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Taiwan Mayor Seeks Missionary
Help
TAICHUNG, Taiwan — The mayor
of Taichung has called on Mormon missionaries to assist with a project
aimed at helping his city (population 1 million) become an inviting
location for international business and tourism.
“To be an international city
we must have accurate English signs,” says Jason C. Hu, mayor
of Taiwan’s third-largest city. Although most of Taichung’s
business, public and government buildings and locations are marked
by signs in both Chinese and English, the English translation of
the Chinese is sometimes awkwardly worded for a native English speaker.
Missionaries identifying a translation that could
be improved. © 2008 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
That’s where the missionaries
come in. Mayor Hu became acquainted earlier with Michael Hoer, who
is serving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as mission
president of the Taiwan Taichung Mission. As such, Hoer supervises
the work of 150 missionaries in Taichung and several surrounding
counties.
Mayor Hu had often seen the Mormon
missionaries riding throughout the city on their bicycles and developed
an idea he shared with Hoer. “Many of your missionaries are
from North America and other English-speaking countries. Why couldn’t
they take note of incorrect signs and offer suggestions for better
English,” Hu suggested.
The mayor even offered to pay the Church
for such a service.
Hoer quickly replied that the Church’s
missionaries are encouraged to provide voluntary service to the
communities in which they serve and that the sign correction project
would be a service the missionaries could perform at no cost to
the city.
Now dozens of missionaries serving
in Taichung take note of any unusual English renderings on signs
as they go about their routine mission work.
“We just keep an eye out for
wrong English,” says Elder Ryan Weese of River Heights, Utah.
Adds his missionary companion, Elder Royce De le Cruz Jr. of Manila,
Philippines: “When I see a sign that doesn’t make sense
I slam on my brakes. It’s a service we can offer and it’s
kind of fun too.”
Once a less-than-accurate English sign
is noted, the missionaries report its location to President Hoer.
He then forwards the information to the mayor’s office, along
with a suggestion for a more understandable translation.
One recent example: English warning
signs at a baseball field declared, “Game that attention to
flying out-of-bounds.” The missionaries translated the English
to read, “Pay attention to foul balls.”
Another: On the grounds of a Confucian temple a sign read, “Please
keep orderliness solemnly silent.” The modification turned
in by the missionaries is, “Please be silent and respectful.”
Elder Bill Bonner and his wife, Ruth,
Church volunteers from Richland, Washington, made this observation,
“We sometimes think the incorrect English signs are charming,
but the mayor doesn’t want charming; he wants correct.”
President Hoer explains that he and
his missionaries have a responsibility to serve the people of Taiwan.
“In fact, we find that encouragement in the official Missionary
Handbook carried by all of the Church’s missionaries throughout
the world,” he points out.
He continually gives this direction
to the missionaries from the handbook: “You should seek opportunities
for service projects in the community each week.”
In Taichung, Taiwan, that missionary
service has become one small step toward helping Mayor Jason C.
Hu put out a correct English welcome mat for his international city.
This article was prepared by the LDS Newsroom at lds.org.
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