Civic groups and academics yesterday requested that the government rethink its Bilingual 2030 concept and instead consider what they call multilingual, English-friendly Taiwan, prioritizing Taiwan’s native languages.
The government’s current push for Mandarin and English “bilingualism” ignores the other languages in Taiwan that make millions of Taiwanese already bilingual or multi-lingual, and overlooks Taiwan’s multiethnic population, Taiwan Languages and Literature Society director Chiang Min-hua (江敏華) said.
While the Bilingual 2030 plan would elevate English to one of Taiwan’s working languages, it could affect Taiwan’s rich language heritage and diminish Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka, along with other indigenous mother tongues, as well as the Mindong dialect on Matsu Island, Chiang said at a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The ministry’s push for English instruction in math, science, music and arts elevates English above languages native to Taiwan, she said.
“The 2030 bilingual plan pushes English into a top position among the many languages spoken and used by many segments of society. It would erode Taiwan’s identity as a sovereign state, and sever people’s homeland roots,” said Chiang, a linguistics research fellow at Academia Sinica.
“Taiwan is well known for the diverse mother tongues that its people have kept alive, and this is part of these groups’ cultural heritage,” said Paul Jen-kuei Li (李壬癸), an expert on Austronesian languages.
“Our society’s most distinctive cultural features are the diverse Austronesian languages, which are in danger of disappearing. Most younger generations from indigenous communities cannot speak their mother tongues,” he said, adding that preserving and reviving these languages should be a priority.
Chiang said that a signature drive that started on Feb. 21, International Mother Language Day, has garnered about 1,700 signatures for the cause, including the names of about 400 academics and linguistic researchers, and about 400 schoolteachers.
The groups asked for support from lawmakers to review the Bilingual 2030 policy and to not approve a bill to establish a Bilingual Nation Development Center.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS