Taiwan’s second-highest ranked university, the National Cheng Kung University in Tâi-lâm (Tainan), is currently accepting applications for their 2008 Taiwanese Creative Literature Program. Two parallel classes will be run in Tâi-lâm and Ko-hiông (Kaohsiung) to offer applicants a choice of study locations.

The one requirement is a minimum of 36 hours or two credits worth of documented study in the field of Taiwanese language or literature – other than this restriction, the course is open to anyone, be they academics, writers or interested amateurs. The number of places is limited to 100 and the application deadline is January 20th.

The program will run from 21st-25th January in Tâi-lâm and 28th January to 1st February in Ko-hiông, covering topics including the Taiwanese novel, popular music and modern poetry. Anyone interested in taking part should see the course page on the NCKU website for more details.

Most Taiwanese are surprised when a non-local speaks in decent Mandarin, so the shock when a foreigner opens their mouth and Taiwanese comes out is palpable. The United Daily News yesterday featured an article about a Costa Rican woman who married a Taiwanese man from Lâm-tâu (Nantou) and learned to speak the language.

10年前從哥斯大黎加嫁到鹿谷的梅麗莎，不僅融入當地民情，以一口順溜的台語賣茶，更常讓買茶遊客驚訝：「哪裡來的外國人，台語怎麼說得比我還好！」

Ten years ago Melissa came from Costa Rica with her husband to Lo̍k-kok [a town in Lâm-tâu County]. Now she has not only integrated in to local life, but also sells tea in fluent Taiwanese, confounding visitors who often remark, “How come this foreigner speaks better Taiwanese than me?”

The article also mentions that she has “little opportunity” to practice Mandarin, but that her ability in that language is improving too. In many small towns and villages in the countryside Taiwanese remains the language of preference, with most inhabitants being able to speak Mandarin to some degree as a result of formal education, but preferring to speak their native tongue.

Actually Taiwanese-speaking foreigners are not all that unusual, but the majority are South-East Asian spouses (particularly from Vietnam) who live outside the major cities and are therefore less visible both by virtue of their ethnicity and their location. In general they are expected to integrate, whereas “Westerners” are not. Most of the Westerners I have met who have a command of the language are current or former missionaries – an occupation in which speaking to people in the “language of their heart” is very important.

Incidentally Costa Rica was until this year one of Taiwan’s few diplomatic allies, a fact which helped citizens of that country with regards to visas and immigration in to Taiwan.

The Taipei Times has an article today on a competition organised by a Taiwanese chapter of the Rotary Club:

For Tokuya Kumagai, learning Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) is the best way for him to show his passion for the country.

“I want to learn Hoklo because I love Taiwan,” he said yesterday in faultless Hoklo after only studying for three months.

Kumagai was one of the 45 contestants from 14 countries, including Slovenia, Poland, Japan, South Korea, Macedonia, the UK, Vietnam and the US, to compete yesterday in the 12th annual Mandarin and Taiwanese Speech Contest for Foreign Students held by Rotary Club district 3250.

“I believe speaking Hoklo is the most direct way for me to really understand the country and its people,” he said, adding he would also recommend that his friends in Japan come to Taiwan to learn Mandarin.

Faultless Taiwanese after three months? I need to find out who his teacher is…

The full article is available via the Taipei Times Web site.

In other airline-related news, Taoyuan International Airport (formerly known as Chiang Kai-shek International), Taiwan’s main air transportation hub, is to add Taiwanese to the Mandarin, English and Japanese already used for public announcements, FTV reports via Yahoo News.

This is in line with the policies of other transportation companies (both public and private) to increase the representation of the other languages of Taiwan besides Mandarin. Taipei’s modern MRT network, for example, has station announcements first in Mandarin, then Taiwanese, Hakka and finally English.

Such moves have definite benefits for the dwindling number of older Taiwanese people who speak Mandarin imperfectly or not at all, while raising the profile of Taiwan’s second-most widely spoken language. However, language issues in Taiwan are highly politicised and it’s not a stretch to imagine that a change such as this is part of a points-scoring exercise. Perhaps I am just too cynical…

On the whole, this move by itself is not terribly significant, but it does represent an example of a trend towards the increasing visibility of Taiwanese on a national and administrative level. Whether this is a deep-seated change or merely tokenism on the part of Taiwan’s elected representatives remains to be seen.