Civil service exams should NOT be offered in Mandarin

[Bu_Lai_En]

Brian, why is it desirable for all civil servants to be bilingual? Are there many civil-service positions where this is actively useful?

Presumably most civil servants are required to deal with the public at some point in their careers. Being able to speak the native language of the people you are serving would be advantageous. The more of the common languages in Taiwan that you can speak, the more likely this is going to be.

Incidentally, we’re talking about a written test here? How do you do that in a language with no (standard) written form?

That is certainly a difficulty. Well, they already went ahead and had a Hokkien written section in the last exam. Being able to choose from Hokkien, Hakka, Aboriginal (and I think English is a good idea too) would be much fairer and try and foster a wider spread of language talents in the civil service. Perhaps having written sections in other Taiwanese languages would help act as an impetus for their standardisation.

Brian

[Dr_Doom]

If the mainlanders had done what the settlers in America and Australia did and just off everybody they wouldn’t have this problem.

[ac_dropout]

How about we have the ROC civil servant exams in simplified Chinese characters. This way everyone on Taiwan will have a fairer chance.

[Dr_Doom]

@ac_dropout

How about we have the ROC civil servant exams in simplified Chinese characters. This way everyone on Taiwan will have a fairer chance.

Simplified characters make simplified characters.

[Yellow_Cartman]

@ac_dropout

How about we have the ROC civil servant exams in simplified Chinese characters. This way everyone on Taiwan will have a fairer chance.

[mod_lang]

@Dr Doom

If the mainlanders had done what the settlers in America and Australia did and just off everybody they wouldn’t have this problem.

You mean they didn’t? Aborigines are only 1-2% of the population - not much different from the U.S. or Oz.