The first Taiwan Education Center in India was inaugurated on Monday to promote learning the Chinese language, the latest step in the government’s campaign to project Taiwan’s soft power overseas.
The new facility was the eighth Taiwan Education Center to be established worldwide under a program sponsored by the Ministry of Education and run by National Tsing Hua University.
Located in Sonipat, Haryana Province, just north of New Delhi, the new center is a cooperative venture between Tsing Hua and O.P. Jindal Global University of India (JGBS)
The new center is expected to offer two Chinese language classes of 20 students each by the end of the year.
Wang Wei-chung (王偉中), the dean of Tsing Hua’s Office of International Affairs, said the center has employed a certificated teacher and a local assistant and will use teaching materials provided by Tsing Hua that all use traditional Chinese characters.
Tsing Hua plans to invite students of JGBS and other Indian universities to Taiwan to learn more about teaching Chinese, Wang said.
The Taiwan Education Center will also play a critical role in promoting Taiwanese culture and educational cooperation between the two countries, Wang said.
Raghar Ranganathan, a freshman at JGBS, said learning Chinese was indispensable because interaction between Taiwan and India has grown much closer.
During his two years of courses he hopes to have the opportunity to attend more seminars in Taiwan or China and said learning Chinese would definitely be an asset to his future career.
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