News | Office of Global Mandarin Education

By  Central News Agency 2016/04/09 00:00   Taipei, April 9 (CNA) More than 100 foreign students took part in the annual Dajia Matsu pilgrimage in Taichung on Saturday, alongside hundreds of thousands of local pilgrims.  The students from 24 countries traveled to Taichung in central Taiwan to participate in an activity dubbed joining the "Matsu frenzy while learning Chinese," which was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Feng Chia University.  The students, who had to register to take part in the event, first went to Yonghe Palace in the city's Dadu district, where professors from the Chinese Language Center of Feng Chia University gave briefings on the architecture of Taiwan's temples, the legend of Matsu, and the Matsu religious ceremony and its cultural implications.  As part of the activity, the students had to learn some simple words or sentences in Chinese and Taiwanese so that they could interact with the other followers in the Matsu procession, which they joined at noon. The experience involved the ritual of "climbing under Matsu's palanquin to get a blessing."  The pilgrimage began at Dajia Jenn Lann Temple late Friday night, drawing hundreds of thousands of followers along the route that will take them to Fengtian Temple in Chiayi and back over a nine-day period.  The Ministry of Education said the foreign students' participation will be included in a film, and related stories will be posted online to promote Taiwan's culture.  In recent years, Taiwan has been promoting an initiative called "learning Chinese from everyday life," which encourages foreign nationals to visit Taiwan for tourism or to serve as volunteers.  As part of the effort, local universities have been organizing cultural activities to promote Taiwan as the top choice among foreign nationals seeking to learn Chinese. (By Chen Chih-chung and Lilian Wu)

Number of exam dates for all levels of the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language will double to six beginning next year By Taiwan Today, Agencies 2017/09/01 17:43 The number of exam dates for all levels of the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language, Taiwan’s official Mandarin proficiency qualification, will double to six beginning next year as part of government efforts to boost access to the certification system.   Organizer the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu under the Ministry of Education will stage the exam roughly every two months beginning in 2018. Other new measures include the release of a shorter version of the TOCFL enabling businesses and universities to self-assess the language capabilities of job and college applicants.   MOE Deputy Minister Yao Leehter said Aug. 30 at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the test’s establishment that the upgrades will further strengthen the TOCFL’s status as an authoritative Chinese-language qualification.   According to Chen Po-hsi, commissioner of the steering committee, the shorter test was created to serve the growing number of businesses across the Asia-Pacific region using the TOCFL to evaluate Mandarin capabilities. Featuring 60 questions divided equally between listening and reading, the abridged exam will allow corporations and universities to stage high-quality assessments.   Yao said the measures are expected to further raise the number of TOCFL test takers following the introduction earlier this year of an entry-level certification. First staged in July, the exam requiring a minimum vocabulary base of 300 words aims to bolster learners’ familiarity with the TOCFL by introducing them to the system earlier in the education process.  Known as the Chinese Proficiency Test at its launch in 2005, the exam was renamed the TOCFL three years later after being redesigned by Taipei City-based National Taiwan Normal University under the guidance of the steering committee. Divided into two testing sessions assessing listening and reading, and speaking and writing, the exam is administered in 33 countries and territories across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin and North America.   According to the MOE, some 300,000 students of Mandarin have sat the test worldwide, with the average number of examinees reaching 40,000 annually over the past three years.

'Mandarin On-the-Go' is a Mandarin learning program that invites foreigners to learn about Taiwan’s culture By  Taiwan News 2017/08/09 11:55 TAIPEI (Taiwan News)---"Mandarin On-the-Go" is a Taiwan-style Mandarin learning program that invites foreigners to learn about Taiwan's culture through a combination of language and travel packages. The program was launched by the Ministry of Education on Monday, and it includes Mandarin learning travel packages to four different cities: Taipei, Changhua County, Kaohsiung and Hualien County. During a press release held at Taipei's Huashan Creative Park, the ministry announced that "Mandarin On-the-Go in Taiwan" was introduced as part of the welcome activities for the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei. The program will maximize the impact of Mandarin language learning through tours around Taiwan and help participants engage more with Taiwanese culture, according to the Ministry. The packages are: "Enjoying Lifestyle in Taipei," "Hualien Mini Trip," "Traveling Changhua-Lukang Township," and "Let's Fun Kaohsiung." Tours will be available every month from Sept 1, through July 31, 2018. Those who are interested can find more details and sign up on the Ministry of Education website.