Bilingual Nation 2030-What are your views and suggestions?

Work Working in Taiwan
21

How did you make it legal?

22

I started a company. I do what you describe. But for English.

23

What type of visa/permit are you on? I thought there is a very high capital threshold.

24

Well. $500000 is maybe a year of saving.

Standard ARC and work permit issued by my company.

You dont need to spend the money. Just have it and bring it in.

$500000 i think is like… €13000

2 Likes
25

In my experience, they could handle young children well but fell apart in advanced classes. But you are right, as you noticed in tutoring sessions. A lot of Westerners do too. Some very poor to mediocre teachers make decent money private tutoring and I often wonder how the hell the parents/adult students can be foolish enough to hire them.

26

Bingo. This is what the English buxibans try so hard to protect. They are designed to extract as much money as possible from parents and staff. All while promoting the dream of advancing their little precious English skills.

2 Likes
27

I think this program is superfluous. I think Taiwan’s English abilities are fine and dandy.

My friend who visited two years ago said the people understood him well. He didn’t have to speak slowly like he did in Brazil.

28

Sure, if you want to order some dumplings or a cup of coffee, you can get by, but if you’re trying to do business in Taiwan and you don’t speak Chinese, it’s a lot more difficult than other countries in the region with the exception of Japan, where you basically need a translator.

If you go to a government office, bank, etc., it’s not uncommon to have issues. Oftentimes, they’ll have to call for an English speaker, and even then, it’s hit or miss when it comes to the proficiency of that person and their ability to discuss more complex matters in English.

The same is true when conducting business (getting quotes and negotiating with vendors, etc.), especially when dealing with smaller companies. A friend of mine who works at one such company says business owners often aren’t willing to pay more for customer-facing staff who speak good English. Instead, they take a chabuduo approach under which anybody who speaks some amount of English gets the honor of dealing with English-speaking customers.

1 Like
29

48th isn’t bad. HK is only 57 and Taiwan is 52.

30

Try setting up a company, opening a bank account, getting a work permit and resident visa, paying taxes, getting quotes from businesses, etc. in Singapore, HK and Taiwan and you’d see how stark the differences in proficiency are in real life.

1 Like
31

If you don’t like their rankings criteria then why post it?

1 Like
32

Huh? The rankings offer a quantitative measure of English proficiency based on English proficiency test results. And by this measure, Taiwan lags other countries in the region.

You’re looking at the raw index figures and saying, “Well, that’s no so bad. HK is x and Taiwan is only x - y”.

What I’m telling you, as a person who actually has first-hand experience doing business in this region, is that this indicator is not only directionally right, but that when you actually need to get shit done in these countries, the differences on the ground are even more stark.

1 Like
33

If the foreigner isn’t a proficient English speaker, not much differences, maybe.

34

More relevant cultural events and activities featuring bigger name English language music acts etc., film series free in parks, more venues to learn English in non-academic environments.

2 Likes
35

I don’t follow. If you’re an English-speaking foreigner, business communication in Singapore, HK, Philippines, and even Malaysia is a lot easier.

Obviously, if you speak, say, German and your English is mediocre, you might run into issues. But that’s because of your English proficiency, not someone else’s.

36

I prefer multilingual nation rather than bilingual nation.

1 Like
37

I also hear from foreign Youtubers and Japanese authors that Japanese proficiency in Taiwan is pretty good.

38

my point is if you don’t speak English, their English proficiency doesn’t matter.

1 Like
39

Also, people like Korean Fish wants to promote English at the expense of Holo.

I’d rather do it at the expense of Mandarin.

1 Like
40

Well, for better or worse, English is the lingua franca of the business world. As such, countries invest in providing services in English and boosting English proficiency because, in most cases, it’s the language investment that offers the highest return.

1 Like