Episode Details

Hi everyone, welcome to a new episode of News Bites! I'm Kelly Kimura… And I'm Jacob Ingram. Coming up next in today's news: The education minister wants to slow down on the Bilingual 2030 policy, and scientists say climate change is making air turbulence worse and more common! And in today's Tasty Tidbit… two companies and a university are making a better chocolate! Stay tuned for more on those stories! ___________________________________________________________ 教育部長暫緩2030年雙語政策 Education Minister Wants to Slow Down on the Bilingual 2030 Policy Some time ago, Taiwan started the Bilingual 2030 policy. It wants to raise the competitiveness (競爭力) of Taiwan's young people. Young people would be able to get better jobs and higher pay. The policy is mostly about bilingual education (雙語教育) in Taiwanese schools. But the education minister wants to go more slowly on the policy. He is the former president (前校長) of a national university (國立大學). He helped to make a ten-year plan for English-only education. The plan is for its graduate school (研究所). The university hired (聘請) teachers with qualifications (資格). They made new English classes. These classes are not required (不是必修課) until 2030. The education minister said, "These things take time, we need to slow down." But local governments (地方政府) are trying to follow the policy in a hurry. So sometimes new teachers don't have the qualifications the school needs. This could make the policy fall short of expectations (達不到預期). The Ministry of Education plans to work with local schools. It wants to make sure new teachers have qualifications. The education minister also said students can learn English in their daily (經) lives. When he was the head (局長) of a city education office, it worked with a fast food chain and doctors. Children who ordered food in English got free fries! Children who spoke to doctors in English paid $50 Taiwan dollars less. The minister said that children in rural (鄉村) areas have fewer bilingual resources (資源) than children in cities. To help, the ministry will send university students to teach rural children. 教育部致力於為農村學生提供所需的英語教育。 It's great that the ministry is trying to raise the bilingual abilities (能力) of our country. ___________________________________________________________ 氣候變遷使空中亂流更常見，並且更嚴重 Climate Change is Making Air Turbulence Worse and More Common On May 21st, a Singapore Airlines plane began to shake very hard over the Indian Ocean. This was because of air turbulence (空中亂流). The plane was flying from London to Singapore. But it made an emergency landing (緊急降落) in Bangkok. The plane dropped 1,800 meters in a very short time. Many people were hurt. One person died. A scientist (科學家) who has studied air turbulence said, "It is not that we'll have to stop flying, or planes will fall out of the sky." "I'm just saying that air turbulence will be getting more common." There is a study about severe incidents (嚴重事件) of air turbulence. It shows these incidents have gone up since 1979. Wind shear (風切) is a fast change in wind strength or direction (方向). Wind shear has also gone up since 1979. Warmer air can make wind shear happen more often. Other studies have also shown that climate change has led to warmer air. And this will also cause more turbulence. There are different kinds of turbulence. Thunderstorms (暴風雨) cause one kind of turbulence. Scientists think thunderstorms will get worse with climate change. Weather centers, satellites, and radar (氣象局, 氣象衛星, 氣象雷達) help to forecast (預報) this kind of turbulence. Then plane pilots can avoid (避免) it. However, clear-air or invisible (晴空或看不見的) turbulence is very hard to forecast. Scientists think clear-air turbulence will also go up. But there is a technology (科技) that might help one day. Using