The results of a survey released yesterday suggest that students in Taiwan show a high degree of tolerance for different cultures and values, such as accepting foreign spouses or laborers and gay marriages or relationships.
The poll by the World Leadership Education Foundation, surveyed nearly 5,000 college students nationwide earlier this month in an effort to find out whether students possessed "global perspectives."
Among its findings were that 76 percent of those polled would consider undertaking humanitarian work abroad and 62 percent accepted gay marriages.
It found that many students were concerned with global problems such as natural disasters but were less open to humanitarian relief projects carried out by Taiwan, possibly because the government is often perceived as insufficiently prepared when initiating relief projects, said Yu Ching-hsin (
In the survey, the term "global perspectives" was described and represented with four categories -- international encounters and experiences, knowledge of international affairs, acceptance of different culture and concern for global problems.
The international encounters category questioned students on their English abilities as well as how many times they have been abroad.
More than 60 percent of the students polled answered that they were not fluent in English or could not communicate in English at all, Yu said.
In addition, 44 percent said they had never been abroad.
Students were also questioned on international affairs.
Thirty-two percent answered three out of five questions correctly, according to the survey.
Noting that college students indeed had global perspectives, Yu added that they should not let lack of language ability become an obstacle to foreign travel or relating to people from different countries.
"Language is actually the least important factor," he said. "When you have a high level of acceptance of different cultures, you can overcome much more than with language alone."
Yu expressed concern that students obtain most international information from the Internet.
Such information tends to be unverifiable, and teachers, friends, and classmates gradually lose their roles in exchanging information with one another, he said.
Meanwhile, the National Youth Commission under the Executive Yuan yesterday held a Youth Public Participation Conference in the run up to Youth Day on Wednesday, hoping to encourage youth participation in civil society.
Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), chairwoman of the commission, told the Taipei Times that through participating in civil activities, youth are able to influence government policies, spread democracy and even start social movements.
The government's role is to provide opportunities and resources for these young people and allow them to be creative, she said.
"You don't need to be rich to be involved internationally. You don't even need to leave the country to be able to be involved in international activities," said Wang Peng (王芃), a participant at the conference and a student volunteer who has participated in many commission activities.
At a separate event yesterday addressing the first Youth Public Participation Awards, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) proposed to establish a standing youth forum on deliberative democracy in a bid to encourage more youth participation in public affairs. The awards have five categories and a prize was awarded in each category to a student and a non-student.
Wu Han-lin (
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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