New Southbound Policy Portal

There are 84 Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning locations in Europe and the United States. (Courtesy of OCAC)
 

A video aimed at promoting the Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning initiative to a new audience was launched by the Overseas Community Affairs Council Jan. 26.

The OCAC’s creation of the Overseas Mandarin Learning Cultivation Program in 2021 underlined the government’s dedication to promoting the diversity and uniqueness of Mandarin as spoken in Taiwan. By collaborating with existing schools and cultural groups, TCML institutes have been established in the United States and Europe to provide people with an immersive language-learning experience, the council said.

Three years into the TCML project, there are now 84 such centers worldwide, with 66 in the U.S. alone, the OCAC said. In Europe, there are three in the U.K.; two each in France, Germany and Italy, and one each in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

According to the council, lessons offered at TCML locations have attracted students from all walks of life, including engineers, government officials and professors. The OCAC video also features ringing endorsements of the program from Sandra Oudkirk, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, and Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s vice president-elect and former representative to the U.S.

The council expressed its hope that its language centers would spread the beauty of one of Taiwan’s major languages throughout the world. English, French, German and Spanish versions of the short film are available on the OCAC’s website and YouTube channel. (POC-E)