A Bilingual Taiwan By 2030 Part II

It looks like the emails have stopped and we're back on our own...

Previously we've mentioned both the good intention the Taiwanese government has in terms of setting up such a policy and the reasons it won't suffice due to the fundamental problems deep rooted in our culture... false expectations(parents), lack of learning hours(students) and qualification(teachers). Here's what I wished could have been forwarded to any professors or doctors in education and in connection with the government.

My simple 5 pillars to education reform

• Getting "out of control"

While I believe that the government and everyone are doing what they believe is right, which I agree with, I propose a different approach from them so far which is top to bottom. Instead of putting all efforts to educate the young, we should be focusing on the adults (from 18 and above). This way, we would have almost prevented the problem of "avatars" which was previously mentioned and make learning student-based because when the students are adults or pre-adults themselves, there's a "higher chance" that they know what and why they learn.

• Education isn't free but it isn't expensive

The way [Free The Language] works is we provide selective "English hours" every night. The more you come the more you gain and the cost is the same. This solves the problem of learning hours. Only those who are willing and able would come. With a reasonable tuition, learners not just practice real life English but become socialized and have a holistic learning. You can't always stayed in a fixed classroom and expect students to speak in real situations, can you? We go to cafes and have conversations like normal folks!

p.s. why would you pay for coffee but expect to learn from a professional for free?

• Creating a new page; new culture

The ideal target age of our group members are from 18 to 35 (20~40 will do, too). We understand that it is still very difficult to change minds and be speaking a foreign language freely, thus the key to this plan is for these first generation learners to pass it onto their children. Think about it. These learners aged 20 to 30 are the ones most likely to have children in 10 years which aligns with the policy and plus another 5 years when their babies become in need of a second language discovering, do you think mommies and daddies would still use the teaching methods that didn't work on them when they were little? At that time, we do not need to be worried about students' lack of interest in learning. The whole system would change. If the parents have suffered in education and were provided a solution, they would make sure that the same terrible things don't happen to their descendants. At that time, we'd be play a winning game.

• Out-spread and multiply

Our "English Time" is very speaking-based and include topics such as international/local news, technology, moral and cultural issues...etc. We have one on one session but encourage learners to participate in a group and learn as many times a week as possible. With the founding principles of freeing people from fear of speaking, from test-based learning and from bondage of scarcity mindset(thinking little), we take advantage of countless learning locations in Taipei (Taiwan): cafes. Each cafe will be stationed with one "advance speaker/teacher" and host 5 to 10 students. If not all but just 1 out of 5 cafes are operating in my Free The Language program, we would have been able to meet the true bilingual education reform in 10 years or simply more realistic than the existing method.

• As long as they're three steps further

Where in the world are we going to find so many teachers and how are we going to check their qualifications? Yes, it's very reasonable to have doubts and concerns about who you're learning from. Again, we're taking advantage of the system that we don't enjoy. Growing up, everyone's taken some kind of level tests. We'll use them. Test scores do not measure how good someone's skills are but they do provide a guideline. Hence, step one is for the teacher to provide paper proof of English level and step two is the interview. You can't teach speaking if you can't speak; you can teach someone who can't speak once you can speak. Some may wonder how a non-certified person can be a teacher. We're here to tell you that many certified teachers are unfit for their jobs but still work until they retired. We don't mean to roast anyone but education takes many forms and one of them is to activate the students. There's always someone who has better levels than you but you do not need the person who has the best level of English. Most just need someone to help them through the next level!

We need people to learn and have the experience of using English but not necessary the English itself. After all, not everyone is so fond of language acquisition.

What's stopping us from realizing our master plan?

Funds.

What if we have government funds that can be distributed to people who want to be part of the bilingualization(make bilingual)? Who doesn't want to do something of good intention for society while making friends and being more financially balanced?

People don't need more money; they need a better life.

#education