Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/28
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan, CNA staff reporter
[Editor’s note: This is part two of a five-part series that takes a look at the Taiwan government’s proposed plan to introduce English as a second official language in Taiwan. The rest of the series will be published in the coming three days.]
Education Minister Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠), who is heading a committee studying the
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education
feasibility of making English Taiwan’s second official language, is scheduled to present a report to Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) in May.
He sat down with CNA on Jan. 8 to share his views on why the government is advocating this idea and his vision for building an environment in Taiwan in which people use languages other than Mandarin Chinese in daily life.
The following are excerpts of the interview.
CNA: Taiwan does not have a legally defined official language. How do you define an official language?
Pan Wen-chung: There is indeed no legal definition of an official language. It’s all based on our general understanding of what it means. In practice, the language used in workplaces and in government offices is Mandarin Chinese.
CNA: So given the lack of a definite definition, what specifically would making English an official language mean? [FULL STORY] [PART 1]
