The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) last year saw record-high numbers of examinees and sessions being held, highlighting the government’s efforts to promote Mandarin Chinese education overseas.
The test was administered more than 100,000 times, with 632 sessions being held in 47 countries, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu said in a statement yesterday.
The test is an important part of the government’s Chinese education for foreigners policy and serves as an excellent test to gauge students’ Chinese-language skills, it said.
Photo: CNA
Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, National Taiwan Normal University started the TOCFL program in 2005, committee head CEO Chen Po-hsi (陳柏熹) said.
To date, more than 740,000 tests have been administered, with Vietnamese accounting for the majority at 49 percent, he said.
Indonesians came in second at 12.2 percent and Japanese were third at 8.8 percent, he said.
The exam is available in more than 120 countries, with students accounting for the majority of examinees at 86.7 percent, the committee said.
People aged 21 to 30 comprised 49.4 percent of the test-takers, while examinees under the age of 20 accounted for 38.9 percent, it said.
The deadline for applications to take part in the examination next month is on Thursday next week, it said.
To encourage balanced learning of Chinese Mandarin, those taking the written, oral and audio-comprehension exams in one sitting can enjoy a 20 percent discount on exam fees, the committee said.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS