My grand father was from a poor family and worked in the coal mine before he moved to Taipei for better opportunities. As I remembered he could only speak Taiwanese and Japanese. I was the product of Mandarin only allowed when I was in elementary school until my family immigrated to US. Our family always have this connection with Japan from friends to relatives that are Japanese. And my wife who is also a Taiwanese American that really likes Japan we actually purchased a condo there couple years ago.