目前分類：For Taiwan's Education (7)

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This article was intended to be posted for another similar web site; however, I withdrew from that site with frustration before I had the chance to do it. After some revision, I post it here to share with you.

 

 

When I encourage people to change their attitude about learning a foreign language, I speak strictly from my experience as a teacher. Every time when I read about Taiwan's English testing results, I cringe. Has the learning attitude changed much after I left Taiwan? In some way, yes! In general, it has not changed much. I have seen how students learn traditionally and I would like to see more changes to be made. So, here I will share a little story of my sister who is a good example of a typical Taiwanese English learner. I love her dearly. Hopefully, she will not kill me after reading this.

 

My little sister came to live with us for a while after she quit her job from a reputable international company. Her English was quite good, compared to many of her peers in Taiwan. She wanted to improve her English for career advancement, so she decided to come to Canada to study and went to a local college for their ESL program.

 

Her English level again was substantially higher than the other international students. The only problem was she would spend hours studying on her books. Every day after she got home from school, she would stay in her room and study grammar. She could score really high on the written tests and write sentences that seemed to be grammatically correct. However, her content meaning was often unclear. She was able to speak better than others but definitely with plenty of room for improvement.

 

My husband who can not speak a word of Chinese often asked her why she would not take advantage of the opportunities while in Canada to practise her spoken language. She often replied that she was shy or she had to study. My husband was finally frustrated and told her that she spent so much money to fly to Canada only to stay in her room to study. She could have saved the money and stayed in Taiwan if all she did was studying the books. Anyway, she eventually got the message and realized that applying her English skills to her everyday life was the practice that she truly needed.

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Don't be alarmed by the title! I think if we want Taiwan to have a better education reform, we do have to take a good look at the other education systems and learn from the best of the best systems. A while ago, my friend Thomas in Germany asked me about the Ontario education system. I was very surprised to hear that he was not too happy with the education quality in Germany. In fact, he was more than disappointed that Germany is no longer in the top five European countries with quality education, and he has a daughter in the public school system right now.
 
Finland happens to be one of the top countries he mentioned to me. Johan from Talking Taiwanese has a new article about the fundamental problems we are facing in Taiwan and in the latest Taiwanese education reform. In this article, Johan suggests that we should look at how Finland has reformed their education system to reach the top rank in Europe. Finnish system may be the model that Taiwan should copy for the future reform.
 
To the readers out there who are concerned about our quality education in Taiwan, you are more than welcome to go to his blog and leave him your comments. I am pretty sure Johan would like to hear from you regarding your thoughts and ideas. Here is the link to his blog. 
Talking Taiwanese
http://johangijsen.blogspot.com/
 
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Yesterday I went to a dinner function for Easter. An acquaintance who I have not seen for a while greeted me with the comment last night, “So, Taiwan has elected a president.” Honestly, I was so surprised that, for a Canadian senior, a grey hair old lady, who knows very little about Taiwan, she actually read the news about the presidential election. I proudly explained to her all the latest news that I have read about the election.
 
Taiwan is the place that I am very proud to call my motherland because 76.33 percent of the eligible voters turned up at the poll stations to cast their ballot to elect a new president. Listen! It does not matter who your ideal president should be. For all of you, the people in Taiwan, you have exercised your democratic right and also put Taiwan on the stage to prove the democracy at work.
 
Tell that to the world, 76.33% of all eligible voters voted!!!!!!!
 
Now it is about time for all people in Taiwan to show respect to each other as citizens in a democratic world would do to cooperate and help carry out the policies. The government is not going to function properly for you if the political parties could not respect the spirit of democracy, which is the very essence that is significantly different from any country under the communists’ reign. Now it is time for all people in Taiwan to show the spirit of democracy and to live the essence of democracy. Let there no longer be division between brothers, conflict between creeds, and discrimination against tribes. Enough damage and tragedies have occurred but now it is time for healing.
 
I detest people who draw the racial line in Taiwan. For someone like me who have travelled across a couple of oceans, visited a few countries and witnessed discrimination at large, racism is the last thing I would expect to read about from Taiwan. I am not too naive to believe that racism does not exist in Taiwan. I know racism, the root of hatred, is everywhere and this is why, as an educator, I am extremely concerned about this social cancer. Shockingly, I have read so much nonsense online which no doubt (I hope) was all due to the great political divides including the mocking from some of our foreign residents in Taiwan. As the hype of presidential election subdued, I hope people would rationalize their conduct and come to the common senses.
 
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It is your election day in Taiwan. Please cast your vote no matter how busy you are! Your vote is important to Taiwan’s political future.
 
Election is a democratic process for all citizens to exercise their right. It is only fair if you cast your vote carefully to be part of the decision making process. I always have a very strong political sense no matter where I am. Since I can not be there to vote on this special day, I have been keeping my political view to myself for a few simple reasons. (Note 1)
 
First of all, I don’t need to display my personal political opinions since I have no right to vote in Taiwan. As an expat in Canada, I have my own idealistic view about Taiwan’s politics but no matter what, there will always be people who disagree with my personal view. (Note 2) So, why do I even bother to set up a public battle ground here in my personal blog to argue with strangers? (I can do that any time but definitely not before the election.)
 
Secondly, I think there are enough comments said already on TV or in the newspapers about the two major political parties in Taiwan. I don’t carry any party colour and it is damn rude (pardon my language) to ask people about their political party colour. Who cares about the party colour if the political party’s platform has no solidified strategies for their political plan? You are voting to elect a president of the country, not a pop-singing idol! All politicians, in Taiwan or in Canada, should look beyond their time in the office when it comes to planning for a state’s future. You should vote for the candidate who has a vision for more than four years in the office. I am fed up with politicians who are so shortsighted and only go for popularity contest!
 
