Taiwan Church News
3183 Edition
February 25-March 3, 2013
Headline News

Reported by Lin Yi-ying

Written by Lydia Ma

The Ministry of Education awarded the PCT Committee on Mother Tongues a "Local Languages Outstanding Contribution Award" recently as the world marked the International Mother Language Day on February 21, 2013. Two PCT pastors, Rev. Sing ‘Olam and Rev. Yudaw Pisaw, were also recognized by the government for their individual efforts in promoting Amis and Taroko languages and awarded individual prizes.

“Yudaw Pisaw and I, and the Committee on Mother Tongues, don’t need government recognition to inspire us in our work. We will continue our work in promoting and preserving mother languages through Bible translation, publication of books, and research regardless of government recognition,” said Sing ‘Olam, who is currently the Associate General Secretary of the PCT. “As a matter of fact, awards and recognition from the government are not sufficient. The government should allocate resources and funds instead. The best thing it can do is to include the promotion of mother languages into the national budget so that government agencies and civil society organizations can collaborate in promoting and preserving mother languages. We would like the government to take more initiative on this.”

Sing ‘Olam added that committee members will continue promoting mother languages regardless of whether or not the government recognizes their efforts because none of them would be able to give an account to God should any of the mother languages in Taiwan be lost.

“Publishing the basic Taroko dictionary is not something I did on my own, but a joint effort by elders of the Taroko tribe. This recognition and glory belong to them and to God!” said Yudaw Pisaw.

The reason the Ministry of Education awarded the PCT Committee on Mother Tongues this prize is because the PCT has been actively promoting Taiwanese languages since 1875, when missionaries such as Rev. Thomas Barclay founded Taiwan Church News. At a time when the government actively promoted “Mandarin” and repressed all other Taiwanese languages, the PCT determined to preach and sing using mother languages on Sundays besides publishing Bibles in these languages and teaching them to younger generations. In the past 3 years, the committee has published dictionaries, children’s books, and language books in Bunun, Paiwan, Sakizaya, Kebalan, Amis, and Taroko languages. It has also organized language development seminars which have yielded favorable results.