The Tranan Qwasan Biru Experimental Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) is offering a new immersion language program to promote indigenous-language education, the city government said on Wednesday.
The school was founded in September 2020 to preserve Atayal culture, initially employing Atayal elders as teaching staff, New Taipei City Indigenous Peoples Department Commissioner Lo Mei-ching (羅美菁) said in an interview.
The school teaches the Atayal language through traditional activities, seeking that students build fluency naturally, she said.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Education Department via CNA
Lo said the dress she wore to the interview was created by students in an arts and crafts class focused on traditional weaving and the symbolic meaning of traditional patterns.
The school’s concept seeks to achieve fluency in language and culture, she said.
The dress’ pattern, featuring X and O-shaped elements symbolizing solidarity, is traditional to Wulai’s Taiyaru community, she said.
Other Atayal communities’ traditional patterns prominently feature stripes, rhombuses and rectangles, she said.
Taiwan is home to 16 officially recognized indigenous ethnicities speaking 42 languages, she said.
Preserving the diversity of Taiwan’s indigenous heritage requires that policies are tailored to local conditions, she said.
Her department is working toward that goal and has created an indigenous-languages committee to oversee language education, she said.
New Taipei City Education Department Commissioner Chang Ming-wen (張明文) said that his department is working with the indigenous peoples department to implement a language and culture education program.
The project is developing teaching materials, improving the quality of lessons and rewriting school rules to facilitate the integration of indigenous cultures, he said,
New Taipei City schools have begun treating indigenous festivals as official holidays for children of indigenous descent, Chang added.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
RSS