It has been a year to the day since we reopened our new premises in Heping W. Road with an open-house party. Since then there has been a flurry of activities to promote cultural exchange between Taiwan and Germany. Some of the highlights were the 40th anniversary party on 6 December 2003, which was attended by a large number of VIP from both Germany and Taiwan, the most prominent of which was perhaps the mayor of Taipei City, Dr. Ma Ying-jeou, who graced the event with a witty speech part of which he delivered in German; the Golden Horse Film Festival with a strong German contingent led by "Good-bye Lenin", the first international children's film festival, also with numerous German titles and the director and main actors of "Four Paws and Four Friends" present, as well as various exhibitions in the event venue of our new premises. One that more than others, perhaps, documented our mission was "Points of View", a photo exhibition by a Taiwanese photographer, Mr. Yang Chih-hsin, who displayed his photos of Europe, and Bernhard Goschin who exhibited part of his collection of photos shot in Taiwan.
We will continue in this vein in the coming year, and more actively so. Our event venue has been booked solid until the end of 2005 for exhibitions - holographic works by Dieter Jung and pages from the hand crafted, oversized book "Graphein" by Gunther Uecker, to name just two - concerts, lectures, and "open houses" like the one on 2 October which will feature a variety of programmes from early afternoon until late evening, and which will be our contribution to the festivities marking German National Day.
The bigger projects will be co-organized with renowned partners all over Taipei: the animation, documentary, Women Make Waves"- and "Golden Horse"- film festivals, with the respective organizing committees consisting of experts from the film industry; the television production festival Mini-INPUT, in preparation for the big international INPUT in 2006 that will bring together more than 1.000 delegates from public television stations wide, with PTS; the large scale Dieter Jung exhibition in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and, last but not least, the continuation of the European Forum-lecture-series with a new emphasis on film, with the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taipei. Visit our website at www.dk-taipei.org.tw for details. Of course, the German Cultural Center has more on offer than just cultural exchange activities. As the local representative of the Goethe-Institut with its headquarters in Munich, Germany, it is first and foremost a provider of language courses on beginners and intermediate levels. With an annual enrollment figure of more than 3.500, it is also by far the biggest German language center in Taiwan.
This number is expected to rise in the months ahead as efforts are under way to diversify the program and offer special language courses -- business and legal German, for instance - as well as courses on an advanced level which will lead to the new language exam for university admission, called TESTDaF. This then completes the full set of exams offered by the Goethe-Institut to its course participants on various levels.
No Goethe-Institut would be complete without a library or, as it is called nowadays, an information center. We are very proud to have a spacious, airy and bright one in our new premises (11th floor) with a view of the relaxingly green balcony garden just outside. There are newspapers, magazines, books, old (Video) and new (CD, DVD) media, offering all sorts of information about Germany.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)