Increasingly outgunned, outmaneuvered and outspent by China on the world stage, Taiwan is increasingly turning to its "soft power" arsenal, to which the Ministry of Education (MOE) added a new "weapon" recently.
In November, the ministry will unleash onto the world ... a test.
Armed with sharpened No. 2 pencils, scores of Taiwanese and Chinese-speaking foreigners will take this test. For those who pass, they will become foot soldiers in the "war to claim Chinese-ness," representing Taiwan's linguistic and cultural standards worldwide as accredited Chinese language educators.
"We see Chinese language teachers from China go out into the world to teach, and we feel the need to show [the world] our standards of Chinese language and culture, including traditional characters and our culture on Taiwan," said Chang Chin-sheng (
Chang added that Taiwan had a rich tradition of providing foreigners with the ideal environment to learn Chinese, and "exporting" the language and culture.
"Taiwan wants to promote its teachers in the US, and have them known as pedagogical professionals and linguistic ambassadors," Chang said.
RAISING THE BAR
Jeffrey Lamb, a master's student in the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), said the test could be an acceptable way to standardize Chinese language pedagogy.
"If you have two applicants for a Chinese teaching position, with one applicant accredited by the Taiwanese government and the other not, well, that could mean the difference between getting or losing the job," Lamb said.
He said that teaching Chinese was a profession, just like practicing law or medicine, and should therefore be defined by certain standards of performance and knowledge.
"You wouldn't seek out an unlicensed doctor to treat you, would you?" Lamb said.
MINIMAL INFLUENCE
Professor James Hargett, a seasoned Chinese teacher at the University of Albany in New York State, told the Taipei Times that learning Chinese was all the rage in the US, and that the country was in dire need of qualified Chinese teachers.
But, he added, more students were interested in China than Taiwan, and his classes leaned more toward simplified characters because of students' perception that "China is where the action is."
"Everyone's got a test these days," Hargett said, adding that Taiwan's influence was minimal.
"Taiwan is marginalized ... because it has no presence here to shape anything related to Chinese language learning. This is unfortunate, because there are some excellent Mandarin training facilities in Taiwan," the professor said, citing NTNU and National Taiwan University.
"This past summer we sent two students to [NTNU] on MOE scholarships and they absolutely loved it -- great teacher and wonderful facilities," Hargett said.
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