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.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
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The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
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