Taipei City’s Department of Transportation is to hold an English proficiency competition for taxi drivers to prove that drivers can speak and understand the language, after city councilors said that parts of French director Luc Besson’s action thriller Lucy were derogatory of Taipei.
The film, starring US actress Scarlett Johansson, is something of a rarity — one of the few major Hollywood productions to be shot mainly in Taiwan. Of the film’s 89-minute running time, more than half of the action takes place against the backdrop of Taipei’s famous landmarks, including sites such as Taipei 101, the Taipei Railway Workshop and the Regent Taipei hotel.
However, a number of city councilors said they had received complaints that a scene in which Lucy — the main character — shoots a taxi driver when coming out of hospital because he cannot speak English had hurt Taipei’s image.
Many Taipei taxi drivers are able to speak English, and some are even fluent in Japanese as well, the city councilors said, adding that the city government had also allotted a sum of money in past years specifically for the improvement of taxi drivers’ English skills.
Some of the larger taxi fleets even ensure that their drivers have passed English proficiency tests, the city councilors said.
Taiwan Taxi Co, one of the largest taxi firms operating in the nation, has cooperated with travel agencies and put its drivers through not only English but also Japanese and Korean courses, the city government’s transportation department said.
Metro Taxi said it organizes regular English conversation classes, while Crown Taxi offers to pay fees for classes and encourages its drivers to take certification exams.
New Party Taipei City Councilor Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠) both said that the city government should also advertise that the city is educating its taxi drivers in English while the movie is still showing.
The Taipei City Council’s Transportation and Communication Committee agreed that the transportation department should hold an English proficiency competition to prove that Taiwanese taxi drivers can speak and understand the language.
The department said it would start mulling the implementation of English speech contests.
Meanwhile, the city government’s Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Liu Wei-gong (劉維公) said that if Taipei City is to develop into an international city able to attract international events it is necessary for taxi drivers to learn English.
It has nothing to do with the film, Liu said, adding that there were many taxi drivers who had good command of the English language.
However, Liu said that if the movie was an impetus for taxi drivers to learn English, then it was not a bad thing.
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