Any advice for someone who has never been to Taiwan?

As someone who was born and raised in Taiwan, my words to you are: Please do NOT worry a thing! Just relax and enjoy your study abroad experience. Imagine a trip to another major US city for 4 months, and pack what you think you need during the trip. You will be good. By the way, do not drive if you don't have to in Taiwan. They have very adequate public transportation system. I bet you have some friends or classmates who are Taiwanese or their families are from Taiwan. Talk to them please. I promise it will be very helpful!

You already have the language skills. Taiwan is a very safe country. The Taiwanese welcome foreigners. If you get frustrated here just try to smile and relax. Here is a link to a website that you can look at so you will know what to expect. http://www.tealit.com/ Have fun.
Regards,

I highly recommend to buy a lonely planet book just to familiar yourself with a little bit.

Taiwan (especially Taipei and Koushieng) has a great public transportation. I can say that it's one of the best. Many young people have decent english. People are very friendly and the city is as safe as any city. It's clean and people respect the rule.

Visiting Taiwan is one of the most relax trip for me because The city is structure well and well organized.

Enjoy.

hi~~welcome to taiwan
taiwan is a safe and friendly country
don`t worry and relax
I to vouch for that you will love here

sorry my english isn`t enough good
But hope you happy in taiwan

Don't worry! Taiwan is a great place to visit! You shouldn't be afraid to speak Mandarin with the taiwanese as they will be more than happy that you took the time to learn their language and don't worry about making mistakes, the taiwanese know how hard mandarin is and they love when visitors take the time to learn chinese!

Def. try the food It's amazing! Go to the night markets, And if you have time go to the beaches in the south and the mountains in central taiwan they are worth it!

Taiwan is subtropical in the north and tropical in the south, so keep that in mind when you pack although northern taiwan(taipei) can be chilly in Jan and Feb, Southern Taiwan (Kaoshuing, Kenting) is still warm enough to go out to the beach! Taiwan is a mountainous island and the basic geography is mountains in the central with valleys and plains and a beautiful coastline!

Hope you have a great time!

ive been there but only a stopover it was taiwan to philippines i wish i could go there someday good luck in taiwan if you are going there

Hi,

Dont worry, It's only 4 months and the experience is something you wont forget. You might just come back at a later date for a longer stay.

Taiwan is Great and you would always regret if you miss this opportunity.

Food is no problem and most signs here is bilingual-English/Mandarin so you wont get lost.

The City transport system is great and easy to navigate.

Taiwan is Youth Friendly:
http://www.youthtravel.tw/youthtravel/indexMain.jsp

I lived there for 5 years. It's great. You have the most important item covered and that is an ability to speak Chinese. At first you will be overwhelmed by the Chinese street signs and want to stay close to home until you learn your way around. Many of them do have pinyin but that was my initial reaction when I got there. Enjoy the night markets and stay away from the clubs.

Nothing to worry about... I lived in Taipei for 6 years and loved it. One thing I have to point out is that you probably have a mainland accent and some people will think that is strange. I don't know where you are planning to study. If you have a choice, Taipei is the best place to live as it has all the facilities.

(And my 200 words of Chinese won't get me anywhere ☺)

My entire family is from Taiwan, and one of the biggest things to remember in Taiwan is politeness. Never point with one finger, that is considered a deadly insult, always point with your entire hand. Since you can speak the language, on the way there make sure you have the pronunciation right, some words sound the same but have different accents. I assume you're going to Taipei, so many signs are in english, when traveling use busses or the subway as much as possible, they're much cleaner than taxies, have everything in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Don't think that the subway is dirty, they have cleaners there a lot, and it's under 5 years old. If you're staying for that long, buy a Taipei Smart Card, in chinese it's called a yo-yo card. They cost more at first, but then you don't have to buy tickets, and you get 20% off for every purchase.
Enjoy you're time there, there's a lot of fun things to do there, my top suggestions, Taipei 101, Maokung, and High Speed Rail, to go to Candin, Alishan, or Hualin. Candin is a beach place, make sure to go the the Beach Resort, it's awesome. Alishan and Hualin are mountains with amazing views, if you go to Alishan make sure to do the sunset tour, bring a lot of jackets for that, i'm from Maine and Alishan was FREEZING. But for most of the time, bring t-shirts and shorts.
Make sure to try the different foods, they're delicious, i suggest bubble tea, there's this frozen ice/milk/bean thing that i can't remember the name of, but it's great, and be adventurous, in Taipei, the Brother Hotel has a great Japanese resturant and a lot of chinese. Try anything, there's food from all over asia, if your not OK with that, then they still have McDonalds.
Have Fun!!