Iâm worried this just mean shoving kids into more buxiban. How the hell can we get kids here to learn English naturally?
Interesting paragraph:
Lai had said that with no laws in place to drive forward the policy, it would require consensus by the general public and a loosening of certain regulations in many aspects of education, before the plan can be fully implemented,
So itâs basically a useless move. Those who recognize the importance of English usually have money educating their kids. Itâs really the gap of the average Taiwanese vs the wealthy who can afford having them educated thatâs the problem.
Itâs just politics for him getting more attention.
Can the US be far behind??
Well at least the US is ahead of the Brits on their own language.
State dependent. We limeys covered our backs by not going anywhere near an official language. The Welsh may have blindsided us by making their phlegm inducing sounds official.
sounds like typical useless face giving bollocks to me.
This infuriates me. Look up self-serving politician in the dictionary and Laiâs picture well bit only be there, itâs a frigging fold-out! He pushed that official second language garbage so hard. He even put a foreigner in charge of that âdepartment.â That poor man is a puppet of a garbage and impossible policy. One with no reasonable or practical steps to being achieved. Hell, Taiwanese should be the âsecondâ or âfirstâ official language, yet Iâve been in government offices where they couldnât speak basic Taiwanese.
What is an âofficial languageâ? From Wikipedia, âAn official language is a language given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a countryâs official language refers to the language used within government (judiciary, legislature, administration).â
- When is the last time youâve been to ANY Taiwanese government agency where they can communicate effectively in English? Where are all the laws and statutes for every single applicable case in English, where it would be ACCEPTED if it happened to differ from its Chinese equivalent. This will NEVER happen; not in our lifetimes.
From the article:
âDuring 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.â
- I KNOW this as lies. Even those who worked for him thought he spouted BS regularly only for his political gain. He made the life of every single English teacher (not a few) and several administrators Iâve spoke to much much more difficult. Demanded full English teaching from first grade. Increased the reliance on âNESTsâ or Native English Speaking Teachers (many of them great people, but lacking the support to teach full English to clueless kids).
Locals may like the idea of bilingual education, but only three to five schools in Tainan received support. The LOCAL KIDS sure didnât like his policies. Educators, administrators, even in city hall, knew he spoke garbage. I donât want to out myself, but I have publicly called him out on this âEnglish as an Official Second Languageâ policy.
Which countries have English as an official language? Those who were colonized and ruled by Britain for centuries. That makes sense. Itâs the most simple of logic. Until every government office can provide accurate English service and every last law, statute, policy paper, and procedures are fully in English can this âhogwash nightmareâ be close to a reality.
Lai is the worst of self-promoting, wasteful, and lying politicians. Seems like the presidency is his for the taking!
Speaking with an accent from the 1700âs is âaheadâ now is it?
I heard he paid for the Ubike rentals for those dudes who fricasseed that one Canook guy in Yonghe
Meanwhile German students teach poor Burmese people on the dirt in 3 months with quite acceptable literacy resultsâŚ
Taiwan is spoiled,?Itâs the same reason north Americans cant learn about health or Californians donât. Grasp water conservation. If we arenât hungry we donât look for food. Planning ahead isnât a cultural strong point unfortunately. But this should would piss off the Taiwanese speaking locals, probably some aboriginals and Hakka too.
Why all the hate? Whatâs wrong with making english an official language?
Because itâs not followed up by any legislation that would make it realistic.
I recently filed an administrative appeal here a few months ago in English.
They sat on it for 3 months so as to not deal with the issue and sent a one paragraph reply.
âThe appeal must be in Chinese.â
Although they took the original complaint in English and had no problem with it .
This idea ainât going anywhere.
No way the govt will be arsed to study English. Which is fine but donât bs everyone that itâs a priority
Iâve been saying for years that if Taiwan wants a good way to separate culturally from China, it would be to teach subject matter with English and Taiwanese as medium, rather than Mandarin. It would take a full generation to switch though, not going to happen overnight. But honestly anything that pushes away from Chinese Mando-centrism is good for Taiwan.
Something like Singapore, with various language options for different classes.
On the bright side they teach Taiwanese in elementary schools now. Even started giving it a written form.
Exactly. Well placed example.
I agree. The point is that the âhigher upâ uneducated educators look to the European model (Content and Language Integrated Learning, CLIL). They use co-teachers, but not foreign teachers as leverage. Those could be language or subject teachers, but they need to pay language proficiency tests, which most of PPT local teachers canât currently do. The other aspect of the European model is that assessment of language and content in terms of BOTH.
In Taiwan, imagine ĺ°ć taking a science class in whole English (by Laiâs judgement a foreign teacher is best). Not only doesnât he understand the concept of cells, he had no idea the English being blabbed at him. Now he hates English AND Science.
Taiwanese educational policy makers, just THINK! THINK FOR ONE MINUTE! Taiwan, better or worse, is not Europe. OUR LOCAL teachers need support, not a loss of funds and training. Content-based Instruction (with more emphasis on linguistic outcomes, is likely the best choice). English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) is what we do in uni classes today, this time with the focus on content.
Why do the idiots rise to the top??