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Mandarin teachers prepare to head to Thailand program

Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) gave his blessings yesterday as 22 Mandarin teachers from Taiwan prepared to be dispatched to various teachers' colleges in Thailand on Monday for a two-year long Mandarin-teaching program.

Due to political concerns, Thailand has banned Mandarin education in the past, but has lifted the regulation and many universities and middle schools have begun offering Mandarin courses.

Thailand's Ministry of Education has also decided to include Mandarin education in all high schools starting in 2008, and plans to expand this to junior high and elementary schools.

The program was arranged by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and teachers' colleges in Thailand, which signed a contract on Sept. 20 and selected certified teachers from Taiwan.

The teachers underwent intensive training, including Mandarin linguistics courses as well as basic courses on the Thai language and culture.

After the first training session, 22 teachers were chosen to teach in the Mandarin departments of 22 different teachers' colleges in Thailand.

Tu said that the program was the first step toward encouraging Mandarin education in Southeast Asia and he was confident the teachers would perform well and serve as cultural ambassadors.

Tu added that this was not the first group of teachers to go to Thailand to teach Mandarin. China, he said, had previously sent a group of teachers there but they were found to be too unprofessional.

Some of the Taiwanese teachers chosen were already retired, but eagerly accepted the task to promote Mandarin education abroad.

"I've just retired but decided to take the chance to broaden my horizons and live fully," Tu Li-mei (涂麗美) said.

Other teachers were younger, such as Wang Yu-wen (王郁雯) who graduated two years ago and just obtained her teaching certificate.
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