Nervous but excited, immigrant spouses from nine countries shared their lives in Taiwan through a two-day speech and composition contest that began yesterday.
The competition is sponsored by the Rotary International District 3520 in cooperation with several organizations.
"We hope to facilitate immigrant spouses' integration into mainstream society by helping them improve their Mandarin writing and speaking skills," said Lina Wang (王麗娜), a Rotary official.
Seventy-five immigrant spouses from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Japan and China participated in the contest, Wang said.
Life in Taiwan is the theme for both the oral and written competitions. First-place winners are entitled to a prize of NT$20,000, while second and third place winners will receive NT$10,000 and NT$5,000 respectively.
Tina Huynh, a Vietnamese who has been married to a Taiwanese for five years, said she signed up for the contest because she wanted to give her speaking and writing abilities a try.
"I'm nervous, but I'm confident that I'll win a prize -- probably not the first place, but I'll win a prize," she said after finishing the composition contest.
Huynh said that communication was the most difficult part of adjusting to life in Taiwan.
"I couldn't understand Mandarin when I first got here, so I couldn't communicate with others," Huynh said. "Gradually, I became proficient in Mandarin, but there was still a problem because my mother-in-law speaks Hoklo [commonly known as Taiwanese]."
Eventually, Huynh learned to speak Hoklo.
"My life in Taiwan is like a learning process, and learning is not only helpful for myself, but also for my children and husband," she said.
Riny Sutiono, from Indonesia, recounted the story of how she came to Taiwan with a laugh.
"I took refuge in Taiwan when a riot broke out in Indonesia in 1998," Sutiono said. "Then , after I arrived here, I `accidentally' met my husband and married him."
To improve her communication skills, she registered for high school night classes but faced open discrimination from school officials.
"They questioned my ability to handle high-school-level materials and said that immigrant spouses are always loud in class," Sutiono said, adding that she did not give up and proved herself by successfully completing high school.
Now a naturalized Taiwanese citizen, she also goes by her Chinese name, Chang Hsiao-hui (張小慧).
Winners of the contest will be honored in an award ceremony next month.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition