Learning your own language
The Taipei Times today reports on the shambles the Ministry of Education have made of educating students to speak “native languages” (i.e. Taiwanese (aka Hoklo), Hakka and aboriginal languages).
No progress in native-language education has been made in schools despite the central government promising to encourage local culture and language education three years ago, native-language teachers said yesterday.
Liu Feng-chi (劉豐極), director of the Taiwan Association of Mother Language Teachers and a teacher of Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), said he felt cheated that the government had “not taken in any of our suggestions to improve native-language education in school” over the past three years.
Liu said the Ministry of Education had not put much effort into reform nor native-language education. Classes in schools were not being planned carefully and lack continuity, he said.
How could something so simple become so difficult? Well, for a start it would help if they could work out how to write these languages down. The competition between various romanisation systems, zhuyin fuhao (ak bo po mo fo) and Chinese characters probably doesn’t help. I guess there are also cultural issues to be dealt with. Languages that were banned in the classroom for almost 50 years may still be perceived by some as uncultured and not having academic value.
At least the government are not afraid to spend money in the hope that the next generation of Taiwanese remain fluent in their mother tongues. According to the Taipei Times report:
The ministry spends NT$400 million (US$11.9 million) annually on native-language courses, while English classes have NT$200 million per year in funding. Elementary school students are required to take at least one period of native-tongue classes per week.
However, throwing money at something won’t necessarily make it work. A well thought out policy, rather than a piecemeal approach, would be of far more benefit than few extra NT$100 million.
Computer based Chinese test
Taiwanese language learning materials
Starting Chinese classes
Taiwanese class at Shi-Da
Learning Mandarin in Taiwan
Posted: November 18th, 2005 under Languages in Taiwan.
Tags: Hoklo Taiwanese
Comment from Mark
Time 19 November 2005 at 5:56 pm
That is a problem. One of my best friends gradfather’s a fully literate Southern Min (or “Taiwanese”) speaker, who doesn’t speak any Mandarin at all. He emmigrated to the US in the 50′s. He can write just as well as he can speak, and uses only Chinese characters to do so. He’s even shown me books and poems written by Southern Min speakers.
Boy was he in for a shock when he came back to visit Taiwan last year. Not only are there lots of people who can’t speak Taiwanese now, but most of those who do speak it can’t even write a simple letter unless they use Mandarin grammar and word usage. It makes me wonder if Hakkanese, Shanhaihua, Hangzhouhua and all the others are suffering the same death. It really saddens me.
At least there’s one other Chinese language that still has literate speakers.