The government will invest NT$600 million (US$17.7 million) over the next three years to increase English proficiency, an official from the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission said on Monday.
The official said the Council for Economic Planning and Development had approved a proposal by the commission that will include the establishment of several English villages and the increased use of bilingual (Chinese-English) signboards at government agencies.
The official said that from next year to 2012 the government will set aside a budget of NT$200 million per year for the program, which will also include cultivating manpower, upgrading major cities’ international competitiveness, building an English-friendly environment and strengthening services for expatriates.
The official said the commission is planning on having more than one “English village” — an English-speaking community that immerses its students in an all-English environment to provide an alternative for those who cannot afford private tutoring or study programs abroad.
“Schools around the country that have unused or vacated classrooms are welcome to apply to establish an English village,” the official said, adding that private groups can also apply for the construction of an English village in line with the existing statute encouraging private investors to invest in public infrastructure construction.
It is hoped the English village project will enroll 3,000 students, or 1,000 per year, who will have the opportunity to obtain certificates proving they are proficient in English, the official said.
The government will conduct annual surveys among foreign expatriates to get their opinions on the country’s English environment and hopes to improve the average level of satisfaction by 1 percent a year to 68 percent by 2012, the official said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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