The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand and the Office of Private Education Commission of the Ministry of Education in Thailand jointly organized the Professional Development Workshop for Thai Mandarin Chinese Teachers, held in Taiwan from October 16 to 29, 2016. Many applicants expressed their desire to visit Taiwan in person to experience Taiwan’s unique combination of a modern society and traditional Chinese culture, philosophy, and ancient wisdom. Twenty Thai Mandarin Chinese teachers who work in twelve Thai public and private elementary and middle schools were selected through a competitive reviewing process, and then undertook the workshop at the prestigious National Cheng Kung University Chinese Language Center in Taiwan. The two-week workshop was designed to develop their Mandarin Chinese teaching skills and their understanding of Chinese culture.

The workshop courses were Chinese Teaching Material Design; Application of Multimedia, Technology, and Cultural Elements to Chinese Teaching; and Introduction to Taiwanese and Chinese Culture which included Taiwanese history, art, tea ceremony, drama, calligraphy and mass culture. The teachers from Thailand also visited sites at the famous Alishan National Scenic Area, and as well as enjoying the natural beauty, they learned how to edit cultural materials to incorporate them into teaching material to use in their classrooms.

The workshop also had sessions for the teachers from Thailand and Chinese teachers in Taiwan to share details of their teaching experiences and exchange ideas, giving the visiting teachers a further opportunity to upgrade their language teaching professional knowledge and skills, and giving Chinese teachers in Taiwan an understanding of the practice of teaching Chinese in Thailand. The teachers from Thailand will be able to apply what they learned in Taiwan to teach Thai students the traditional Chinese characters and about Taiwanese culture. It is hoped that more exchange programs to promote mutual understanding in the field of Chinese Mandarin teaching and learning between Taiwan and Thailand will be developed in the near future.

Photo: Twenty Thai teachers of Mandarin Chinese with their Chinese teachers at Cheng Kung University.