Taiwan Aims To Go 'Bilingual' by 2030 | TaiwanPlus News
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Taiwan's government wants to boost the country's English ability by 2030. But views on this "bilingual" policy are divided.
📹 Reporter(s): Howard Chang/John Van Trieste
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It's a good strategy to ensure Taiwan is not isolated in the international stage. But for having met a lot of Taiwanese myself, most of them are not comfortable at all when it comes to speaking. It's just so hard when your native language does not allow you to find escapes or improvise, every word has to be learnt by heart. Also, speaking Mandarin is certainly a fundamental part of the Taiwanese culture, but I'm not sure that the language would be at the danger of becoming obsolete like Dutch, simply because it has 1.3B speakers just across the Taiwan strait... In any case, Taiwanese people have to carry heavy responsibilities from a young age given the difficult geopolitical situation of their country, and their courage is commendable!
Dutch language obsolete is something i never heard, its seems fake because i live in Belgium and we speak Dutch
@@1chibanKasuga The issue with Dutch does not seem related to everyday common language but specifically to higher education. Academic lexicon and specialised vocabulary in various scientific fields are no longer used, and thereby declining. But if Dutch universities are highly internationalised, maybe it is indeed different in Belgium?
@@1chibanKasugaIf we lose Dutch, so what. Too many languages in the world.
I'm bilingual from Finland and I'm definately losing my language due to lack of using my native language. It is valid concern. I'm also learning my 4th language and knowing many languages can mess with my head when talking. I might remember word in one language while trying to speak another. I think in multiple languages too. I sometimes have tought in all 4 languages simultaniously.
the trick is to assign roles in life for each language you know and plan to mainly use. in my country, the languages have a good balance for harmony. english is mostly used for international, formal, national lingua franca means, while local languages are used nationally, regionally, or with family and relatives or with certain subculture one is a part of. one should not give too much primacy to a lot of foreign languages and just give it attention for practical purposes. just maintain the traditional roles of the main languages so they do not drop out of mainstream use at least in each community or family.
That fairly normal, I’m Italian and I use my own language plenty, but sometimes the same thing also happens to me 😅
I think it is a good thing, finnish is overcomlicated, irregular and archaic.
@@p4nd4b01 I live in finland tho so I need it sometimes.
lnteresting to know what reactions could be happening in a multiligualist while learning several different languages at the same time.
And of course the preservation of local languages will be even further sidelined...
@codybagelstein2235I don’t think you fully understand….
It really is sad, how people thousands of years ago has always cared more about communication than the preservation of languages. As a result, the amount of people that the average person can communicate with might be ever increasing, but at the inexcusable cost of disregarding the previous languages that people once used, simply because they no longer "further the degree of communication with others", as if that was even a goal worth seeking the first place.
Even to this day, certain people and their foolish ambitions sadly haven't died down. There are many people who strive for global communication, for every single person in the word to understand one another. It seems like a noble goal at first, until you realize it's at the cost of not preserving the current languages of our time.
They fail to realize the inherent beauty of language, that lies in the exclusive culture and community created by having a mode of communication that only the in-group understands. Instead, they think the purpose of language is communication, like so many ignorant people have done before them. If they continue, their current languages well be gone as well, just like the languages that came before.
But luckily, people are starting to wisen up. I'm happy to see so many of my people in this comment section, taking a stance against these dangerous idiots who prioritize communication over the true beauties of language. I hope we manage to stop them before it's too late, and manage to preserve our languages just as they are, forever unchanging, lest they join the ranks of dead, past languages.
He's completely right about the Netherlands. There's too much English in universities here. The level of Dutch has been dropping significantly under native speakers.
My ancestors came from Ireland they left in the 1870s and went to Canada. It's hard to keep your culture and a feeling of who your ancestors are if you don't speak the language. Irish is disappearing and not an easy language to learn. The First Nations/Native America people here too are losing their languages. Language is a power anchor to who you are.
I have an extended family living in the Netherlands as an expatriate for decades and they tell me they never have to use Dutch there as everyone is great at English and they like using it themselves as well (they take pride in it).
Same in Philippines. Most people speaks and writes in English and native language become like a side language, lol.
@@RaveMasterr they're not side languages. it depends on demographics in the philippines. english is mostly just used by upper middle class and upper class filipinos for colloquial purposes. most other filipinos of lower classes still treat local languages as their casual speech and have english just as a second language they sometimes cant find words to be comfortable with. that's why mixed taglish or bislish or etc are the popular advertisement language choice. english serves a more formal or highly educated dimension in life in the philippines. countries just need to maintain the proper roles in life for each language they have per region so languages do not wither away from disuse.
Thats sad to hear. Dutch has an impressive history. I hope more people speak, read and write in Dutch.
I teach here in Taiwan and I keep telling students to find a hobby that they like and explore it in English, but then many people dont even have a hobby... so they dont even know what is proper time off and enjoying your hobby, so they just tell me they read 1 or 2 hours a week... hahahaha If keep this way 2070 they might see some results...
Yes. How is one supposed to entertain something like a "hobby", when one spends virtually all "free time" either in cram schools or working overtime...
We quit the job, we put pressure on the government to not let companies exploit people, we vote for the right people, in general we do something about it... I had a life like that in my country, now I dont...@@martinfiedler4317
While I am all for better English proficiency in a non-English speaking country because of English's importance as the lingua franca of many fields, I seriously doubt the practicality of this policy.
