Alongside Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, known locally as Tâi-gí or simply “Taiwanese” , is widely spoken, particularly among older generations and in the south of the island. It is a variety of the Southern Min（閩南） language group, closely related to the Hokkien spoken in Fujian Province and among overseas Chinese communities in South-East Asia. You will hear it constantly in markets, on television dramas, and in conversation between older Taiwanese people.

Taiwanese is not a dialect of Mandarin and is not mutually intelligible with it — they are distinct languages. The relationship between them is perhaps loosely analogous to the relationship between, say, Italian and Spanish: related, but not the same. Younger Taiwanese people often understand Taiwanese but may not speak it fluently, as Mandarin was the sole language of instruction for much of the twentieth century. There is a significant cultural movement to revive and preserve Taiwanese Hokkien, and you will find it increasingly visible in signage and media.