Su calls on teachers to make learning languages enjoyable

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday encouraged teachers to adopt a more lively approach to encourage their students to take an interest in mother-tongue language studies.

"We should make [mother-tongue language lessons] easier, more conversational and fun," Su said. "We do not need to teach children complicated vocabulary at the very beginning. It will put them off."

The premier made the remarks during the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning after receiving a briefing from the education ministry on the progress of mother-tongue language lessons at elementary and secondary schools.

Citing an example to illustrate the challenges facing the education ministry, Su said that during a Taiwanese speech contest held recently by the Taipei City Government, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) approached an elementary school student and asked him: "What is your last name?"

However, the child did not understand what the mayor was asking.

Learning a language should be fun, Su said, adding that all dialects were of equal value and deserved to be respected.

"If we force children to learn specific dialects, we will not achieve our goals because we will not have made the process fun and children will not be happy to learn," he said.

The premier said that most of the speeches set for the Taipei City Government's contest were too difficult and the children did not really understand them. As a result, they learned vocabulary and sentences parrot-fashion and would not recall them after the speech contest, he said.

The premier also called on older native speakers to contribute their knowledge of their languages to school curricula.

"Our end goal is to make learning fun. Learning languages should not be a burden," Su said.