I must largely agree with Chang Sheng-en's (
But I feel that there is more to this issue than is immediately apparent from the statistical analysis of examination results. As a very experienced Australian teacher who has visited my wonderful family in Taiwan many times, I have noted several things about Taiwanese English speakers -- both young and old.
First, through vocal emulation of their teachers, students develop a US accent. This accent in all its forms, from "deep South" origins to the Canadian border, is often difficult for other English speaking people in the world to understand. Naturally students learn by imitating their teachers, but the difference between strongly-accented vowel sounds (as in the US "drawl") and standard, non-colloquial and non-idiomatic written text can cause confusion in an exam situation.
Second, it is necessary to practise conversational and grammatically "correct" English frequently to develop a proficiency in the language. Students need to be immersed in English language and culture to learn it effectively. Unlike Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and India, Taiwan does not have a residual colonial English culture. English for Taiwanese is as difficult to learn as Chinese is for Westerners.
The English language teaching programs on television and radio are full of heavily-accented US content, and some of the teachers speak rapidly and often leap from topic to topic with little continuity or repetition, and with no visual or contextual cues.
Furthermore, popular US television shows shown in Taiwan are also heavily accented, very idiomatic and the speech is far too rapid -- comments often made about Americans in general.
I feel that all of these combined can present unreasonable and daunting obstacles to students' learning.
I note that many English teaching jobs advertised in Taiwan state that a "North American accent" is preferred, presumably for perceived status, cultural and economic reasons.
But surely, if students are to have some competency in spoken and written English, then exposure to "neutrally accented" teachers is preferable.
English can be a strongly accented language, and even I, a "neutrally accented" Australian with many years of teaching experience, have difficulty understanding not only US English, but also South African, Indian, Scot and Irish-accented English.
Selection of teachers and teaching models should be based not only on qualifications, but on the ability to speak clear and non idiomatic English.
Geoffrey Cartridge
Adelaide, Australia
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
RSS