At the 35th Golden Melody Awards ceremony held this year, singer Makav won Best New Artist and Best Indigenous Language Album. Makav began composing music in Bunun, her mother tongue, when she was 17. Indigenous music is gaining traction at the Golden Melody Awards, which manifests the importance of Taiwan’s cultural and educational policy on the promotion of diverse native languages. Only when Taiwanese identify with their native languages and cultures can valuable music compositions be created.
I once took a field trip to China and conducted research in a Miao community. I discovered that Taiwanese value indigenous language culture and education significantly more than Chinese do. To achieve cultural and political homogeneity, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sinicizing China’s indigenous people, eradicating their languages and cultures in the process.
In Taiwan, the government is establishing an organization for indigenous language teachers and the planning of indigenous language courses. Moreover, it is launching policies, including last year’s indigenous language teacher excellence program, as well as livestreamed indigenous language classes. To preserve rare languages and to raise the cultural awareness of indigenous students, the government is doing its best.
However, promoting indigenous languages in Taiwan is not without challenges, one of which is indigenous students’ faltering motivation to learn them. Students are encouraged to learn their native languages, but gradually run out of enthusiasm after they begin. Indigenous parents tend to be less willing to assist their children in learning native languages because of life pressure. How to stimulate indigenous students’ inner motivation to learn their native language is the first big challenge.
The second big challenge is how to make students recognize the uniqueness and importance of their native languages. They are not exposed to a natural language learning environment. Burdened by stress from their schoolwork, they find it hard to be enthused by their native languages. If they are unaware of the importance of traditional culture and customs, they would not think it is necessary to learn their native languages.
The government must help make indigenous people appreciate the distinctiveness and irreplaceability of their native languages and cultures.
Knight Chang is a political worker and holds a doctorate in education.
Translated by Chen Chi-huang
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