Taiwan Culture Classes in French Community of Belgium Are a Great Success
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education in the French Community of Belgium in 2019 on educational cooperation and exchanges. In 2024, the Education Division launched a new collaboration with the Ministry of Education in the French Community of Belgium to nurture educational exchanges and mutual cultural understanding and promote Taiwan’s rich culture to Belgian students.
It organized a six-week Taiwan culture course to foster cultural understanding and appreciation through interactive activities, crafts, and group discussions that was conducted in the Belgian French-speaking primary school district, between October, 2024 and January, 2025. One hundred and fifty-eight students from eight classes at four schools participated. In addition to learning basic details about Taiwan’s geography, major festivals, and cultural traditions, the students also learnt some elementary Chinese to enhance their cultural awareness.
The classes had a specific theme each of the six weeks. In the first week, students learnt about Taiwan’s geography, including its capital, Taipei, and the iconic Taipei 101 building. They compared Taiwan’s size and population with Belgium’s and took part in a craft activity creating dolls that represented Taiwan’s shape. In the following week, students learnt about Taiwan’s natural landmarks, such as Yushan mountain. They also learnt the fundamentals of Chinese characters and created Taiwan culture notebooks and cards. In week three, the focus shifted to enhancing the students’ basic language skills, and they learnt Chinese greetings, simple dialogues, and numbers. This was followed by a craft session where they made Christmas cards they could send to schoolchildren in Taiwan.
The fourth week centered on the Christmas and New Year celebrations in Taiwan, such as the New Year’s Eve fireworks at Taipei 101, and traditional customs, such as the 12 zodiac animals, and traditional festival practices. The fifth week was a recap of the first four weeks, with group competitions, and student art exhibitions showcasing the students’ work. The final week covered Taiwan’s major national holidays and festivals, such as the Lunar New Year, and concluded with a simple quiz and distribution of small gifts.
On January 16, the Education Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium held an exhibition of the craftwork and items the students at Athénée Léonardo da Vinci School had produced and invited more than 60 students and teachers at the school to see it. It was a very cheerful occasion. The students enjoyed some pearl milk tea and talked about their experiences learning about Taiwanese culture. They were all enthusiastic about the course and expressed this, and their appreciation, to the Taiwanese teacher, Tsung Hui-Hsiung, her Taiwanese assistant Sunny Cheng, and the Education Division in Chinese. The Education Division is planning to offer more courses for primary and secondary students in Belgium to learn about Taiwan’s culture.