"Stress-free multilingualism" is possible but with a crucial requirement: cultural exposure. To this day, all non-English speaking countries with high English proficiency either have geographical proximity to the UK, the OG English-speaking country (e.g. Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Nordic countries) or are former British colonies (e.g. Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya, South Africa, India). In the second situation, the high English proficiency is actually a legacy of British colonialism and often results in uncommon varieties of English and English-based creole languages (Google yourself for what this term means).
Taiwan is not a former British colony (it was a Japanese one!) so there are no cultural backgrounds to play with. Even if Taiwan tries the way Dutch people do it, broadcast English films & TV series subtitled rather than dubbed unless you use some accessibility features for the blind, start English lessons early in compulsory education, etc. People still don't have that advantage of literally have Britain at your doorstep, looking similar to Britons (for most people), and speaking a language that is linguistically similar to English...
The only way to achieve high proficiency in English without such cultural exposure is the hard way, explict instructions. You have to learn grammar. You have to use flashcards, but don't remember words for the sake of remembering them, use them instead. There is also the question of how proficient the government wants an average citizen to be. If C1-C2 (CEFR level) is unrealistic for most, how proficient is enough?
The English lessons showed in the video also frustrated me. It seems that they are teaching Taiwanese content (geograhy? culture?) in English. The only place for such lessons is university foreign language majors in which students are expected to be the super-advanced learners. Before that, the topics should either be universal (e.g. school life) or focus on culture of major English-speaking countries. You are learning their language and you have to follow their way first.
@@cfromnowhere Regarding: " Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Nordic countries"
All of these countries speak Germanic languages - thus languages highly similar to ... English.
In Belgium, the romance language France is also widespread in the southern parts. French and English have a large overlap in vocabulary, due to the Norman invasion of England in the 11th century.
So, it has nothing to do with geographical but with linguistic "closeness" that people there are more proficient in English.
Totally agree that most Chinese/Taiwanese people don't seem to have hobbies, as indicated by their lack of hobby shops, their CBD districts seem to only consist of malls for clothes, bakeries, and other eateries, which is great for a foodie but awful for everyone else who is just not THAT into food.
However, I doubt that English learning can be achieved by hobbies alone such as watching movies and playing games in your targeted language, since I've already tried these methods of learning a third language. And yes while you can learn a few words there and then, the efficiency of this method is so low, I'd rather just get a former education on it, since most of what I've remembered and retained of my third language is from formal education, not from playing games.
Also, 1-2 hrs/week of studying in a new language is a pretty short amount of time being indulged in the language compared to native speakers, and if they are reading the wrong things, that makes it even longer for them to be proficient in their targeted language. So I don't think it's the reading method that is wrong, just that they are not spending enough time on it.
I can understand the reasoning behind these countries adopting english, as it has arguably become the international language at this point. On a personal level, your chances of nabbing a high-paying job at a major company increases significantly if you're able to bypass the international language barrier.
In Malaysia, Tamil and Chinese schools were done in trilingual approach.
Malaysia is a good country 🇮🇳❤🇲🇾
and this is why malaysia is ranked no 25 in english proficiency while the Philippines is at no 20 and Singapore is at number 2.
I'm from the Philippines and we have mastered the English language already, we are one of the best English Speaking countries in Asia(big thanks to the Americans who colonized us in the past though). If some Asians really want to master a second language like English, you don't need to force it in school, much better if you immerse the citizens in their everyday life with that second language because a language can only be learned through unconscious ways like if they hear it often, or they read it and spoke it everyday. Here in the Philippines, everything is in English from signs, Titles, movies, shows, malls, schools, TV, almost everything. we can have a decent conversation with anyone and foreigners because we are used to it everyday.
Additional to that: I think Taiwan wants to gain the benefits of many investors from western companies and put up out-processing companies in their countries like here in the Philippines because indeed, it is really a big money.
It really depends but usually that’s the case. In Sweden I’d say they speak English with hardly any accent (Filipinos have a very think Fillipino accent, same with Indian) and they speak perfect English but their movies, their books, their signs are all in Swedish.
and thanks to that, your culture is almost non-existent. It is a terrible path
The high English proficiency of Swedes and the rest of Scandinavia is indeed the product of immersion of the English language. But the other dude was wrong to think it had to be everyday items like signs.
You say their movies and books are Swedish, and it's true, the native ones usually are. But luckily, like the rest of Scandinavia, the amount of Swedish speakers is relatively low. As a result, the market for producing and translating entertainment to Swedish is quite low. The result is people starved of more choice in the entertainment they consume, seeking out entertainment in other langauges - where the primary language is English.
And it's not exclusive to entertainment, it happens to other things as well like information. If a Swede only looked for Swedish stuff on the internet, they simply wouldn't have a lot to choose from.
That's when they come across videos like this one, where they practise listening skills. Look through the comments, practising their reading skills. And maybe even add to the comment section themselves, practising their writing skills.
And it's a self-reinforcing feedback loop too. As people's proficiency in English improves because of their consumption of English products, the market for producing and translating products to English increase. So not only can Swedes enjoy content from natively English-speaking countries, they can also enjoy translated content from the rest of Scandinavia, from France, even from across the entire world from Japan.
If Taiwan wants to improve their English proficiency, the answer is oddly enough just to get some hobbies to enjoy in English.
