Dr. Yen-Yi Lee, Director General of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education of the Ministry of Education, gives opening remarks

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Seattle hosted a Mandarin in Taiwan Forum, held on November 17, organized by staff from the Ministry of Education, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, and the Taiwan Mandarin Educational Resources Center. 

Daniel Kuo-Ching Chen, the Director General of TECO in Seattle, opened the forum with a description of the US–Taiwan Education Initiative, signed at the end of 2020. This agreement paves the way for expanded cooperation to provide greater access to Mandarin Chinese and English language instruction and he expressed his hope that the conference would provide valuable information about the many Mandarin Chinese language resources that Taiwan has developed. 

Dr. Yen-Yi Lee, Director General of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Education of the Ministry of Education, spoke about Taiwan’s long-standing role as a center for Mandarin language education and outlined avenues that Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has developed for offering Mandarin Chinese language resources to the USA and other countries. These include sending language teachers and teaching assistants to institutions abroad, providing scholarships for learning Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, online courses, and more. 

Dr. Cheng-han Lee, the First Education Secretary at the Ministry of Education, then outlined details of the programs, including the new Taiwan Huayu BEST - Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent Program, a Ministry of Education initiative to encourage Taiwan’s universities to seek out counterparts in the USA with which to create joint language education programs. 

Over 100 people took part in the online forum. Many voiced their appreciation of the Forum and commented that they found the event helpful and informative.