It is estimated that the 3 million people are learning Chinese language globally, by the year of 2012 the number will go up to nearly 100 million. The strong demand for teachers and teaching /learning materials contributed to the upsurge Chinese language learning market. Japan currently has more than 500 universities have opened Chinese language courses. In Thailand, the Ministry of Education has announced Chinese as the second language. In U.S., Chinese Advanced Placement Program (AP) is offered in the 2006-07 school year and 2,400 high schools already expressed willingness to offer AP Chinese course. The AP Chinese Exam will assess the reading, writing, and speaking of Mandarin; the study of Chinese culture will be an integral part of the course.
Faced with strong pressure from the mainland, regardless of how the Confucius Institute actively enters the global Chinese language learning market, there are still plenty of opportunities for Taiwanese. Taiwanese are very experienced in teaching Chinese, both National Taiwan Normal University http://www.ntnu.edu.tw/acad/eng/ntnu.htm and Taipei Language Institute http://www.tli.com.tw have more than 50 years of teaching experience. Including the former United States ambassador to Taiwan Anke Kwong and his son, important China policy makers the Harvard Professor John King Fairbank, Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn are all learned Chinese in Taiwan. With the following three development strategies and effectively use of interactive web 2.0 open sharing ideas, we can still succeed in the global Chinese language learning communities.
No. 1 strategy is to support local governments for developing their own Chinese language teaching resources, to assist in the establishment of teacher accredited and student assessment systems, the establishment of Chinese language learning center.
No. 2 strategy is to construct international value-added supply chain management system for allowing Taiwan vendors to serve the global Chinese language learning communities, through synchronization mechanism and non-synchronous mechanism for learning and e-learning services.
Strategy No. 3 is to build Web 2.0-based platform for the construction and integration of the domestic and International high quality Chinese language teaching and learning materials. If Taiwan e-learning vendors can play web 2.0 spirit, help learners efficiently. Taiwan can be a successful brand in the Chinese leaning market.