Taiwan's Bilingual Policy is Doomed to Fail (2)

Indeed, language can be used to very effectively compete, defeat, and convince.

But do we need to encourage such uses?

(Of course, I believe most people would say no. But I think this is what the bilingual policy will ultimately do.)

Do we really need it when we see most English schools recruit students by saying, "Don't let native English-speakers laugh at your Chinglish" instead of saying, "Learn how to communicate effectively even with a limited English vocabulary"?

Do we really need it when we see in elementary schools' writing lessons the feedback we give focuses on how the article is WORDED instead of what ideas are being SHARED and how the logic behind them ANALYZED?

Even in conference interpreting classrooms, where "being the story-teller on behalf of the speaker" (i.e. COMMUNICATION) is, I believe, far more important than "sounding like a native English-speaker," it is not uncommon to see students spend more time neutralizing their Taiwanese accent and learning colloquial English expressions. And NO, in most cases it's not because they really mispronounce or misuse words so much the audience can't understand them.

It's this obsession with "beautiful language"--first it was "good Chinese" and then now it's "good English"--which obviously is a very powerful tool to compete, defeat, and convince, that has led to our failure in language education.

We might never be able to rid ourselves of biases towards different languages and their varieties, but we surely don't need a policy based on them.

Let go of this obsession with "good English." Replace it with "effective communication in languages (not just English!)." If you don't know what I mean, the 07:00-09:00 section of this Ted Talk provides a two-minute explanation with an excellent real-life example.

Yes, this will most likely remain as just my wishful thinking. But I believe that we should recognize that language, if it has any purpose at all, should be used to understand each other and embrace our differences in society.

Only then can we begin our very first step to make this island country of amazing diversity a place friendly to not only English but also its many native languages that are already dying.

多語台灣、英語友善！