In recent years, the DPP government has been emphasizing the promotion of a transition to a bilingual nation to enhance the country’s international competitiveness. But this approach seems a bit wrong, as if being able to speak English means all citizens could negotiate affairs on Wall Street.
In fact, this approach has gone astray…
It’s easy for Taiwanese people to think that this is purely a means to achieve political correctness, with the ultimate goal being to dilute the influence of the Chinese language, or even to eliminate it.
Look at our powerful neighbors, Mainland China and Japan; none of them aim to be a bilingual nation.
Language is, after all, just a tool, a means… In fact, many Chinese who have immigrated abroad still don’t speak English well but can live very well in a foreign land.
Moreover, English is only somewhat mainstream and does not necessarily work in many markets in the world. Should we follow suit and become trilingual or quadrilingual nations as soon as a certain economy becomes strong?
And Chinese is our mother tongue (whether Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, or Minnan (Taiwanese), they are all Chinese), and also the foundation of our culture. Declaring that a bilingual nation is the only antidote is basically looking down on one’s own historical and cultural heritage.
I especially use Japan as an example; the reason they are powerful is a special elite-cultivation system plus the intervention of all-around translation personnel. This is using the correct policy to support the needs of the citizens, not like the DPP, which is superficially “gold and jade on the outside, rot and decay on the inside.”
Those who really want to compete in the international market are the ones who need to focus particularly on English training, while the people behind them become the pillar of domestic demand industries.
This can be seen in their generally not-high English proficiency and the fact that domestic TV is exclusively broadcast in Japanese, including all foreign films being fully translated. From this, one can see their respect for their own language and culture.
The question arises: is Japan’s national strength weak?
As it turns out, the DPP, which loves its “Japanese big brothers” the most and takes everything Japanese as a paradigm… is doing the opposite, intending to force ordinary people to learn English while using all means to weaken Chinese language ability…
This includes eliminating classical Chinese literature, rejecting ancient poetry, and even excluding Chinese language proficiency from university entrance exams, similar to the behaviors of the Communist Party’s Cultural Revolution.
In fact, this is just the ruling party using various tricks to cover up its own incompetence, making the people feel as if they are progressing, while essentially just stretching out the time of decline as much as possible.
And large amounts of people’s tax money are spent on wrong policies. In the foreseeable future, one can predict that a large number of “mosquito systems” (useless systems) will be produced… It even makes people not specialize in anything, and finally, it’s about specifically producing fools…
In the past, when politicians wanted to be corrupt, they relied on building “mosquito halls” (useless buildings). But a building will always be remembered from time to time, becoming a negative political asset. But “mosquito systems” and “mosquito software” don’t have this problem…
Does anyone still remember how much money politicians spent and how much program trash they created? No one knows… Digital development is such a damn good business…
We should not blindly follow politicians’ policies but should carefully consider whether these policies are useful and what their true purpose and possible consequences are.
We should ensure that our own culture and languages are protected and that our country can stand firm on the international stage.
We should also consider other methods, such as enhancing our international competitiveness through education and cultural exchange, rather than relying solely on a foreign language. We can learn how to communicate with other countries and cultures while maintaining our own culture and language.
All in all, we should think carefully to ensure that our decisions can truly bring benefits to the country and the people, rather than just for a politician’s momentary blind political correctness…
Similar to the education reform and university popularization pushed by Lee Yuan-tseh before… we all know the consequences… the so-called bilingual nation is actually just “Education Reform 2.0” played in a different way. 迫