Taiwanese citizens who have previously used the working holiday visa program to Japan will be able to reapply beginning this April according to a Nikkei report published this Tuesday.

Amanda hosts this episode with Michelle and Eloise, and boy, is it interesting today!  A poisoning case, STD trends, and why is it so hard to get tested in Taiwan?  Listen to find out more!

Are you a cinephile? As a film critic, watching films is one the things that Wanson loves to do in his free time. This week, let’s learn some Tâi-gí words related to going to the movies.   ●Words to Know: 1. 電影 tiān-iánn (n.) film 2. 戲院 hì-īnn (n.) movie theatre  3. 拍電影 phah-tiān-iánn (phr.) shoot a film 4. 主角 tsú-kak (n.) main character 5. 字幕 jī-bōo (n.) subtitles   ●Idiom  of the week: 人生親像大舞台，苦齣笑詼攏公開。 Jîn-sing tshin-tshiūnn tuā bú-tâi, khóo-tshut tshiò-khue lóng kong-khai. (Life is like a big stage – sad scenes and comedic scenes are all performed in public.)

Today's episode features letters from Algeria, Japan, and India. And also some emails. And bad news announcement, so if you happen to be from these countries and don't receive your QSL card and other things, it might be due to this:  "1. Due to the US-Iran Conflict, all international air mail services to UAE, Bahrain, Israel, Pakistan, Maldives, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Greece, Egypt, Morocco have been suspended. 2. If your mail sent to these countries has not been exported recently, Chunghwa Post will return your mail as soon as possible, and please take the dispatch note to the originating office for the return of the postage." If you would like to contact us and have your message read on air, please send a letter to P.O. BOX 123, 199 Taipei, Taiwan, or email us at English@rti.org.tw. You can also reach us on social media: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram at @Rtienglish.

Tucked away in Kaohsiung is a restaurant with a story that stretches far beyond the city’s streets. Loracorlo, the only Israeli restaurant in this southern city, began with a very simple desire: a craving for the taste of home.  In this episode of Formosa Dream Chasers, we sit down with Dan Orlovsky, the founder of Loracorlo, to learn how the COVID-19 pandemic brought him to Taiwan and ultimately led him into the restaurant business. What started as a personal longing for familiar flavors slowly grew into something bigger—an idea that would take shape during one of the most uncertain times in recent history. As the world grappled with the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dan found himself navigating unfamiliar territory, turning a simple desire into a dream that would become reality. In this conversation, Dan shares how Loracorlo came to life and what it means to bring a piece of Israeli culture and cuisine to Kaohsiung. Tune in as we explore how a craving for home tu...

Since 2000, Taiwan has maintained strict import quotas on Chinese films. The Ministry of Culture limits theatrical releases to 10 titles per year. While this policy is intended to protect the local industry and democratic society from political propaganda, the selection process, which relies on a lucky draw system, has sparked debate about its fairness and efficacy. In this third and final episode of the A Screen for All series, we examine the structural and legal challenges facing Chinese cinema in Taiwan. We ask: Why does the current system allow political propaganda to slip in while blocking independent films that criticise the Chinese government? The episode features film critic and festival programmer Wonder Weng (翁煌德), who discusses the practical failures of the current lottery draw, including the recent Black Dog controversy. We are also joined by Wesley Huang (黃品惟), a cinephile and law school graduate student, who proposes a reform toward a risk-based conte...

Which of the following is not true?   a) Human-raised macaques cannot integrate into troops   b) Birdwatching can boost cognitive function   c) Former house cats are being used in deadly cat research in the U.S. Formosa Fauna is back this week to entertainingly teach you about animals both in Taiwan and abroad! Spend the next 20 minutes listening to this episode and feeding your noggin with fun facts about the animal kingdom so you can become smarter than all of your friends. In this episode:  - The monkey named Punch  - Taiwan’s orphaned monkey  - University of Missouri uses federal funding to experiment on dozens of cats  - British government’s official “Chief Mouser”  - Nine wild horses shot and killed in Arizona Want to share your own story and have it read on air? Send your story (photos welcome) to tristan@rti.org.tw! See you every week for Formosa Fauna Fridays!

Some days just don't go smoothly.  Have a playlist to scream to when the anger needs somewhere to go!