The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a draft bill to establish a national language research and development center that would be tasked with preserving Taiwan’s national languages.
The bill would be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review.
The center would be responsible for research, investigation, preservation, promotion and development of national languages, the Ministry of Culture said in a statement yesterday.
The promulgation of the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法) in 2019 raised awareness of preserving national languages, it said.
The Cabinet last year approved an integrated program of national languages development proposed by the ministry, the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Hakka Affairs Council and the Ministry of Education, it said.
Under the program, the government is planning to allocate NT$32.1 billion (US$1.05 million) over five years to revitalize endangered national languages, which a survey conducted in 2020 identified as all languages in Taiwan except Mandarin, it added.
The Council of Indigenous Peoples is in charge of promoting the uses and preservation of indigenous languages, the Hakka Affairs Council is in charge of Hakka, the Ministry of Culture is in charge of Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), dialects spoken in Lienchiang County and Taiwanese Sign Language, and the Ministry of Education is in charge of language education.
The act stipulates that the government should conduct language censuses and establish a national languages database based on regular surveys of the development of national languages.
As the tasks involve multiple agencies, and materials that need to be surveyed are kept at several government agencies and academic institutions, a designated unit is needed to integrate resources from all sectors, the Ministry of Culture said.
The culture ministry drafted the bill, which includes the center’s scope of operation, funding sources, and operation and monitoring mechanisms, it said.
The center would be a non-departmental public body, which would give it the flexibility to hire professionals and publish reports with public credibility, culture ministry Department of Humanities and Publications Director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) told a news conference after the Cabinet meeting.
The center would be in charge of developing writing systems, establishing digital corpora, organizing language certification exams, and training translators and interpreters, she said.
The center would be a think tank on national languages, publishing research reports for government agencies to refer to while formulating national language-related policies, Chen said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
RSS