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Taiwanese Interpreters

Professional Taiwanese interpreting, virtual or in person, for the settings where getting it wrong has consequences — asylum interviews, hearings, attorney meetings, medical appointments and school meetings.

Taiwanese means Taiwanese Hokkien, a different language from the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan

Is a Mandarin interpreter enough for a client from Taiwan? For most clients, yes. For the ones who asked for "Taiwanese", no. Taiwanese (Tâi-gí, Taiwanese Hokkien) is a Southern Min language, separate from Mandarin. In Taiwan's 2020 census about 66 percent of residents gave Mandarin as their main language and 31.7 percent gave Taiwanese. Another 54.3 percent use Taiwanese as a second language: many people understand it, fewer live in it.

The client who needs a Taiwanese interpreter is usually older. Taiwan's past promotion of Mandarin is widely blamed for weakening the transmission of Taiwanese, leaving many younger people unable to speak it. Ask the client, not the relative who made the booking. The relative's Mandarin is often better than the client's.

Taiwan itself treats this as a matter of rights. Article 11 of its Development of National Languages Act (2019) lets citizens choose which national language to use in administrative, legislative and judicial proceedings, and requires agencies to provide interpreters when needed. A witness who would be given a Taiwanese interpreter in a courtroom in Taipei should not be expected to manage in Mandarin in a deposition here.

Dates on Taiwanese documents count years from the founding of the Republic of China

Taiwanese official documents use the Republic of China (Minguo) calendar, in which year 1 is 1912. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York tells readers of its translations to add 1911 to convert. A household registration transcript dated year 75 means 1986, and year 113 means 2024. The months and days are Gregorian, so only the year changes.

When a document is read aloud at a hearing, the interpreter should say that a date is a Minguo year and give the conversion explicitly, not convert silently. A birth year that appears as 75 on one paper and 1986 on another is the same year, and both should be on the record. Send us any Taiwanese documents that will be read, and we brief the interpreter on them in advance.

The passport spelling is Mandarin, the name a person answers to may not be

Taiwanese passports spell names in a loose version of Wade-Giles romanization of the Mandarin reading: Tsai Ing-wen, Ko Wen-je. That is why the same characters can look unrelated to a pinyin spelling of the same name on a document from mainland China. Some people romanize their names from Taiwanese instead. The surname 林 is Lin in Mandarin and Lim in Taiwanese, and legislator Freddy Lim uses the Taiwanese form.

So one family can legitimately appear as Lin and Lim, or under Wade-Giles and pinyin spellings, across a set of records. An interpreter who knows both readings can explain that in one sentence. Taiwanese documents are also written in traditional characters, so the interpreter sight-translating them should be used to reading traditional characters.

In the United States, the Census Bureau's 2009–2013 language table counted about 77,700 people who speak Taiwanese at home (it uses the label "Formosan"), 44 percent of them in California. The largest metro areas were Los Angeles (about 19,600), New York (11,600), San Francisco–Oakland (4,900) and San Jose (4,000).

Taiwanese is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Taiwanese interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Taiwanese carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, and why lead time matters more here than with a common language: a week is comfortable, two days is a gamble.

We would rather tell you that before you book a hearing date than after. If your date is fixed and close, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it rather than accepting and hoping.

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Where interpretation is used

The settings differ in what they demand of the interpreter, which is worth saying because they are frequently priced as though they were the same work:

• Asylum and immigration interviews. USCIS asylum interviews require the applicant to bring an interpreter, and the interview can be rescheduled if the interpreter does not appear or is not competent — which makes this the setting where getting it right matters most.
• Attorney–client meetings and declarations. Preparing testimony, taking a statement, going through documents.
• Depositions and hearings. Where the record is being made and accuracy is examined afterwards.
• Medical appointments. Note that hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance themselves, so ask before you hire.
• School meetings. IEP meetings and parent conferences — districts also have their own obligations here.
• Business meetings and signings, such as real estate closings.

Each setting has its own page — who has to provide the interpreter, what the meeting asks of one and what it costs: see interpreters by setting.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What we will tell you before you book

Two things, both of which occasionally cost us the booking. Whether the venue supplies its own interpreter. Immigration court provides one. Hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance. School districts have obligations of their own. If yours does, you should not be paying us — ask them first.

And whether we can actually staff your date. For a limited-availability language on short notice the honest answer is sometimes no, and we would rather say it than accept a booking we cannot fill. Interpretation is not translation: see certified translation at $24.95 per page if what you need is a document rendered in writing.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

The facts on this page about the language and its speakers in the United States were checked against these sources on October 28, 2026.

• US Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English, 2009–2013 (October 2015)
• Taiwan News — Taipei City Council forms Taiwanese Language Revitalization Caucus (May 6, 2026), citing 2020 census main-language figures
• Taiwan News — The joyous variety in Taiwanese chosen names (February 22, 2022)
• Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York — driver's licence English translation form, note on ROC year designations (2025)
• Laws & Regulations Database of the Republic of China (Taiwan) — Development of National Languages Act (January 9, 2019)

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