The Global Coalition for Taiwanese Languages yesterday held a press conference to protest recent remarks by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) that using a Romanized phonetic system to teach native languages would constitute a betrayal of Chinese culture.
Hung made the remark at a press conference last Thursday in response to rumors that incoming Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) was pushing for the use of a Romanized phonetic system to teach Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) in elementary schools. Currently, elementary school students are required to take at least one course on a local language, such as Hoklo, Hakka or an Aboriginal tongue.
The coalition, previously named the Global Taiwanese Movement Federation, supports the use of a Romanized phonetic system. It countered Hung's claims, saying the current system is no more loyal to Hoklo than a Romanized system.
"Han characters and the current phonetic system cannot capture the true sound and essence of Hoklo; Hoklo cannot be represented accurately with the Mandarin Chinese system," said Lee Chin-an (李勤岸), a spokesman for the group.
Currently, the Hoklo language in Taiwan is represented by Han characters, with adapted charac-ters representing words unique to Hoklo. The coalition said that such a system was inefficient due to the sheer number of words that would have to be created to represent all the words in Hoklo. The added burden of learning these characters makes Hoklo difficult to learn for non-native speakers, the coalition added.
"A Romanized phonetic system is very easy to learn and facilitates widespread native-language education. If you learn the 18 sounds of the system, then you can speak Hoklo, Hakka, or indigenous languages without any barriers," Lee said.
"Using a Romanized system would make Hoklo a more international language that can be easily learned by all people," Lee added.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS