Foreign students participating in the varied Chinese language programs offered on Taiwan enjoy easy access to Chinese society. They can live freely fending for themselves, living as the Chinese do. Apartments are easily rented jointly, if desired, with Chinese or other foreign students; or boarding accommodations can be found within a Chinese household. In the latter case, often, instead of payment for board and keep, only language and cultural transfer is required in exchange for being accepted as one of the family. For students who prefer institutional facilities, there is a range of dormitory and hostel accommodation.
At present, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China lists over 3,000 foreign students attending Chinese-language schools in Taiwan. Some 120 of these are on scholarships from the Ministry to assist their studies, as are a further 150 attending Taiwan's universities. Many foreign students come for intensive courses of two or three' months in spring, or during summer vacation. Those seeking a fuller proficiency may remain in such language programs for two or three years or transfer to degree or post-graduate courses at one of Taiwan's universities. The flexibility of the system allows the student to set his own academic goals and work toward them in his own way.
Four major language schools offer programs for foreign students. The official government school is the Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University. On the campus of National Taiwan University is the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies, administered by Stanford University and also known as the "Stanford Center." Just on the edge of Taipei's central district is the Mandarin Daily News Language Center, associated with its newspaper namesake. Finally, the largest of the schools in terms of student enrollment—spread over four campuses—is the Taipei Language Institute.
Students here know the Mandarin Training Center as Shih Ta, borrowing from the Chinese translation of "National Taiwan Normal University," of which it is a part. Dr. Li Chen-ching, director of the Center, is a linguist with a wealth of teaching experience.
For many years, the Center catered to a very few foreign students who had found their way to Taiwan. It was scattered among decrepit buildings about the National Taiwan Normal University campus. But its fortunes changed radically with the economic upsurge here, the growing interest in things Chinese in the rest of the world, and the consequent flood of foreign students into Taiwan.
The Center now spreads over two floors of National Taiwan Normal University's newest highrise building, and boasts air conditioned classrooms, a fine language lab and video facilities, and a large library. The student lounges are undoubtedly Taipei's cosmopolitan hub. Here whites, yellows, and blacks mingle in a pall of smoke most pungently flavored by exotic Indonesian clove cigarettes and the musty French Gauloise brand. They all use Mandarin, with widely varying proficiency, as their lingua franca. There are now 810 students enrolled at the Center, Japanese and Americans being the most numerous.
Dr. Li puts the ideal maximum at 750 students. Under his administration there has been a trend toward developing exchange programs and other links with particular overseas universities, thus facilitating a steady and predictable stream of students through the Center. At present, such programs have been set up with Georgetown, Wisconsin, Alabama, Penn State, and Pennsylvania Universities in the U.S., at both graduate and undergraduate levels. A similar but smaller program has been worked out with Oxford University's Oriental Institute. Most students in the exchange programs come here for 9 to 12 months.
In 1980, following a visit to the Center, Dr. James Young, President of the State University of New York, Potsdam, developed a branch of the Center on his own campus. One teacher from the Center here has been sent to pilot the scheme and more will follow. Miss Lucia Luo, a teacher from the Center, was sent two years ago to South Africa on a similar assignment. Dr. Li expects other schools to apply for such a service. This effort is eventually intended to regulate relations with universities throughout the world. Presently, most students from Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere come privately, spending an average six to seven months at the Center. Many Japanese students are sent by their companies for one to two years of intensive training in Mandarin. These specially conscientious students, having a previous familiarity with Chinese characters, often take six hours of classes daily, achieving enviable fluency in spoken and written, modern and classical Chinese.
On registration at the Center, placement tests are given in order to determine student levels. Classes average three to five students each, but two-student and private classes can be arranged. Teaching materials include specially written language texts as well as Chinese primary and secondary school readers; the Center also makes use of classical literary, philosophical, and historical Chinese works for classroom instruction. At the advanced level, texts are, in fact, as unlimited as the Chinese literary tradition itself. More of a problem though are the elementary texts, and Dr. Li states that basic conversation books I and II are now under review. Language lab tapes back up all elementary and intermediate level texts. Also important is a newspaper reading textbook which has just been revised and will be updated regularly. In addition to regular language and literature courses, the Center tries to accommodate student demand for classes in other aspects of Chinese culture. For many years, a Chinese calligraphy master has been trying to instill a feel for this delicate art in clumsy foreign hands, and certainly many have adapted appreciatively and enthusiastically to the meditative discipline needed to master it. Presently, the Center also offers a class in Peking opera.
