The COVID-19 global pandemic has given Taiwan an opportunity to become a global leader in Chinese-language education, participants at a symposium in Taipei said on Friday.
The education symposium, on Tuesday and Friday at National Taiwan University (NTU), was organized by NTU and the National Taipei University of Education.
The forum addressed Taiwan’s Chinese-language education promotion efforts.
The nation’s 62 Chinese-language centers last year contributed NT$11.4 billion (US$386.2 million) to GDP, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) said at the session on Friday.
Chinese-language centers should seize this opportunity to promote Chinese-language learning in Taiwan, to better inform students in other countries about the differences between Taiwan and China, DPP Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) said.
The Ministry of Education in 2013 implemented an eight-year project to turn Taiwan into a major international source of Chinese-language education, and has since invested NT$3 billion into the project, the ministry said.
Last year, more than 32,000 people came to Taiwan to study Chinese language and literature, representing a three-and-a-half-fold increase over the number of international Chinese-language and literature students 10 years earlier, it said.
By the end of this year, the ministry expects that figure to increase to 50,000, it said, adding that there are also about 200,000 people internationally studying Chinese language and literature with Taiwanese institutions through distance-learning programs.
The ministry’s project is cross-departmental, but many high-level officials have yet to realize its strategic importance, National Taiwan Normal University Mandarin Training Center director Chen Chen-yu (陳振宇) said.
However, educators should understand that from a student’s perspective, Chinese-language study is not a product that is marketed, but rather a service that a school provides, and that being aware of this would prevent international students from misunderstanding Taiwan, he said.
Chinese-language skills are particularly important to students hoping to study for a degree in Taiwan, Association of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language director-general Chou Hsiang-hua (周湘華) said.
The government has put more focus on Chinese-language programs since it began pushing the New Southbound Policy, which as part of its goals aims to attract more Southeast Asian students to Taiwan, he said.
Mandarin Chinese as it is spoken in China is different from that in Taiwan, but the nation faces a great challenge in competing with China’s Confucius Institutes for recognition as an authority on Mandarin study, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages vice president Shih Chung-hsien (施忠賢) said.
However, the pandemic might be an opportunity for Taiwan to compete indirectly by pushing online studies, he said, adding that Wenzao had already started a system for online language and literature study and research.
Taipei Language Institute chief executive Jason Ho (何再生) echoed Shih’s comments, saying that online studies should be the focus at the moment, as the pandemic had limited large gatherings and international travel.
Still, globalization means there is still a strong market for Chinese-language study, he added.
Two more forum sessions are set for Tuesday and Friday next week.
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