Monday, May 28, 2007

My opinion about Cabinet finalizes draft law on nat'l language development

Dear Editor,

I'd like to express my opinion about Cabinet finalizes draft law on
nat'l language development posted on May 17th, 2007.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely yours,
Poki Hsiao, Fang-Chia

Name: Hsiao Fang-Chia
Phone No.: 0956445870
Address: 6F.-2, No.321, Guanghua 1st Rd., Lingya District, Kaohsiung
City 802, Taiwan

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        A renaissance of endangered languages
               Poki Hsiao

People in Taiwan often underline the importance of Mandarin,
and ignore the importance of any other national languages, such as
Taiwanese or Hakka etc. Even worse, they (especially teenagers) look
down on national languages and think national languages are vulgar
languages. It shouldn't be done like that. Therefore, making the laws
related to the development of national languages is an important way
to avoid this kind of condition.
Taiwan is the country of freedom, so it's impossible to make
national languages suppressed. Languages are an important cultural
heritage. When a language dies, it means that the culture of a
language will disappear. So it's necessary to protect the equality and
variety of languages.
Besides making the laws, education is an important way to
promote the development of national languages as well. If students are
not taught to emphasize on the importance of developing national
languages, how could students respect language variety? If students
are not taught the speaking, writing and listing knowledge of national
languages, how could students preserve the heritage of endangered
native languages? It's everyone's duty to promote the development of
national languages.

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