The Cabinet recently decided to promote a national languages development bill (
However, the law will recognize all local languages used in Taiwan as "national" languages rather than "official" languages. In other words, this is no more than a political statement.
The UN has officially declared that some of Taiwan's languages are in danger of dying out. Surely, something can be done to reverse this situation.
The view among academics is that for a language to survive and develop, alphabetization, standardization, and modernization are required. Another -- and more important -- requirement is that at least 75 percent of the ethnic population use the language actively.
If the government really wants to respect all Taiwanese languages, it should consider making more of them "official." For example, in the areas populated by the Amis tribe, the Amis language should be adopted as an official language to be used in all official documents, thus giving the Amis language a chance of revival and development. That would be the act of a government that is truly modern, civilized and localized -- but with a global outlook.
A few concrete suggestions could be helpful:
First, a national survey on the current use of native languages should be conducted.
Native language teachers should be trained and the demand for native language teachers should be based on the national language survey.
Textbooks and extracurricular reading materials in the different languages, including technical, legal, medical, arts dictionaries as well as dictionaries in other fields should be written.
An appropriate increase should be made in the number of native language classes and fluency should be a requirement in examinations.
Bilingual education with the native language as the spoken language in class should be promoted.
Romanization education should start at an earlier stage to promote educational efficiency.
Government institutions at all levels and schools should establish a native language community service plan.
Finally, native language education and the gradual achievement of the goal of elevating all native languages to the level of official languages within 30 years should be encouraged.
Tiunn Hok Chu is a physician and a member of the Southern Taiwan Society.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
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