Posted on 08/27/2018 11:12:06 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) Taiwan will adopt a top-down approach to promoting bilingualism centered on Chinese and English as soon as next year in a bid to boost international competitiveness, said Premier William Lai (賴清德).
In an interview with UDN, Lai remarked that the government is heeding public calls to help improve English proficiency for the people of Taiwan, citing a proposition regarding the issue jointly submitted by some members of the Academia Sinica to President Tsai Ing-wen.
During his stint as the Mayor of Tainan City, Lai spent a decade implementing English as the second official language for the municipality in southern Taiwan, which was a well-received measure among the locals, Lai touted.
(Excerpt) Read more at taiwannews.com.tw ...
Yay! Anything pro-Western in that part of the world is a good thing.
I believe India also has a national policy similar to this.
I was in Taiwan years ago and had a young engineer as my guide. He introduced himself with his given name, but then said “You can call me Carl.”
“Carl? That doesn’t sound anything like your given name!?”
“It was given to me in grade school when we all started learning English. She went down the row - Allen, Bill, Carl, etc. and those names stuck with us!”
English is darn near the official second language here, sadly.
Why not just have English as a required course? It seems silly to make English a second language. Taiwan is a Chinese country and already has an official language, Chinese. And it was never a British colony like Hong Kong or Singapore, so it does not make sense historically or culturally.
In India English is probably the best language to unite the country; they have two main languages (generally Hindi in the north and Tamil in the south) and countless local dialects, and therefore lack a common language.
Red China itself is basically pushing English for its educated people as well.
Why not just have English as a required course? It seems silly to make English a second language. Taiwan is a Chinese country and already has an official language, Chinese. And it was never a British colony like Hong Kong or Singapore, so it does not make sense historically or culturally.
Nearly every student there takes English regardless. Same in the PRC. English is the unofficial international language and thereby becoming fluent in it is a ticket to a good job.
The US seems to be working toward “Press 2 for English” so is the world about to flip?
More specifically my travels have taken me to a number of countries/regions that are part of Britain's colonial past...Hong Kong,India,several countries in East Africa and southern Africa being just a few.In those travels I've found that the better educated a person is the more likely he/she is to be at least "conversant",if not fluent,in English.
English is one of Hong Kong's "official" languages as it is in India,Tanzania,Kenya and South Africa.It's interesting,and gratifying,to hear that Taiwan will be making English an "official language".Too bad the United States doesn't declare it *the* official language.
Nice tag line.
Singapore adopted English as official more than 50 years ago.
Nice to see Taiwan catching up.
Except that Taiwan has seen what English proficiency has done to Hong Kong and Singapore and would like to get in on the action. Nothing wrong with that.
The Philippines (with their call center business) and So. Korea (higher up the food chain) have done very well in the region with their relatively strong English proficiency.
“Singapore adopted English as official more than 50 years ago. Nice to see Taiwan catching up.”
Taiwan adopting English as an official language is something markedly different, and it is a sign that the government is doubling down on its allegiance with the U.S. The U.S. should stop playing along with that “One China” song and dance and recognize the government of Taiwan as the rightful ruler of the island formerly known as Formosa. If the Red Chinese don’t like it, they can add it to their list of grievances.
The South Korean experience was far less extensive. During my travels there on business, I actually found my second language (Japanese) was more likely to be understood than my first (English).
When I was in Seoul in the ‘80s on business the English there was very good, as it was taught from grade school. And the population was very pro-American. The Japanese interrelationship was arguably closer longer term, but with much more resentment against the Japanese than the Americans, who were allies and more recently a major presence—militarily and in civil society, etc.
Thats awesome. Opens doors, breaks down barriers...So happy English is the main language of the world but I too wish I spent more care in acquiring a foreign language...although I do speak Korean conversationally because that’s where my mom’s side of the family is from.
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