Pioneering Group of 18 Thai University Teachers Undertake Professional Development Workshop in Taiwan

The workshop included short course covering: Chinese Teaching Material Design; Application of Multimedia, Technology and Cultural Elements to Chinese Teaching; an Introduction to Taiwanese and Chinese Culture—such as classic poetry, tea ceremony, drama, calligraphy, and mass culture. Sharing sessions were set up to give the Chinese teachers from Thailand and Chinese teachers from Taiwan opportunities to exchange details of their teaching experience and ideas with. The teachers from Thailand also visited famous historical sites in Tainan and Kukang and then learnt how to edit cultural and historical materials into teaching material to use in their classrooms.

The eighteen Thai participants are from 11 universities in Thailand, namely: Chiang Mai University, Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Panyapiwat Institute of Management, Phetchaburi Rajabhat University, Rajamangal University of Technology Rattanakosin, Rangsit University, Silpakorn University, Thammasat University, the University of Phayao, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, and Walailak University.

This workshop was designed for people professionally teaching Chinese in universities in Thailand to upgrade their professional knowledge and skills, and it also enabled Chinese teachers in Taiwan have a keener practical understanding of Chinese teaching in Thailand. The participants can apply what they learned in Taiwan to teach Thai students the traditional Chinese characters and Taiwanese culture.

It is hoped that more exchange programs between the two countries will be developed and undertaken in the near future, in the field of Chinese Mandarin teaching and learning, leading to greater mutual understanding.

Photo: 18 Thai university-level Mandarin lecturers with their teachers at Cheng Kung University’s Chinese Language Center.