By Doremi Wang
Campus Reporter
Non-Mandarin speaking students at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) would have their own wonderland to improve their Mandarin skills, as the Office of International Affairs (OIA) organized and launched the ¡§Chinese chatroom¡¨ today.
OIA staff member Nicole Hsiung (ºµ¤l½Ë), who was in charge of general affairs of the chatroom, said that it will be opened from 12pm to 2pm every Monday between April 28 and June 9.
"It is our hope that our foreign students would learn something new, interesting and fun through chitchats, while they are improving their Mandarin speaking and listening,¡¨ said Selene Chen (³¯²úµ×), another OIA staff member.
In the meantime, Hsiung said that only 20 prticipants would be allowed in the chatroom at a time due to limited available seats in the chatroom.? She said that what chatroom staff would do will be to rotate those participants upon their registrations.? So everybody who is interested in the Chinese chatroom will have equal opportunities to practice their Mandarin speaking.
Chen said that the OIA is planning to organize a branch of the Chinese chatroom on the Kungkuan campus because there is also a great number of foreign population there.
To help non-Mandarin speaking students at the Chinese chatroom, the OIA invited one instructor with expertise in Mandarin teaching and seven Taiwanese students who would volunteer to help foreign counterparts at the Chinese chatroom improve their Chinese language skills.
"My job here is to propose questions or topics for discussions,¡¨ said Zhang Dai-qi (±iÂLµX), a Mandarin teacher from the Mandarin Training Center.? ¡§It is my observation that western students are good at listening and speaking while oriental students are more confident of reading and writing.¡¨
Jackson Chao (»¯²Ð¨°), a human development and family study major senior, compared the Chinese chatroom with the English chatroom and said that participants would learn more at the Chinese chatroom.
"We need more tutors or instructors for the English chatroom like what they do here,¡¨ Chao said.
Division¡GCampus Reporter Date¡G2008-03-24
adapted from http://pr.ntnu.edu.tw/english/news2.php?no=2017
