From CIP to ILRDC

有關原住民族語言研究發展中心。

No. 63 Sec. 1 Roosevelt Road 100 Taipei Taiwan

This trapezoid of multiple colors and a waistline would certainly catch admiration of many in the city of Architect Antoni Gaudí of Barcelona. See how brave it is just to be so different in this desertland of concrete and steel! 

Unfortunately, standing here in the center of Taiwan's capital right next to the shrine of Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek, this building did not earn what it deserves. Instead, people think it odd and bad feng-suied, perhaps even much lower than a building of mosquitoes. Difference is not appreciated, but what of it? It cannot be stopped.

Welcome to the Story Tower of Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples. Welcome to the nucleus where many beautiful stories about indigenous languages are to be brought to the world. Welcome to Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center.

Officially inaugurated at 10.30 AM Tue 17th June 2014

Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center (or otherwise called ILRDC) is the result of long-running discussions both in- and out-side the government. Eventually, with the final-push from the Language Section of Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), especially Junior Executive Officer Biung Takisvilainan (邱文隆), ILRC came into being this past Tuesday as an affiliation with NTNU-SCE. 

Organizationally speaking, ILRC is staffed by one director, one chief executive, five linguist councilors, five researchers and a dozen assistants. Though on the day of its inauguration, ILRC still is several councilors and researchers short - everything is as new as the day -, people expect the offices would be filled gradually through the following years. 

At the moment, the chief executive leads a team of two researchers and two assistants. Linguists Lillian Mei-jin Huang and Joy Jing-lan Wu serve as councilors. 

What is ILRC hoping to achieve, and what will its small team do before the end of 2014?

Among those who have worked for the birth of ILRC, the Center is often referred as another hand of the Language Section, the hand that works with the brain. The two cooperate. While the Language Section works on political support and budget, ILRC makes sure the public money is wisely spent by working on the following five research areas about indigenous languages: 

1. foreign borrowing and recent coinage

2. evaluation exams

3. syntax and structure

4. teaching methodology

5. revitalization policies

For 2014, the first ILRC researchers will study the borrowing, coinage and revitalization policies of Taiwanese indigenous languages and present their results presumably in mid-December. The work will grow from here.

I was first invited on board when ILRC was still an idea, and again invited almost six months before I decided to leave the International Affairs Section. Honestly, yes, the pay is higher; the position more promising (an assistant is after all an assistant); and last but not least, the office much better situated and cooler. More importantly, there is a chance to work on a subject that is more substantial than just interpreting the words of another, and be totally responsible for the final result. All these propelled me to leave my old comfort zone and accept the challenge. 

As one of the first batch of ILRC researchers, I am working on borrowing, translation of world classics into indigenous languages and revitalization policies in combination with organizing an international workshop. I will work and pray, and we will wait and see. 

(Photos above are from my colleagues Ilung and Lawa.)

TITV Interview with CIP Deputy Minister Calivat Gadu and ILRC Researcher Yedda Palemeq: