Packing a Tatung rice cooker, Hung Shen-hsing (洪慎杏), who has a master’s degree from National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU) Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, set off for New York in August as one of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) “exported Mandarin teachers.”
Settled in a studio in Manhattan provided by Columbia University, she will teach Mandarin to undergraduate students for a year.
As the only “exported” Mandarin teacher from Taiwan at Columbia, Hung has to teach two classes, with a total of 25 students.
Hung said she went abroad to broaden her horizons but she also carries great responsibility. Apart from teaching, her job is to boost knowledge of the quality of Taiwan’s Mandarin teaching.
The MOE launched its Mandarin Teachers Export Project in 1985 as part of plans to boost the international profile of Taiwan’s Mandarin teaching.
Most placements were achieved through cooperation with universities and schools in Thailand, Vietnam, Britain and elsewhere.
According to the Republic of China Annual Almanac published by the Government Information Office last November, the ministry had sent 214 Mandarin teachers overseas as of 2005, while 95 Mandarin teachers went abroad through the project in 2007.
Mandarin teachers from Taiwan have an edge in terms of teaching traditional Chinese characters abroad. At Columbia, Mandarin classes for freshmen and sophomores begin with traditional Chinese characters, while teachers enjoy the freedom to choose between traditional and simplified characters when it comes to classes for juniors and seniors.
But teachers like Hung face uncertainty as the university is mulling whether to teach simplified characters only.
“If students only plan to work in China instead of planning to study Chinese literature or history, there is no need for them to learn traditional characters,” Hung said.
The rise of China has also made it increasingly difficult for traditional characters to gain sway over their simplified counterparts.
But the global economic crisis has aggravated the situation.
Hung conceded that few schools were willing to create openings for teachers using traditional characters amid the economic downturn.
Nevertheless, the MOE is seeking breakthroughs in promoting Taiwan’s Mandarin teaching.
The MOE-funded Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu has focused on creating Mandarin proficiency tests for non-native speakers of Mandarin in Taiwan and abroad.
Part of the committee’s pioneering efforts has been to develop a set of screening tests for young learners of Mandarin abroad.
“Teaching young children Mandarin and creating proficiency tests for them is a rather new area,” said Chao Chia-pi (趙家璧), a member of the committee’s Research and Development Division.
Developers of the test, called the Children’s Chinese Competency Certification (CCCC), distinguish the CCCC from the Young Learners Chinese Test (YCT), which was created by China and enjoys dominant status globally in terms of proficiency tests.
“Hanban [The Chinese Language Council International] has been aggressively promoting Mandarin [screening tests] ... but the YCT does not normally include phonetic transcriptions with characters or give test-takers pictures [to help them understand the test content],” Chao said.
Ho Wen-chun (何文君), another committee official responsible for developing the CCCC, said some South Korean professors told the NTNU’s Mandarin Training Center that young examinees were frustrated by the YCT.
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