Although the approval rating of the nation's English-language environment has improved this year, it still received failing grades in most areas, according to an official survey released yesterday.
The poll, conducted by the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission between Aug. 18 and Oct. 25, found that foreign visitors and residents were most satisfied with the English language environment at ports of entry and departure. This year's approval rate, 66.5 percent, represented a 4.6 percent increase from last year's 61.9 percent.
The English language environment at police departments was rated as the least satisfactory, with approval standing at an embarrassing 28 percent. Still, that figure was a 5.5 percent increase over last year.
Foreign visitors and residents gave the English at shopping centers the lowest mark last year, while they were most satisfied with the English at ports of entry and departure.
The survey questioned respondents about their satisfaction with the English in 12 different areas, including traffic, port of entries, tourism and leisure, shopping and consuming, hotels and restaurants, mass media, educational and cultural institutions, medical services, police departments, financial institutions, social welfare agencies and the business investment environment.
In addition to the overall satisfaction survey, the poll also questioned foreign visitors' satisfaction with the English at government agencies.
While respondents said they were most satisfied with governments' English-language Web sites (55.5 percent), they found the English versions of laws and regulations least satisfactory (36.9 percent).
Respondents of last year's survey also rated the government English-language Web sites as the most satisfactory (50.5 percent) and the English-language laws and regulations least satisfactory (27.8 percent).
This poll surveyed respondents about their satisfaction with government agencies' efforts in creating an English-language environment in five major areas: government agencies' services, civil servants ability, English-language government publications, government Web sites and laws and regulations.
In related news, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission is scheduled to hold an English-language environment expo from Friday to Sunday at Shinkong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taipei City's Xinyi District.
Performances, cocktails, music and prize drawings are part of the three-day event, which promises fun and entertainment.
To coincide with the expo, the commission is scheduled to honor 64 government agencies for their efforts in promoting English environment on the first day of the expo.
While 29 government agencies will receive the "best performance" award, 35 will receive the "good performance" award.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Division of Foreign Affairs under the National Police Administration are not on this year's winning list because they were awarded the "best performance" award last year.
Winners of the "best performance" award are not allowed to enter the same competition for three years after receiving the award.
Four central government agencies will be honored for the "best performance" award this year. They are the Government Information Office, Industrial Development Bureau, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research and National Police Administration.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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