Former Director of the Royal Spanish Academy / Former Rector of the University of Santiago de Compostela / Professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela

Darío Villanueva

Darío Villanueva: Former Director of the Royal Spanish Academy / Academician; / Former Rector of the University of Santiago de Compostela, Professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela

A cordial greeting from a colleague and friend to the members of the nascent Asociación Taiwanesa de Hispanistas, whose constituent general assembly will take place at the Faculty of Social Sciences of National Taiwan University on Saturday, September 25, 2021.

As a Spanish philologist, member of the Fundación Duques de Soria, former director of the Real Academia Española and former president of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, which promoted the creation of the Academia Ecuatoguineana de la Lengua Española and the national Academia del ladino/judeoespañol in Israel, I am happy for this new incorporation of such a distinguished group of hispanists constituted in a new association that joins that truly exceptional network of academies and groups of scholars who throughout the world enthusiastically dedicate themselves to research and teaching of everything that has to do with the Spanish language, spoken and written ecumenically by more than five hundred million people. I wish the Asociación Taiwanesa de Hispanistas a long life as well as the greatest success in its activities, and I thank its promoters and members for the timely and generous initiative they have taken.

Santiago de Compostela, August 25 of the Jacobean year 2021.

President of the International Association of Hispanists / Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem / Corresponding Academician of the RAE

Ruth Fine

Ruth Fine: President of the International Association of Hispanists, Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Corresponding Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy

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Former Rector of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies / Former President of the Korean Association of Hispanists / Corresponding Academician of the RAE

Park Chul

Park Chul: Former President of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Former President of the Korean Association of Hispanists, Corresponding Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy

Dear hispanists, distinguished professors and colleagues from Taiwan,

It is a great honor for me to be with you today on the occasion of the celebration of the first congress of the Taiwanese Association of Hispanists.

Congratulations. Taking advantage of the occasion offered to me on the occasion of the inauguration of the Taiwanese Association of Hispanists, I want to send a cordial greeting to all of you, hispanists and professors from Taiwan, lovers of the language of Cervantes. We wish that this first constituent congress of the Taiwanese Association of Hispanists will be the cornerstone that serves as the basis for building greater understanding and close collaboration between Taiwan and other countries in Asia, united by this invisible umbilical cord of the language of Cervantes.

We sincerely wish that the Taiwanese Association of Hispanists will serve as a bridge between Taiwan and Spain, and at the same time between Taiwan and Korea.

Thank you very much, congratulations and see you later.

Professor of the Department of Spanish Language and Literature, Shanghai International Studies University, Former President of the Chinese Association of Hispanists, Corresponding Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy

Professor Lu Jingsheng

Lu Jingsheng: Professor at Shanghai International Studies University, Former President of the Chinese Association of Hispanists, Corresponding Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy

Dear colleagues in the Spanish language field in Taiwan:

I am delighted to hear of the establishment of the Taiwanese Association of Hispanists. On this occasion, I would like to express my sincere congratulations to all the colleagues involved in the association. Spanish is undoubtedly a world language, and the teaching, research, and dissemination of Spanish on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have gone through the same process, and still have a bright prospect. Of course, as the research results of the comparison between Chinese and Spanish languages and cultures and the study of interlinguistic distances reveal, there are huge differences between Chinese and Western languages and cultures, and they are at both ends of the strength of Eastern and Western languages and cultures. There are many research topics in the teaching theory and methods of Spanish for native Chinese speakers and in deepening exchanges in the cultural field. Therefore, the Spanish language community also faces the difficult construction of the discipline.

Like you, I am fortunate to be a Spanish language scholar and have participated in many activities promoting the internationalization of Spanish. I have maintained a long-term exchange relationship with many member friends in the association, with mutual visits, and jointly participated in academic activities across the straits and internationally. I have witnessed the development achievements of the Spanish language discipline in Taiwan and the common language and cultural background have prompted us to come together, exchanging skills, and establishing a close friendship with our peers. On this occasion, I sincerely hope that the Spanish language associations and fellow scholars on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will further strengthen their connections, work together, contribute the wisdom and achievements of Spanish scholars to promote exchanges between Chinese and Western languages and cultures, and lay the foundation for comprehensive exchanges between the people of the countries. Congratulations again, thank you.

Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo / Corresponding Academician of the RAE

Hiroto Ueda

Hiroto Ueda: Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo, Corresponding Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy

Through Professor Luisa Chang, I have received the pleasant news of the founding of the Taiwanese Association of Hispanists and the celebration of its first general assembly. The same professor has requested a few words of congratulation for the magnificent event. I have gladly accepted the request, motivated by the passion for the Spanish language, shared by all hispanists in the world.

As we know, Spanish has an immense geographical importance, occupying almost a tenth of the earth's surface, with nearly 400 million speakers. It is characterized by its uniform and stable structure in different stylistic, social, geographical, and historical varieties. I allow myself to present the results of some personal studies. To see the basic morphological structure of Spanish, I have formulated the final pattern of a word consisting of a consonant (+ vowel + [s, n], optional) with fixed paroxytone accentuation. The same pattern is maintained in 90% of lexical forms in all the varieties mentioned. To demonstrate its lexical stability, I have verified that the majority (88%) of the Cervantine words from Don Quixote are still alive today (these words occupy 99% of the magnum opus). In this way, the Spanish language guarantees us the constancy, both of its linguistic form and of its vocabulary over four centuries.

With the confidence placed in the solidarity that exists between professors and students of Spanish, always so uniform and stable, I send you my most sincere congratulations, from the country set apart by a large sea, but close in friendship.