Last but not the least, it is really up to the grass root citizens, i.e., YOU, to form your own rational judgments based on the political platforms presented to you by all parties’ candidates. So, there is no point for me to tell you what I think because the truth is that you, the educated voters, already know what the best will be for yourself. Politics is the same around the world. There are always political tactics played out in front of our very eyes during every election campaign. People tend to get emotional and even irrational at times. Don’t get caught up in the psychological political warfare. (Note 3) I personally detest all those idiotic tactics. I truly believe that, as a citizen with Taiwan’s future at stake, you need to step back, think with a futuristic view and make a wise and important decision.
 
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I just read this article on CFPing's blog. It is exactly what I have preached to parents here for years. Let kids be kids to explore the outside world before putting them in any confined setting. I often see parents use TVs, video games and the computer as a babysitting tool. My words often fall to deaf ears. 

The other day when we were estimating how tall a giraffe is in class. Nine kids told me that they have never been to a zoo and they don't know how tall a giraffe really is. Sad! I bet they all have PlayStations, GameCube, or Xboxes at home. I didn't have any of those technological devices when I was growing up but I sure know how to learn to operate a computer well and do a little programming later on in life. Internet was not even invented when I was in elementary school. (Correction: OK. To be more specific, maybe it was invented already before my school age, but it was only for military use. I am not "ancient". Hahaha.) We did not learn English until we were in Grade 7, but it did not hurt our learning curve for any other foreign languages. (I also know a little Japanese and Spanish as well.)  I had a solid foundation for oral language in both dialects (Taiwanese and Mandarin) at home and thorough written Chinese at school. Children should have a solid foundation for their mother tongue before learning a new language!

I am just a nobody (hehehe) to parents in Taiwan, but here is an article from somebody who has made it big in Taiwan. Maybe his words would carry some weight to parents there. 
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If you want to read CFPing's personal comments, please go to his site. (Sorry, CFping. I couldn't copy yours because you locked the right key on your page.) http://www.wretch.cc/blog/CFPing&article_id=17353074#trackbacks

This article was copied from another site. Here is the link. http://blog.yam.com/eyesfun/article/8155310#comments

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Johan Gijsen is a Linguistics professor at I-Shou University in Taiwan. I guess the university was established after I left Taiwan because I had never been there. Anyway, he has written a few very interesting articles about Taiwan’s language education on his blog Talking Taiwanese. I enjoy reading his blog because he is not simply criticizing Taiwan’s education. He has also provided his theoretic and analytical viewpoints to suggest a constructive frame work and different feasible models for the language education in Taiwan. I sometimes leave my comments to offer him my two cents. I am pretty sure he will be thrilled to receive more comments from other readers who care very much about Taiwan’s language education. With his permission, I have linked his blog to mine. The following is my comments sent to him regarding his latest articles, University entrance admission practices and quality of education. I strongly recommend you to visit his blog and read this particular article before reading my comments. Thanks.
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Johan,
 
What you just posted about the reality in university is really new to me because it is very different from years ago when I went to university in Taiwan. Based on what you have described, now I have very grave concern about the quality of university education in Taiwan. Somehow, the education authority, either the MOE (Ministry of Education) or scholarly institutions, have some misconception about the role of a university. A university should be an institution of a higher esteem for specific theory and research study, which is different from a college or a regular high school, isn’t it? From what you have described about how the faculty tried to help students “catch up” with the standard in an English department screamed “high school” to me. That is what we do in public education- we help all students high or low to meet their individual needs with remedial support in order to pass on to the next level, either to a college or a university, because it is compulsory PUBLIC EDUCATION.
 
I would expect university students to have certain self-reliant discipline to function in a highly challenging academia. I call this maturity of self-discipline as positive “learning behavior” which requires independence and diligence. Students without this kind of adequate learning behavior would not and should not be ready for university study. Maybe they should not be there to begin with.
 
Many young adults here in Canada are going back to universities after years of working because they finally have the maturity and direction to pursue higher study. For the same token, many university grads are going back to college to learn practical skills in order to function in the trades or professional fields they are in. That is the distinction between skills and research study. I know all parents, regardless Taiwanese or Canadian, would hope to see their children go through university education. The truth is that not all students are cut out for the university route, and university is not the only way to get ahead in the world.
 
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To ALL of You Who Are Passionate about Taiwan’s Education:

My blog is not only about Canadian education. I am very concerned about Taiwan’s education as well. I personally believe that education is the foundation for a modern society and the key to a country’s future. Only with a highly intelligent and highly educated workforce, a country is able to progress and compete in a forever evolving global market.

Other than describing my personal learning experience and my past school life in Taiwan, I have not published any of my personal views on Taiwan’s education on my blog, especially about the new education reform in Taiwan. I have been surfing many blogs to read about others’ opinions, especially some domestic and foreign educators’ points of view, on the education reform and the quality of education. Some strictly whine and complain about the education but do not offer concrete opinions on the solutions. Some have solutions but they lack understanding about Taiwan’s cultural and intellectual background, so the solutions may not be applicable for Taiwan’s big environment.

Some friends think that I am living outside of Taiwan, so why do I care about the education there? Well, just because I don’t reside there, it does not mean that I am heartless about my family or the next generation’s education. I care and I CARE very much about education in general! I was a teacher there and now I am still a teacher here. It does not matter where I am; my heart is always with one thing that I am very passionate about - education.

I just set up a new category on my blog titled For Taiwan’s Education. I will gradually post the articles I read and their links, with permissions from those webloggers and writers. I will also post my comments if possible. I welcome all readers’ creative comments and relevant discussions regarding issues in Taiwan’s education. We all have to care because EDUCATION MATTERS!

Julia1492


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