To decrease the gap in English learning ability between the rich classes and the poor, the Taipei Bureau of Education held the Underprivileged English Summer Camp (
"English and information are two of the most important tools of the 21st century. About 90 percent of Web sites are displayed in English. Shortening the `digital divide' and the learning gap is important," said Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma yesterday attended the summer camp at Taipei Municipal Wenhua Elementary school and had lunch with the pupils. There were 15 Aboriginal students and 42 students from low-income families, from 11 different elementary schools. The summer camp, running from July 21 to July 25, was free of charge.
"I hope this camp serves as a special opportunity for children of minority groups to improve their English-speaking abilities," said Ma.
Yesterday's course was entitled Yummy Fast Food. Pupils learned how to use English to order meals in a fast-food restaurant and Ma served as the restaurant clerk accepting orders from students. Pupils lined up holding their trays and ordered the fast food from Ma.
"What do you like to have?" Ma asked a boy in fourth grade. "I want a drum stick, corn bread and coke," said the boy. Ma corrected his pronunciation for the word `drum' three times, later emphasizing that pronunciation is important when learning English.
"There is no short cut when learning English. It has nothing to do with talent. As long as you study hard, you can speak English well," Ma said to the pupils.
The instructors at the summer camp are the English teachers of the Wenhua Elementary School, said Kao Min-li (
"We integrated learning into practical activities and focused on teaching practical and useful words to students," English teacher Lin Li-hua (
"Some teachers read the Taipei Times to look for teaching elements," Lin said.
The Taipei Bureau of Education allocated NT$430,000 to two English summer camps. However, Kao said the budget was not sufficient.
"We still have to raise money from the parents committee and other private companies. The budget is tight," Kao said
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching