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.
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