Teachers from the Chinese Language Center of NSYSU spoke in Mandarin to around 100 participating foreigners from 14 countries as they explored Moon World, a scenic area known for its moonscape in Kaohsiung’s Tianliao District. As the group toured the area, the teachers introduced many Mandarin words and phrases associated with the moon.
“To secure its place as a Mandarin learning hub, Taiwan needs to design interesting culture-based programs, especially those that take place outside of the classroom,” said an official from the MOE’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education.
The lunar-themed event was one of this year’s six cultural festival-inspired activities co-organized by the MOE and Mandarin language centers set up by Taiwan universities. Similar events were inspired by occasions such as Mazu International Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, and respectively took place in central Taiwan’s Taichung City in April and northern Taiwan’s New Taipei City in June.
To maximize the impact of each event, festival-related learning materials designed for foreigners by six participating Mandarin language centers will be put on the website of the MOE-funded Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan by the end of this year.
These activities are in line with ongoing government efforts to make Taiwan a hub of Mandarin language learning. Other programs include an MOE-organized certification program for teaching Mandarin as a foreign language that began in 2006. Since the plan’s inception, 3,569 people have successfully completed the program.
From 2009 to 2015, 607 MOE-licensed teachers visited 16 countries to teach Mandarin on MOE subsidies. In addition, from 2013 to 2015 a total of 547 foreign Mandarin language teachers came to Taiwan for MOE-subsidized on-the-job training.
According to the MOE, foreigners who come to Taiwan for language studies stay in the country for three to 12 months on average. Nearly 20,000 foreigners enrolled in Taiwan’s 45 university-based Mandarin language centers for this purpose last year, with the majority coming from Japan, the U.S., South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam, in order of frequency.
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