Nervous but excited, immigrant spouses from nine countries shared their lives in Taiwan through a two-day speech and composition contest that began yesterday.
The competition is sponsored by the Rotary International District 3520 in cooperation with several organizations.
"We hope to facilitate immigrant spouses' integration into mainstream society by helping them improve their Mandarin writing and speaking skills," said Lina Wang (王麗娜), a Rotary official.
Seventy-five immigrant spouses from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Japan and China participated in the contest, Wang said.
Life in Taiwan is the theme for both the oral and written competitions. First-place winners are entitled to a prize of NT$20,000, while second and third place winners will receive NT$10,000 and NT$5,000 respectively.
Tina Huynh, a Vietnamese who has been married to a Taiwanese for five years, said she signed up for the contest because she wanted to give her speaking and writing abilities a try.
"I'm nervous, but I'm confident that I'll win a prize -- probably not the first place, but I'll win a prize," she said after finishing the composition contest.
Huynh said that communication was the most difficult part of adjusting to life in Taiwan.
"I couldn't understand Mandarin when I first got here, so I couldn't communicate with others," Huynh said. "Gradually, I became proficient in Mandarin, but there was still a problem because my mother-in-law speaks Hoklo [commonly known as Taiwanese]."
Eventually, Huynh learned to speak Hoklo.
"My life in Taiwan is like a learning process, and learning is not only helpful for myself, but also for my children and husband," she said.
Riny Sutiono, from Indonesia, recounted the story of how she came to Taiwan with a laugh.
"I took refuge in Taiwan when a riot broke out in Indonesia in 1998," Sutiono said. "Then , after I arrived here, I `accidentally' met my husband and married him."
To improve her communication skills, she registered for high school night classes but faced open discrimination from school officials.
"They questioned my ability to handle high-school-level materials and said that immigrant spouses are always loud in class," Sutiono said, adding that she did not give up and proved herself by successfully completing high school.
Now a naturalized Taiwanese citizen, she also goes by her Chinese name, Chang Hsiao-hui (張小慧).
Winners of the contest will be honored in an award ceremony next month.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS