Vision 2030: "Blueprint for Developing Taiwan into a Bilingual Nation"

Background, in case u need it.

Is it possible?

  • Yes.
  • No.

0 voters

I say it is.

Thots?

Wanna challenge me live" #vision2030tw

Episode 1: The Paradigm Shifts

Where’s the “Hell no” option? :thinking:

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If it helps with Taiwan becoming a no Mandarin country, then sure, I’m all for it.

That ship sailed a long time ago.

No harm in my trying then

I disagree. Mandarin becoming the dominant language in Taiwan was achieved with a level of social engineering only possible under an authoritarian regime, and an authoritarian regime would be required to reverse that dominance.

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Don’t give me any ideas.

:open_mouth:

It’d be nice if we can achieve that goal without having to resort to authoritarianism. It’d probably just take longer, but still achievable if there is a national consensus.

However, I see the appeal in the gratification of instant change.

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Oddly enough, it is rather authoritarian what I am suggesting. It’s up to the people to

English bilingual? That’s an oxymoron, right?

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I think the first step to achieving this without resorting to authoritarianism is to have multi-lingual education system and testing system. If you can achieve upward mobility without having to speak Mandarin, then people won’t feel they have no option but to speak Mandarin. It would also be nice if people who elect not to speak Mandarin don’t get discriminated upon.

The problem is, Mandarin is already the dominant language in both the public and private spheres. Without some kind of sustained top-down coercion, I just don’t see any realistic scenario where Daigi becomes the dominant language again. At best, it can hold on indefinitely as an informal second language; at worst, it becomes a dead language in another generation or two.

My ideal scenario isn’t reestablishing Taigi as the lingua franca, it’s for a Austronesian language to reestablish itself as the lingua franca. We could reconstruct Sirayan so it’s equally difficult for everyone. Then everyone can still learn Taigi, Hakka, Mandarin and Aboriginal languages as their mother tongue.

It’s a nice idea, but I hope you realize this is never going to happen. Keeping the aboriginal languages from dying out completely would be a big win.

Definitely true, but they won’t be around for long if Mandarin proficiency remains the only way to gain upward mobility.

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Even the professional-aborigine type social worker, teacher or politician, makes sure their kid can speak Mandarin and English, then whatever the local language is- really, only Amis is still spoken in everyday life, and that is only among the older people.

If we stay on the present course, Taigi is going to be a dead language by 2069. Hakka will die even before that. Unfortunately Aboriginal languages are in even worse shape.

The only way to turn things around is by ending Mandarin dominance and monopoly as the only accepted language in education, government, business, law and pretty much every aspect of daily life.

If the Israelis and the Maori can see successes in language revival, there’s no reason why we can’t. All we need is a little more consensus in knowing it’s the only way to save most of Taiwan’s languages, and a little less cynicism or sinicism, I am pretty sure those two are homonyms.

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:grin:

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Episode 1: The Paradigm Shifts

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