Mandarin Scholarship Taiwan » Mandarin scholarship

Test Of Proficiency-Huayu: Registration period ends Oct 9

kang-wei — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:06:45 +0000

The registration period for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu (TOP) closes this Thursday October 9 2008. There is still time to register.

Targeted word lists for each of the four levels are now available.

Test Date：11/1(Sat.)
Test Format：Paper-based
Test Levels：For Beginners, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced
Test Fee：NT$1000

http://www.sc-top.org.tw/

NTNU Mandarin Training Center

kang-wei — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 02:54:21 +0000

國立臺灣師範大學 National Taiwan Normal University, Shi-Da, founded the Mandarin Training Center in 1956 for the study of Mandarin Chinese by foreign students.

The Mandarin Training Center represents one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished programs for language study, attracting more than a thousand students from over sixty countries to Taiwan each year and making the Shi-Da area of Taipei one of the city’s most cosmopolitan.

[Wiki: National Taiwan Normal University]

Blogger BrettEverett has written about his experiences at NTNU’s Mandarin Training Center. It gives a great insight into what Mandarin scholarship students can expect in the way of administration and teaching methodology. It’s very important for Mandarin scholarship students to know what they want before they commit to a university. Once the scholarship is linked to that university you have to wait two semesters before you can change.

NTNU’s Mandarin Training Center hasn’t lived up to what I expected it to be. We have currently have 8 students (the max), at one point had 10 students in our class, and all of their literature says that 5-6 students is average size for the intensive classes. The difference between their regular and intensive classes are two students and one extra hour of class a day. That is, there are 10 students in a normal class and they only meet for 2 hours a day instead of 3.

I’m also disappointed in MTC’s teaching methodology. It’s focused mostly on writing. We also have to do a lot of homework outside of class. My issue with that is that writing is my weakest area. I haven’t written characters for three years now. I always use computers to do my homework, and as such have practically forgotten how to write. My classmates are 2 americans, a Chinese-Indonesian guy, 2 Japanese guys, a Japanese girl and a 16 year old Mongolian girl. I joke that the Japanese girl is a walking character dictionary. She always knows how to write whatever character we are studying.

I don’t care much for writing characters. It wastes a lot of time and I’m poor at it. I don’t have years in which to dedicate myself to writing a single character hundreds of times until it is correct. I want to work on speaking and recognizing characters. To me, being able to communicate with other people in Chinese is why I’m here. Squiggly lines don’t interest me. If it isn’t clear, I’m very unhappy with my current school situation. Of our tests and everything else we do, 20% is speaking, 20% is reading recognition and the last 60% is writing.

This is opposite of what I want for myself and is making me less and less happy as time goes on. I keep scoring poorly on the tests because I write the characters wrong. Its frustrating always asking the teacher for more time while my Japanese classmates have finished their tests and are napping while waiting for us to finish. Even though I have a scholarship from NTNU, I can’t see myself staying there in the future if the situation doesn’t improve.

National Taiwan University Mandarin Training Center

I personally equate prestigious universities/programs with inflexibility and encourage scholarship students to really do their research before they commit. I will be posting as many different experiences from different universities as I can find.

Related story:

Studying Mandarin at Shi-Da

Taiwan donates scholarships to Dominican Republic

kang-wei — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:01:49 +0000

Dominican Republic is one of the 23 nations, including the Vatican City, that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Taiwanese Ambassador to the DR, Isaac Tsai, will donate US$1 million to the Ministry of Higher Education (SEESCYT) on behalf of his country. The funds will be used to help Dominican university students. The Taiwanese Embassy announced that this is the ninth set of funds awarded as part of their Mandarin Language and International Scholarship Fund Program.

According to the SEESCYT, the fund will provide Dominican students with the opportunity to study Internet technology, medicine, bio-chemistry, economics, foreign trade, banking and markets and rights and integrated communication at universities abroad. The funds will also be used to employ two Taiwanese teachers to teach languages at the UASD University and at the Foreign Relations Ministry’s School of Diplomacy.

Daily Dominican Republic News on July 23, 2008

Dominican Republic has maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan for 63 years.

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…..

Ministry offering new scholarships to foreign students

kang-wei — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:15:54 +0000

According to the Taipei Times, there are many more Mandarin scholarships on offer. The article focuses on scholarships for United States citizens but I’m sure there will be other announcements for other nationalities soon.

MANDARIN COURSES: The education ministry is working with several US colleges to attract US students to take part in its three learning programs.

The Ministry of Education has set up new scholarship and study programs to attract more US students to study Chinese in Taiwan, the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington announced yesterday.

Taiwan’s deputy representative to the US, Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷), told a press conference that the ministry, in cooperation with several US colleges and universities, has launched three projects to facilitate and attract American students to participate in short-term and year-long language programs in Taiwan.

Local universities

Tung said that National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University and Ming Chuan University have invited 180 students from 10 US colleges to study Mandarin here.

Each of the US colleges would send a group of students to study at a Taiwanese college of their choice, and each group would receive US$5,000 in grants. The University of North Carolina has already formed a group.

Sisterhood ties

A second program would allow US college students from states that have sisterhood ties with Taiwan to spend a summer studying in Taiwan.

Under the terms of the program, 20 US university students from 12 states will take part in a two-month Chinese-language course at National Pingtung University of Education.

Students under this program will each receive a monthly stipend of NT$25,000 while they are in Taiwan, Tung said.

Full-year courses

A third project sponsored by the ministry involves scholarships for select US students to participate in three-months to full-year courses to learn Mandarin.

TECRO has to date chosen 10 students from the University of North Carolina, Georgetown University and University of Maryland to take part in the specially designed Mandarin programs.

Web site

For more information on scholarship programs for American and other foreign students, see TECRO’s Cultural Division Web site at www.tecro.org.

Results in! Test of Proficiency Huayu (Mandarin) 2008

kang-wei — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:34:51 +0000

Mandarin scholarship students across Taiwan will be receiving their results for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu (TOP) today. The tests were held on Saturday the 3rd of May 2008. I completed the beginner level.

I wrote about the Mandarin proficiency test a few months ago…. and here.

I picked up my certificate at the post office today. I got 76.25% (61 out of 80). Unfortunately, to pass 77.75% is required (62 out of 80)! Yes, that’s right one mark!

I think I did pretty well considering I only started learning to read Chinese eight weeks before the test. My listening was already quite developed but my reading comprehension needs much more work.

A few months ago, I wrote a letter to the Taipei Times complaining about the lack of resources available for the test. I still think it is a factor. The Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu should provide, at the very least, some targeted word lists. (If you complain perhaps it’s better to do it anonymously….)

According to this, from the government run StudyinTaiwan.org, Mandarin scholarship students who fail will be financially penalized:

A one-month-stipend suspension will be imposed if a recipient fails to submit to his/her individual Mandarin training center, a photocopy of a TOP (Test of Proficiency—Huayu) certificate with results rated at the basic level or above, by July 31st, one month before his/her LEP award period is due. Registration fees for this TOP test are the full responsibility of the recipient.

However, if the recipient succeeds in this TOP test during his/her next-stage award period for a degree program, the suspended one-month stipends as stated above will be reimbursed, by his/her application with the university/college that he/she will be attending.

I’m not sure how up to date this information is but I was told that it is still applicable. What the information above does not specify, is weather or not those who attempted the beginner level will be penalized. The beginner level only started last year. Personally, I don’t think they will. But if you get penalized tell me. I’ll be sympathetic I promise.

The period for rescoring is from now until July 3 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.

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!!!