Ministry policy misguided \nI was dismayed to read that a Ministry of Education official said that since "English is not a native language of the Philip-pines and India, Filipinos and Indians speak English with non-native accents" ("Ministry cool to teachers from India, Philip-pines," Jan. 21, page 1). The inference is that these countries were not suitable places from which to hire English-language teachers. \nOne could very well say the same thing about learning Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, but to do so would be a big mistake. Taiwan remains one of the favored destinations for learning Mandarin, and I had excellent teachers at National Taiwan University. \nTaiwan is such a good place to study Mandarin precisely because Mandarin is not the "native" language, and so it was necessary for the government to invest heavily in training teachers. These are the same type of policies implemented by the colonial governments of England and the US in both India and the Philippines. \nToday, many of the most celebrated writers in the Eng-lish language are Indians. Phone banks in both India and the Philippines handle customer service and telemarketing for US corporations (using American accents). The educated elite in both countries speak English as their first language and are often unable to communicate in local languages -- just as many Taiwanese can no longer speak the languages spoken by their grandparents' generation. \nIt would be easy for the ministry to hire people based on their linguistic fluency without basing this on country of origin. In fact, country of origin is not even a guarantee that a job candidate will have a good accent. Not only are there more than a few Americans whose English is far from standard -- proper training in the field of English-language education is as important, if not more so, than mere fluency. \nIf the ministry is determined to bring in native-speakers to teach English, they need to have hiring practices that will enable them to pick the most qualified candidates regardless of their country of origin. Otherwise they will be no better than the many cram schools who continue to turn down qualified Asian- and African-Americans because they only want a white face in front of the classroom. \nP. Kerim Friedman \nNew York City
In the 74 years since its founding, the leaders of the People’s Republic of China have always seen the Republic of China in Taiwan as a thorn in their collective side. The Chinese Communist Party has wished for nothing more than to remove this thorn and fulfill its vision of communist revolution. During the Cold War, Beijing couched these ambitions in the language of “liberating” Taiwan. Now it strikes chords of national unity and sings the new propaganda line of unification of the motherland. But in those 74 years the Republic of China has undergone a revolution of its own: a
It is a good time to be in the air-conditioning business. As my colleagues at Bloomberg News write, an additional 1 billion cooling units are expected to be installed by the end of the decade. It is one of the main ways in which humans are adapting to more frequent and intense heatwaves. With a potentially strong El Nino on the horizon — a climate pattern that increases global temperatures — and greenhouse gas emissions still higher than ever, the world is facing another record-breaking summer, and another one, and another and so on. For many, owning an air conditioner has become a
National Taiwan University (NTU) has come under fire after an offensive set of proposals by two students running for president and vice president of the student council caused an uproar over the weekend. Among the proposals were requiring girls with “boobs smaller than an A cup” to take two national defense credits and boys with “dicks shorter than 10cm” to take home economics class, as well as banning people with a body mass index of more than 20 from taking elevators, and barring LGBTQ students and dogs from playing Arena of Valor during student council meetings. They also opposed admission
The controversial proposals by two candidates running for president and vice president of the student council at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Economics Department have given society a glimpse of the “character” of NTU students. With sexist proposals like “small-breasted girls need to enroll in national defense class” or “boys with short dicks need to take home economics class,” the candidates might have thought they were being “creative,” but the proposals have only laid bare their childishness and vulgarity. The proposals should have entailed issues that NTU students wish to address. People are born the way they are, and their physical traits
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