Pre-departure Orientation Seminar for Scholarship Winners & French Language Assistants
On June 10, the Education Division of the Taipei Representative Office in France held an online pre-departure orientation seminar for scholarship winners and French language assistants who are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan in September, 2021. Among the participants were 34 Huayu Enrichment Scholarship recipients, five Taiwan Scholarship recipients, and 19 French language assistants.
The Ministry of Education’s Huayu Enrichment Scholarship Program provides scholarships to attract international students to undertake Mandarin Chinese courses in Taiwan for up to a year – “Huayu” is a Chinese term meaning “Chinese language”.
The Ministry of Education’s Taiwan Scholarship Program provides scholarships to encourage outstanding international students to undertake academic degrees at universities in Taiwan, and deepen their understanding of Taiwan and its academic environment.
The French language assistant exchange program allows the participating language assistants to share the richness of the French language and culture and, at the same time, become acquainted with the language and culture of the host country.
The orientation seminar began with opening remarks by Hsu Lih-Tien, secretary of the Education Division at the Taipei Representative Office in France, and a welcome address by Representative Wu Chih-Chung. The first presentation was on the French language assistant exchange program, given by Jennie Burke, deputy manager of the Language Assistant and Mobility Department of France Education International. The second presentation, providing practical information for French language assistants for their sojourn in Taiwan, was given by Muriel Schmit, Attaché for French, Books and Sports at the French Office in Taipei.
Pascale Houdard, an assistant at the Education Division, then explained the rights and obligations of the scholarship recipients and the French language assistants, and the various administrative procedures required before and after their arrival in Taiwan.
The assessment of this year’s successful candidates was based on their application documents and online interviews, because of the ongoing public health crisis presented by the pandemic. Everyone hopes that the situation will ease in time for the scholarship recipients and the French language assistants to arrive in Taiwan as scheduled.
