Soong needs stronger knees
Your editorial ("Kneeling not the mark of a leader," Nov. 11, page 8) reminds me of People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong's (宋楚瑜) calling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) "a soft-legged shrimp" during the presidential election in 2000.
Now, Soong has ended up to be a soft-legged shrimp himself. If he has done or said something terribly wrong, he may apologize publicly and, if necessary, "kneel on an abacus at home" according to a popular Taiwanese expression.
A person who often kneels like a servant in an ancient palace and cries like a baby in public is too fragile emotionally to be a political leader. Soong could strengthen his own knees by taking a daily calcium tablet. If this doesn't help, Soong should consider retiring from politics to enjoy a peaceful private life.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Problem not native speakers
Parts of the editorial, ("A lot to learn about teaching English," Jan. 7, page 8) express a view that I feel is at the crux of Taiwan's English-education woes. The writer does not appear to approve of having the majority of English classes taught by native speakers of English. However, as a native English speaker and longtime resident of Taiwan, I have a different point of view.
In many ways, the current situation is one of the blind leading the blind. I have helped many a friend's children with high school English assignments. More often than not, the assignments themselves are riddled with grammatical errors, incorrect word usage and unnatural dialogue. Many times these assignments were written by English teachers who had very poor English themselves. The sad truth is the majority of English instruction a Taiwanese child receives is strongly accented and full of errors.
Compare this situation with English instruction in western Europe. In Swiss high schools, for instance, virtually every English teacher is either a native speaker, or has lived for a full decade in an English-speaking environment). The results are remarkable. Despite having to learn German, and usually another foreign language as well, Swiss students attain a level of ?English that is not poor.
One particular part of the article that concerns me is the following quote: "The drawbacks: foreign teachers have difficulty communicating in Chinese; they cannot explain lessons in ways that are easily understandable, leading to a great deal of guesswork for students."
It is not necessarily true that a native English speaker will have difficulties communicating in Chinese. In fact, the very assumption of many Taiwanese schools that "foreigners shouldn't use any Chinese" is probably the source of still more problems.
There are some foreigners who speak excellent Chinese, and many who speak decent Chinese. But due to the twisted system in use, foreign English teachers have very little incentive to learn Chinese. Once an incentive appeared, however, the number of bilingual people would rise quickly.
To be an effective teacher, a moderate level of skill in the language of the learners is very important. However, mastery of the students' language is not. The students are not going to copy the English teacher's Chinese. But it is a problem if the English teacher speaks English with a poor accent or uses awkward phrases.
"The ministry should first justify the demand for English teachers, plan training programs and arrange for an appropriate division of labor between local and foreign teachers." Just what is the "appropriate division of labor?" Do you suggest some sort of protectionist policy to exclude the most skilled teachers based upon their nationality? That is not a way to run an educational system. Evaluate all teachers against the same criteria: a conversational level of Mandarin, superb English skills, and teaching experience.
As long as the goal is the education of the children instead of creating work opportunities for teachers, there is no rational reason to make arbitrary divisions based upon who is a citizen and who is not. The "mutual crowding out" that your editorial bemoaned is a good thing. Competition always causes those with less skills to be crowded out. When all is said and done, the remaining teachers, Taiwanese or foreign, would be the good teachers.
Mark Wilbur
Taiwan
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