Taiwan will offer a Mandarin version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam by next summer, according to the Ministry of Education. Foreign students and overseas Taiwanese-Chinese applying to study in universities will be required to take the new test, and will have to take Mandarin lessons to supplement their studies if they don't pass it.
The Chinese Proficiency Test, developed by National Taiwan Normal University, has had a number of trial runs over the last few days, but it will not to be implemented officially until next June at the earliest.
Every year, almost 10,000 foreign students come to Taiwan to study Chinese, and 3,000 overseas Taiwanese or overseas Chinese arrive to enter universities.
The government provides scholarships to support many of these students, and it hopes to attract 12,000 foreign students to study in degree courses in universities over the next five years.
The study of traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the simplified characters used in China, will be a requirement.
China has offered a languange- proficiency test, known as the Hanyu Kaoshi (Chinese Standard Test), since 1998. The test is used in more than 30 countries, and is considered an important tool for testing the language-capability of people wishing to enter foreign relations. It uses simplified characters.
Taiwan's own proficiency test, many years in development, is therefore well overdue.
According to Chang Chin-sheng (
Liu Teh-sheng (劉德勝), chairman of the Committee on Overseas Chinese Education said that passing the test will be among the entrance requirements for overseas Chinese wishing to study here.
The test will be conducted in June and December next year, and four times a year in subsequent years. It will be offered in 10 locations around the nation, but there are also plans to hold the examinations in other countries.
Chinese Proficiency Test Levels
Language ability listening/reading comprehension
Elemenatry
Level 1
Can you understand simple instructions and basic dialogues
Level 2
Can you understand the main points of topic and read ads, posters, etc
Intermediate
Level 3
Can you understand general conversation and short texts
Level 4
Can pick up the main points of a discussion and understand longer texts
Advanced
Level 5
Can discuss specialist subjects and understand simple classical Chinese texts and proverbs
Level 6
Can expound upon and discuss topics and understand news reports at native speed
Level 7
Native speaker fluency
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most