When six-year-old Chiang Tsun-ta (江宗達) stood up to show off his newly learnt Taiwanese to visiting Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday at the Chengder Elementary School's kindergarten, the occasion proved overwhelming.
"Mayor came in as number one in a jogging race," Chiang blurted out -- in Mandarin.
Ma grinned, asking Chiang if he could repeat the sentence in Taiwanese. With hints from his teacher, he finally managed to speak Taiwanese, drawing a roomful of laughter and applause.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I seldom speak it," the boy confessed later. "But when my teacher began to teach us Taiwanese, I started to learn it," he added.
Chiang is not alone. Since last September, children in Taipei's 416 kindergartens became the first pre-schoolers in Taiwan to be offered Taiwanese courses, as part of an election campaign promise by Ma. Taiwanese originates in the southern Fukienese dialects brought to Taiwan by early settlers, and is now spoken as a first language by about 70 percent of Taiwan's population.
Despite young Chiang's nervous trip-up, as the mayor inspected the kindergarten yesterday to see how his policy was being carried out, he appeared pleased by what he saw.
The point of the program, according to Ma, is not only to give children a fresh, early start in learning the island's different languages, but also to help foster a respect among them for those who speak other languages.
"Teachers can teach kids Taiwanese through children's songs; this will help them learn Taiwan's mother tongue," Ma said in his clearly less-than-fluent Taiwanese. The mayor, who has lived all his life in Taiwan after being born in Hong Kong, started taking Taiwanese language courses three years ago.
"If the next generation can start learning other tongues from childhood, they won't face as many ethnic problems as they grow up," he added.
Such problems alluded to by the mayor have deep roots in Taiwan. Until about 20 years ago, it was against school rules to speak Taiwanese in public, as part of what critics say was the KMT's efforts to suppress the development of an ethnic Taiwanese identity. But the call for a greater awareness of Taiwanese identity in recent years has prompted the official move to include other language courses, including Taiwanese and Hakka, in the educational establishment.
Su Hsiu-hua (蘇秀花), chief of pre-school education at the city government's education bureau, outlined the reasons behind teaching Taiwanese at kindergarten level.
"The key is to teach them colloquial Taiwanese so that they'll know how to cope when faced with situations under different circumstances," Su told dozens of teachers from other kindergartens who were on hand to witness Chengder's Taiwanese teaching activities.
A set of Taiwanese teaching materials, including about 200 newly composed modern Taiwanese children's songs and CDs, will be available by the end of March, Su said.
Pug Lam Kiang (
"Although Ma's predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (
Ma's move to push for Taiwanese teaching at the kindergarten level had also influenced other local governments such as Taipei County to follow suit, Pug added.
So far, more than 500 kindergarten teachers have joined Taiwanese teaching seminars arranged by the education bureau, while 12 kindergartens have been chosen to present emulation seminars for kindergarten teachers elsewhere.
Su said the bureau would offer kindergarten students Hakka and Aboriginal language courses soon after Taiwanese courses have been widely implemented.
In related news, the Ministry of Education announced last week that courses of mother tongues -- including Taiwanese, Hakka and Aboriginal languages -- will be compulsory for elementary school students islandwide starting in September next year.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique