As the government moves to rectify the devastating past suppression of languages such as Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), Hakka and the various Aboriginal tongues, it has become common to read news reports in which people question such policies and the importance of learning such languages.
Just months after National Taiwan University professors shut down a student representative who spoke Hoklo at a university cooperative shop board meeting, oddly comparing speaking Hoklo to smoking cigarettes, controversy erupted again last week.
The latest incident involves the wife of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate.
Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬) called the Ministry of Education’s efforts to promote Hoklo a waste of time and resources.
As if her husband’s often ignorant comments were not bad enough, Lee has made the news for a number of misguided statements, including erroneously claiming on Monday that elementary-school students are being taught about “anal sex” and “orgasms,” and that the Kaoshiung Megaport Festival “has made many mothers weep.”
While the comments were not made by Han, there is a certain social responsibility politicians running for president and their campaign team have to maintain. Fervent supporters might believe what Han and Lee say without question, but that does not bode well for society.
However, they are not the only people making outlandish statements.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) continues to offend people. It seems to be a growing trend among politicians worldwide, which is alarming.
Lee’s comments led to the Democratic Progressive Party and the KMT trading barbs last week, before an Academia Sinica Institute of Linguistics academic tried to debunk Lee’s claim on Friday.
It appears that the rationale behind Lee’s comment is that learning these languages in school instead of at home would hinder students learning foreign languages, namely English.
That is a totally different problem.
The nation’s English education environment has long been incompetent — even when students were only learning Mandarin and English at school — and it definitely needs fixing.
If Han wants Taiwanese students to be better at English, he and his staff should look at how to improve the curriculum and the style of teaching instead of targeting native languages, which are finally getting the respect they deserve after decades of neglect and suppression.
Such an attitude is reminiscent of the colonial mentality brought by the Japanese and the KMT, in which one language is considered more important than another, and it is especially insulting coming from the KMT.
Since passing the National Languages Development Act (國家語言發展法) in December last year, the government has been doing a great job of leading by example: Last month, real-time Aboriginal-language interpretation was provided for the first time at an official meeting at the Presidential Office.
“The government will do more and bring about changes to make up for the lack of effort in the past so that an Aboriginal-language-friendly environment can be built,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said.
This is the correct attitude.
While current KMT members should not be faulted for the policies their party implemented in the past, they could at least make an effort to be conscious of what happened and be supportive of efforts that seek to undo the damage.
China’s supreme objective in a war across the Taiwan Strait is to incorporate Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic. It follows, therefore, that international recognition of Taiwan’s de jure independence is a consummation that China’s leaders devoutly wish to avoid. By the same token, an American strategy to deny China that objective would complicate Beijing’s calculus and deter large-scale hostilities. For decades, China has cautioned “independence means war.” The opposite is also true: “war means independence.” A comprehensive strategy of denial would guarantee an outcome of de jure independence for Taiwan in the event of Chinese invasion or
A recent Taipei Times editorial (“A targeted bilingual policy,” March 12, page 8) questioned how the Ministry of Education can justify spending NT$151 million (US$4.74 million) when the spotlighted achievements are English speech competitions and campus tours. It is a fair question, but it focuses on the wrong issue. The problem is not last year’s outcomes failing to meet the bilingual education vision; the issue is that the ministry has abandoned the program that originally justified such a large expenditure. In the early years of Bilingual 2030, the ministry’s K-12 Administration promoted the Bilingual Instruction in Select Domains Program (部分領域課程雙語教學實施計畫).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) earlier this month said it is necessary for her to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and it would be a “huge boost” to the party’s local election results in November, but many KMT members have expressed different opinions, indicating a struggle between different groups in the party. Since Cheng was elected as party chairwoman in October last year, she has repeatedly expressed support for increased exchanges with China, saying that it would bring peace and prosperity to Taiwan, and that a meeting with Xi in Beijing takes priority over meeting
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