The Ministry of Education and National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) on Tuesday last week inaugurated the Office of Global Mandarin Education, with officials saying that they hope to devise strategies and integrate resources to promote the nation as a top destination for foreigners who want to learn the Chinese language.
NTNU president Chang Kuo-en (張國恩) said that when the university founded its Mandarin Training Center in 1956, the institute had only five students, but now about 6,000 students study Chinese at NTNU every year.
About one-third of the students who graduated from the Department of Chinese as a Second Language and the Department of Applied Chinese Language and Culture pursued a career as Chinese teachers at foreign institutions, he added.
With the help of the advisers who the ministry recruited from academia and business, the office is aimed at pooling resources from different sectors of society to promote the nation’s Mandarin education sector, he said.
The office will supply Mandarin teachers to ASEAN members in accordance with the government’s “new southbound policy,” while having a global focus when promoting the nation as a Mandarin-
teaching hub, the ministry’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education Director-General Yang Ming-ling (楊敏玲) said.
Through the joint efforts of NTNU and the ministry, 111 Mandarin teachers were dispatched to 16 nations to teach traditional Chinese, and many of them have built promising careers due to their outstanding work, Yang said.
One of the office’s missions is to identify foreigners’ needs learning Chinese and devise strategies and create teaching methods, she said.
As about half the foreign students studying at NTNU pursue further education after graduating from Chinese programs, 45 universities nationwide have set up language learning centers, which play a pivotal role in the ministry’s initiative to increase the number of foreign students who obtain Taiwanese diplomas, she said.
Responding to media queries about how the nation would respond to competition from China in the field of Chinese education, given the international prevalence of Confucius Institute branches set up by the Chinese government to promote Chinese education, NTNU vice president Sung Yao-ting (宋曜廷) said that even though China has spent profusely on sending teachers abroad to teach Chinese, Taiwan outperforms China with its animated teaching materials.
Sung said the most common criticism about the institute is that its teaching materials are laced with dogmas and that its teaching methods lack ingenuity.
With the help of the Internet, students who sign up for Chinese learning or graduate programs can obtain their diplomas online, he said.
Another edge Taiwan has over China is its technology-driven classes, Sung said, citing NTNU’s Smart Pinyin system, which automatically detects problems with foreign students’ intonation and corrects them.
“I think we have a pretty good chance [against China],” Sung said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their