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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS