A township in Tainan City is offering a motorcyclist education program to foreign spouses who do not read Chinese, and reports a 70 percent passing rate for students who have completed the program.
Wennan Township (
"Most of the students are Vietnamese wives, as in the Vietnamese society women often take up the role of family breadwinner or head of the house; other students are Indonesian and Chinese," Chiu Su-chen (邱素禛), the township secretary who is in charge of organizing the program, said on Sunday.
Vietnamese wives often need to ride a motorcycle to pick up their children from school, to get to work or to go grocery shopping.
In order to help foreign spouses who can't read or write Chinese to pass their written test, during the week-long program, questions are read out loud in Chinese by instructors and the students simply answer yes or no, or pick the right answer on answer sheets.
In addition, the students also learn practical motorcycle-riding skills in the program.
Additionally, the program has been able to help spouses from China that are unable to take written tests -- because of either illiteracy or an inability to read traditional Chinese characters.
After receiving special approval from the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the usual computerized test has been replaced by an oral test conducted by a DMV official.
The rate of program students obtaining their motorcyclist licenses is high.
"According to the DMV, the rate of a foreign spouse passing the test without taking our program is about 20 percent; however, the pass rate for our students has reached as high as 70 percent," Chiu said.
"Many students said that passing the test felt better than getting married!" Chiu said.
Before the program was initiated, officials had considered conducting the written test in Vietnamese, but in order to give foreign spouses more motivation to learn Chinese, the township chief, Chen Chin-chuan (
The township initiated the program after being approached by Tainan City's Overseas Vietnamese Association last year.
The program charges its students a basic fee of NT$500 for every two days to cover space rental and instructors' fees.
Students who only wish to attend the actual riding sessions are charged NT$750 for the entire program.
Those caught riding a motorcycle without a proper license face a fine of NT$6,000. As such, many foreign spouses feel that the program fees are a good investment.
Seeing the success rate of the motorcyclist education program, the township is planning to start a driver's license program in the near future.
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau audited six hotels in an effort to prevent price gouging ahead of Korean band BTS’ concert tour in the city scheduled for Nov. 19, 21 and 22 this year. The bureau on Friday said that the audits — conducted in response to allegations of unfair pricing posted on social media — found no wrongdoing. These establishments included the local branches of Chateau de Chine, Hotel Nikko, My Humble House, and Grand Hai Lai, it said, adding that the Consumer Protection Commission would have penalized price gougers had the accusations been substantiated. The bureau said the Tourism Development Act
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS