THE BIG QUESTION:

Is Kaohsiung an English-friendly environment?

-- By Dawnelle Froehler and Josie Wu
Translated by Annie Liu

Living in a city that's not English-friendly can be troublesome. Something as simple as directions to a local restaurant, finding clothes that fit properly or mailing a box of goodies home, can be tedious to say the least. Many foreigners in Kaohsiung found that, without the help of English speaking Taiwanese friends, day-to-day errands or planning leisure activities could be quite daunting. However, after a year or two of learning about how things work here, picking up a few key words and phrases in Mandarin, improving one's abilities in the art of pantomime and accepting the fact that it is simply more difficult to get what one wants, living here became quite comfortable.

The good news is that over the past few years the local government has greatly increased its efforts in making Kaohsiung an international city. The results are visible everywhere: the construction of the KMRT (Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit), the Romanization of street signs, and the improvements made to tourist areas such as LiuoHu and NanHua night markets are some of the most obvious. English audio recordings are sometimes used in major supermarkets like Dollars and international names such as IKEA and Costco are becoming common in this once-traditional, harbor city. New businesses now tend to put up signs that display English names and an ever-increasing number of restaurants and cafes have bilingual menus so patrons can at least point to the desired item. How effective these efforts are in making the life of a non-Mandarin-speaking tourist or resident easier, however, is still in question.

Obviously the answer is relative to one's experience. A new arrival in the city, trying to take a taxi to a tourist destination without the help of a business card, would loudly proclaim that Kaohsiung is NOT English friendly! Although most locals studied English at some point in their lives, it is still widely believed that if your English is not perfect it is best not to use it--making it seem that few people here actually understand English. That said; nowadays there are more and more Taiwanese who are likely to come to a foreigner's aid and one is sometimes approached by local people eager to practice their English. These positive changes are most noticeable to those who have been here longer than a year or two. Jo (29) says that when she arrived six years ago, there were very few Romanized street signs and thus she spent a lot of time getting lost when traveling through the city. Sally Webster arrived in Kaohsiung 17 years ago and says that the city has doubled in size since then. Anyone living here now may find it hard to believe that at that time DaShuen Road was the edge of town, BoAi Road was a dirt-packed street and only JhungHua and WuFu had Romanized names. Very few people spoke English and a native English speaker could easily teach over 50 hours per week! Whether you believe that Kaohsiung today is English friendly also depends on where you first lived when you arrived. Carly (24) spent a year living in Nanzih, and when she moved to TsuoYing she thought Kaohsiung was an English paradise.

The amount of textual information available in English has also greatly increased. A fantastic little booklet called Fun Kaohsiung can now be picked up at the airport and is filled with invaluable information for tourists and foreign residents alike. Also available is the Kaohsiung City Tourism Guide, which lists airline info, foreign agencies in the city and information about festivals and tourist attractions (including the bus route numbers in order to reach these locations) amongst other things. Another useful source of information is the Internet. Sites like www.taiwanfun.com and http://iff.npa.gov.tw give widely different, yet equally useful tips on how to make Taiwan a home and increase one's standard of living. Add to that periodicals like FYI South, XPat and TaiwanEase magazines and it becomes clear that "new arrivals" have much more reference to alleviate the culture shock.

As far as the tourist sites are concerned, many major tourist areas have signs and information in English. ChengCing Lake, ShouShan Mountain, and the ever scenic Love River are all good examples of this. The Fine Arts Museum has many exhibits that include English information and the Kaohsiung City Film Library even has a sufficient selection of English plays, screenplays and novels. Unfortunately this information is not uniformly provided yet. The Science and Technology Museum provides English information on outdoor exhibits but not indoor ones, and there is presently no English information available at Lotus Pond. There are few English speaking employees at these locations, which makes the quest for additional information more difficult. Luckily many visitors find that the textual information is sufficient, and the sites are well worth the visit.

Public service agencies can be immensely useful to English speakers in Kaohsiung. Access Kaohsiung is an organization that began three years ago and provides information to residents and tourists alike. Their office is an information center that provides brochures and pamphlets about the city, a bulletin board and free internet service. They also send out a daily e-newsletter, and have just opened a hostel called International Friendship House. Melissa Wriston, the coordinator, has been working for Access Kaohsiung for two years and acts as a liaison between the government and foreigners in the city. The Kaohsiung Municipal Police Department has a division of Foreign Affairs that can also be of great help to non-Mandarin speakers in the city. All of their employees speak decent English and they provide important legal information and assistance to those who work and live here.

SOME FACTS
The Executive Yuan's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) launched the "Creating an English Living Environment" project in 2002 with the goal of designing all public facilities and websites with both Chinese and English to provide international-level service, attract international professionals and boost Taiwan's global competitiveness. To examine the results of this campaign, foreigners who are visiting or living here are chosen to evaluate Taiwan's English living environment in terms of living environment and government organizations. A total of 1,068 foreign visitors and 1,098 foreign residents were interviewed to understand their experiences and opinions about living in Taiwan.

The results show that the overall environment has improved significantly. “English Living Environment” receiving a satisfaction rating from 54.32% of respondents, 12.12% higher than 2003’s 42.20%.(Information source: RDEC, Executive Yuan)
In all honesty, Kaohsiung has a long way to go before it will be a truly international city. What is important to point out, however, is that the government continues working towards creating an English friendly, and therefore internationally friendly, environment, and improvements are made all the time. And as those who have lived here long enough know, only time will tell.

Additional information:
Kaohsiung City Government-www.kcg.gov.tw
Kaohsiung Municipal Police Bureau (Foreign Affairs Department)-260, JhongJheng 4th Rd, (07) 221-5796, 212-0800 ext 150; www.kmph.gov.tw
Kaohsiung International Airport-www.kia.gov.tw
Kaohsiung City Bus Administration-www.khbus.gov.tw
Useful links to international organizations and tips for living- http://iff.npa.gov.tw
Access Kaohsiung-
801, ChengDe Rd http://groups.yahoo.com/group/accesskaohsiung/
Email: accesskaohsiung@yahoo.com
Melissa Wriston – 0917-119-930

Information For Foreigners
http://iff.npa.gov.tw
24 Hours Service Hotline
0800-024-111