The Center is ready to help its students deal with the living problems they encounter, such as finding placements for students within Chinese family situations. The Center's administration section is a hive of busy activity and often the scene of challenging cultural misunderstandings—the province of Mr. Sung, the ultimate diplomat in the art of smoothing things over. The Center is also keen to promote tours and cultural activities for students, teachers, and staff. Shih Ta Dragon Boat teams, both men and women, are now famous and colorful additions to the Dragon Boat Festival races every year. Despite a change of faces every year, the spirit remains the same and has won for the Center many prized trophies.
Tricia Louisy, a student from France, is now on her way home after nine months in Taiwan studying Chinese classical literature and calligraphy. Her happiest memories, she believes, will be of "her Chinese family" with whom she could finally converse fluently, and who can now all speak a little French. She felt special gratitude for her teachers at the Center. At first, she admitted, it was difficult to adjust to the Confucian tradition, which demands a rather strict, if caring, attitude by teacher towards pupil: and, also, a hard working, humble, and respectful response from the student. However, said Tricia, she now feels that it was very rewarding to adapt to this unaccustomed relationship. It has meant that her understanding of both Chinese language and customs has improved vastly, and it eventuated in friendships based on a mutual respect that she hopes will not be distanced by the seas which separate them.
The 400-odd students at the Mandarin Daily News Language Center, known by the Chinese as Gwoyeu Ryhbaw, stress the friendly atmosphere as a predominant aspect of its program.
Millie Moffit, one of the 60 or 70 American students at the school, enjoys the accommodating, personal approach of the Center. Millie's aims in studying Chinese, and her methods, are independent minded and unassociated with a University program. In this, as well as in her lifestyle here, she is typical of a large number of foreign students. Millie rents an apartment with other foreign residents. She must work to supplement her private resources and does so at a Chinese trading company.
On its part, Gwoyeu Ryhbaw recognizes that flexibility in class times and structures is important to meet the needs of the type of student they most attract. Maximum class size is set at four. Students may arrange daily classes, or classes on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday basis, or even a minimum attendance class structured for Tuesday and Thursday.
Millie personally prefers the older teachers at Gwoyeu Ryhbaw. She feels they have usually developed more specialized interests, and that their roots in Chinese culture are deeper. Of special delight to her are the stories these older teachers can tell of their early days in mainland China.
Her preference, though, is not always shared, and Gwoyeu Ryhbaw's director, Mrs. C.Y. Chang, readily recognizes that many of the foreign students and traditionally-minded teachers are not always in tune with each other. To overcome this problem, she directs her administration to put younger teachers with beginning students and to be sensitive to student and teacher requests for changes.
Reading a Chinese newspaper—A long-awaited goal
Mrs. Chang is a member of the Society for Promotion of Standard Chinese, the group responsible for pioneering the Mandarin Daily News, a unique paper which prints the Mandarin phonetics beside each character, thus improving the reading fluency of its readers. School children and poorly educated older people, as well as foreign students, find it an excellent introduction to Chinese newspaper reading. The paper also runs an excellent educational bookshop, providing foreign students with easy access to Chinese literature. The paper's weekend classes for Chinese writing, aimed at local schoolchildren, are now also available to the language center's foreign students.
Gwoyeu Ryhbaw's background made it an obvious choice for Park Byeong Seug, a student from the Korean Journalism Institute, which is sponsoring his year of study in Taiwan. Park has found the teachers very serious minded and concerned for their students.
Hiroshi Echigo is typical of most of Gwoyeu Ryhbaw's 100-odd Japanese students. Mitsubishi, his company, is sponsoring a number of employees in one and two year Mandarin training pro grams. Hiroshi revels in the total study environment, as well as in the good standard (but low cost) of living in Taiwan.
Mrs. Chang focuses cultural activities involving students, teachers, and staff. To this end, many teachers take students home for festival days, particularly over the Chinese New Year. The Gwoyeu Ryhbaw Christmas party is a highpoint in the Center's warm teacher-staff-student relationship. Students discover with delight the talents of teachers. Teachers, on the other hand, feel proud when students such as Elsa, A Danish girl, present fine performances of Peking opera melodies.
The difference in atmosphere at Taipei Language Institute is, perhaps, reflected in the fact that students invariably refer to it as TLI rather than by its Chinese name. The Institute has developed a very rational course based on principles of linguistics and on modern teaching methods. Under the guidance of its president, Dr. Marvin Ho, it has grown to a combined enrollment of some 1,400 students, spread over four campuses.
Christmas in Taiwan—The spirit is the same; the holiday recipes are different
The largest campus is at the mid-island city of Taichung; consistent with the origins of the Institute, it has a 90 percent enrollment of missionaries, and 80 percent of all students are Westerners. The Kaohsiung branch, on the other hand, has a 60 percent enrollment of Japanese students and is definitely business oriented. In Taipei there are two schools. The head office, on Hsin Yi Road, is intense, bustling; students and teachers crowd into its small classrooms. The last of its schools, in Shihlin in the northern suburbs of Taipei, is convenient to residential areas of the Western community.
