Mandarin Scholarship Taiwan » learn Chinese

Chinese Character Festival

Jeffrey Withaya Campbell — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:59:33 +0000

Students studying Chinese in Taipei might be interested in the 6th Taipei Chinese Character Festival. There is a “Cultural Bazzar” and an Art Exhibition featuring ten South-east Asian artists.

Cultural Bazaar
The bazaar will feature a fusion of Chinese characters and the cultural creative industries. Activities include calligraphy, paper cutting, lithography, interactive character quizzes, New Year’s couplet demonstrations, hand puppet shows, dancing, street performers, poetry recitals and puppet performances.

Dates: January 9th-10th 10am-5pm

Venue:Taipei Confucius Temple Google map

Art Exhibition
Ten artists from areas in Southeast Asia influenced by the culture of Chinese writing are invited to present artworks based on Asian thinking and Chinese characters.

Dates: January 1st to 11th 2010
Venue: Exhibition Room, CKS Memorial Hall Google map

Note: CKS Memorial Hall is also known as “National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall” (國立臺灣民主紀念館).

The Chinese Character Festival website is in Chinese only:

chinese-character-festival.org.tw

Web based handwriting recognition tool at NICKU.com

kang-wei — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:33:10 +0000

Nciku is basically an online Chinese-English dictionary and is a great tool for Mandarin scholarship students. I had a look at it a while ago and came to the conclusion that it was a social networking dictionary. You can sign up and interact with others in the nciku community, as you look up new vocabulary. It didn’t appeal to me, as I thought the concept was odd and had been happily using mdbg.net.

That said, the Handwrite Characters function, or handwriting recognition tool, is brilliant! Pinyin.info recently highlighted this feature which I have used several times.

What is the handwriting recognition tool? The handwriting tool allows you to find characters by drawing them. Simply write the character, with your mouse, in the box and select the desired one from the list that appears.

If you’ve ever tried to translate a character, you will know that if you don’t know the radical it can take a very long time to work out. This tool makes short work of that problem.

How does it work?

The tool searches our character database based on the appearance of what you draw, the stroke order you use, and other factors. Even if you are unsure how exactly to write a character, the character you are looking for will most likely be included in results for you to recognize and choose from.

Does stroke order matter?
Stroke order does not matter. We will find your character even if you don’t write it perfectly.

http://www.nciku.com/

The handwriting recognition tool has been around for many years. My Chinese teacher introduced me to it a few months ago. It was part of his Chinese language Windows OS or MS word suite. Unfortunately, I run an English language version of XP and that tool is not included.

This tool/software can also be put on a PDA. A mobile handwriting recognition tool! Just the thing for long bus journeys.

Rotary International Youth Program limits interaction with Taiwanese

kang-wei — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:23:51 +0000

Read an interesting article today in the China Post’s Foreign Community section. The piece was titled High school students leave Taiwan satisfied. It focused on two students, one from Demark (16) and one from France (19), who spent a year in Taipei’s public school system as part of the Rotary International Youth Program.

The Rotary International Youth Program allows thousands of teenagers worldwide to attend a year long exchange program in the country of their choice.

Mads Meoller, the Danish student, made some interesting comments regarding the,

written agreement between the exchange students and the organizers of the program that discouraged them from learning about Taiwanese politics, and matters concerning the weaker or stronger sex, which limited their interaction with their Taiwanese counterparts. “It was a fight to learn about culture,” he observed.

I can understand discouraging learning about politics in China for example, as it may get you in trouble, but in a free society like Taiwan it seems overly paternal. Would an exchange student going to Australia be obliged to follow similar guidelines?

And this, “discouraged…from learning about…matters concerning the weaker or stronger sex”. What does this mean exactly? Male exchange students can not have female friends and female exchange students can not have male friends? That’s what it sounds like.

The net result for our Danish friend, “It was a fight to learn about culture,”.

Having participated in four different exchange programs, I feel that my exposure to different political systems and building friendships with both sexes made the experiences life changing. Of course just attending the institutions was valuable but having restrictions like these does seem to be a contradiction in terms.

Note: The article has not yet been put on the China Post’s website.

Quote from the article, thanks for being honest Patty:

“I was worried at first!” said Patty, 16, who recalled her yearlong experience with foreign students at her senior high school in downtown Taipei. She believed that all foreign teenagers liked smoking or hanging out in bars, the opposite of how “normal” Taiwanese students behave. Patty was in for a pleasant surprise when Aude Gery joined her class in August 2007.

Studying Mandarin at Shida

kang-wei — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:48:16 +0000

Blogger Shu Flies is a Mandarin scholarship student at the National Taiwan Normal University’s (Shida) Mandarin Training Center. Located in Taipei, Shida is the place were most foreigners end up learning Mandarin.

Shu Flies has written about her experience at Shida. She alludes to bureaucratic delays for visas, stresses student responsibility for a rewarding learning experience and much more….

I’m back on the island from my three-week sojourn back to California (it would have been two weeks, but the visa office had other ideas. Thanks visa office!), and I’m taking advantage of my jet lag to type up a review of my time at Shida’s Mandarin Training Center.

I have no idea how systematized the teaching methodology is at the MTC, but I’ve heard from many other MTC veterans that your experience there depends in large part on the teacher you get. There are the good, the okay and the just plain awful: I heard horror stories about teachers showing up half an hour late, teachers not showing up, teachers showing up for one week then announcing they are off for a two-week vacation, teachers using class time to tell personal anecdotes that are both too-much-information and not related to the course material, etc…..

Learn Mandarin: Bopomofo Quizlet & flashcards

kang-wei — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:53:54 +0000

Mandarin scholarship students in Taiwan generally need to learn Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), the standard phonetic system used in Taiwan to teach Mandarin. It is also known as Zhuyin fuhao, jhuyin, Bopomo, Mandarin Phonetic Symbols and MPS! Confusing no?

