Most Taiwanese use the standard Chinese. People in southern Taiwan, especially the elderly, prefer to speak dialect but they can communicate in Chinese as well. Only few old old people can't communicate in Chinese (they only speak in dialect.)

When it comes to the written language, traditional characters are used in Taiwan. The spoken language in Taiwan is pretty much the same standard Mandarin as it is in China, just with different accents and slangs. The local Taiwanese dialect, Minan, is not widely known in mainland China except for the province of FuJian.

The dialect used in Taiwan is Minan, very similar to the dialect from Fukien. It is also can be understood widely in Malaysia (especially on the island of Penang) and Singapore.