Some good news for a change
Premier says he disagrees with Hoklo cash cut (Taipei Times)
Let's wait and see what actually happens.Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday that he disagreed with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators’ rejection of the budget request for Hoklo accreditation examinations.
Liu told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) during a legislative session that he would do his best to remedy the lack of funding for the examinations this year....
Hung’s move prompted a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan last Friday.
The premier yesterday rebutted DPP legislator speculation that Hung initiated the motion at the Cabinet’s request.
He said the Cabinet would request a budget to hold the examinations next year.
Chen Hsueh-yu (陳雪玉), executive secretary and a senior inspector at the ministry’s National Languages Committee, said on Friday that the ministry would not be able to hold the exams this year as a result of the budget cuts.
She said the ministry would consider ways of improving the proficiency of Hoklo teachers.
2 comments:
A-gu, the last line you wrote kinda cancels out your headline. How could anyone believe that Liu Chao-shiuan (Mr. 25%) will actually do what he says he will -- or even that he has the competence to do so?
Tim Maddog
Still not good news.
This is from the Monday, March 9, 2009 Taipei Times [bold emphasis mine]:
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Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) criticized Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday over his remark that children should learn mother tongues other than Mandarin at home “instead of taking up too many hours at school.”
[...]
[Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱)] criticized Hoklo education in schools, saying students were overburdened and confused by the Romanization system used in Hoklo textbooks.
Hung questioned the value of the lessons. The premier agreed, saying that students should learn non-Mandarin languages in a more natural way.
“The Ministry of Education should review our approach to language teaching and rid it of ideology so that language education will be effective,” he said.
[...]
Cabinet Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) defended the premier’s comments, saying Liu was emphasizing the need to improve the nation’s approach to preserving non-Mandarin languages.
Liu said “mother tongues should be taught naturally at home instead of using Romanization because [learning the Romanization] can be another burden on children. He did not mean that mother tongue education at school should be scrapped,” Su told the Taipei Times.
“Hoklo education is an important issue in Taiwan. It is impossible that the premier would suggest [scrapping it],” Su said.
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Believe me, it's not impossible.
Readers should be reminded of the KMT's history of banning Taiwanese in schools ("我要說國語不說方言") while forcing their own ideology on the nation.
Tim Maddog
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