Incident without English
On the morning of Nov. 12, I was riding on the Tamsui-Xinyi Line of the Taipei Metro when there was apparently a fault at the Dongmen MRT station. I waited patiently in the carriage and then an announcement came through. The thing is, it was only given in Chinese.
The train went into Taipei Main Station and then all the passengers were instructed to alight. On the platform we heard another announcement but, again, no announcement was made in any language other than Chinese.
I saw five or six Japanese women, laden with luggage, looking around, not knowing what was going on. There were also a number of Muslim women nearby.
How can Taiwan call itself an international country if, when an emergency or a public safety incident occurs in a public space or public transport system, there is absolutely no accommodation for announcements in foreign languages?
The Taipei Metro is a major public transport system in the nation’s capital. It really should do something to improve the training of its staff in how to handle emergency situations and how to use foreign languages when needed. The kind of language and phrases required for announcements in these situations is not that difficult, after all, and staff really should be able to cope with doing these in foreign languages. This should be included in their training.
In October, Premier William Lai (賴清德) promised that he would promote the use of English as a second official language in Taiwan and his first order of business in this regard was to encourage an environment in which people would speak and listen more, to improve their English skills and to help each other improve accordingly.
If staff were able to communicate, at the appropriate time — such as what the problem is, how long passengers are likely to have to wait and whether or not a transfer service will be provided — this would go a long way toward setting passengers’ minds at ease.
Lai should address this issue as soon as possible, so that his promises do not become just more empty words. Meanwhile, the rest of us can do what we can to work on our own English skills, so that we are ready for the next eventuality.
Hsiao Chia-hung
Taipei
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