It's a cheerful news for all the people who care about the native language education and the preservation of the Taiwanese aboriginal language -- Now Tai Wu Elementary School has launched a class where all the lessons are taught in the Paiwan language, the mother tongue of the local tribal people!
Tai Wu Elementary School's native language promotion project has been approved and supported by the Department of Education of Pingtung County Government, and will begin the courses from this semester. In the kindergarten of the school, the parents of the school students can choose whether to let their kids go to the lessons all taught in Paiwan or not. And eventually the parents of 28 out of the total 43 students support the project. Now 65% of the students can enjoy the learning environment of the all-Paiwan-taught program!
According to the school principal Wu, Li-Hua and the teacher Pan Shui-Mei, who has 5-year experience in teaching in Paiwan, only 20% of the parents can speak in Paiwan, who learned the tongue from their grandparents, not even from their parents. "You will never forget what you learned in your childhood". So this is why the parents try to have their next generations take the courses all taught in their mother tongue. After two months of the program, now the kids have become used to the conversation in Paiwan, and even their parents start to learn their ancestors' language from their children.
As of a research conducted by UNESCO in 2009, 9 of the total 14 officially recognized Taiwanese aboriginal peoples' native languages were listed as endangered to some degree, and two are considered moribund, including Kavalan and Thao. Even though Paiwan as the second largest Taiwanese aboriginal language by population in Taiwan and is relatively healthy, it's still an inspring news for all who want to preserve the aboriginal languages and could be a benchmark for the other projects in the future.
(Source/picture from: Liberty Times; translated and compiled by: Benson Fang)
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