The KMT-led Taipei City Government yesterday launched the first of a series of audio tapes designed to help elementary school students learn the Hokkien language, commonly called "Taiwanese," in a move apparently aimed at bolstering the KMT's pro-Taiwan image.
"In the ferociously competitive world, the more diverse the species and cultures are, the better," Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"Taipei City is a diverse metropolis in terms of culture and language," Ma said. "It's amazing that the city has about 58,000 expatriates coming from 115 countries and speaking 60 different languages. In addition, the 2 million local residents are capable of speaking some 10 different languages."
Ma's remark seemed to echo comments recently from Huang Ta-chou (
Huang presented a speech titled "The True Meaning of Taiwanization" before the KMT's Central Standing Committee on Wednesday, said the party hadn't abandoned its "Taiwan first" policies put forth by former president Lee Teng-hui (
Huang said that the "Taiwanization" the KMT advocates has been twisted by "ethnically obsessed" politicians who are "anti-mainlanders" and "anti-China."
"The true meaning of Taiwanization is not to be detached from other ethnic cultures and countries, but to learn from and work with them," Huang said. "Refusing to make contacts and exchanges with a different culture and the outside world will only lead one to be more conservative and narrow-minded."
But Ma dismissed yesterday talk that the city government's language tapes were politically motivated. "Only those who realize the significance of biological and cultural diversity can understand that Taipei City's intent is purely education-oriented," he said.
Starting in the coming fall semester, the nation's first-graders are required to take one native language training course for 40 to 80 minutes a week. They can chose from Hokkien, Hakka or Aboriginal languages.
In a bid to back the nation's education policy, the city yesterday launched the first in a series of audio tapes designed to help the city's elementary students learn native languages.
Following the release of the tapes in Hokkien, another set in Hakka is scheduled to be launched on July 15. Tapes for Aboriginal languages are expected to come on July 23.
All of the tapes are expected to be available to the city's 200,000 public and private high school students by next month.
In 1996, the city government launched a trial of a similar scheme by offering native language training courses to third graders.
As of the spring semester, about 70,000 elementary school students have taken Hokkien courses, over 15,000 have taken Hakka and hundreds have taken Aboriginal languages.
In addition, to improve the English-speaking ability of Taiwan's citizens, the education ministry has decided to offer English-training courses to fifth and sixth graders starting this fall.
In an effort to out do the central government, Taipei City in 1998 started offering English training courses to third graders. The city's Bureau of Education is also studying the possibility of offering English courses to kindergartners and first graders next year.
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