National Taiwan Normal University yesterday unveiled the result of this year's Aboriginal culture and language proficiency examination, with test-takers who lived in Aboriginal communities outshining other examinees.
A total of 6,950 Aboriginal students registered for the examination, but only 5,308 participated in the accreditation examination.
Up to 61.8 percent of the examinees passed the test, with those who lived with their grandparents or lived in an Aboriginal community performing better than those who lived in a non-Aboriginal community, Chen Hsueh-chih (陳學志), associate dean of the university's School of Continuing Education, told a press conference.
Examinees who obtained better scores either learned their mother tongue from childhood or had actively participated in the Aboriginal language classes offered in school or churches in Aboriginal communities, Chen said.
Female students generally performed better than their male counterparts, school CEO Huang Hung-cheng (黃鴻程) said.
The majority of examinees who passed the test were native speakers of Amis, with 1,166 people out of the 1,992 Amis test-takers receiving accreditation, school data showed.
Native speakers of Paiwan and Atayal who passed the examination came in second and third respectively, data showed.
Examinees who were native speakers of Saisiyat and Thao scored lower than speakers of other Aboriginal languages, the statistics showed.
“This means we may have to invest more resources to revive these two languages,” Huang said.
Vice Minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples Mayaw Dongi, who was at the press conference, emphasized the need to encourage speakers of Aboriginal languages to use their mother tongue.
“There are about 5,600 languages in the world, but linguists predict that only 100 would survive a millennium later,” he said.
“Linguists also believe that a language will die if no more than 75 percent of its speakers actually speak the language,” he said, adding that losing the nation's Aboriginal languages would be a “huge loss” to humankind and Taiwan.
Mayaw said many people had criticized the accreditation examination system because students who passed it are granted bonus points when they take the high school or college entrance examinations.
“But granting preferential treatment to Aborigines is necessary because there is a substantial difference between the living environment of Aborigines and people of other ethnic groups,” Mayaw said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS