The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Thailand held the 2021 Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language on October 3. The tests were originally scheduled to be held on August 8, but a severe outbreak of cases in Chiang Mai in Thailand prevented the tests being held as originally planned and they were postponed.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic also prevented TECO sending personnel to supervise the testing so Shen Qingmin, the principal of Taibei Yixin Middle School, was delegated to be the test supervisor and the school’s director, Yang Wanhua, took charge of handling the examination process. Mr. Ouyang Yanheng, the Director of the Education Division of TECO in Thailand, participated throughout the entire process online. 

 

A total of 319 students applied to sit for the tests: 143 applied for Band A, the beginner level; 141 applied for Band B, the intermediate level; and 35 applied for Band C, the advanced level. Most of the applicants were students at the Taibei Yixin Middle School which requires its students to take the TOCFL test to be able to graduate.

 

In recent years, TECO in Thailand has been actively encouraging students to sit for the TOCFL tests. There are many benefits: 

1. Being awarded a TOCFL certificate gives students a sense of accomplishment and encourages them to continue learning Chinese.

2. Understanding their students’ Chinese language ability helps teachers to adjust their teaching methods to improve the quality of their teaching. 

3. Having a TOCFL certificate will be taken into consideration when a person applies for admission to an academic program at a college or university in Taiwan, or applies for a Ministry of Education funded Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to do further language study there, or applies for a Taiwan Scholarship to undertake a degree program in Taiwan.  

4. Having a TOCFL certificate can also be useful when applying for a job.