English to shine
The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan recently released its “2024 Business Climate Survey.” About 85 percent of its members were optimistic about Taiwan’s economic outlook for the next three years and it said that jobseekers generally possess qualities that make Taiwanese more competitive in the international market
Among these qualities, the top five in order were: diligence, reliability, execution, commitment and teamwork.
As for the most obvious weaknesses of Taiwan’s human resources, international mindset topped the list, followed by poor English-language skills.
This is absolutely true, as the two weaknesses are linked by a causal relationship.
English is an international language. If a person’s English proficiency is low, they would naturally face obstacles to acquiring global information and connecting to the world.
Given the foundation of the bilingual education policy of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration and its implementation over the past eight years, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) should continue to push the policy boldly once he takes office in May to maintain the bold progress.
Not long ago, the Ministry of National Defense repeatedly sent nationwide emergency alert messages to all citizens’ cellphones. In addition to the mistranslation of “satellite” as “missile,” there were at least three grammatical errors in a short message with only nine English words, which was absurd in the extreme.
English-language training courses — whether they be long or short-term — as well as talent trained or employed by the ministry or the three branches of the armed forces are clearly far short of expectation.
Despite Taiwan boasting the world’s highest rate of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, the rate of academic plagiarism is high, which might also be linked to the problem of poor English ability.
Previous generations of Taiwanese worked extremely hard to create an economic miracle. Given the development of the Internet as a global conduit and store of information, as well as the emergence of competitor nations, it is absolutely necessary for Taiwanese to improve their English skills.
That would open more doors to the international community, and allow Taiwan and talented Taiwanese to shine more brightly on the world stage.
Fang Fu-chuan
Taipei
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
US President Donald Trump’s second administration has gotten off to a fast start with a blizzard of initiatives focused on domestic commitments made during his campaign. His tariff-based approach to re-ordering global trade in a manner more favorable to the United States appears to be in its infancy, but the significant scale and scope are undeniable. That said, while China looms largest on the list of national security challenges, to date we have heard little from the administration, bar the 10 percent tariffs directed at China, on specific priorities vis-a-vis China. The Congressional hearings for President Trump’s cabinet have, so far,
The US Department of State has removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” in its updated Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, which instead iterates that “we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” This shows a tougher stance rejecting China’s false claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Since switching formal diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1979, the US government has continually indicated that it “does not support Taiwan independence.” The phrase was removed in 2022
US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have each given their thoughts on Russia’s war with Ukraine. There are a few proponents of US skepticism in Taiwan taking advantage of developments to write articles claiming that the US would arbitrarily abandon Ukraine. The reality is that when one understands Trump’s negotiating habits, one sees that he brings up all variables of a situation prior to discussion, using broad negotiations to take charge. As for his ultimate goals and the aces up his sleeve, he wants to keep things vague for
RSS