The Aboriginal Language Development Act (原住民族語言發展法) yesterday passed its third reading at the Legislative Yuan, granting official status to Aboriginal languages.
Local governments, Aboriginal regions and non-Aboriginal areas with more than 1,500 Aborigines should establish an office tasked with the promotion of local languages, the regulations say.
The act stipulates that the central government should help establish organizations to promote Aboriginal languages, as well as chair meetings with each of the recognized communities to ascertain what new words should be incorporated, assist in compiling Aboriginal dictionaries and establish online linguistic archives.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The primary goal of the policy is to encourage the learning of languages that are nearly extinct, regularly hold polls to gauge language learning, hold free exams and award Aboriginal language certificates, lawmakers said.
Within three years of the act’s promulgation, Aborigines taking civil servants’ special exams and those studying abroad on public funds would be expected to have an Aboriginal language certificate, the act says.
When hiring staff in accordance with the Indigenous Peoples Employment Rights Protection Act (原住民族工作權保障法), the government and public schools should prioritize people who speak Aboriginal languages, it says.
Government institutions, public schools and corporate entities in Aboriginal areas would be required to prepare official documents in commonly used languages of the area, while all public transportation in Aboriginal areas would be required to use the languages in announcements, the act says.
When conducting official business, standing trial in court or during any other judicial procedure, Aborigines would be allowed to use their own language to express themselves, and in such cases the government would have to hire an interpreter, it says.
All schools should follow the curriculum as set out according to the 12-year national basic education and provide Aboriginal language courses, it says, adding that such courses should be taught in Aboriginal languages.
Local education bureaus and departments should launch programs to train full-time Aboriginal-language teachers.
The government should set aside funds to promote Aboriginal-language publications, while state-run media should produce programs and language courses, the proposed rules say.
Air time for Aboriginal-language content in government-owned or government-invested media should not be less than 50 percent, it says.
The government officially recognizes 16 Aboriginal groups: Amis, Tao, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Thao, Atayal, Saisiyat, Tsou, Rukai, Kavalan, Sakizaya, Sediq, Hla’alua, Kanakanavu and Truku.
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
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS