The intensive individual course with 30 hours of 1-on-1 Mandarin tuition is the fastest way to learn Mandarin in Taiwan there is. Don’t get us wrong, studying six hours of individual Chinese classes is intense. However, studying hard does get you results and your Mandarin will progress very quickly – especially when combined with living in a homestay. While everyone is different in general for a complete beginner to achieve full fluency (about HSK / TOCFL level 5 or 6) takes usually a bit less than a year. For a more basic understanding, to get to a level where you can travel around Taiwan or mainland China, order food, buy train tickets and handle day to day life in Mandarin takes about two to four weeks. Again living with a homestay will speed up the process. The standard individual course with 20 hours of 1-on-1 Mandarin classes per week will also get you ahead very quickly, however of course the intensive one delivers faster Chinese language progress.