MandyChung's leditorial etter

 

鍾慧親  0965796796 高雄縣鳳一市慈暉新村四巷二十八號

 

Responding to the article Council plans to revitalize languages posted on May 12, 2007,

 

 

In recent year, not only Taiwanese language but also indigenous language revitalization plans were launched in most of elementary schools in Taiwan.  Taiwan's government also emphasized the importance of learning Taiwanese language.  Moreover, when listening to ICRT, I could still learn a few Hakka language from it.  I think that it is a good action to pass down that variety of languages from extinct crisis though it was too late for me.

 

In order to help the students acquire native language or Taiwanese language as they are young, nativist education (鄉土教學) courses are valued highly by every elementary school now.  Because the students have chances to know about natural history, geography, environment, dialects, art and culture of Taiwan, they might cherish Taiwanese, Hakka or indigenous language left and arouse their interests to learn one of them actively but reluctantly.

 

However, this change is too late for me because nativist education was useless for our generation.  Since I was an elementary student, nativist education was one of my learning courses in school schedule.  Ironically, I never had any actual nativist education class in school, though I paid the same tuition fee indeed as these students nowadays, I also bought the text books for each semesters.  Finally, I had no any idea about this course in my memory or proficiency in Taiwanese language.

 

 At that time, this kind of class such as nativist education, Boy Scout classes were frequently replaced by mathematics, Chinese subjects or used to make up classes among the teachers.  The students had no choice to say no, and these educators even didn't give me chances to experience Taiwan's varieties and different languages.  In addition, the most pity thing for me is that it is too late to realize the importance of Taiwanese language.  Therefore, among the peers, I am one of the people who speak very poor Taiwanese language though I keep learning it hard.

 

As Taiwan government perceived the threat of native languages, the nativist education was eventually appreciated and emphasized by today's educators.  At the same time, it opened a door for these young students to take up their own language.  Thus, in spite of the mainstream of learning English language, we should be proud of our languages and put the socio-economic of language aside.  Only to respect our language legacies can make other people respect Taiwan.  

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