Chin Shih Ruan, a Vietnamese woman married to a Taiwan national, said she is thrilled to be attending a class set up by a charity organization to train interpreters -- which she said will at least help solve the problem of "ordering food" in Taiwan.
Ruan said that for the first week after she first arrived in Taiwan, she was given noodles every time she ordered food simply because she did not know the Mandarin Chinese word for "rice."
After hearing that the Eden Social Welfare Foundation was organizing a class exclusively to teach Vietnamese wives in Taiwan how to speak Mandarin Chinese as well as how to be Vietnamese-Chinese interpreters, Ruan signed up without hesitation and with the full support of her husband.
Eden is aiming to train 20 Vietnamese wives in Taiwan to be seed teachers who will in turn help out other Vietnamese women who don't speak Chinese in everyday life and help them to adapt to Taiwan society more quickly after marrying Taiwanese men.
During the three-month class, the Vietnamese women will also be taught about Taiwan's laws and regulations and social welfare programs pertaining to foreign wives in Taiwan, an Eden foundation spokesman said.
From the 85 telephone calls made by Vietnamese women to the foundation seeking advice between January and March of this year, the foundation found out that the Vietnamese wives face various problems, ranging from marital communication and employment to children's education and official paperwork, all derived from language barriers and a lack of knowledge about Taiwan's cultural background and laws.
RSS