Come, Come, Come! Learn Mandarin in Taiwan

The US-based Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) was originally founded after WWII to promote world peace through the development of international understanding and trust between nations through communication. Since 1993 CIEE has been working with National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan, using its global network spread across more than 40 countries to recruit foreign students to study in Taiwan.

In this art lesson, students compete to see who can add the most branches to the “tree” without them falling off.

Multiple options

Christie Chang, resident director of CIEE’s Taipei Center, states that “students have easy access to a range of study options through the operations of CIEE’s 40-plus branches across the USA and Europe.” For many years now, Taiwan has had available a number of Mandarin learning centers, but generally each center collaborates with a small number of international universities, so options for foreign learners tend to be limited. But with CIEE’s connections to its many cooperating international universities, any credits gained by students in Taiwan are recognized overseas, so they don’t need to withdraw from their original study program, providing additional flexibility for career planning.

Chang says that because CIEE is responsible for designing the curriculum and recruiting teachers, it was once nicknamed “NCCU concession territory.” When she took up her current position in 2001, she discovered a real enthusiasm to communicate among the students, whether they were from Taiwan or overseas.

Apart from CIEE’s function as a platform providing international exchange for Taiwan students, overseas learners recruited by CIEE to study in Taiwan are also highly valued as providing opportunities for local students to learn about the world. So in addition to international exchange, CIEE has also introduced a cultural ambassador program, encouraging Taiwan students to participate in a program to market their home nation while expanding their own international horizons.

Students with no experience on the gu zheng (traditional Chinese zither) are keen to try their hand strumming the strings in a music lesson.

Marketing Taiwan

Nicholas Sidman, now 25 years of age, made the decision to study in Asia because of the student exchange program offered by his own University of California, Irvine (UCI), which works in cooperation with Shanghai’s Fudan University.

With a UCI recommendation, Sidman came to study Mandarin at one of the CIEE branches in Taiwan in 2011. Then after returning to the US he gained a Mandarin scholarship offered by the ROC Ministry of Education, so he’s back to study for a second time. This year he’s preparing to apply for graduate study at the NCCU Department of Diplomacy.

But Sidman is no stranger to Taiwan. When he studied international relations at UCI, Chinese–US affairs and the Asian political and economic situation in general were regular topics for discussion. So he became quite familiar with Taiwan’s position both economically and politically, and its history and culture. But his knowledge came purely from textbooks. He only gained practical experience of Taiwan and a deeper understanding of the country when he came here to study.

Sidman has had many wonderful experiences visiting every corner of Taiwan. One extra-special memory which will always remain in his heart is the beautiful scenery of Sun Moon Lake. Visits to the National Palace Museum, the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, and the Grand Ceremony Dedicated to Confucius at the Confucius Temple have provided vivid experiences. “Taiwan has in fact a multifaceted and multi-ethnic culture, influenced not only by mainland China and Japan, but also by its Aboriginal people and even the early Dutch colonizers,” he says. It’s difficult for people who have never visited Taiwan (and who often confuse Taiwan and Thailand) to really understand the country to any extent.

Sidman is enjoying life in Taiwan. With a lawyer father, he was born to a reasonably well-to-do family. His future had been pretty much planned by his family before he decided to come to Taiwan, and his decision to study in Taiwan was not a popular one with his father. However, his Scottish schoolteacher mother tended to be more open minded—she thought Nicholas’ decision was “cool.” And after some time, his father gradually came around as well. His parents had never been to Taiwan, but they came recently to visit their son. Together they enjoyed all the beautiful sights and the delicious food that the island has to offer, especially around Taipei and Tainan.

Nicholas Sidman has made the journey to Taiwan from his native California a number of times to study Mandarin. Every visit helps to deepen his understanding of the country. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

Current trends

Chris Rowe, another visiting student, has just finished his first semester of study at the Dharma Drum Sangha University (DDSU). He came to Taiwan in 2012 with the assistance of the CIEE organization. Rowe says that his motivation to learn Mandarin came from his interest in Eastern religions at senior high school. He had a number of questions about life for which he was trying to find answers and became interested in Buddhism as a result, later studying subjects related to Buddhist thought at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

After he graduated, Rowe gained a Mandarin scholarship offered by the ROC Ministry of Education, and came to study in Taiwan. With offers from both National Taiwan University and DDSU, he had to make a difficult decision: “It wasn’t easy choosing which university to study at!” Finally, Rowe chose DDSU as he thought that NTU might be very similar to universities in the USA. “I’m sure I’ll retain lots of great memories from my time at DDSU,” he says.

Brieanna Fuentes, another overseas student, is in Taiwan for only three to four months. In a Skype interview in Mandarin, while she wasn’t quite as fluent as Chris Rowe or Nicholas Sidman, her Chinese was still very impressive. Unlike Sidman and Rowe, who came to Taiwan in order to learn Mandarin, Fuentes is studying science subjects entirely in English, so her Chinese proficiency has come entirely from her own efforts. Resident coordinator April Wang says that considering Fuentes’ shy character and the short time she’s been in Taiwan, her willingness to do the interview at all is solid proof of her progress in Mandarin.

Fuentes studied biomolecular science at Three Rivers Community College in the US. In contrast to many people’s general impression of Westerners as lively and outgoing, she’s quite shy. Perhaps as a result of her work in science and engineering, she spends a lot of time in the lab, so speaking in public is not something that she is used to.

Fuentes was worried about adapting to life abroad due to her natural shyness, but she has been surprisingly successful in her course. In fact during the school break, she didn’t go back to the US but traveled to the Penghu Islands. A special friendship that began on the Internet has flowered, and the friend from Penghu is now her boyfriend. Fuentes sometimes helps out in his family’s lunchbox shop, taking the chance to learn authentic Taiwanese.

In the late 1970s in Taiwan, there was a local saying: “Come, come, come, come to National Taiwan University; go, go, go, go to the US,” an expression reflecting the trend of the time. How times have changed. The current trend is something like: “Come, come, come, come to learn Mandarin!”—a reflection of the shifting sands of international relationships between present and past.                                                                     

Students from Europe, America, Japan and South Korea visit a Taiwanese folk temple to experience the local atmosphere.

Christie Chang (left), resident director of CIEE’s Taipei Center, goes to Pingxi with students to fly sky lanterns. They inscribe wishes and blessings on the lanterns in Chinese characters.

Paper cutting artist Yang Shih-yi helps CIEE students create their own masterpieces.

Paper cutting artist Yang Shih-yi helps CIEE students create their own masterpieces.

The incredible range of courses devised by CIEE attracts many students to return again and again. Programs include a taste of farming life, along with artistic and cultural topics.