The Education Division of TECO Boston Celebrates Taiwan’s Teachers Day with Mandarin Teachers in New England
Teachers Day falls on September 28 in Taiwan. It’s Confucius’ birthday and on September 24 this year, a crisp fall day. The Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Boston hosted a happy gathering to once again celebrate Taiwan’s Teachers Day in the New England region. Cynthia Huang, the director of the Education Division, invited the Mandarin teachers and school administrators to a luncheon to mark the occasion.
The guests included Dr. James Huang, a professor of linguistics at Harvard University, Mr. Po-Wei Weng, assistant head of school at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, teachers of Mandarin working in kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools, and universities in New England and Mandarin teachers and teaching assistants from Taiwan who came to work in New England under programs subsidized by the Ministry of Education (MOE), or through the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program.
During the luncheon, Director Huang expressed the appreciation of the Ministry of Education to all the teachers for their devotion to providing high quality Mandarin education in the U.S. and for their support for the students learning Mandarin at kindergartens, elementary and high schools, and universities in the New England region. She also took this opportunity to give them details of a number of MOE programs, including the Taiwan Huayu BEST Program, the International Exchange Window (IEW) and related elementary and high school partnering programs, and Taiwan’s goal to become fully bilingual in English and Mandarin by 2030. The teachers responded enthusiastically, and they were keen to learn more about the various programs. They were also keen to talk with other about their experiences, and Director Huang encouraged them to network with each other, and to work together with the Education Division of TECO-Boston to promote Mandarin learning.
