I've lived in the US all my life and don't look very Asian (I'm often confused for Latino or Middle Eastern), but I can speak the Taiwanese dialect of Chinese conversationally with very little accent. I picked up the language from my grandmother when I was little. It's always fun to see the reactions of other Taiwanese speakers when I suddenly start speaking Taiwanese to them.
Here are some interesting things I've picked up about the Taiwanese language.
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1. Same character set as Mandarin Chinese
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It uses the same writing system as Mandarin Chinese, but you pronounce the words completely differently. A Mandarin speaker can't understand anything a Taiwanese speaker says, and vice versa. However, Mandarin speakers and Taiwanese speakers can both read something written in Chinese.
