LanguageNews
Global Mandarin Fever on rise, Mandarin On-the-Go is on the rage
According to the statistics of Ethnology, Mandarin users in the world have reached 11 million, accounting for 1/7 of world population. In order to encourage foreigners to learn Mandarin in Taiwan, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has invited the Ministry of Transportation and Communication’s Tourism Bureau, and the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to be co-organizers to promote the “Mandarin On-the-Go in Taiwan” program, and draw up complementary measures for foreigners learning Mandarin in Taiwan.
MOE trains more than 400 Mandarin teachers to teach overseas, including in India, the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and dozens of other countries. Foreigners can feel an open minded academic atmosphere and experience the beauty of Chinese culture and traditional characters. In addition to this, MOE cooperates with professional Mandarin teachers and has developed the “Mandarin 101” online learning tool to meet the needs of foreigners temporarily staying in Taiwan.
Origin of Mandarin Promotion by MOE
According to Andy Cheu-An Bi, the Director General of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education, Ministry of Education, promotion of Mandarin teaching is based on the global requirements of Mandarin education. The ”Eight-year Chinese Language Education Promotion” was planned and has been executed since 2013, integrating resources from different fields and related institutions and promoting it in diverse ways, such as the “Mandarin On-the-Go in Taiwan” program which was launched by MOE, which integrated resources of tourism and Mandarin teaching and developed a brand new learning model.
Andy Cheu-An Bi pointed out that the advantage of learning Mandarin in Taiwan is that the quality can be ensured, and you can experience the beauty of Chinese culture and traditional characters. For example, the word “door” will lose its imagery if written in simplified characters, and we only know how to “love” unless we have a “heart”.
He mentioned that reason for Mandarin fever happening among foreigners is their desire to learn about Chinese culture. We can show them our culture through festivals and tourism and these will make learning more interesting.
“Working with domestic experts to develop an online mandarin learning course is for the purpose of building a complete learning system. We are following the wave of globalization, and TOCFL, The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language in Taiwan just gained recognition by the Hungary Language Centre and Vietnam Government.” Regarding to globalization of Taiwan’s Mandarin, said Andy Bi, these are all big steps for study and employment. In the future, MOE will integrate an information platform and make use of online learning, online influencer marketing, culture promotion, and combining resources of overseas education fairs to catch people’s eyes. “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.” As the Principal of Leverage said, MOE hopes the export and import of Mandarin education can spend less effort while achieving more results.