The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday sparred over comments by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), that studying mother tongues in school is a waste of resources.
Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) “is what I speak at home. Why then is it still studied at school?” Lee said on Sunday, adding that the Ministry of Education’s efforts to promote the language are a waste of time and resources.
Her comments echoed remarks last year by Han, the KMT’s presidential candidate, that it was a “waste of time” to include native-language classes in the 12-year national education program.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The DPP yesterday criticized Lee and Han, saying that they were discriminating against mother tongues.
Han should not place the teaching of native and foreign languages on opposite sides, as learning both would not conflict with each other, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) told a news conference.
DPP Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a Puyuma, said that Taiwan is a nation of diverse cultures and ethnicities, but added that her mother tongue, as well as those of others, is endangered because of the former KMT authoritarian regime’s policy of banning “local dialects” in public.
Photo: CNA
Chen said that her efforts to promote the Aboriginal Language Development Act (原住民族語言發展法) aim to rectify the damage of past government policies.
DPP Legislator Chiang Chieh-an (蔣絜安), a Hakka, called on Han and Lee to stop viewing issues from a “colonial government” vantage point, saying that teaching native and foreign languages at school would preserve Taiwan’s unique diversity of ethnicities and maintain a well-rounded worldview.
Lee should not “worship foreign things” simply because she runs Victoria Academy, a bilingual school in Yunlin County, Chiang said, adding that local and foreign languages are equally important.
Shortly after the DPP’s news conference, Han’s campaign held its own to hit back against the DPP’s criticism, with Han’s campaign office spokeswoman Ho Ting-huan (何庭歡) saying that Han has never said that native-language education is not important, or that it should be banned.
Lee’s comments only highlighted that fragmented learning of a native language at school would inhibit educational efficacy, while learning a language at home is more effective, Ho said.
The foreign-language capabilities of Taiwanese students have for decades lagged behind those of students in Hong Kong and the Philippines, Ho said, adding that future generations will be at a severe disadvantage.
Learning English should be the focus in school, in addition to promoting clubs, activities and a household environment conducive to the learning of mother tongues, she said.
The Han campaign is against radical ideology, discrimination, increased divisiveness between ethnic groups and slander, she added.
Han and Lee have offered more choices for language learning policies, an area in which the Ministry of Education has sadly been lacking since the DPP took power in 2016, Ho said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS