SDG17
Foreign Students at NCKU Learn Taiwanese by Engaging with the Local Tainan Community
National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and the Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau jointly held a results exchange exhibition on December 29, 2023, at the NCKU Li-Hsing Campus in the Department of Taiwanese Literature. The exhibition showcased the outcomes of foreign students at NCKU learning Taiwanese by engaging with the local Tainan community. The "Beginner Taiwanese Conversation" course, designed for foreign students to learn Taiwanese, was co-taught by Professors Weiwen Chiang and Jin-Hua Chen from the Department of Taiwanese Literature at NCKU. Local community groups involved included the Qingshan Community in Dongshan District, Anong Xiong's Sesame Workshop in Xigang District, and the Old Tainan City Hair Washing Culture.
The "Beginner Taiwanese Conversation" course was attended by over 30 students from eight countries, including the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Hong Kong, and Macau. Professor Weiwen Chiang noted that in recent years, due to Taiwan's increasing international visibility, the number of foreign students interested in learning Taiwanese has been growing. Most of the students in this course were learning Taiwanese for the first time and had only been studying it for about three months. The course materials included the trilingual textbook "Vietnam chhit-thô Lon't Be Afraid" (Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and Chinese), written by Professor Weiwen Chiang. This textbook uses Pe̍h-ōe-jī (Taiwanese Romanization) combined with travel and daily life themes to help students quickly learn everyday Taiwanese conversations. After a semester of study, students were able to write and perform short scripts in Taiwanese. The final performance included four groups: the first group, composed of students from Hong Kong and Macau, performed "A Restaurant with Nothing''; the second group, composed of students from the United States and Japan, performed "The Neighboring Grandma''; the third group, composed of students from Indonesia and Taiwan, performed "Night Market Visit"; and the fourth group, composed of students from Vietnam and Malaysia, performed "A Trip to Vietnam."
An American student, Bu Yifan, shared that once he greeted a vegetable vendor in the market using Taiwanese, and she was so pleased that she kept praising his Taiwanese. This experience deeply moved him and boosted his confidence to continue learning the language. Vietnamese student Huang also mentioned that the Pe̍h-ōe-jī was very similar to Vietnamese script, making it easy for her to pick up Taiwanese.
The Tainan community groups participating in this exchange came from three different types of communities: mountain areas, rural areas, and urban areas. Zhan Chenglin and Wang Huishan from Qingshan Community in Dongshan District used Taiwanese to introduce the area's features, the production of dried longan, beekeeping, and honey production, allowing students to experience and taste the products firsthand. The Anong Xiong Sesame Workshop in Xigang District, which has long been involved in community building, brought sesame stems, sesame candies, and sesame cakes for students to enjoy the rich sesame flavor of Tainan. The old Tainan City hair washing culture was introduced by the second-generation barber, Zeng Jingchun, who shared the history of old barber shops in Tainan, their unique owners, and special barbering tools. The students showed great curiosity and freshness toward the community representatives' presentations, which left a deep impression and enhanced their learning experience.
Professor Weiwen Chiang stated that NCKU's Department of Taiwanese Literature currently offers a Taiwanese teacher training program to cultivate Taiwanese language teachers for secondary schools. The Taiwan Language Testing Center also offers general Taiwanese certification and certification for primary and secondary school students. Additionally, beginner and intermediate Taiwanese conversation courses are available for foreign students to learn the language. Tainan, being one of the strongholds of Taiwanese usage, was the birthplace of Taiwan's first Taiwanese newspaper, "Tâi-oân Hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò," in 1885. By combining school efforts with the local Tainan community, foreign students can quickly learn Taiwanese while experiencing the warmth and culture of Taiwan.
The "Beginner Taiwanese Conversation" course was attended by over 30 students from eight countries, including the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Hong Kong, and Macau. Professor Weiwen Chiang noted that in recent years, due to Taiwan's increasing international visibility, the number of foreign students interested in learning Taiwanese has been growing. Most of the students in this course were learning Taiwanese for the first time and had only been studying it for about three months. The course materials included the trilingual textbook "Vietnam chhit-thô Lon't Be Afraid" (Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and Chinese), written by Professor Weiwen Chiang. This textbook uses Pe̍h-ōe-jī (Taiwanese Romanization) combined with travel and daily life themes to help students quickly learn everyday Taiwanese conversations. After a semester of study, students were able to write and perform short scripts in Taiwanese. The final performance included four groups: the first group, composed of students from Hong Kong and Macau, performed "A Restaurant with Nothing''; the second group, composed of students from the United States and Japan, performed "The Neighboring Grandma''; the third group, composed of students from Indonesia and Taiwan, performed "Night Market Visit"; and the fourth group, composed of students from Vietnam and Malaysia, performed "A Trip to Vietnam."
An American student, Bu Yifan, shared that once he greeted a vegetable vendor in the market using Taiwanese, and she was so pleased that she kept praising his Taiwanese. This experience deeply moved him and boosted his confidence to continue learning the language. Vietnamese student Huang also mentioned that the Pe̍h-ōe-jī was very similar to Vietnamese script, making it easy for her to pick up Taiwanese.
The Tainan community groups participating in this exchange came from three different types of communities: mountain areas, rural areas, and urban areas. Zhan Chenglin and Wang Huishan from Qingshan Community in Dongshan District used Taiwanese to introduce the area's features, the production of dried longan, beekeeping, and honey production, allowing students to experience and taste the products firsthand. The Anong Xiong Sesame Workshop in Xigang District, which has long been involved in community building, brought sesame stems, sesame candies, and sesame cakes for students to enjoy the rich sesame flavor of Tainan. The old Tainan City hair washing culture was introduced by the second-generation barber, Zeng Jingchun, who shared the history of old barber shops in Tainan, their unique owners, and special barbering tools. The students showed great curiosity and freshness toward the community representatives' presentations, which left a deep impression and enhanced their learning experience.
Professor Weiwen Chiang stated that NCKU's Department of Taiwanese Literature currently offers a Taiwanese teacher training program to cultivate Taiwanese language teachers for secondary schools. The Taiwan Language Testing Center also offers general Taiwanese certification and certification for primary and secondary school students. Additionally, beginner and intermediate Taiwanese conversation courses are available for foreign students to learn the language. Tainan, being one of the strongholds of Taiwanese usage, was the birthplace of Taiwan's first Taiwanese newspaper, "Tâi-oân Hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò," in 1885. By combining school efforts with the local Tainan community, foreign students can quickly learn Taiwanese while experiencing the warmth and culture of Taiwan.
NCKU and the Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau jointly held a results exchange exhibition on December 29, 2023, at the Department of Taiwanese Literature building on the NCKU Li-Hsing Campus. The exhibition showcased the outcomes of NCKU foreign students learning Taiwanese by engaging with the local Tainan community. (The picture shows the experience of making dried longan.)
Professors Wi-vun Chiung and Jin-Hua Chen from NCKU's Department of Taiwanese Literature co-taught the "Beginner Taiwanese Conversation" course. Most of the students in this course were learning Taiwanese for the first time and had only been studying it for about three months. After a semester of learning, the students were able to use their newly acquired Taiwanese skills to write and perform short scripts. There were four groups that performed in the final showcase.
