The Ministry of Education (MOE) has announced that it launched an online Mandarin-language learning initiative called “Huayu 101” at the end of last month.
University of Taipei professor Chang Yu-hsin (張于忻), who designed the program, has more than 20 years of experience in teaching Mandarin.
To provide an easier learning experience, he and his team collected key phrases in Mandarin that people should learn for basic survival.
The contents of Huayu 101 include accommodation, shopping, ordering food, traffic and emergency help.
It is useful for foreign students and travelers who stay in Taiwan, and can be applied to other Chinese-speaking regions.
To attract and encourage young people to learn Mandarin in Taiwan, the ministry has teamed up with YouTuber Logan Beck to produce two videos promoting Mandarin learning and Taiwanese culture.
The first video, titled Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage, amassed 50,000 views within a night and it had more than 150,000 hits as of yesterday.
Beck and a rice cake vendor identified only as Liu demonstrated at a news conference how to use Huayu 101 by putting up an act that takes place at a night market.
In response to the global demand for Chinese-language education, Taiwan’s Mandarin-language education sector is vigorously looking outward and boosting its efforts at international marketing.
The efforts led to planning and implementation of an eight-year Chinese language education promotion plan in 2013.
Under the plan, the Office of Global Mandarin Education was established to integrate resources for Chinese-language education.
To promote Mandarin learning in Taiwan, the ministry invited the Tourism Bureau and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Small and Medium Enterprise Administration as co-organizers.
The education ministry integrated tourism and Chinese learning resources to create a brand new study-tour model called “Mandarin On-the-Go.” People interested in the program can check the information on the official Web site (ogme.edu.tw/Home/tw).
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