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According to the "4wayvoice" report, the population of two generations of new immigrants has exceeded one million, many of whom are from Southeast Asia and are not familiar with the Chinese language. However, the current multilingual information in Taiwan is still unsound, and most of the government's public information is mainly in Chinese and English only. During the new session of the Legislative Yuan Finance Committee’s (立法院財政委員會) first business report, legislator Chung Chia-Pin (鍾佳濱) asked about making the language of the new immigrants more common, and the chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC, 金管會) Huang Tien-Mu (黃天牧) also promised to work hard to promote the addition of new immigrants’ languages in ATMs and incorporate the language needs of new immigrants in the FSC’s evaluation of the standards used by financial institutions to promote financial inclusion.
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The FSC pledged to promote the addition of "New Immigrants’ Languages" in post office ATMs. Photo/Provided by the Legislative Yuan
Legislator Chung Chia-Pin pointed out that new immigrants rarely have bank accounts, and they keep their cash at home or hidden in other places. Many new immigrants have responded that "I don’t know what to do when I press the ATM, because only Chinese, English, and Hakka dialects are available.” "This highlights the importance of adding Vietnamese and Indonesian languages to ATMs. Chunghwa Post ATMs currently only have Chinese and English, even in rural and mountainous areas. If the post office is willing to take the lead in adding new immigrants’ languages, it will be of great help to the integration of ethnic groups in the country and the promotion of Taiwan’s image abroad. In response, Huang Tien-Mu, chairman of the FSC, responded and agreed with the addition of languages for the new immigrants, and promised to work in this direction in the future.
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The post office ATMs will add multiple languages for foreigners and migrant workers in Taiwan. Photo/Provided by Chunghwa Post
At present, Chinatrust Bank (中國信託) provides 12 foreign language services in ATMs across the country, and Taishin Bank (台新銀行) has 7 languages, including Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, and other languages in the mother tongue of migrant workers. Therefore, Chung Chia-Pin urged the FSC to continue its efforts in implementing a friendly multilingual interface, including the accessibility, usability, and the quality of financial services. So that the needs of migrant workers, tourists and new immigrants can be included in the norm, and Taiwan can truly become an internationally friendly country.