The Institute offers courses in both Mandarin and Taiwanese and has put a lot of time and effort into developing teaching materials suitable for each. The basic text for the Mandarin course is the Institute's Chinese Course in six volumes, for elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. This series has been adopted by several Western universities for Chinese language courses, among them, Columbia and Washington State Universities. Supplementary to the texts are Chinese cultural, technical, and religious materials adapted for language teaching purposes. The Institute's publications catalog lists over 100 books, an achievement which undoubtably has no counterpart among other Chinese language teaching institutions. These publications are not only logically developed for teaching purposes but are available as basic texts in Japanese, French, and Hindi as well as in English.
Dr. Ho's outgoing nature influences Institute policy which is, in turn, open to the input of those he seeks to teach. Every year, two teachers are sent to America for linguistics training. Dr. Ho himself has attended many seminars abroad, giving and collecting information to further his cause of making Chinese the most common world language. He is particularly proud of the influence of TLI as a teacher training institution. The department heads of Chinese language schools at Wisconsin, Chicago, Stanford, and Hawaii Universities are all former teachers from TLI. Many others are teaching in Japan. They also make up two-thirds of Hong Kong Chinese University's Chinese language department, and 90 percent of the teaching staff at Singapore's Nan Yang University Chinese language school. This is a reflection of the high level of competence of the teachers at the Institute.
In recent years, the school has expanded its educational role to include cultural activities organized for the students. One ambitious project last year placed 200 foreign students in Chinese homes to participate in Chinese New Year festivities. This festival passes with limited significance to the foreign visitor to Taipei unless he is in close contact with a Chinese family. However, to the Chinese it is the most significant festival of the lunar calendar year. Working in conjunction with the publicity department of China Television Studios, TLI was swamped with willing hosts while 200 students responded to the invitations.
The Institute' publishes a quarterly newsletter featuring student participation in debates, kung fu and sword play, Chinese musical and dance classes, and other student activities. It has almost become an embarassment to the Institute that its students constantly take an "unfair" majority of prizes in debate and speech contests between the Chinese language schools.
The Stanford Center is the smallest of the schools, with an enrollment of just 37 full time and 17 part time students. It has an exceptional student/teacher ratio, 30 teachers and 6 staff members cater to student needs. Enrollments are usually for one or two year periods, enabling very detailed course design; but the full program offered by the Center requires four years. Enrolling students must be fluent in English, and thus the environment is less cosmopolitan than at the other schools. Applicants also must have undertaken two years of Chinese language training in a degree course over seas, or the equivalent, to be eligible.
Some American universities and colleges recognize credits from the Center, and many students are working on degree or post-graduate programs under Stanford Center supervision. Approximately 70 percent of the students are post-graduates. Major funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Education in a school with a decidedly American flavor. Nevertheless, since it is located on the campus of National Taiwan University, the school offersits students not only easy access to their Chinese counterparts, but also to all the excellent campus facilities. They are often seen engaging in sports among the Chinese student groups and are also welcomed by the university's teachers to audit lectures and join class activities. Some of the students transfer to the main university, where they discover the very special relationship that exists among Chinese schoolmates-one of special mutual assistance and friendship that will be maintained after graduation and throughout their lives.
Academically, the Stanford Center, perhaps, has the most rigorous program of the four schools. It requires that all students meet standards in classwork and in regular examinations. All full time students have two individual and two small group classes each day, embracing more than the average number of contact hours at the other schools.
The four schools all obviously have special characteristics that appeal to varying individual student needs.
Often the first consideration is financial. The Mandarin Training Center and the Mandarin Daily News Language Center both offer very reasonable levels of tuition; the other two are much more expensive. Also to be considered here is the possible eligibility of some students at the Mandarin Training Center and the Stanford Center for scholarships from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China.
A Second practical consideration is that students of these two schools are also able to apply for alien resident permits allowing them to remain in Taiwan for the duration of their studies. Students at the other schools may only extend their stays to six months, then must go out of the country temporarily to apply for new permits.
Important too is the consideration of school philosophy. The intensive approach at TLI concentrates on bringing the student as efficiently as possible to a stage where he can express himself in Chinese. On the other hand, Gwoyeu Ryhbaw and Shih Ta put the student in a position where he must accept the Chinese concept of the student-teacher relationship before learning will progress smoothly.
Regardless of which method suits, the student who persists and has an open mind will find Taiwan full of culturally rich and exciting experiences during his course of study.