TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The number of local senior high school students to take up second foreign language courses as well as mandatory English classes increased 10 percent to nearly 30,000, this year.
A total of 26,289 students at 159 senior high schools vocational schools took up elective second foreign language courses last year.
The number rose to 29,890 students at 184 schools this year, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE).
MOE officials said Japanese remained the most popular second foreign language, drawing the vast majority of 24,233 students in 682 classes. The student number accounted for 81 percent of the total.
French came in second with 3,675 students in 121 classes, followed by German and Spanish that shared the third place with more than 800 students each.
The officials attributed the popularity of Japanese to the factors of history and environment.
There are a lot of people in Taiwan that can speak Japanese after the 50 years of Japanese colonial rule that ended in 1945.
This period helped to create a large reservoir of talents who can teach the language.
Japan is still the biggest source of foreign tourists visiting the island.
Due to the nation's geographical proximity, Japan is also one of the top trading partners with Taiwan and the second most popular overseas destination for Taiwan's outbound travelers after China.
To meet the growing market demand, more senior high schools -- especially vocational schools -- have now begun to offer Japanese language courses at the Department of Tourism and Culinary Skills.
Students are more interested in taking up the course so that they can find jobs more easily after graduation.
The massive amount of imports of Japanese products, especially vehicles, electrical appliances, video games and movies have all helped to generate a greater interest of Taiwanese in learning more about their neighboring nation.
The similarity between the written Chinese and Japanese words that evolved from Chinese characters make more youngsters think that it is much easier to pick Japanese as the second foreign language. Students at other schools selected other language courses, including Latin at the Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School and Russian at the Chengyuan Senior High School in Taipei City.
Teachers said some students were encouraged by their parents to take up the Russian language, in view of the opening up of Russia and Eastern European nations that will offer new business opportunities.
The MOE officials said that increasing globalization and more convenient transport services have also promoted the exchange of students of different nations.
A large delegation of 300 teachers and students from a school in Osaka, Japan, recently visited their counterparts at the Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls School.
Students from Malherbe School of Caen City in France also came to Taiwan to meet friends at the Taichung First Senior High School in central Taichung City.
Such were part of the exchange programs among the schools.
The visits of Taiwan's students to schools abroad and the return visits by foreign students helped to arouse new interest in learning the foreign languages, the officials explained.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2007/12/20/135593/Japanese-French.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment