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Workshop focuses on Chinese language in Brunei

By Chua Guan Cheong and Zhang Jin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-14 15:50

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: A workshop designed to help train Chinese-language teachers and improve Mandarin instruction in Brunei attracted 111 participants recently, making it the largest workshop of its kind in Brunei.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Workshop for Chinese Teachers in Brunei on Sunday, Yu Shaw Wu, the representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei, described the difficulties facing Chinese immigrants from different parts of the world.

A lack of resources and support were the main issues, Yu said.

The workshop was also open to teachers from non-Chinese schools for free, though only two of them came.

Brunei's eight Chinese schools have more than 6,000 students, and account for nearly nine percent of students between preschool and high school in Brunei.

Tan San Leong, chairman of Chung Hwa Middle School, said the workshop is part of the exchange program between local Chinese schools and their counterparts in the world, and that Chung Hwa will continue to host similar events to improve the quality of teaching.

"We could have had more and larger workshops like this, but for the H1N1 flu," he said.

The school's headmaster, Ten Chin Tiew, also attended the workshop, along with five other teachers from the school.

Ten said he hoped the workshop would discuss ways to motivate students to write, because Chinese proficiency is declining in general and many students have trouble writing and reading Chinese.

The workshop featured three lecturers from Taiwan: Professor Huang Pei Jung from National Taiwan University, Professor Huang Yiao Sung Shi of National Taiwan Normal University, and Professor Chen Su-Hung, from National Taipei University of Education.

The seven-day workshop is co-hosted by Taiwan Graduates Association of Brunei, the Cultural Foundation of the United Daily News Group, and Chung Hwa Middle School.