As a Portuguese-speaking English teacher, and having taught English for a few years now, I have come to the realization that shoving English down students' throat just like it's done with any other subject is but counterproductive. Students will hardly ever have any regard for the language if it's being offered as an obstacle they need to get past in order to achieve a greater, often uninteresting, goal (e.g. to pass exams or even to accomplish a simple non-English-related task in a bilingual class). It has to be brought closer to students as if unintentionally, but still provokingly.
I'm a strong believer that to a great extent this soul-consuming schooling system is to blame. Most of my students are overwhelmed with school and extracurricular activities that their parents sign them up for (in hopes they'll become well-rounded, competitive beings in the market) and so English is just one more thing they need to get through. And even if they enjoy it, they have little to no drive to get themselves immersed in engrossing daily activities that will involve the language. Most of them just want to do whatever in their free time because anything that resembles studying just instantly turns them off, and that's because their relationship with learning couldn't have been more negatively affected. So it's only natural that they will push away learning for the sake of learning.
Why Philippines is still so poor if its big money? And why arw you thanking colonisation your ancestors would be ashamed of you
You can't properly learn a language in school. You need an immersion environment for it.
Good luck. We support the goal.
It’s true that English isn’t much spoken in China but it’s alright, Chinese is a beautiful language
I'd even say there are ideas, feelings, and even full-on discussions that just comes more naturally to Chinese than English. I used to believe that I almost had to switch personalities every time I switched languages. Now, I've found that there are insights in Chinese culture that just cannot be translated into English, let alone to a Western individual.
@@wolong925 personally I think Chinese is more convenient and more flexible language than English so looking at English as the « future » is actually funny because Chinese is the future. English is the present international language just like French was in the past so all of this is just geopolitical just like how the province of Taiwan allies with the west rather than its own country. Anyway, us simple people can’t change it but the world will tell us.
I speak Chinese, although I don't really like China, I lived and worked there for quite a while. I d consider Taiwan for living if an invasion threat were to dissipate.
Chinese actually is a convenient language, it's a more to the point type language. Sometimes I even prefer to send and email or text message to Chinese people in pinyin instead of English. If most Taiwanese could speak English though that would be a big advantage to them. For example, most people in Thailand, China, South Korea, Japan, they can't speak English outside of the biggest cities and tourist areas.
Many paid comments here, to force tw to be coloni.ed by that country,bcause all brain of human developmnt is CHINESE but in CONFUCIUS, now that country wants to force tw to be in their REal LIGIONnaire🤣.when tw convert into that cross, tw brain also same as other cross later, bcause cross real ligion naires changes mentality to be more ignorant
stay away from east asian countries man(japan,china, taiwan,korea) these places will work you to the bone and pay you peanuts.@@ActiveAussie2024
I hope the government will stop suppressing our indigenous languages!!!
yeah reading 'bilingual' as implying the native language is Mandarin and a second language would be English is somewhat disheartening
many are already making an effort to be bilingual so they can fit into society and the government does the opposite of appreciating it
once again ignoring this fact by describing investments into foreign language-learning as becoming 'bilingual'
@@aiocafeamandarin is the simplified Chinese made the Prc and Taiwan macau and Hong Kong speak Cantonese the actual chinese
@@newmapper5939???
Simplified/Traditional Chinese (or CHARACTERS) is a simplification of the WRITING and has nothing to do with the spoken language.
And also, Taiwan don't even speak Cantonese at all. (you seem to confuse traditional characters = cantonese)
@@moqyy i think you fed a troll my friend, be calm, there are people everywhere willing to say nonsense for a tiny crumb of attention
What are you talking about
This is a good policy however Taiwan has another language issue that isn't still solved which is the rapidly dwindling number of first language speakers of Austronesian languages of Taiwan which had been there before the arrival of Chinese.
many young taiwanese can't even speak minan now lol....so you can expect the situation with the aborigines to be even worse..
Singapore is the number 1 country in terms of english fluency in asia because there is a *NEED* to speak a common language in singapore in order for the 3 main races to communicate amongst each other(malay,indian and chinese)..hence all of the classes in schools are conducted in english and only english except for mother tongue classes..for taiwan, i don't see how it will be able to reach singapore's level unless it is willing to ditch mandarin and follow what singapore does and use english as the language of instruction in schools and workplaces..otherwise, it's gonna just another japan...
Another comment claims that Philippines have the best English in Asia, which is it?
use google my brother and you'll be enlightened..@@Timothee_Chalamet_CMBYN
@@Timothee_Chalamet_CMBYNIts definitely Singapore. While filipinos are very proficient in English, they speak with a lot of local influence and informality. Singaporeans are incredibly well versed in their main languages (Mandarin, English, Malay, and sometimes Tamil) to a professional level.
I almost must point out in the OP is that there is no “3 main races” in Singapore. All that was mentioned is part of one race. Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, is all under the “Asian race”. That’s 3 different ethnicities/ nationalities. 3 different races would like someone from Germany, India, Somalia.
@@Timothee_Chalamet_CMBYNThere is no such thing as "Asian race".
Very interesting. I learned Manadrin in high school growing up in Singapore in the 1990s and I used to visit Taiwan with my dad when he went there on business. Every time I did, my Mandarin improved dramatically because no one outside the hotels spoke English, so I was forced to use it. Don't know what it's like now, but bilingualism would be a huge change.
It is brainwashing program by ukus. Commonwealth ,long uk colonial time is easier to be colonized again. Now Singapore is more more like horrible philippines.because those west wants to steer you, and against mainland,to prepare for w4r. 🙏
Could Taiwan copy Singapore's education system to become bilingual in English and Mandarin?
