Gu Show-faye, Minister of the Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) visited the College of Hakka Studies, National Central University on June 28 to attend the Hakka Revitalization ten suˋ Project: Bilingual Apprenticeship End of Term Forum organized by National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU) and subsidized by HAC. It is hoped that implementation of this initiative will strengthen the bilingual teaching and administrative skills of teachers and administrative supervisors at senior high schools and below. Integration of Hakka and Mandarin teaching resources and establishment of the Hakka revitalization apprenticeship team mark a major step forward in Hakka language transmission.
Minister Gu stated that Hakka language revitalization is an endeavor that requires great expertise and long-term engagement. Going forward, it will be crucial to convince more current professors at Hakka language departments to join and find methods in which they could participate in the drive, sparking in them dedication and support for the language revitalization movement. This will in turn encourage more teachers to spontaneously do their part. Only with actions and suggestions from everyone can this herculean task continue steadily into the far future.
The End of Term Forum was themed “Reflections and Prospects”. Participants included the principal investigator, Professor Chung Chen-cheng of NKNU; central co-investigator, Professor Chen Hsiu-chi; Professor Fan Chiang Shu-Yun, mentor at the Central Mentoring Team, Ministry of Education; and dozens of online and offline teachers who participated in the apprenticeship. They shared the achievements and observations of the process and delineated the tasks and planning for next semester’s apprenticeship program, such as deepening of inter-stage collaboration, ways of showcasing bilingual education achievements, and so forth.
The program will run from 2025 to 2027 and is expected to last two and a half years. Implementation projects include establishing a national bilingual education mentoring professional community, building an online consultation and interactive platform, and promoting empowerment seminars and international academic exchanges. HAC hopes that the program will gradually build a comprehensive bilingual education mentorship ecosystem, so that more than a policy, language revitalization becomes an initiative carried fort by groups and individuals.
