Taiwan considers changes to public holiday calendar

Nick's ESL News Lessons

A printable worksheet for news-based English conversation classes.

Date: 2023/03/02

Difficulty: Elementary A2

PDF: Taiwan considers changes to public holiday calendar
YouTube: Taiwan considers changes to public holiday calendar

Vocabulary Match

economy -   - government work
leaders -   - money system
politics -   - choice
decision -   - people in charge
current -   - now

Article

Taiwan is thinking about changing the holidays that people get. They want to make sure everyone gets enough time off work, but they also want to make sure the economy doesn't get hurt.

The current rule is that if there's a holiday on Tuesday or Thursday, Monday or Friday also becomes a holiday. This gives people a long weekend. However, people need to work on a Saturday at a later date to make up for it. This means people sometimes have to do a six-day work week.

This year, there have been too many six-day work weeks, and people are not happy about it. So, Taiwan's leaders are thinking about changing the calendar.

They might not give everyone long weekends for some holidays or they might add new holidays instead.

Lots of politicians have different ideas about which days should be holidays. The leaders will talk to everyone and then make a final decision.

Quiz

  1. What is the current rule for holidays in Taiwan?
  2. Why are people unhappy about the number of six-day work weeks in Taiwan this year?

Conversation

A: I'm so overworked, I need a holiday. Maybe I should move to Taiwan.
B: Taiwan? Why Taiwan?
A: Well, they're thinking about changing their holiday rules to give people more time off work.
B: That sounds nice. But do you speak Chinese?
A: No, but I can learn. What are you going to do on your holiday?
B: I'm just going to look at pictures of Switzerland on Instagram.

Discussion

  1. Have you ever been to Taiwan? Can you speak Chinese?
  2. What's your favorite public holiday in Japan? Why?
  3. Have you ever been to Taiwan? Can you speak Chinese?
  4. What do you like to do on your days off?

Vocabulary Answers

economy → money system
leaders → people in charge
politics → government work
decision → choice
current → now

Quiz Answers (examples)

  1. The current rule is that if there's a holiday on Tuesday or Thursday, Monday or Friday also becomes a holiday. However, people need to work on a Saturday at a later date to make up for it.
  2. Because there have been too many six-day work weeks this year.

Source Material

https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202303020019


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