@@ChaosPod bilingual means weaks in English and Mandarin at same time
@@frankfleming1103this varies from person to person.. imo some people lean towards chinese / their mother tongue, some towards english, and a small portion fare well in both.
@@ChaosPodI hope not. The reason is because with Singapore, you don't actually have a lot of people who are balanced in Mandarin and English. A lot of the Singaporean Chinese can speak Mandarin conversationally, but it gets more difficult for speaking about more complex topics like science and government, because the language we use to talk about these things is English, our de facto professional language. Second, I came from an English-speaking home and went through the bilingual education system in Singapore; it didn't work and I failed Mandarin every year until my last year of secondary school. I ended up coming to Taiwan to finally learn how to read Chinese characters properly. So the system is not balanced nor tailored to individual students' needs. Third, the Singapore system is designed for a multicultural society, not just to provide Mandarin-English education. It also aimed to provide Malay-English and Tamil-English bilingualism for the Singaporean Malay and Singaporean Tamil people, and hence to allow the three main ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay, and Tamil) to share English as a common tongue. The context is completely different from Taiwan, which has many indigenous groups who speak different languages and currently use Mandarin as the common language. Taiwan needs to build a policy unique to its own context, and sensitive to its own cultural complexities.
It’s such a bullshit policy tbh, I have absolutely no hope about it. Look at those textbooks, they are signs of corruption, at the end of my high school (3 years) me and my friends from different schools threw away approximately 90 kilograms of books on average, and probably 80% of them are unused, and this purchase (the whole set of books) is mandatory.
Before that is the design of lectures, boring corny content, hideous visual design and so on.
If you live in Taiwan, go to the street in front of central Taipei station after 5pm on weekdays, see how overwhelmingly many lines of students for their English cram school hour.
Those business makes no difference to students when they’re confronted with reading actual materials written in English, or speak to a person.
On top of all these, there are so many layers of dog shits in the system that weigh on students, they simply have no hope in themselves and have no spirit to cultivate their bilingualism.
I myself had no environment or any policies to help me learning English, heck my family never spent a dim on my English education (other than taking SAT, which I prepped by myself); the only thing that stood out is my understanding parents that never sent me to cram school, and never once stressed on my academic performance (now I study mathematical physics in Northern Europe).
Even though I’d probably vote for Lai, this and the extension of military service period instead of quality (our military conscription is painfully ineffective and meaningless) makes no much sense. It’s all burdening on the students in a counter productive way.
Why I mean you wrote a lengthy paragraph in English, surely it’s better than America teaching Chinese? Lol
English is very useful. The will profit their whole life.
This is great for the sake of learning, but I don't think it's at all necessary economically.
Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, etc.
Neither is seen as a beacon of English proficiency, yet all are rich developed economies.
It will be difficult to build a bilingual system. People who can speak English in Taiwan is around 40% but people who actually speak English in daily life is less than 5%.
And I really do not know how would the government force them to speak English in daily life? Even Hongkong could not build a bilingual system.
No need to force anyone, just encourage them to play video games in English servers and talk to people via VOIP
Where did you get those percentages from? From personal observation, I would’ve guessed much lower.
@@artugert Not an official data. I saw it from a local newspaper couple years ago
oh how did we do it in singapore, philippines, malaysia? the organic natural learning is to engage with english media. the english speaking internet is the first step. dealing with english speaking foreign tourists, businessmen, exchange students is another. watch english movies, tv shows with no subtitles or dub. you can practice english reading skills as well from watching let's say anime with english subtitles. all these, we do not need historical colonizer to be there. many european countries learned english that way by their own choice. do not be harsh on yourself if your english is bad, trying is best, eventually, with enough exposure, english will be very normal to anyone.
@@xXxSkyViperxXx singapore and Malaysia were British colonies, the Philippines is the one and only officially recognized former US colony
Kinda different when there were people forcing them to learn English at gunpoint
The issue with Taiwan is the sluggishness of its economy rather than language. Language is just one factor to consider when it comes to expansion in the perspective of MNC. Profitability of the market still comes first. A lot of countries can still do well without a strong English background and vice versa.
Almost every major economy on the world teaches English in its schools as either a compulsory subject or a highly demanded/reccomended one
@@Blaze6432 English is a mandatory subject in Taiwan since primary school - it has enough education. What they are pursuing is turning every subject other than Chinese into English teaching. This might not worth the cost as it doesn’t mean MNC will expand to Taiwan. Spending the resources to hone the technical capability of students will be a better path.
@@Blaze6432 It doesn't necessarily mean that people in these countries can actually speak English. It really depends on the approach their education had and how they studied or just used English by themselves
@@Blaze6432Yeah but then you have France being the worst country in Europe at speaking English only above Ukraine and Armenia (Armenia is in Europe... right?)
Brazil being the worst in South America only above Colombia and Ecuador.
China and Japan being below everyone in Europe and South America, and even below everyone in Asia except Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.
It's hard to establish that there's a correlation between English proficiency and economic growth with this data.
Source: EF English proficiency Index.
Taiwan is doing much better than mainland China right now though, largely in part due to its international connections.
When you choose teachers based on their nationality (or exoticness), the bilingual target will still be faraway.
I think everyone should pause at 3:06 lol.
Good goal. Like Singapore.
"bilingual" why not trilingual in their other populous language, Taiwanese Hokkien
There are many voices in our community. We think school education should use our national language to teach students.
