“Promotion and Preservation of Chinese Language Heritage: Experiences from Homeschooling, Facebook, to Chinese Debate International,” by Dr. Oliver Tu, Feb 27, 2021
Dr. Oliver Tu is a physician who emigrated from Taiwan at 11 years of age and finally to the US for college, but he establishes an online platform to help many second- or third-generation Taiwanese students and Americans to learn and apply the Chinese language in real life. The preservation of a minority language heritage in an anglophone society is full of difficulties, particularly for a language, such as Chinese, which is three to four times as difficult to learn for English speakers compared to other Germanic or Romance languages. He will share his family’s journey in homeschooling their two teenage daughters’ Chinese, the online promotion of similar effort to other families around the country, and the establishment of online Chinese debate classes to aid in such effort in the era of COVID-19. As the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the United States has launched “The U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative” in December 2020, this event is particularly meaningful to both countries. Dr. Tu will share his teaching philosophy in this webinar to help Chinese language learning. You can find Dr. Du’s blog and Chinese course information at Raising Bilingual and Bliterate Children in Chinese and English and Chinese Debate International.
講者與題目：杜立崑醫師，「推廣中文的承傳：從臉書到國際網絡辯論課的里程」，2021年2月27日。
杜立崑醫師於十一歲時離開台灣，最終來到美國就學，但他建立了一個網路平台，以協助第二代甚至第三代台籍子女以及許多美國朋友學習並應用中文。在英語世界中想傳承中文等少數族裔的語言是一項艱鉅的任務，對於以英語為母語的人士來說，學習中文的困難程度更是學習德文等歐系語言的三、四倍以上。身為兩個青春期女兒家長的他，杜醫師在臉書與部落格上向全美各地分享推廣他與孩子在家學習中文的經驗，最終創辦了「國際中文辯論課」網站，提供網路中文朗誦與辯論課程，在疫情中繼續推動中文學習。適逢台灣與美國在2020年12月發起了「美台教育倡議」，杜醫師在座談中所分享的理念與經驗，將令此活動更具特殊意義。歡迎大家瀏覽杜醫師的部落格「中英雙語育子經驗談」與中文教學網站「國際中文辯論課」，並請參閱天下雜誌的換日線(Crossing)于2020年10月16日【專訪】別讓孩子有「中文不好」的遺憾，美國移民爸爸 Oliver：我把台灣帶進家裡！
