台語(台灣話)雖是閩南方言移植來的,但台語是台灣人在台灣特殊的地理、人文環境中、加上一再受外來政權的統治,經過三、四百年形成的語言,自然和閩南地區的閩南語有所不同,所以就地域來說,閩南地區形成的語言叫做「閩南語」(以廈門話為代表),在台灣地區形成的語言自然叫做「台語」(俗稱台灣話)。 台灣長期受到外來政權的統治,外來語特別多,已融入生活語言當中。例如台語的詞彙「牽手」(平埔族語)、「雪文」(荷蘭語)、「三貂角」(西班牙語)、「便所」(日語)、「7-11」(英語)、「正港」「生番」「食飽未?」(台語)等都是台語的專用語。 綜合上面所述,我們可以了解,「台語」(Taiwanese)和「台灣的語言」(the language of Taiwan)是不相同的。「台語」只有一種,而「台灣的語言」卻有好幾種,例如「客語」、「原住民語」、「北京語」。為何在台灣的「閩南語」被稱做「台語」,因為它是台灣島嶼上最主要的代表語言,這就像美國、英國境內有多種語言,但卻只有「美語」、「英語」言詞,所以將台灣的「閩南語」稱做「台語」是一件相當自然不過的事了。
I was very touched by this special performance, especially when Dooley started singing, my eyes were filled with tears. My family left Taiwan and immigrated to US when I was 13. I am now 61 and I seldomly get emotional when I hear secular music/singing, but I have to say that I am greatly touched. Congratulations, good job!
I am in tears. Lost my mother over 20 years ago in the U.S., came back to Taiwan just this year to find that hardly anyone speaks Taiwanese anymore and a substantial portion of the population delusionally even wants to surrender to the CCP, while a lot of Taiwanese are just asleep in their nightmare of eking out a living. My mother sacrificed a lot to give me a good education. Yet, despite degrees from Berkeley and law school, my life has been a total disaster due to evils that they don't teach you in school: betrayals by people you trust the most, office politics, racism, toxic personalities. I am now back in Taiwan to help the Taiwanese learn English, but I found out that they don't appreciate English or any other foreign language as a valuable and critical skill per se at all, but more as a necessary decorative adjunct to getting into better schools and universities in Taiwan. Why am I back then? What meaning does my mother's sacrifice have? They have no appreciation for what I can do for them. Everything has been in vain. It is foreigners who are singing in Taiwanese now. The Taiwanese have already become extinct, in spirit now, and soon they will also be extinct in body if they don't wake up to the threat of annihilation by China. The last line killed me. My mother is not here anymore. Taiwan itself is not here anymore.