@@cs0312000 why learnn english and english speaking is bankruot full of gsng rapist.
Stop trying so hard to be western. Taiwan is a country of chinese people and a part of China.
English teacher here in Taiwan. Not going to work sadly as the focus on 'education' is getting a good test score. I teach 3 Grades, 4, 5 and 6. I see my Grade 5's and 6's once a week for 40 minutes, my Grade 4's once a month. Next year my principal has decided to remove all English Rooms from the school and so we have to go to the home room of each class and teach in a setup that hinders teaching. I will see my Grade 4's twice a semester. What a waste.
When I ask for more time with my students to teach them in a more innovative way, that is, not being bound to the textbook, I am met with stern resistance as they say we won't have enough time to teach the textbook and that will affect their final scores. Result: students all get A+ even though they can't string two words together. It's all about appearances. Everyone gets a good score, happy parents, happy teachers (except me) and happy principal. My co-teachers are wonderful, good at English BUT we are hamstrung by a results orientated system. I have to fight daily to get them to stop translating every word I utter. I know too, that in their classes that they conduct without me, precious little English is spoken, all instructions are given in Chinese. For this to succeed we need more than 1 foreign teacher per school but that isn't going to happen as Taiwan doesn't have the money to do it as they have to spend too much on defending this beautiful country from that lunatic Xi. How sad.
I wish there was something national like this for the USA. In any language, preferably in both Spanish (PR Spanish) AND Chinese (mandarin and Cantonese).
I'm confused... don't most Taiwanese speak both Mandarin and Hokkien or Hakka or an Aboriginal language?
This happens to singapore, too. In1980? After meeting with west politicians,if i m not wrong, Lee Kuan Yew started English program, REASON SAME AS TW, GLOBAL TRADING,ETC. AFTER THAT,many x tian priest/ something like that coming. but they already planned (since their b1ble exists , colonized while, building many x.tian univ/school. Brainwashing youth Chinese there) so it is easy to make them x.tian. See it, singapore more and more become third country mentality because they are NOT /MANY NOT in Confucius Tao anymore. They oppress suppress insult non ×.t1an now. Actually anywhere in RICH SE ASIA but Thai saves now (the newPM not u$4 allies). I feel heartbreaking, too.Chinese the creator of Confucius, would it be the k1ller of Confucs, also,?
yeah imagine going to indonesia and branding an english-language program as them 'becoming bilingual'
it's good to support learning an international language but i fear this will simply encourage the government to ignore the native languages of Taiwan even further
sadly, there are certain parts of taiwan where the Gen X, Y, Z only know Mandarin and no longer Hokkien nor Hakka. I heard it is usually just boomers and silent gen elderlies who know about it, but younger generations only know a little or none, so it's ridiculous sometimes they wonder about why certain places are named in hokkien, but they think in mandarin logic and sometimes try to correct things from mandarin perspective.
not anymore, most young taiwanese people can't speak their own dialects, some will understand but most can't speak, so if you tell me that they should speak more english i can't imagine the damage it's gonna do to their cultural identity lol.
@@aiocafeathose would be “dialects of Indonesia” some would say like how there are “Chinese dialects”.
My country India is already Bilingual. Some people are even Trilingual here in India. I'm Trilingual. I know English, Kannada and Hindi.
Similar to Hong Kong style is more preferable.
Singapore style is undesirable. It's not necessary to boost up English this way. Children have to grasp the native language first prior to master English.
Similar to Hong Kong style is more preferable.
This is a good start and just keep going!! More than 70 years ago, before end of WW2, Taiwanese spoke Japanese and Taiwanese, no one spoke Mandarin. But through education policy, now every Taiwanese can speak Mandarin, some even can not speak Taiwanese!
There is no such thing as Taiwenese language though. Unless you are talking about indigenous Austronesian languages in taiwan
@@figulapt3784 "Taiwanese" is short for "Taiwanese Hokkien" which is the version of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan.
@@alan85 ahh i didnt know that
@@figulapt3784 why did you state this as a fact when you clearly don't know 🗿
Omg! So true!!! I wonder why they spoke Japanese before the end of WW2, though. Hopefully it wasn’t because of imperialism xD
I’m a student who have studied in both international and Taiwanese schools, and i guess the biggest problem is that Taiwanese schools are not equipped with enough English speaking faculties. That’s why the whole thing seems cool, but never feasible. At the first point, our education only taught us to read, not speak English, so there’s actually never enough teachers who really “speaks” English. Taiwanese should first change their test-oriented education that focused on standardized test, so that students shift their focus to “using the language” (not just scoring higher in standardized tests).
Es una lástima que inglés esté en todos lados del mundo, deberíamos dar espacio para otros idiomas en nuestra sociedad también. Soy bilingüe en Español y sueco
Waaaaaaay big up England 🏴. Honestly tho maybe it will be the case it’s just not much entertainment, which is shown to English speakers, is in other languages. Nowadays there is a lot more but back in the day Dora the explorer was the most you were going to get.
I bet you’d want Spanish to have the same power world wide. You wouldn’t be saying the same things here . Some people might say it’s a shame Spanish is all over Latin America, maybe give way for other languages.
*español, se escribe en minúscula, al menos si te refieres a la materia de lengua.
Better teach them coding language over foreign languages 😂
Every major coding language is in English only.
