Over 570,000 immigrants currently live in Taiwan, bringing their own languages, culture, and cuisine to their new country. Many of them come from Southeast Asia. The Education Ministry is promoting a new children's book project to preserve these foreign languages in Taiwan, so that the younger generations are still connected to their heritage.
For children who love to read, these new books provide the opportunity to learn in eight different languages. Besides the Mandarin usually seen in Taiwanese books, these special publications also contain translations into seven of the most common Southeast Asian languages heard in Taiwan. These include Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog, Malaysian, Thai, and more.
Education ministry official Li Yu-chuan says that the ministry has completed three unique sets of these new learning materials. Each set is made up of ten beautifully illustrated picture books, which Li says are sure to attract the eyes of young students.
Immigration official Li Ming-fang says these new language materials were produced after five years of dedicated research. Li says the goal is to allow students of various backgrounds to be able to learn their mother tongue both at home and at school.
These new books not only teach new language skills, they also introduce the culture and history from the countries. Administrators say they hope these books will increase Taiwan’s acceptance of the many different ethnicities and nationalities that inhabit the country.
The ministry says that these new book sets are suitable for children from kindergarten to second grade. Immigrant parents will be able to read these stories to their children in their native tongue, and each book comes with a related game and discussion activity.
The ministry says these books can also help immigrant parents learn Mandarin, as they see texts in the two different languages side-by-side. Many of these books have already been sent to libraries across the country and digital versions have been uploaded online.
Now young bookworms have even more opportunities to enjoy reading in their mother tongues.
