First of all, the this is not about you. The Taipei Times has promoted Taiwan as a Chinese learning destination to some degree or another in many articles, not just yours. Here’s a link to another article by a different reporter, and to another piece by Dan Bloom.

Secondly, I know very well that the media doesn’t create the news. It just reports it. I know that you weren’t the one making any of those idiotic claims that the CPT could replace the HSK as the world standard. I know you were just quoting others. What the media has to decide, is what is worth reporting, and what is worth quoting.

In my opinion the CPT isn’t that newsworthy. A quick mention might have been reasonable, but not a full article, including such ridiculous quotations. Not every reader is going to be as familiar with the CSL market as I am. I would hate to see some poor foreigner spend a fortune to come study here due, in part, to a belief that “the simplified Chinese characters taught by China’s language schools do not have historical roots and meanings, unlike the traditional characters taught in Taiwan.”

I can’t claim I’ve spent hours looking through their archives, but I read the China Post regularly and haven’t found them publishing these sorts of articles.

These comments, especially, expose your total ignorance of the media, and what our role is:

“I really don’t get it with the Taipei Times. It seems like clock-work. Every couple of months, it pumps out another story about how Taiwan can dominate the Chinese as a second language (CSL) market. They also keep bringing up the HSK-knockoff test that Shida made.”

Actually, I wrote one, 1, yi piece on Shida’s test, you moron (Taipei Times’ only article on the matter). That’s it. As for your “clock-work” comment, “every couple of months,” the education ministry, or somebody else comes out with something new on the matter every — you guessed it! — couple of months, and it’s our job to keep those interested in educational developments in Taiwan up to speed on such matters — regardless of whether they’re happy with them or not.

You’ll also notice that the information presented in the articles came from my sources, not from me. I’ve also included negative comments not unlike many of the arguments you’ve made (see below), so please don’t spout more ignorance along the lines of Taipei Times being some kind of mouth piece for the education ministry. (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/09/20/2003328416/print).

Finally, you’re an idiot. Having lived, worked and studied for 4 years in Beijing and Shanghai, it pains me to agree with some of your observations regarding the Chinese learning market, but why do have to be another dummy blogger with an worldview that’s unsophisticated overall? Be original — write something that shows a level of sophistication and understanding that’ll distinguish you from all the over self-important but fucking dumbass bloggers.

My theory that this is learned behavior is just, IMHO, one contributing factor. Yes, there’s a distinct lack of national and cultural pride in comparison with China (which some may say kind of goes overboard in this respect). The reason I say this is that I’ve come into contact with the remainders of “that crowd”, i.e. the expat businessmen types who seem to think learning Chinese is beneath them, and it seems to me that, before the 1980’s, this type of foreigner was the dominant type of foreigner here, which “trained” locals in how to view foreigners. Stereotypes die hard, and while the streets are teeming with Chinese-speaking foreigners these days, there are still quite a few who have lived here for decades and don’t speak the language. It may not be the case; I was just wondering out loud to Prince Roy whether it might be one factor among many.

I have had Taiwanese people come up and ask me (in Mandarin) things like “What time is it?” while sitting on a bench or something surrounded by other Taiwanese.

I don’t find the idea that it’s “all the foreigners’ fault” that compelling at all. Westerners who don’t learn Chinese have been here for a long time. That’s true. Students of Chinese have also been here for a long time, too, though. More relevant, large numbers foreigners have been in Japan, not learning Japanese, for a longer time, and yet the Japanese are more willing to accept (and even to expect) that westerners can speak their language. In an even more extreme case, Mexico has had contact with English speaking Americans for centuries, and yet it’s almost completely devoid of the “English at all costs crowd”.

The only real excuse I can think of for locals not being able to accept that some westerners can speak their language is the local media. The government constantly pushes messages about how important learning English is, and westerners who speak Chinese well rarely appear on TV at all, excecpt for the occasional talk show. I haven’t seen any shows that teach Chinese as a second language, either. In Japan, on the otherhand, westerners who speak excellent Japanese are on TV all the time, and there are also quite a few shows that teach people Japanese.

There definitely is a difference in cultural pride. I met tons of Chinese people who were proud of having such a long history, proud of having put a man into space and proud about hosting the Olympics. Several people told me that “foreigners have to learn Chinese now”.

In Taiwan, on the other hand, it’s different. First off, there’s some uncertainty. Are they Taiwanese, or Chinese, or both? Beyond that issue, I’ve met many younger people who don’t even want to be Taiwanese. Some wish the were Japanese (including former president 李登輝), others wish to be American or Canadian. I would be amazed to see a Taiwanese person say, “Our language is important and foreigners who come here had darned well better learn it.”

Yes, a butchered 你好 in Taiwan brings the same kinds of accolades like in Italy. People here will praise the person to the skies and tell them how wonderful their Chinese is (in English).

But what’s bugging Mark are those people who insist on speaking English even after he’s demonstrated he’s perfectly capable of conducting his business with them in Mandarin.

Is it a lack of cultural pride? I really don’t know, but don’t think so. I find Poagao’s explanation (see my previous comment) most intriguing. What do others think?