07/28/2016．Wenzao International Volunteers" First-Time Service in Mongolia Wins Applause

 




　
　

　

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Wenzao"s service learning group in Mongolia visited the Taipei Trade and Economic Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar
and took a group photo with Ambassador Huang Kuo-Jung (middle).Photo courtesy of the College of Cultural and Educational Innovation
 







 


 July 28, 2016







 【News release: Public Relations Office】
     In an effort to uphold the school motto “Revere the divine; Love the human” and to enhance students’ international mobility, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages organizes international volunteer teams every year to provide services in Southeast Asian countries and remote areas. This year, a team of students who are proficient in language teaching and digital media technology, headed for Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia in July to teach Chinese and English. The students were also invited to talk about the advantages of Taiwan’s higher education in the major local TV station UBS. Their sharing of ideas was well received, which was truly a feat in people-to-people diplomacy.
     The project manager and tour leader of the service learning group in Mongolia was Cho Fu-An, a teacher from the Department of Applied Chinese, under the College of Cultural and Educational Innovation, was accompanied by Liang Ting-Wen, a teacher from the Department of Digital Content Application and Management. The students who joined the group were Chen Yen-Chen, a second year student in the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language; Hsieh I-Chen, a sophomore in the Department of Foreign Language Instruction; Chen Yen-Ju, a sophomore in the Department of Digital Content Application and Management; Cheng Shu-Cheng, a junior in the Department of Communication Arts, etc. They taught Chinese and English in the camp co-held by Global Leadership University (GLU) in Ulaanbaatar and Taiwan Education Center in Mongolia.
     There was a clear division of labor among the four students: two of them were in charge of teaching and the other two were responsible for making the activity journal using text, images, videos, or other media. Chen Yen-Chen, one of the students, said that she appreciated such a good opportunity for volunteer service and international exchange offered by Wenzao. Besides the internship of teaching Chinese and learning from the volunteer service, she could also deeply experience Mongolian culture; it would certainly leave an indelible memory for her.
     Before the service tour, the students had already been well prepared. During the preparatory period, Mongolian students were invited to teach them the Mongolian language, and the school authorities also kept in close touch with GLU to better understand local students’ Chinese language proficiency level and what they expected to get from the Chinese language instructions, so that the volunteer students could be better prepared for the instructions in advance.
     The Chinese courses designed by the service group included Hanyu Pinyin, Chinese numerical characters, and basic daily conversations. Such cultural courses as Chinese calligraphy and paper-cutting were also arranged, in order for Mongolian students to learn more about Chinese culture.
     Chen Yen-Chen, who has rich teaching experience, said that Mongolian students were as active in learning as European students and as hard-working as Asian students, and they treated teachers with Mongolians’ hospitality. The students in the camp ranged from 11 to 50 years in age, crossing three generations. Be it elementary school students, university students or professional language teachers, they all showed great interest in the Chinese language; was truly a very special teaching experience for her. Chen pointed out that she had many firsts in Mongolia, such as living in a yurt, being interviewed by a TV station, and meeting with Ambassador Huang Kuo-Jung in the Taipei Trade and Economic Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar. She said that unexpectedly, she learned so much more from this volunteer service tour than she had expected.
      Apart from teaching for the camp, the students also visited the Taipei Trade and Economic Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar and shared with Ambassador Huang Kuo-Jung the purposes and results of this volunteer service mission, and exchanged ideas on the issues such as where to establish a Chinese teaching center in Mongolia and what teaching media would best fit the needs of local students.
     Furthermore, Hsieh I-Chen and Cho, Fu-An were invited to introduce the advantages of Taiwan’s higher education in a live broadcast program of the local TV station UBS, along with Samuel H. Kim, the president of the Center for Asia Leadership and a researcher of the Harvard University Asia Center, as well as Otgonbat and Munkhjargal. D., the president and vice president of GLU. With the issues covered in the program catching TV viewers’ attention, another student Chen Yen-Chen, who majored in Chinese teaching, was invited to another program of UBS the next day, offering her personal opinions on the characteristics of Taiwan’s higher education. 
     The students also visited Toyo Senior High School and New Century Leadership High School, and introduced the features and excellent courses of Wenzao to students’ parents in the office of the Taiwan Education Center. Meanwhile, they visited local resorts and historic sites to experience the unique Mongolian culture. Wenzao’s delegation reached a consensus with GLU that for the 2017 Chinese and English Summer Camp, Wenzao will send 18 students to GLU for language teaching, and that GLU will select outstanding local students to study at Wenzao with scholarships. In addition, GLU looked forward to more interactions and cooperation with Wenzao in the field of digital technology. Moreover, the principal of Toyo Senior High School expected to have a teacher-and-student delegation of 10 to 15 learn Chinese at Wenzao’s Chinese Language Center before the next summer vacation, while New Century Leadership High School expected that Wenzao could send intern students to Mongolia to teach Chinese and English. The overall exchange events generated fruitful results.
     This summer alone, Wenzao’s international volunteer teams, one after another, have headed to Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Northern Thailand and China to serve at local social welfare groups, orphanages, as well as summer camps for Chinese and foreign languages. Among the international volunteer team members, there were also students from Indonesia, Vietnam and China; they went back to their homelands with the teams for volunteer service. Aside from international volunteers, since early July, Wenzao has sent more than 15 domestic summer volunteer service groups to Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung. In total, nearly 400 teachers and students took part in volunteer service in Taiwan and abroad.  


 




Photo courtesy of College of Cultural and Educational Innovation








In the opening ceremony, Otgonbat Barkhuu (right), founder and president of GLU and director of Taiwan Education Center in Mongolia, exchanged souvenirs with a delegate from Wenzao. 


Liang Ting-Wen, a teacher from the Department of Digital Content Application and Management (bottom row, first from left); Cho Fu-An, a teacher from the Department of Applied Chinese and Hsieh I-Chen, a student from the Department of Foreign Language Instruction (bottom row, third and second from right), as well as Cheng Shu-Cheng, a student from the Department of Communication Arts; Chen Yen-Chen, a student from the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language; and Chen Yen-Ju, a student from the Department of Digital Content Application and Management (top row, from left to right) were interviewed by UBS.The second one from the left of the bottom row was the vice president of GLU, Munkhjargal. D.









Chen Yen-Chen (second from right), a student from the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, was interviewed by UBS, in the company of Munkhjargal. D. (third from right), vice president of GLU.

 Mongolian students presented their Chinese paper cut works.








 




Summer camp participants learned how to make pearl milk tea. 


Mongolian students were savoring pearl milk tea.











Summer camp class

 Students sang “Hao Xian Ni (Miss You So Much)”, a Chinese pop song from Taiwan.




 


  




Wenzao’s service learning group: a shot taken outside Chinggis Khaan International Airport. 


The Opening Ceremony