【Volume 5_Collaboration】Promoting Mandarin Learning and Celebrating Taiwanese Heritage

Source: Dr. Yi-Ming Shih (Director of Chinese Language Center, National Chung Hsing University)

Source: Ms. Adriana Jiang (Chinese Language Center, National Chung Hsing University)

Mandarin Chinese, with over 1 billion native speakers, is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. To support students who are interested in learning Mandarin as a second or foreign language, National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) founded the Chinese Language Center (CLC) in 2006 with the mission to promote high-quality Mandarin instruction. Currently, the center is one of the largest Mandarin learning institutions in Taiwan. The CLC sits in the Wan Nien Building on the Taichung campus of NCHU. Every year the programs from CLC attract more than 300 international students from all over the world to enroll in the CLC. Learning Mandarin in a friendly and warm environment with cultural resources helps students improve their language skills and develop an understanding of Taiwanese heritage within a short time.

The CLC offers a wide variety of non-credit programs to accommodate individual learner needs. Key features of the Center include:

Well-Qualified Teachers: The instructors of the CLC are experienced in Mandarin teaching. All of them are awarded the Certification of Proficiency in Teaching Chinese as a Second-Foreign Language issued by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan.
Small Class Size: Students are taught in small classes, which ensures that learners have ample opportunities to interact with their peers and instructors.
Diversified Courses: The CLC provides different types of Mandarin courses to students, including intensive courses, online courses, summer courses, customized courses, etc. The intensive courses are divided into eight levels. The estimated study time to complete each level is 180 hours, allowing students to make progress steadily and form a strong foundation in Mandarin.
Free One-on-one Tutoring: The CLC provides free one-on-one Mandarin tutoring services for students to help them solve learning problems. During the tutoring process, professional advice and guidance will be given to help them learn better or prepare for Mandarin proficiency tests more effectively.
Hands-on Cultural Activities: The cultural learning activities CLC offers every quarter are extremely popular among students. These activities are designed based on the different seasons of the Lunar Calendar and traditional Taiwanese cultures; in the past years, various activities such as spring couplet writing, lantern riddle guessing, fragrant sachet making, Chinese knotting, Chinese painting, pottery, Mahjong playing, etc. were held for students to learn about traditional culture and to experience it firsthand.

Customized Courses
The CLC is also dedicated to promoting Mandarin learning through summer courses, which are offered to students from our partner universities around the world. During weekdays, students attending summer courses join the intensive classes in the morning; in the afternoon, they participate in cultural learning activities or field trips organized by the CLC to experience traditional Taiwanese culture.

Collaborations with Partner Universities Overseas
In addition to the regular courses, the CLC provided two short-term online courses for students from Utah State University in 2022. These courses covered essential Mandarin skills such as Pin-Yin and pronunciation. Within two weeks of study, students could carry out basic conversations in simple Mandarin Chinese. With the support of experienced instructors and a wealth of online resources, the students had a wonderful time working with them and quickly gained proficiency in Mandarin Chinese.
From 2023 onwards, the CLC is expanding its operations by recruiting outstanding language teachers and teaching assistants to teach Mandarin at our partner universities. It is hoped that through this new form of collaboration, students will have the opportunities to receive solid training in Mandarin and gain a deeper understanding of our culture. Additionally, to ensure the teachers’ readiness for teaching in a new environment, the CLC gives them comprehensive training in the areas of language teaching methodology and cross-cultural communication before their departure. The CLC is excited to promote cross-cultural exchanges and strengthen international partnerships through this collaboration.