Most language schools for children and adults in Taiwan teach American or European languages and, as a result, are really only familiar with the Western cultures in which those languages are spoken. They know very little about the markets that exist in Southeast Asia on which President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is focusing under the New Southbound Policy.
Thanks to a trip organized by National Taiwan Normal University’s Executive Master of Business Administration Program, we were given the opportunity to visit Vietnam, a member of ASEAN. Among the places we visited, Phu My Hung Urban Area in Ho Chi Minh City, developed by Taiwanese entrepreneur Lawrence Ting (丁善理), was especially impressive.
Ting said the goal he had for his company, Phu My Hung Corp, was to “create something special in Vietnam, rather than take away something from the country.”
This idea is inspiring. As language teachers, we were amazed by the quality of the Lawrence S. Ting Memorial School, a junior and senior-high school in the area. It has become a top institution in the country within three years of its inauguration and was the only Vietnamese school to have been selected for the Microsoft Innovative Pathfinder Schools Program.
We were intrigued that the students who received us could speak excellent English, with near native fluency. We discovered that the school has a very different approach to language learning. In Taiwan, for example, whether in formal education or in cram schools, English is taught as a foreign language and is treated as nothing more than a school subject.
While students can learn how to score high marks on their English-language tests, they typically cannot communicate well.
In contrast, the Vietnamese school aims to teach English as a second language. English is a tool with which to communicate and students learn different subjects in English. In addition, theory and practice are equally emphasized.
During our time in Vietnam we communicated with many locals, and by using WeChat, we also learned about the socioeconomic conditions of Vietnamese, many of whom understand basic English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Although the average Vietnamese has a low income, many go to language schools in their leisure time. For many people, their ability to speak foreign languages is not only a livelihood, but also the key to changing their life.
Tsai’s administration should bear in mind US educator Peter Drucker’s view as it promotes the New Southbound Policy: Education and business should complement each other; the most important things people can learn are languages, foreign affairs and management skills. Education must fulfill society’s needs and not be removed from it.
Chen Han-ting is the chairman and chief executive of Cheers International Education Group. Belinda Hsieh is an adjunct assistant professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Executive Master of Business Administration Program.
Translated by Tu Yu-an
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
After “Operation Absolute Resolve” to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the US joined Israel on Saturday last week in launching “Operation Epic Fury” to remove Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his theocratic regime leadership team. The two blitzes are widely believed to be a prelude to US President Donald Trump changing the geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific region, targeting China’s rise. In the National Security Strategic report released in December last year, the Trump administration made it clear that the US would focus on “restoring American pre-eminence in the Western hemisphere,” and “competing with China economically and militarily
RSS