Hokkien IS 4000 YRS ROOT ,SOME USED BY TANG DYNASTY ,MIXED WITH NATIVES, SO WHEN YOU TALK,YOU TALK IN MOST PRIVILEDGE CULTURE
I never thought i would see the King of Curses in a video like this lol😂
Bilingualism/multilingualism is the best prevention for brain degradation disease like Alzheimer。Constantly changing between 2 or more spoken languages helps the brain to be more active。
this would create a new creole that's concerning unless enough americans immigrate to taiwan
ain't no one gonna talk about Sukuna's drawing 😲
Their current education system makes it almost impossible to do so.
Why?
1:19 no way they used the word clout
If schools can provide different choices for students, that would be better.
choice 1 : full Chinese classes (no English)
choice 2 : partial English classes
choice 3 : full Englisg classes (no Chinese)
如果學校能夠為學生提供不同的選擇那就更好了。
選擇1：全中文課（無英文）
選擇2：部分英語課程
選擇3：全英語課程（無中文）
Perhaps Taiwan can look into the multilingual approach when it comes to education in the Philippines. English is also considered an official language. All the subjects are taught in English except Filipino and Social studies. The interesting part is that the books are in English but the class instruction is in Filipino. Students are asked to read the article in English as an assignment before the classroom discussion and the teacher/professor discusses them in Filipino to clarify what the lesson is all about. The written tests are in English though.
Most of the Taiwanese are already bilingual if not more. On top of Mandarin, They speak southern Fujian dialect (Hokkien), the tongue of their ancestors from Fujian Province. I guess the cultural and linguistic effect of English Colonialism and Imperialism will continue to be felt in the world - while one could criticize the locals for learning Mandarin, the lingua Franca of the land, one also finds the locals learning English are rather commendable- isn’t that ironic 🤨
Chinese is hardly a language at risk of extinction 😅 More bilingual Taiwanese will open opportunities for its citizens
This is not bilingual but english fluency. Many Taiwanese are already bilingual in mandarin and Taiwanese. This is very anglocentrict mindset
It's not the policy that's flawed; it's the whole education system and the lack of usage outside the classroom. The system produces translators and high scorers rather than effective users. Despite more than 9 years of English education, the average shop assistant can't string more than 3 simple sentences.
Vocabulary is taught by translating into Chinese, so Taiwanese tend to constantly translate from Chinese to English and vice-versa. There's also a heavy emphasis on grammar rules so much so that they can parrot all the rules better than a native English speaker. Most of them are good at standardized tests but fail as users.
English is also not integrated into everyday life. Most media, signs, and notices are in Chinese, English movies have Chinese subtitles only, and even the government websites are mostly in Chinese only. This is a vast contrast from other bilingual or multilingual societies.
Like most things in Taiwan, this is another half-baked effort without a holistic approach.
For gods sake teach them English, not American English.
What's wrong being bilingual?
Here in the Philippines there are dozens of languages but there is only two official languages: Filipino and English.
Want to make English less stressful? Don't dub cartoons and films on TV. That makes English surround people throughout the day, not just in school.
Shouldn't they be teaching Japanese and Korean? That would be their closest allies and English would be a distant fourth.
better than reading is watching tv series and movies in a foreign language. It trains the ear and you don't feel like you're working.
Maybe everybody is applauding this, but I think it’s really terrible. If somebody goes to Taiwan to learn how to speak Chinese, everybody will speak English to him. It’s also sad sometimes in Taiwan when a foreigner, they always want to speak English to them regardless of the foreigners from Russia, Poland, or Mexico.being bilingual is great but keeping your native languages even better
You won't lose anything, you gain. Taiwanese are too proud of their Chinese heritage, scared that any change means watering down their culture. Simply not true you are adding to it.
At least Taiwanese students have more opportunities to practice their english. Maybe this new resource benefits some students rather all of them, but it's better than doing nothing.
至少台灣學生有更多練習英文的機會。 也許這個新資源會讓一些學生受益，而不是讓所有學生受益，但總比什麼都不做要好。
Only English? Include Spanish in that list to attract Spanish speaking country to invest in your country.
I thonk spanish is also very good opportunity.
The major reason for the lack of foreign interest in Taiwan is national security which you know where the concern is from. Making the people talk English just won't help.
I'm okay with Taiwan becoming bilingual as long as they don't end up sidelining their own mother tongue.
That will be lamentable.
The world will soon be learning mandarin, I don’t think Taiwan needs to bother.
Taiwanese people always say that the class that stresses them out is not English class, but Chinese class
The English class sounds super fun!
cause they're learning traditional chinese..just the strokes alone is enough to give you a stroke.
@@lyhthegreat I think you’re overrating the difficulty of traditional vs simplified
@@lyhthegreatthe difference is not a big deal
@@davidmella1174 not really, I don't know if you've tried writing out characters using traditional chinese, there are many characters that have significantly way more strokes than the simplified ones.
English is the future?? They are saying it in 2023?? They shld be saying it in 2003..
Back when i was in taiwan, i went to the information counter at an outlet mall to ask for directions to the theme park. None of them speak English and couldn't understand me. They thought that i looked Chinese so i can speak Chinese with them. At the end I used gestures to show them where I'm trying to go. Finally they understand me, took them 8 employees to help me.
But I thanked them in Chinese, I'm malaysian Chinese so speaking 3 to 4 languages is what Malaysians are capable of. I had fun but felt sorry to do that to them.
Malaysia boleh 😅
So basically you were trolling them? Please don't look down upon others because they don't know English.
