A great annual event of the Chinese education - ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) has been held on November 16th to 18th at New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Office of Global Mandarin Education established by the Ministry of Education organized the exhibition space for the Taiwan pavilion. The pavilion was joined by 10 Mandarin educational institutes and units including “Steering Committee for the Test of Huayu Proficiency”, “Hanzi Face Cultural Group Limited”, “International Chinese Language Program of National Taiwan University”, Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese Language Center of National Cheng Kung University, Mandarin Learning Center for Adults of Tamkang University, Wenzao Chinese Language Center of Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, Feng Chia University Chinese Language Center, Center of Chinese Language and Culture, Fu Jen Catholic University, and Mandarin Learning Center of Chung Yuan Christian University. We took the learning experience of “Mandarin in Taiwan” to the global spotlight.The exhibition promoted culture in a lively way by arranging Chinese staff who wore traditional Chinese costumes to invite foreigners of non-Chinese origin to learn about the special characteristics in Mandarin. Activities like Happy Hour were introduced to attract more Mandarin educators understanding Taiwanese Mandarin. Application policies were also being explained at the exhibition. Many interactions focused on Taiwanese and American way of Mandarin education, bringing up a lot of intriguing discussions that show the uniqueness of Taiwanese Mandarin.

The exhibition arranged many activities such as Taiwan pavilion policy introduction and Q&A with prizes, handmade mini sky lantern, and offering prizes for gathering points from individual booths. These activities offered opportunities for the Mandarin educational institutes to share their experience in Mandarin teaching to visitors, show the excellent courses available in Taiwan for Mandarin education, qualified teachers, resources, etc. These discussions might have triggered related cooperation opportunities.

In order to establish a communication and relationship between Taiwanese Mandarin educational institute and overseas educational institute, an oration with dining event has been joined by Chen Chia-yen, Director of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston and his team, held by the National Chinese Language and Culture Coalition (NCLCC). The event intended to improve communication between the institutes. The ACTFL Association of Chinese Schools president has been invited by Vice President Yeh Chin-huei of the Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS) to join the dining held by CLASS. The meeting with CLASS presidents of various associations, NCLCC association representative, ACTFL director, and other educational institute representatives established a successful communication between researchers in Mandarin educational organizations of Taiwan and the United States, and improved the knowledge of the global market in understanding the current market and resources available in Taiwanese Mandarin education.

Taiwan has joined ACTFL for many years. With the rich experience we have, we found that every year the mainstream schools and language institutes in the United States contact us through this platform to establish a cooperative relationship with Taiwan educational institutes. The theme for 2018 was “Where Language Educators Meet”. Taiwan representatives took this opportunity to promote the excellence in Taiwanese Mandarin education along with over 8,000 educators, over 800 types of educational courses, over 250 language related product manufacturers. The exhibition was heated up by the lively sales activities that highlighted Taiwan. The reputation of Taiwanese Mandarin education has been improved and expected to further develop, being promoted to the rest of the world and create more cooperative opportunities.