Scott Sommers links to this China Post story on a poll from the educational foundation King Car on attitudes toward English education in Taiwan:Up to 80 percent of Taiwan parents hoped the government would declare English the second official language of Taiwan, according to findings of a survey released yesterday.The survey was conducted by King Car Education Foundation in December 2005 on 2,059 parents around Taiwan. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
The survey showed that 90 percent of the parents lack confidence in their English ability.
Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of Taiwan parents send their children to cram schools to learn English, with 70 percent hoping their children will develop an interest in English at the cram schools.
Officials at the foundation noted that the TOEFL scores of Taiwan students have for several consecutive years occupied the bottom places among Asian students, and that the TOEIC scores of the Taiwan people ranked ninth from the bottom around the world, which they said shows that the English ability of the Taiwan people is still insufficient despite the English-learning fever in the country.
King Car is the group bringing in right-wing Christian missionaries who illegally prosyletize while on the job all over Taiwan.* The foundation does quite a bit of work with the Ministry of Education. King Car Education foundation can be had here. The same news is available in Chinese on Yahoo. Unfortunately I can't find an original of the survey online.
* a good example is this fellow here, whose blog proudly says: 我 是帥哥! I'm the Handsome Guy! My name is Samuel (包帝聞) and I'm a working as an English teacher on the island of Kinmen, Taiwan, doing my best to spread the good news of Christ -- among people whom he patronizes:
Their gods are confined to images and carved wood. They aren't so much gods as they are warriors, each with their own battle to fight. The wind god isn't really a god: he simply fights to control the wind. But sometimes he looses.*sigh*
How horrible to have not a God but a warrior, one who might or might not win. What happens when your god looses? Then you are stuck.
Aren't you glad our God is all powerful?)
[Taiwan] [English] [ESL in Taiwan]
7 comments:
Man, your post on his site was hilarious. I usually keep the whole religion thing quiet but I do have to say that his way of thinking is quite fanatic.
"Joy's mother died without trusting Christ. Pray for Joy."
I second your *sigh*.
However, I happened to skim through one part of his blog that said, "Keep praying for Riddick. We've recently been worried about what seems to be some demonic influences in his life."
Now I'd like to meet Riddick. At least we'd be entertained with some sort of head-spinning parlour trick. Or maybe some interesting impressions and voices. It would be much better than the the puppet drivel that Samuel is spitting out.
- el spencer
Crazy Christians, leave us alone. Next thing you know they start attacking students on college campuses. Or has that trend already followed to Taiwan?
Yes, I just got some pictures of Mammons...er...Mormons, harassing students on my campus. There's a group of four of them who show up there. I am inclined to let them alone, as they won't get any converts, and students could use the English practice.
I was saddened this year when a student told me that she couldn't write a paper I assigned on local politics because she was a Jehovah's Witless. What a sick belief....I can understand why some people want to control others -- power is alluring -- what I can't understand is a mind that would permit itself to be controlled.
Michael
That blog you linked is UNbelievable... I figured it had to be a spoof, but who would go through the trouble of spoofing missionary work in Taiwan all the way back to Dec. 2004?
Though I myself am not religious, I'm not against all faith-based work in Taiwan... maybe because I haven't talked to enough pushy Mormons or read enough blogs like the one you linked. Just because of my daily schedule and because I haven't changed my tuner settings, I wake up most mornings to a radio program with strong missionary-overtones on a government-run station here in Taipei. While the host states that it's not a religious show, he frequently invites church leaders and volunteers from Christian organizations as guests (it seems to be focused on local charity work in general, though I haven't heard any representatives from Buddhist organizations yet).
There was a former missionary on air last week, a Californian who has lived in Taiwan for over 30 years and now teaches at 輔仁大學. His statements were rather insightful...
He was saying how, back in the day, most of the people from his church went to Africa, the proverbial "dark continent", to do their missionary work. He really wanted to go to China, but it being closed to most foreigners and especially Americans at the time, he chose to come to Taiwan instead. When he finally arrived, he actually felt very disappointed, because Taiwan wasn't as "backwards" as he had been led to believe... and he felt like Taiwan didn't actually need him. What he had to come to realize was that he had more than religion to offer Taiwan, and he points this out as a common failing of many others doing missionary work here.
Wise words, I think, but perhaps not a representative attitude of most kids doing Christian missionary work here and now...
Scott Sommers and I have been writing on the missionary/teacher problem for some time. Go look at this one or Scott Sommers' response. I picked up that and more missionary silliness in this roundup (scroll down). These people are totally unscrupulous.....
Michael
That's a great response, Menghsindy. Thanks...
I'm the handsome guy?
Good to know missionaries are still humble
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