Increasingly outgunned, outmaneuvered and outspent by China on the world stage, Taiwan is increasingly turning to its "soft power" arsenal, to which the Ministry of Education (MOE) added a new "weapon" recently.
In November, the ministry will unleash onto the world ... a test.
Armed with sharpened No. 2 pencils, scores of Taiwanese and Chinese-speaking foreigners will take this test. For those who pass, they will become foot soldiers in the "war to claim Chinese-ness," representing Taiwan's linguistic and cultural standards worldwide as accredited Chinese language educators.
"We see Chinese language teachers from China go out into the world to teach, and we feel the need to show [the world] our standards of Chinese language and culture, including traditional characters and our culture on Taiwan," said Chang Chin-sheng (
Chang added that Taiwan had a rich tradition of providing foreigners with the ideal environment to learn Chinese, and "exporting" the language and culture.
"Taiwan wants to promote its teachers in the US, and have them known as pedagogical professionals and linguistic ambassadors," Chang said.
RAISING THE BAR
Jeffrey Lamb, a master's student in the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), said the test could be an acceptable way to standardize Chinese language pedagogy.
"If you have two applicants for a Chinese teaching position, with one applicant accredited by the Taiwanese government and the other not, well, that could mean the difference between getting or losing the job," Lamb said.
He said that teaching Chinese was a profession, just like practicing law or medicine, and should therefore be defined by certain standards of performance and knowledge.
"You wouldn't seek out an unlicensed doctor to treat you, would you?" Lamb said.
MINIMAL INFLUENCE
Professor James Hargett, a seasoned Chinese teacher at the University of Albany in New York State, told the Taipei Times that learning Chinese was all the rage in the US, and that the country was in dire need of qualified Chinese teachers.
But, he added, more students were interested in China than Taiwan, and his classes leaned more toward simplified characters because of students' perception that "China is where the action is."
"Everyone's got a test these days," Hargett said, adding that Taiwan's influence was minimal.
"Taiwan is marginalized ... because it has no presence here to shape anything related to Chinese language learning. This is unfortunate, because there are some excellent Mandarin training facilities in Taiwan," the professor said, citing NTNU and National Taiwan University.
"This past summer we sent two students to [NTNU] on MOE scholarships and they absolutely loved it -- great teacher and wonderful facilities," Hargett said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS