What is the Taiwan Huayu BEST Program?
Full Program Name:
- Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) Program Scholarship funding for study of Mandarin Chinese at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages.
Purpose
- Encourage cooperation between universities in Taiwan and universities in the USA
- Promote Chinese language education in the USA
Cooperation
- Universities in Taiwan will send Chinese language teachers & teaching assistants to universities in the USA
- Taiwan Huayu BEST Scholarships available to encourage students to learn Chinese in Taiwan.
- Promote teaching and learning resources – including online courses, the TOCFL Chinese language proficiency tests, and teacher training workshops.
- Establish Chinese language centers in universities in the USA.
Hunter College and Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages established the partnership in 2021.
Eligibility
Hunter students who have completed at least CHIN 102 at Hunter College. Students also need to have a valid U.S. passport.
Scholarships
- Students pay tuition to the host institution (Wenzao) only, and the tuition will be covered by the Huayu scholarship fully.
- Students will receive a monthly stipend of approximately $500 per month that can be used to cover housing and some living expenses.
Ying-Jung Lai is the exchange Mandarin instructor of the Huayu Best Program at the department of Classical and Oriental Studies of Hunter College in the U.S currently. Lai has been an exchange Mandarin instructor at the Institute of Sinology of Heidelberg University in Germany from 2019 to 2021. Lai holds a master’s degree in Teaching Chinese as a second language from National Taiwan Normal University. Her research interests lie in the area of teaching Chinese as a second/ foreign language and Chinese culture, especially in Chinese painting and calligraphy.