The Overseas Community Affairs Council is to hold the International Summit on Mandarin Education in Taiwan next month to help promote Taiwan’s Mandarin-language education sector.
The event is to take place on July 11 and 12 at the Chang Yung-Fa Foundation International Convention Center in Taipei and would be broadcast live online, the council said in a press release yesterday.
As learning Mandarin is booming around the world, the council is seizing the opportunity to expand Taiwan’s Mandarin-learning market through cross-ministerial cooperation, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Overseas Community Affairs Council’s Web site
It has been helping overseas compatriot schools establish Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning, and encouraging them to cooperate with educational institutions and industry in Taiwan, it added.
The council is working with the American Institute in Taiwan to bolster cooperation in language education based on the US-Taiwan Education Initiative with Taiwan, which was signed in December 2020, the council said.
The initiative allows Taiwan to introduce its high-quality Mandarin teaching model to US society, it added.
Some of the focus points in this year’s event include facilitating exchanges between Mandarin educational institutions and smart industry, and tackling educational challenges in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, it said.
Heads of Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning and compatriot schools have been invited to exchange ideas with the representatives of Taiwanese colleges and universities, academia, smart industries and the government, it said.
In related news, 23 students from top US universities have begun attending a Mandarin course at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) under the Critical Language Scholarship program, a collaboration between the university and the US Department of State.
The NCKU Chinese Language Center has been organizing the program since 2016, the university said in a press release.
Scholarship holders from Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, Davis, the US Naval Academy and other US universities attended this year’s opening ceremony on Monday, NCKU said.
The students are to complete the one-year Mandarin course in the eight-week program in Taiwan, it said.
NCKU recruited 24 host families and 18 NCKU students to serve as language partners for the US students, the university said, adding that the program helps Taiwanese and US students learn about each other’s cultures and communicate with people from different backgrounds.
NCKU vice president Chen Yuh-neu (陳玉女) encouraged the students to experience Taiwanese culture during their time in the nation so that they can serve as a bridge between Taiwan and the US, it said.
Another 15 university students from the US began an eight-week Mandarin course at NCKU under the Taiwan Intensive Summer Language Program on Monday last week, it said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS