These 2 pieces of news on consecutive days caught my eye. While the geo-political or economic intent of the move towards bilingualism could be understandable, it seems to be a tall order without a burning macro-environment ( e.g. recent-colony - HK, diverse races - Singapore, etc.). On the flip side, if it succeeds in 2030, there could a price of cultural erosion. I don’t live here anymore, but still travel to Taipei frequently. I am just imagining if i were to travel to Taiwan in 2030, a successfully bilingual nation, what would it look like ? 
well taiwan is currently about as far from multi-cultural as you could get, is this really worth discussing? realistically there might be a few more foreigners knocking about here. which is fine.
Well, I guess it would be nice if I had the right to use English in government offices. It would certainly make doing administrative stuff much easier for foreigners who dont know the language but are investing here.
the educational system here would require an enormous overhaul to adequately reach bilingualism. it’s not realistic, unless you consider 100% of taiwanese being able to say ‘hello how are you today? / ‘i am fine and you?’ and conjugate past perfect in a vacuum to be “bilingualism.” there’s no critical thinking taught in english and no conversational fluency. a nonstarter as it stands.
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Ok…I see the joke but I’m waiting for the punch line.
When I talk in English they answer me in the worst mandarin ever, and when I talk to them in Chinese they answer me in English 
Why not? If UAE could do it so can [Insert Country Name Here]. It can’t be done with education alone though. Better English will entice more immigrants and more immigrants will give the natives’ more chances to speak English. Definitely not in 12 years but it can be done in 20-25-ish years but its crucial to significantly increase the ratio of immigrants to natives. No amount of buxiban will get them there.
money.
Banks are the worst. I went in to get a new bank book because I lost mine, and they almost wouldn’t give me one because my signature didn’t match EXACTLY how I did it when I opened the account. Even though I had several forms of ID that had my sig. All compounded by the fact that nobody there spoke English, and my mandarin is crap. After about 6 attempts and me getting visibly irate, they finally decided that I am the account owner.
Bank books! What banks in the world still use bank books? Such Stone Age BS.
Bank books are really antiquated. But I always love seeing how much people like updating them here. Some people are in there updating book after book… when that one is done printing after 10 minutes they put in another.
I’ve since mostly just used online banking now and update the book once a month
When I call most companies, they have a press 3 for English option. I have never been answered in English , even after selecting it as an option. Only companies I know that reply in English are FET telecom and Standard Chartered Bank. The former is so-so, the latter is pretty good
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Government offices are the worst. Does anyone here speak English? Been told no many times, not one person there knows according to them.
Typically I use Chinese but some topics are beyond my ability to explain.
I’ve had to lower my expectations over the years.
You’re right. But, if English was official, they’d be forced to hire English speakers and make all documents in English because it would be a right as opposed to the occasional courtesy now.
I’ve heard that one before.
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From Tsai?
I wonder if they can get this to pass.
To realize that goal, the president said her administration is planning to lower the legal voting age to 18 from the existing 20, she noted.
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Taiwan needs a lot more immigrants to create true English speaking environments where English becomes the lingua franca and not Chinese. I’m not holding my breath.
Need more tax benefits if Taiwan wants to compete with their neighbors in getting the high skilled ones.
All for economic opportunities from the USA as decoupling with China and the CCP accelerates in the coming decade.
Setting up an office next month in Taipei to assist Hkers to migrate to Taiwan is a good start as all young Hkers have a reasonably good standard of English and the older Hkers have the assets to invest in Taiwan.
Building an HK village close to Taipei will also be helpful to settle Hker migrants.