Home/Taiwanese Mandarin/All pairs/移工 vs 外劳
foreign worker · Different everyday word
Different everyday word The two terms share no characters at all. In Taiwan the standard term is 移工; on the Mainland it is 外劳 - both point at “foreign worker”.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionaries record 移工、外勞 for this concept. The Mainland standard is among them - the difference is which form each side makes the default.
Neither term carries an HSK or TOCFL level in this table - this pair is dictionary-recorded, not syllabus-derived.
Pair source: CC-CEDICT, which tags the Taiwan form as Taiwan usage.
| Taiwan · 台灣 | Mainland · 大陆 | |
|---|---|---|
| Written form | 移工 | 外劳 |
| Reading | ㄧˊ ㄍㄨㄥ yí gōng | wài láo ㄨㄞˋ ㄌㄠˊ |
| Senses | foreign worker | foreign worker |
| Syllabus | — | — |
| MOE records | 移工 · 外勞 | |
| Dictionary | not in the LinZi dictionary | not in the LinZi dictionary |
| Audio | — | — |
Taiwan vs Mainland explorer (search all 953 pairs, random pair, MOE reading table) · every pair, A–Z · MOE standard characters · learning Mandarin for Taiwan · dictionary