Taiwan is on track to establish a global network of 100 Mandarin language learning centers by 2025, Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said.
The council has so far established 43 Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning: 34 in the US, two each in France and the UK, and one each in Australia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Sweden, Tung said last week.
The program has reached its implementation goals ahead of schedule, he said, adding that 28 new centers would open after being certified later this year.
The council’s other objectives include building solidarity among Taiwanese communities abroad, integrating the business resources of Taiwanese living abroad, and utilizing innovation in student recruitment and learning, he said.
The council is hosting competitions for speaking, singing and writing in Mandarin, and enhancing its use of Web-based resources, he said.
The Taipei Department of Education’s Taipei CooC-Cloud and the Ministry of Education’s online multimedia platform are working with the council to promote Taiwan-led Mandarin education abroad, he said.
The country’s promotion of Mandarin learning centers is in part to replace Beijing’s Confucius Institutes after governments and universities in many countries began closing the programs for allegedly engaging in censorship and propaganda in host countries.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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