More on Romanization
If and when Taiwan ever sorts out the Romanization issue, a related matter will have to be tackled before street signs become useful for visitors.
Many road signs are part-Romanized, part-translated -- Minchuan East Road being a good example. This practice adds to the confusion. Saying "Minchuan East Road Section 1" to a monolingual taxi driver is likely to result in a blank stare, even if "Minchuan" is pronounced perfectly.
If road names were fully Romanized -- to "Minquan Dong Lu Yi Duan," say -- communication would probably become easier for those who do not speak Chinese.
Steven Crook
Tainan County
There is just one point I would like to add to the ongoing Pinyin debate. Many letter writers in recent days have mentioned that the only reason for using Pinyin in the first place is to accommodate foreigners in Taiwan. Wrong!
The real reason for teaching Pinyin in schools is to equip Taiwan's students with the skills needed to communicate Chinese-language ideas, names, etc to people who cannot read Chinese characters. Period. Street signs in Taipei are just one isolated "special case" of such communication.
The fact that the education system has completely ignored this essential skill of international literacy is nothing short of criminal. When local university students ask me how to spell some Chinese word "in English" for them, I just shake my head and sigh as I answer their questions.
How can this country let students into colleges or universities without even knowing a single Romanization system? How can students be expected to compete in the international marketplace when they don't even know the accepted standard for romanizing their own language?
I am familiar with three or four different Romanization systems and I'm not even a native speaker of Chinese. Do you think there are Japanese kids (or Chinese, Korean, whatever) going out into the world who don't know how to Romanize everything they can say? No.
Do you think there are Ger-man, French, Italian, Brazilian, Russian, or even Chinese kids graduating from university who don't know how to write their own language in "English" letters? Why should Taiwan be so lame in this regard?
Does it not embarrass the Ministry of Education that people in Taiwan are the only Chinese speakers in the world who don't know Hanyu Pinyin? Are Taiwanese people not angry at being deprived for so long of such a handy tool for communicating with foreigners?
Adding yet another Romanization system to the existing confusion would only make Taiwan a laughing stock.
Honestly, the fact that this idiotic debate is still going on might just be the single most astonishing thing about this (otherwise) wonderful country.
John Diedrichs
Taipei
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