I was browsing shuflies.blogspot.com, and came across a great online Bopomofo resource.

It has been setup on a Quiz based web application called Quizlet. Its stated mission:

“…to make learning vocabulary not a chore.”

The Bopomofo Quizlet has a few games which match English letters to the Bopomofo/Zhuyin symbols. It also has free Bopomofo flashcards.

There’s no audio but if you’d like to listen to Bopomofo/Zhuyin audio files visit this blog.

If you’re looking for Bopomofo learning software have a look at this post:

Learn Zhuyin fuhao/BoPoMoFo software

Sound less stupid listen to ChinesePod

kang-wei — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:50:07 +0000

Meg over at Simpson’s Paradox sums up the benefits of ChinesePod brilliantly:

“Ten minutes a day with Jenny and Ken make me sound slightly less stupid!”

Well, I think an hour a day would be better. I listen to up to three hours a day and I really do sound less stupid. Learning Mandarin has never been easier.

Her post highlights the ChinesePod affiliate program:

“Praxis Language is now running an affiliate program, and anyone with a blog, website or e-newsletter is eligible to join up. You can place an ad on your site (takes about 5 minutes), and then every time someone clicks through and signs up on ChinesePod or SpanishPod, you’ll get paid!

The program is suitable for everyone, from website hobbyists and casual bloggers, through to professional full-time affiliates. For the experienced, here are some details on the program…”

Today, ChinesePod has profiled Taipei in one of its Mandarin podcasts. It’s an intermediate lesson, sorry beginners:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/taipei

The podcast mentions the National Palace Museum. You can watch a trailer of the animated short film Adventures in the NPM here. It won “Animation of the Year” at the Tokyo International Animation Fair 2008.

Scholarships for Countries with diplomatic relations with Taiwan

kang-wei — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:06:54 +0000

If you want to learn Chinese and you are from any of the nations listed below there are many scholarship options available to you.

The map below really brings home what diplomatic isolation means… Taiwan currently has 23 “friends”. One of them, the Pacific nation of Tuvalu, has a population of around 12,000. Not that size matters of course.

Africa (4 states)

Burkina Faso* (1994)
Gambia* (1995)
São Tomé and Príncipe* (1997)
Swaziland* (1968.)

Europe (1 state)

Vatican City * (1942)

Oceania (6 states)

Kiribati (2003)
Marshall Islands* (1998.)
Nauru (1980–2002, 2005)
Palau* (1999)
Solomon Islands* (1983)
Tuvalu (1979)

Americas (12 states)

Belize* (1989)
Dominican Republic* (1957)
El Salvador* (1961)
Guatemala* (1960)
Haiti *(1956)
Honduras* (1965)
Nicaragua* (1990)
Panama* (1954)
Paraguay* (1957)
Saint Kitts and Nevis* (1983)
Saint Lucia (1984–1997, 2007)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981)

Dates indicate establishment or duration of relations; * indicates an embassy in Taipei

(Source: Wiki)

See here for more Mandarin scholarship information.

Fast Online Chinese Character to Pinyin Converter

kang-wei — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:29:31 +0000

Just found this easy to use Chinese character to pinyin converter/ translator at PurpleCulture.net.

It’s web based which I like and fast. It supports both Simplified and Traditional characters, which is great for those learning Chinese in Taiwan.

If you happen to need to convert/translate between one of the many different Romanization systems and Zhuyin (BoPoMoFo) the Chinese Romanization Converter over at MandarinTools.com works well.

How did people learn Mandarin before the internet revolution?

MOE Mandarin Enrichment Scholarship

kang-wei — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:29:05 +0000

The Taiwanese Ministry of Education(MOE) Huayu (Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship program was established in 2005. The purpose of the program is to encourage international students and individuals to undertake Mandarin study in Taiwan.

While providing study opportunities for Mandarin language and Taiwan’s culture at university- or college-affiliated Mandarin training centers, the scholarship program also aims to:

a. Contribute to a better command of the Mandarin language, and hence a greater understanding and appreciation of Taiwan’s culture.

b. Promote friendship between Taiwan and countries around the world.

c. Explore opportunities to increase exchange with international education institutions.

The scholarship program is quite flexible and award periods of 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year are available. So yes, summer scholarships are possible!

A monthly stipend of NT$25,000 (approximately US$820) is offered to recipients.

Applicants must meet all of the following criteria:

a. Possess prior excellent academic performance and be of good moral character.

b. Does not hold the Republic of China (Taiwan) nationality.

c. Does not have the status of an overseas Chinese student.

d. Is not a current student either at a Mandarin training center, or at a university/college in Taiwan.

e. Is not an exchange student in accordance with a cooperation agreement between an international university/college and an educational institute in Taiwan, at the time of receiving a HES scholarship.

f. Has not previously received an award either under this scholarship program or the Scholarship Program of Taiwan.

g. Is not a current recipient of a scholarship or subsidy being offered by any one of government or educational institutions in Taiwan.

Introduction MOE Mandarin Enrichment Scholarship (PDF 60kb) (Note:This PDF says 2006 but the info is still relevant)

See here for more information.

More information is available here (unfortunately the MOE’s English website is quite unreliable):

http://www.tw.org/scholarship/scholarship_awards.htm

http://www.tw.org/grant/Mandarin%20Enrichment%20Scholarship%20Guideline.pdf

http://www.studyintaiwan.org/

Contact the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, or Taiwanese Embassy in your country for more information.

If there isn’t an office in your country contact the one nearest to you…and you can learn Chinese for free!!!