入鄉隨俗。
WHEN YOU FOLLOW YOUR WESTPAPA , YOUR PAPA WILL JUST THROW YOU AWAY WHEN PAPA DOES NOT WANT YOU ANYMORE. YOU ARE TOO FAR FROM WESTPAPA HOME,CLOSEST TO FUK. SHIMA TOX 1C.
Welcome to Malaysia...learn from us
Terrible idea
"Kids need libraries filled with good books." Prof. Krashen's theory of reading to acquire proficiency is a proven, surefire method that I can personally attest to. This obvious solution has been stated before. What is preventing the government from implementing it?
Kids will use their smartphone
@@1chibanKasugaPolicies on electronic distractions should be developed to address such problems, not just for the sake of English learning, but all learning. TikTok is training kids to have only 3-second attention spans. Students addicted to video games can learn nothing else.
The real problems is not English comprehensive ability. Young Taiwaneses don't want to pursue higher education and prefer jobs in sevice field. Why do you need to study hard when you can just work an idle job such as convenient store staff, security guard, factory worker, etc. and get a reasonable amount of pension after retirement. There is no dream to chase here.
In India we have to learn 4 or 5 languages and if you good at learning language one may add 2 or 3 extra languages.
Yah this stupid comment was definitely written by an uneducated Indian. In most Indian schools only 2 or 3 languages are required. Hell in some places it's only 1.
Meghalaya only used English in its school.
Tamil Nadu only requires English as a compulsory subject (Even Tamil is technically not required outside of Tamil Medium schools)
Usually only local language and English are compulsory unless you go to a school that requires Hindi as a 3rd language.
Stop making up nonsense.
I went to India for two weeks on business in 2017. As an American i couldn't believe how easy it was to travel from city to city, nearly everyone spoke some level of English, even some of the rickshaw drivers could speak some basic sentences!!! If India could get its act together they would be an absolute dominant world superpower. Great place, awesome food, and beautifully women!
@@Reinhardt_KozlowskiIt used to be an English colony so it makes sense they'd be fluent
language immersion!
Hi, Grandpa Taiwan* 您好，臺灣爺爺！
I reckon that it would be terribly delightful should your people be willing to watch everything in English with Chinese subtitles together and learn some more jokes, expressions and slangs, together with learning English at school. With that, they can speak, think, sing, pray, and dream in this given language. I truly wish you the very best for the dazzling future!
Greetings from a Filipino living in Myrtle Beach, USA!
*The reason I (as a Filipino) consider Taiwan as a grandfather is that the people are the one who spread the pacific island/ Austronesian culture throughout Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and the whole Oceania over 5 millennia.
Austronesia taiwan no longer exists, taiwan is chinese land
while me, keen to learn Thai & Korean...
It must be as hard to learn English as it is for someone whose English to learn Mandarin or really any tonal language. English has a lot of "Th" words too a sound which many non-English speakers find hard to make as much as English speakers can't make a trilled or rolled R. Learning young is the way to do it!
completely westernised
It's interesting that it's 'fashionable' to have Japanese characters everywhere in Taiwan as well, even if they don't make any sense. Is this another sign of Taiwan trying to differenciate itself from PRC?
Trilingual. Taiwanese speak Min and Mandarin.
here in my country the school are trilingual
Dutch isn’t a good example. Only a few people speak Dutch, and only a few tens of millions of people speak German. India chose English as its language of government and commerce because they couldn’t agree on a common indigenous language to speak. Many people speak Chinese, but only in a few countries. No doubt. primary English speakers need to learn other languages. But English is the language of world commerce
Taiwan is trying to move away from China’s influence by promoting English. I am not sure if will really benefit their economy. Singapore has very impressive economic growth which can not just be explained by language alone. They achieve it more likely with their strategic planning and diplomacy.
Taiwan has to fix their problems with China smartly, otherwise it will always be a geopolitical dangerous place, making it impossible to further attract foreign investment.
Anything that’s done out of political motives rather than naturally growing from economic and social needs aren’t gonna work. The Taiwan govt is basically committing the same mistakes of the CCP, and that’s politicizing their national education policy without sufficient focus on economic rationalities.
The Japanese influence on the Taiwanese psyche is disturbing and need to be addressed. Start with including English in all signs in transport, places, street/road etc etc.
yeah, the best way of learning english is to make them watch movies, play video games and read novels.
I thought that they already did that decade ago.
In my opinion, the mother tongue will not be sidelined or diminished because its advantage lies in being taught at a time when our brains are still young and receptive to learning. On the other hand, English as a second language offers the advantage of connecting to the world, facilitating the exchange of knowledge between different cultures and individuals without any hindrances.
Has this succeeded anywhere ever?
Stephen Krashen’s language acquisition theory has been tested in China. You have a whole generation of students who can understand and read English but cannot speak it.
Exactly. People like to bring up Krashen all the time, but the idea that comprehensible input is all you need is absurd. You get good at speaking by speaking. You improve your listening skills by listening. I don’t understand why that isn’t blatantly obvious to everyone.
throw them in america for a few years and they'll be able to speak it, might even acquire an accent too, one example is the basketballer yao ming, he came to america and don't speak a single word of english.
That critic is right. If they were to switch to an all English curriculum then the student's level of Chinese would suffer. Of course, it seems like the government isn't making schools go 100% English so I'm wondering is he using that argument to prevent schools from teaching any classes in English? I'm a big fan of bilingualism and I'd like for my kids to go to a fully bilingual school so that they're properly fluent in two languages when they graduate from school. Try learning a language later in life - it's a fun hobby but not very practical.
