Immersive schools can help save languagesBy Chiang Jih-yingh 蔣日盈Kaohsiung’s Beiling Elementary School has become the nation’s first experimental immersion school for the Hoklo language, (often known as Taiwanese, or Tai-gi). In immersion schools, all teaching and communication on school grounds is carried out in Hoklo, directly and naturally benefiting students’ learning. New Zealand is well known for its te reo Maori immersion schools, which began in the mid-1980s. Beiling Elementary School’s Hoklo-language immersion program was started last year by the Kaohsiung City Government. The suppression of local languages in Taiwan has caused widespread mother-tongue losses, including Hakka and indigenous languages.
