The Ministry of Education (MOE) is considering demanding that all foreign brides receive Chinese-language training courses as soon as they arrive in Taiwan, Vice Minister of Education Fan Sun-lu (
"We are considering requiring all foreign brides to study Chinese once they set foot on the island, " Fan said at a seminar on adult education for foreign brides organized by the Taipei county government.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Fan said the ministry has also decided to ease restrictions on foreign brides intending to receive higher education in Taiwan. In the future, she said, foreign brides who have obtained permanent residency or Taiwan passports can apply to enter local educational institutions.
Due to the changing social situation, Fan went on, the number of foreign women marrying Taiwan men has increased substantially in recent years.
"We should not discriminate against foreign brides and should treat them with respect and concern," Fan said, adding that educational and welfare service agencies should integrate their resources to help foreign brides get accustomed to Taiwan's social norms, customs, culture and way of life.
As foreign brides play an essential role in child-rearing and education, Fan said, the MOE will cooperate closely with local governments and educational institutes in offering practical educational programs and training workshops for foreign brides.
Speaking on the same occasion, Lin Kuei-chih, academic affairs director of Wanli Elementary School in Taipei County, said that the school began to operate a special education class for foreign brides three years ago.
"At the beginning, the teachers had a hard time communicating with the foreign brides. After three years of effort, however, many of them can speak and read Chinese and can use phonetic symbols and dictionaries," Lin said.
According to government tallies, the number of foreign spouses had reached 91,300 as of the end of last year. Among them, 85,194 were women, while the remainder were men.
If the number of foreign brides increases at an estimated annual rate of 17,000, the number of foreign brides will reach 150,000 in four years, equivalent to the minimum population required to form a city under the jurisdiction of a county government.
In 1998, foreign spouses accounted for 7.13 percent of the people who registered their marriages during the year, a ratio that rose to 11.38 percent in 2001 and surged further to 11.65 percent last year.
A total of 17,339 foreign women married Taiwan men last year, while 2,768 foreign bridegrooms tied the knot with Taiwan women.
In terms of nationality, Vietnamese women formed the largest group of foreign brides in Taiwan, totaling 42,713 at the end of last year; followed by Indonesians at 10,662. Other countries who have at least 1,000 women married to Taiwanese men were Thailand, the Phili-ppines, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia and the US.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the