The “Huayu Bilingual Exchange of Selected Talents” Program (“Huayu BEST”) is established by the Ministry of Education (“MOE”) in order to promote Taiwan’s Huayu Education. MOE encourages universities in Taiwan to develop long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with top universities in Europe and the U.S. To fulfill the purpose of this program, MOE offers funds for Chinese Language Teachers and Chinese Language Teaching Assistants to teach Mandarin Chinese (Huayu) at partnered universities; scholarships are also provided for Mandarin learning students who would like to come to Taiwan to enhance their Mandarin proficiency. Through the execution of the program, we are hoping that Taiwan’s Mandarin Education and extraordinary internationalized learning environments can be seen by the global community.

Sending teaching staff abroad and encouraging Mandarin learning students to study in Taiwan are the short term goals of this program. For long term goals, we are aiming at developing paper and digital teaching materials, hosting online workshops, promoting TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language), inviting foreign Mandarin teachers to attend training programs in Taiwan, establishing Mandarin Education Centers with partnered universities.

Awarded students will receive the opportunities to live in a Mandarin speaking environment, improve their language skills, and increase their understanding of Taiwanese culture and society. Furthermore, they will be participating in K-12 English education program to help facilitate English language education in Taiwan. NTHU Office of Global Affairs has been working closely with the Center of Teacher Education and several local K-12 institutions to explore new possibilities in language education featuring the participant students’ majors.