English in Taiwan

English in China - including Taiwan and Hong Kong - is non-native but is spreading rapidly due to the importance of English in international trade and as a lingua franca. In this respect Chinese English is a New English, though the degree of competence of speakers varies greatly and is not anywhere near that found in other Anglophone locations of South-East Asia such as Hong Kong and the Phillipines. As is typical with New Englishes there is much phonetic interference from background languages. In the case of Chinese English, vowel length is not distinctive and consonant clusters are greatly simplified. In addition the intonation used is quite different from native forms of English, something which impairs comprehensibility.

   Sample sound file