I don't know if just providing kids with books would make them fluent. Probably a couple of them interested in foreign languages would get into it but the majority of students probably not so much. But if you create an environment where they need to understand and speak English then that pretty much gets everyone up to speed. Yeah it's stressful at first but they adapt. I would put my money on that over just giving them a library card.
so ignorant, why would you think that English is so hard to learn and schools should switch to full English curriculum when one can acquire this skill by watching RUclips, i mean this is exactly what i did and i don't respect any language teacher cuz they are redundant relic of the old beliefs of education and they should admit it and quit their job.
@@onion3974 I didn’t say they should go to an all English curriculum. I said if they did then their Chinese would suffer. But apparently not because of you just watch RUclips you can master every language.
@@paulwalther5237 English is the easiest of them all, anyone with basic language capacity can get fluent in English by just watching RUclips videos.
“Try learning a language later in life - it's a fun hobby but not very practical.”
That is ignorant AF. It is absolutely possible to reach proficiency in a language (or even several languages) as an adult. I’m proficient in Chinese, and I started learning at the age of 32. And I love and have always lived in the US.
@@artugert yes that claim was just excuse lazy peoples use to make themselves feel better
They have the opportunity to create a "Simplified English" that fixes the non-phonetic spellings and some of the idiotic grammar while still leaving it understandable other English speakers. Like "b" in doubt. The exceptions in spelling and grammar probably take longer to teach than the parts of the language that enable communication - and communication is the goal - not perfect spelling or grammar, which are the hobgoblins of little minds. I've been waited for someone to treat English like the PRC Chinese treated Mandarin (which was actually a huge favor to the rest of the world).
休想唄
Bilingual? Laughs in Indian 😂
Taiwan should follow Singapore did it. English is main language of instruction and but they have local language or mother tongue (mamdarin, malay and tamil).
i am pretty damm sure that if that happens, their standard of mandarin will drop to a new low...plus they're using traditional chinese so good luck..
At 3:31, some of those sentences aren't grammatically correct or natural.
"Adults make their children stressful" (X)
"Adults make their children stressed" (O)
"It's really tiring for us to learn in lecture." (X)
"It's really tiring for us to learn during lecture." (O)
I think before teaching English, teachers should confirm if the English is correct or not. Otherwise, Taiwanese people will end up learning incorrect English.
Too late 😂
Chinese guy here. Support this plan, it is reasonable. English is indeed significant in these days.
In my opinion they should promote indigenous languages that are dying out
@@marcellomancini6646 Sure for cultural appreciation, awareness etc. But for the goal to make Taiwan competitive in business, technology, science etc. then English is simply an entirely different strategic goal to achieve.
@@__-fu5se you all,PROVOCATORS, ALWAYS HAVE HIDDEN ACCOUNTS, PRETEND TO BE TAIWANESE/ CHINESE.
Taiwan might be Ukraine soon
Does Taiwan want English to be an official language equal to Chinese?
This must be oppressed by west to colonize. NOT ONLY EQUAL. BUT LATER it will destroy all beautiful culture, x.tian hates BUDH. CONFU TAO ISN'T it?brainwash Chinese as sinner. Tw on west hand, will change language and reAligion 200% like peenoise philippn. Now we can see many lgtb whore business in tw. Before , when they were much in Confucius, all clean, now with west god , tw starting sellingbody,same as south korean japanese, to white us mmilitary base
that's the policy they aim to do, yeah, but they are still arguing which Chinese they mean
@@xXxSkyViperxXx That's taking it too far.
@@tompeled6193 u gotta be more specific tho on what do you mean by "equal" because sure as heck, english would just have a different role. it's most likely just gonna be a lingua franca they can use among the different people groups in taiwan, just like in singapore, philippines, india, malaysia, and as used in other neighboring countries like hong kong, thailand, japan, south korea, vietnam, indonesia, etc.
基本不可能，整個社會不像星加坡沒有讓小孩從小接觸英語的環境和迫切性。台灣那麼單一的環境要英語來幹嘛？ 和大陸抱團強大起來就是外國人需要學中文不是我們去學了。
To work in multinational companies.
@@satchua7367yup, multicultural organizations are the future. To pretend that they're not, is to ruin your children's future.
Don't do what's best for society. Do his best for your family. Family first
English is the most critical advantage for a trading nation.
People is the most critical advantage.
@@earlysda *People speaking English is the most critical advantage.
English is the most critical advantage for a trading nation as evidenced by the number one trade nation in the world, China.
@@fernr9496fernr, Your sarcastic comment is spot-on.
That is one of the more absurd things I’ve ever heard in my life.
Imperialism is still at work I see. English shouldn't have to be the dominant language.
You act like this is some kind of morality thing. Why is metric the standard unit of measurement? Better question is why does that matter? It just is. And parents need to do what's best for their children not what's best for a stranger they don't know. An English guarantees them better job prospects, more job prospects, more mobility to live anywhere in the world and greater access to information. It's just a smart move for one's own family.
But I can play the flip side of this coin. The United States still uses an old measurement system of feet and inches. Fahrenheit for temperature. Etc. rest of the world uses metric. And all scientific, medical and military institutions in the US use metric as well. People in the United States are going to have to switch over if they want to do what's best for their kids.
@@everythingisfine9988 are you paid by ukus ? So aggressive
@@everythingisfine9988Anglo-supremacist identified
Taiwan is a rich country but I don't know how to feel about them.