The Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh held a Taiwan Education and Culture Seminar at Tran Dai Nghia Junior High School for the Gifted, on September 25, to encourage these gifted junior high school students to continue learning Mandarin and give them a better understanding of Taiwan's education and culture.

Tran Dai Nghia Junior High School for the Gifted started teaching Mandarin as a second foreign language for the first time this academic year. Mr. Nguyen Minh, the principal, said that the gifted students in the junior high school, as well as the senior high school, have all started learning a second foreign language this year. The students can choose between German, French, Mandarin, and Korean, so the Education Division held this two-hour seminar to introduce Taiwan’s education, culture, and food to the students to encourage them to choose Mandarin.

More than 200 junior high school students attended the seminar and the Education Division presenters taught them how to recognize some commonly seen components of Chinese characters and how to fold origami sky lanterns. They also held a Chinese opera mask drawing competition.

The seminar was very successful and definitely sparked the students' interest in continuing to learn Mandarin.