Foreigners take part in local speech contest

A Mandarin and Hoklo speech competition for foreigners was held yesterday in Taipei City, attracting contestants from different countries and of varying levels of proficiency.

At the competition, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) encouraged the use of Hoklo in schools and at home and said that Taiwan provided a good environment for learning languages.

Susov Fedor, a Russian exchange student at National Chengchi University, placed first in the Mandarin division.

Fedor he has studied Mandarin for five years but has only been in Taiwan for four months. He had previously spent four years learning Mandarin in Russia and also studied economics in China for one year.

He said that while pronunciation was the most difficult aspect for him at first, he now finds discerning the meaning of certain phrases or idioms the biggest challenge.

Fedor that Taiwan provides a better environment for learning Mandarin than China because it is more open. Interaction between people seems better here, he said.

Trang Ha, a Vietnamese reporter here on a journalism scholarship, said that she had learned Mandarin in college back home, but had not used the language for several years.

Relearning Mandarin in Taiwan is a great opportunity for foreigners because it gives them a chance to learn about the culture of the people here, she said.

"In college, we used text books from China, so when I first came to Taiwan I called store clerks `tongzhi' (同志)," Trang said. "They all thought I was extremely weird."

The term "tongzhi," meaning "comrade," is used broadly in China, but not in Taiwan.

Trang received a prize for the funniest speech.

The event was sponsored by Radio Taiwan International and the Sogo Department Store. Participants were divided into the Mandarin division, with 20 contestants, and the Hoklo division, with eight.

Hiroshi Tanoue, a Japanese man who is studying kung-fu in Taiwan, placed second in the Hoklo division.

Tanoue that he only started learning Hoklo three or four months ago.

When asked why he wanted to learn Hoklo, Tanoue said: "I really, really wanted to learn how to sing Wu Bai's (伍佰) songs."

Wu Bai and his band China Blue are well-known for their Hoklo rock songs.

Placing in the Hoklo division was Shoji Okada, another Japanese contestant who has spent five years in Taiwan.

"Living in Taiwan means that you have to speak Taiwanese!" he said enthusiastically.

Okada that Hoklo was easy to learn and he picked it up naturally without taking any classes.

One the judges for the Mandarin division said that she was not only happy to see foreigners learning the local languages in Taiwan, but also willing to share what they have learned.