David on Formosa

The Taipei Times reports that Taiwan is set to introduce its own Chinese Proficiency Test. The test will be for foreign students coming to study at Taiwan’s universities.

China has had its own proficiency test for Chinese for a number of years. It is known as the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi). However, this test has not been used in Taiwan because it uses simplified characters, and I also assume for political reasons.

On a related note Taiwan is sending 22 Chinese teachers to Thailand. I guess this is part of the Thai government’s recent push to have Chinese taught in every high school by 2008.

It would be interesting to know whether the teachers will learn simplified characters and Hanyu Pinyin before they leave. As far as I know these are commonly used in Thailand. In most places around the world teachers from the PRC are preferred for their accents and most Chinese courses use simplified characters and Hanyu pinyin. In contrast Taiwan uses traditional characters and Zhuyin Fuhao (or the dreaded Tongyong Pinyin).

This is a major obstacle to Taiwan having more clout in Chinese language teaching throughout the world. The use of Hanyu Pinyin is really a no-brainer. There is no good reason why it should not be the standard for foreigners learning Chinese in Taiwan. Of course Taiwan is not going adopt traditional characters and once you have learnt traditional it is not too hard to learn the simplified characters. However, Taiwanese teachers need to be sharp on simplified characters if they want to work outside China.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the official website of the test: Chinese Proficiency Test.