The nation is poised to capitalize on a global surge in interest in learning Chinese with a new online platform tailored to online students of the language, a Taiwanese university specializing in teaching Mandarin said yesterday.
A team of professors led by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) has worked for nearly four years on the integrated platform project to help transform the nation into a leading force in the Chinese-language teaching market and make it more competitive with China.
“The No. 1 competitors Taiwanese teachers have in the Chinese teaching market are teachers from China,” one of the team members, Tsai Ya-hsun (蔡雅薰), said at an event to introduce several of the platform’s free, online Chinese-learning services.
CREATING ADVANTAGES
Taiwan may not be able to compete against the Confucius Institute launched by China in many parts of the world, but it can use advanced technology to create some advantages of its own, said Tsai, the head of the university’s Department of Applied Chinese Language and Literature.
One of the free, Internet-based Chinese-learning programs -provided by the university is JoinNet, a government-sponsored platform that offers custom-made, synchronized services for learners who are interested in picking up commonly used vocabulary or hold conversations with university teachers.
The program is available four times per week and gives students exposure to professional teachers online during those time slots.
WIKICHINESE
Lan Yu-ju (籃玉如), another professor involved in the project, said the WikiChinese Web site, launched by the university in June last year, has had more than 1,500 visitors from the US, Europe and Southeast Asia watch the 47 video clips on the site.
The videos feature situations or cultural shocks that non-Chinese speakers could face when living in Taiwan, which could be very useful for foreigners living in a Chinese-language environment, she said.
Lan said the integrated digital learning services could be a key asset for self-taught foreigners who would like to learn Chinese in their home country first, since all the materials posted online are written or edited by professional Chinese teachers.
According to the university, an estimated 100 million people are learning Chinese worldwide.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
RSS