Photo courtesy of Tainan City government(Photo courtesy of CNA)
Taipei, June 5 (CNA) Tainan authorities are planning to make bilingual menus available at two more night markets this year in collaboration with Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST) to make it easier for foreign visitors to order food.
The city helped prepare English and Chinese menus for vendors in the Tainan Flowers Night Market last year to forge an English-friendly environment, and it is expanding the service this year to the Wusheng Night Market and Yanxing Night Market, Tainan official Liu Shih-chung said.
Under the program, participating vendors submit their menus to be translated in English by students majoring in applied English at STUST.
After foreign consultants hired by the city edit the translations, the government prints out the bilingual menus for the vendors for free.
The city is also considering the idea of setting up a database of dish names in English and Chinese based on the bilingual menus of the three night markets, Liu said.
A vendor at the Flowers Night Market said vendors become less nervous about serving foreign visitors after getting bilingual menus, and the visitors had a better understanding of the ingredients in the dishes offered, helping promote Tainan specialties.
