After the Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) rolled out the “Hakka Immersive Education Program,” Chung Shan Preschool (忠山幼兒園) in New Taipei City’s Banqiao District has built a learning environment for Hakka immersive education since 2019 based on HAC’s program.
The director of the preschool Lien Su-chin (練素琴), a Miaoli-born Hakka teacher, works with her husband Chiu Hsiu-fang (邱秀坊) and the preschool’s teachers to incorporate the ethnic language into everyday life in many ways, including designating every Tuesday as the Hakka day and exchanging greetings in Hakka with each other in the school.
For children’s Hakka education, the teaching materials are provided by the preschool including Hakka proverbs, nursery rhymes, picture books, introductions to Hakka festivals, helping create a Hakka-speaking environment for students.
The preschool also actively brings the Hakka into local communities. Its encouragement to the students to speak Hakka in their household was supported by the parents.
According to its Education Department, the New Taipei City government has long promoted native language education, assisting in establishing Hakka immersion schools for children to naturally speak their mother language. It is hoped that, for passing on the Hakka and culture, more preschools will participate in the Hakka immersive education program and that more parents are willing to speak Hakka with their children at home.