In another thread, tsukinodeynatsu wrote:E04, if you don't want to be called racist stop saying racist things. In fact, why don't you change your racist way of thinking? You obviously have this ingrained thought that there is an 'us Taiwanese' and a 'them foreigners' in the world - THIS IS A DISCRIMINATORY THOUGHT. There is no 'us' and 'them', just people. 外國人跟台灣人有什麼相同呢？對啊，我們都是「人」. Certain things might be more prevalent among a certain type of people, but that doesn't mean every member of a group is the same - for instance, most Taiwanese people have straight hair, but some people have naturally curly hair, and this doesn't make them any less a part of the group.
Likewise, please stop talking about 'you foreigners' or the like. If you want to talk about 'you foreigners' I will first have to ask you to consider the following questions:
1) What country's nationals are you referring to? As you probably know, there are a lot of 'foreign countries', and I find it hard to imagine that you would assume Indians, Canadians and Koreans all think alike.
2) Are you sure that ALL of these people think this? Generalisations are not only counter-productive but they also tend to make the generalised look less educated. All words should be carefully considered before being written or spoken.
I recommended your post because you are the first person who clearly knows what they are talking about. I am sure very few if any actually read the study you posted. I have and I therefore also posted results from math and science (you could look at literacy rates also) to show that whilst our education system has many flaws, it also has many positive aspects. The kids are having objectives met without English in kindergarten. There is also a solid indication that English ability has not been rapidly declining since the law, but granted no study.
I do not have racist thoughts. Do you honestly think my English ability would be where it is if I didn't have many foreign friends? I take offense by the consistent attack on Taiwanese by "you foreigners". We have been called selfish, we lack initiative, we don't show any creativity, we don't take responsibility, we are reckless drivers etc. Now someone like you would not be considered "you foreigners" , which I coincidentally have never said until the above sentence. I have always been very clear about saying many, or some. I never said all foreigners living here because some of them are my friends.
Charles Manson 跟台灣人有什麼相同呢？對啊，我們都是「人」
Suddenly doesn't seem so convincing to me.
I understand your point and I agree with it, but the problem I have is that the perception of many on this forum is so set in the we are better and know better than the Taiwanese that it becomes annoying. Of course people can question anything they want, but not from a preconceived idea of Taiwanese know nothing about language acquisition, nutrition health and pollution and we question to show them the right way. That is not being racist?
And when I respond to that negatively I am?
I am not a racist. I just have nationalistic pride.
Oops! Sorry! I guess you're being serious. Your conviction is quite endearing, though. And you are probably right. What are far and away the biggest-selling media organs here? -- maybe I TOO should get my news from Apple Daily and Next Magazine, then I too could get some of this "better knowledge." And let us not, of course totally discount the fine reportage of TVBS!
