A great annual event of the Chinese education - ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) has been held on November 22nd to 24th at Washington, DC Walter E. Washington 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 8 Mandarin educational institutes and units including Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu, International Chinese Language Program of National Taiwan University, Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese Language Center of National Cheng Kung University, Chinese Language Center of Tamkang University,Mandarin Learning Center of Chinese Culture University, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, Tamkang University Chinese Language Center, Center of Chinese Language and Culture Fu Jen Catholic 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, Chinese calligraphy writing and reading, mini sky lantern origami, and ink-blow painting. 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, a business lunch has been joined by the representatives of Chinese Flagship Programs, held by Yuri Chih, Deputy of Education Division, TECRO in the U.S. They 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 2019 was “Mandarin in Taiwan”. 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.