parks and smaller parks such as this one where I am right now. For Q, the letter I've chosen is Questions, because as a foreigner here in Taiwan, you are going to be grilled by the locals, whether it's here on a bus like this, in a taxi, at the bus stop, at the 7-Eleven, you're going to get very similar questions from every person that you meet. That's going to be 你是哪里人? 你是从来哪里? 你几岁? 你做什么工作? 你的薪水多少钱? 你有没有台湾老婆? All of these questions are going to be things that you face on a semi-regular basis. So be prepared for it. Anyway, on to the next letter, which is going to be S, which in Taiwan is going mean a scooter. Yes, a scooter is an absolutely essential part of life here in Taiwan. Yes, people do drive cars, people do use the public transport, but the ultimate, most convenient, simple way of getting around the cities is to get yourself a scooter. If you do come to Taiwan, get yourself a scooter, make sure you get your license, get yourself insurance, fully legal, pick yourself up a nice cheap one and you're away. The next letter is going to be T, and of course we are going for a Taiwan beer, a very important part of life here in Taiwan. Prozzie's driving, so I'm going to do the drinking while he explains to you why Taiwan beer is so important to culture here. Because it's locally brewed here in Taiwan, and yeah, I don't know, I don't, I don't, why is it so popular? I don't know. Thanks, buddy. On to the next letter, which is going to be U. For the letter U, we could have, of course, chosen one of the most famous U words, Umbrella, which is something you'll often need here in Taiwan, but more important and integral to life is a U-bike. It is one of the most convenient and easiest ways to get around the city. You will need a smart card such as this one with my Labi Shaoshin, and all you need to do is add some money to this at 7-Eleven, touch it to the screen and the bike is yours, free for half an hour to go anywhere you want in this city. There is a charge if you stay more than 30 minutes, but with thousands of U-bike stations all over the country, it's always easy to find one and get yourself from A to B, or A to Z in the case of this video. Okay, so that's U taken care of, which brings me on to the next letter, which is V, and I've got nothing. For the first time in this video, I couldn't really come up with something for V. Very good, very beautiful, very welcoming, seems like a bit of a cop-out, so I'm asking you guys to comment down below with your input. What do you think would be the perfect V word to link to Taiwan, to describe Taiwan? Let me know down below, but as for me, on to the next letter. And for W, I don't think I could have picked a better location or a better day to talk about the next word, and that's going to be weather. Taiwan's weather is basically insane, from tropical storms to typhoons to glorious blue sky sunny days like today, you never know what you're going to get with Taiwan. You're always going to be kept guessing whether it's going to be a torrential downpour or a beautiful sunny day, so it's definitely something to consider, and it's much more interesting than the boring drizzly grey rain that we get back in the UK. I'd much rather take Taiwan's weather than that boring British weather any day. But anyway, time for the next letter, and that next letter may seem like a difficult one as it's going to be an X, but using a little bit of our pinyin get out clause, we can get some xiaolongbao, which is a pork soup dumpling cooked in a traditional bamboo basket over steam, usually eaten by one person in servings of six or eight. The best accompaniment is a bit of ginger, soy sauce, maybe a little wasabi, and then pop the dumpling over your spoon, allow any soup to drip out, and then down the hatch in one go. And then finish off the soup, which is basically just the fat that has melted from the pork, and there you've got a perfect serving of xiaolongbao. On to the penultimate letter, which is going to be Y, and for this one I've invited Prozzy back to give his opinion. YouTubers, specifically foreign YouTubers, how important are they when you come to Taiwan and start a life here? Can they give you any useful information? Absolutely not. So thanks to Prozzy for his inspired input into this video, and thanks to you guys for watching to the very end. We've been through 25 letters of the alphabet and are only left with the final letter, and that's Z, and for this we're going back to our pinyin get out clause, and for this Z is zhēndè jiàdè, something that you will often hear people saying to you in Taiwan. It means, really, are you telling me the truth? And basically, it's also a key hack to Chinese. When somebody's and you don't understand really what they're saying, you can just reply zhēndè jiàdè, and they'll think that you're interested in what they're saying. But I think that's time for me to say goodbye. Thanks so much for watching. This video has been sponsored by the Alan and Prozzy podcast, so if you want some more Alan and Prozzy in your lives, we get together once a week where we sit down, have a bit of a chat about our lives, and share some more interesting nuances about our lives here in Taiwan. Link in the description down below, but as for now, as always, time to say goodbye. So, I'll see you next time in my life in Taiwan. Peace. Bye-bye.