Home > Worries about the Revival of Raoping Hakka >Challenges and Visions
Interview with Mr. Mingyu Lin, Director of Department of Education of Changhua County Government
Changhua County Government building was having the 2015-2016 Changhua County Local Education Conference on ground floor when the junior corps came there on November 4, 2015. It was led by Director Lin, attendees including committee members, Changhua County Local Language Consultant Group, and Learning Section of Department of Education. Mrs. Qiu was one of the committee members, and the corps was allowed to sit on. The conference discussed the 27 local education plans one by one, including editing (Taiwanese) teaching materials, Taiwanese language teacher training, aboriginal and Taiwanese event arrangement, contests for aboriginal, Taiwanese and Hakka languages, teaching certificate workshop aids, new class plans and reward systems. Junior corps noticed that though the plans were rich, yet many of them were about Taiwanese. Hakka ones were relatively insufficient.

The lively conference ended till 5 in the afternoon. Mr. Lin kindly accepted the interview, explaining the result of aboriginal and Taiwanese education. However, since those who speak Taiwanese are much more than those of Hakka, the plans for Hakka are harder to implement. When asked about reviving Raoping Hakka, he said though there were few people speak Hakka in Changhua County, this is the right place of Hakka culture. Director Lin said he always saw Mrs. Qiu’s posts of Raoping Hakka revival activities on Facebook and Line, which touched him very much. He was happy to see Jing Siou Elementary School set up a junior corps to write something about Mrs. Qiu, who has put a lot of hard work and effort on reviving Raoping Hakka. He was also glad that the students were setting up a website for the international contest. To sum up, the biggest wish is to let more people know about Raoping Hakka and keep it thriving.

Junior corps invited Director Lin to speak Raoping Hakka with them. They showed him how to pronounce “welcome,” “come take a sit,” “beautiful,” “awesome,” etc. Lin happily said that it was the first time he spoke Raoping Hakka and the sound of the language was beautiful. He encouraged everyone to keep up the good work, and he would promote more Hakka activities in 2016, such as Mother Tongue Day, Family Hakka Learning, Hakka Certification System and Reward for Students, Hakka Language Teaching Training, Hakka Language Tests and Exchange. Hopefully these plans would be implemented successfully in Changhua County, such as giving rewards to the students who pass Hakka Language Test and Taiwanese Language Test, as well as inviting Hakka language teachers teaching in different schools.