While Taiwan plans to invest in English education, it won’t become an official language favored over other local languages. That’s the word from premier Su Tseng-chang.
Speaking at a government conference on national language development on Thursday, the premier said that the country’s heritage languages are facing a crisis. Though the country has emerged from the era when these languages were repressed, they all face a critical moment of survival.
Some have criticized the government for promoting the use of English while other languages face a critical threat.
Premier Su says that the government does not intend to force citizens to use English. He says that the government is focused on having students spend more time learning the language, and that English will not become an official language.
The culture ministry reported that all of Taiwan’s languages other than Mandarin risk disappearing. It says that leaving individual language policies to state institutions handling the affairs of different ethnic groups has resulted in a lack of resources for language preservation efforts.
The ministry plans on enacting a language development program to collect information on, standardize, and develop educational materials for all national languages.