In a bid to preserve the Hokkien language, educators yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to tightly regulate Hokkien textbooks for elementary and junior high schools.
"This is an important way to ensure that our students are building their Hokkien language ability on correct linguistic foundations and not on some loose and inconsistent basis," said Chu Yuan-kai (
Hokkien (河洛語), the language of the southern region of Fujian Province -- more commonly known as Min Nan Hua (閩南話) or Taiwanese -- is the first language of about 14.35 million people in Taiwan, or 67 percent of the population.
"As the Ministry of Education encourages national schools to dedicate themselves to promoting Taiwan-oriented values by teaching Hokkien in their curriculums, it is quite important to make sure that the language is being taught and learned correctly," Chu said.
According to Chu, schools offer a freestyle Hokkien curriculum, "meaning that teachers of Hokkien are free to get their teaching and classroom materials from the general market."
"However, most of the Hokkien writing publications we came across on the market nowadays use various incorrect and inconsistent styles," Chu said.
Writing of Hokkien has been distorted during this past century because of Japan's colonization and then the KMT's rule, during which the use of Hokkien was discouraged or banned, Chu said.
"The correct way to write Hokkien, which is made up of 15 consonant sounds and 30 vowel sounds, is to use Chinese characters to spell out every Hokkien syllable," Chu said.
"So using romanization or direct Chinese characters to represent the Hokkien sounds, or a combination of the English alphabet and Chinese characters are all incorrect," he said.
Chu added that all these incorrect methods of Hokkien writing have distorted the original essence of Hokkien writing.
Chu called on the Ministry of Education to canvass Hokkien linguistic specialists to compile standard classroom Hokkien materials.
"Only by ensuring students are building their Hokkien language on a correct basis will it help the government's efforts in enhancing the promotion and preservation of Taiwanese culture," Chu said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to