Taiwan is not Singapore or Hong Kong, but Singapore does not have to worry about being taken over by China, and it's already too late for Hong Kong. More than South Korea and Japan, Taiwan has a very strong reason to become internationalized, which should really be the focus of the conversation instead of how hard or easy it will be. It won't be easy, but it is necessary. Once you have the motivation clarified, you just need to overcome the obstacles, whatever they are, because Taiwan does not have a choice if it wants to survive. However, I do agree with Prof. Lin's other idea of bringing in talent from outside of Taiwan. It just needs to be done intelligently so that we bring in as much good and as little evil as possible. Not everything foreign is good. Taiwan is doing a lot better than the U.S. in democracy, environmentalism, health care, public sanitation, crime rate, etc., for example.
I agree with all woman said, I see it, I'm from Argentina and I love a place like taiwan, but on my approach to the people I notice exactly what she said, and I surprised because on my mind Taiwan was an international society with more open mind but wasn't true, be international on many areas doesn't mean you have an international and multicultural point of view, as an Argentine person maybe I'm not best example but I want to point that Argentinian have this open mind and was very successful on what Taiwan maybe is trying to do, because we are very multicultural and diverse but we always identify as part of the country, even when we have many influences from all around world. About the English Im sure most of my country people can understand English but don't have the interest to speak it on dayli, but the core is there, the way of think beyond border is half of work done, I think we can learn a lot from Taiwan and I'm sure we can also help Taiwan on many ways. Actually I surprised that in Taiwan Spanish is also a language that many know. Hopefully on future wit more contact with international community taiwan can improve and maybe after achieve your goal of bilingual can go further and see Spanish as an option too. Best wishes :)
This policy was flawed from the start. Taiwanese people don't want to speak English, they learn it because they are forced to by the education system. Nevertheless, I really hope that the government follows through on it's policy, and makes English an official language in Taiwan. That way the ROC will run out of stupid excuses to not allow foreigners to obtain Taiwan Citizenship. The situation at present is a disgrace! I have lived here for 22 years, and still have no right to vote. What was the point of teaching English for almost 20 years, if I'm still gonna be shut out of Taiwanese political and cultural society?
"The way you think is more important than the way you speak." Yes, totally agree. That's why I don't support 2030 bilingual policy. Speak better English won't make me to be more productive, smarter or even has broader views. Instead, learn philosophy, math concept proof, history (in the right way), or science do. Don't get me wrong, I mean English is super important, but good English doesn't implies good in other properties automatically. Over emphasize English improperly will be a disastrous good intention. It's just another careless top-down policy, right? XD
Taiwan is not very diverse. She just said, only 2% non Han Chinese. It is funny, she spent 30 some yrs in HK, but having an American accent and the way she speaks English is very American.
