News

US Alumni Associations Hold Annual Gala

On November 19, two TKU alumni organizations jointly held their annual year-end gala. Held at the Pacific Palms Resort, Los Angeles, the gala brought together 400 Tamkang alumni from the TKU Alumni Association of South California and the TKU Foundation of North American Alumni. The festivities attracted two special guests, who came all the way from Taiwan to join the celebration: the TKU Vice President for Administrative Affairs, Dr. Po-yuan Kao, and the Executive Director of the Office of Alumni Services and Resource Development, Dr. Perng Chun Young.

Cambridge University Press at Lanyang

Over 300 teachers and students attended a lecture on November 25 delivered by the Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press, Mr. Stephen Bourne. During the lecture, Mr. Bourne explained the importance of developing foreign language abilities and shared his own experience in the workforce. Mr. Bourne is fluent in six languages, including Spanish, English, Swati, French, German, and Cantonese. Thanks to his extensive linguistic abilities and professional expertise, he has previously worked at high profile companies such as Deloitte Accounting and Exxon Mobile. Since 1970, Mr. Bourne has visited Taiwan on numerous occasions. He noted, during his talk, that Taiwan’s liberal economic environment is conducive to continued development, and yet Taiwan’s development is limited by language constraints, which sees Taiwan lose ground to countries such as India.

The 2011 Cross-Strait Insurance and Danger Management Symposium

On November 25, the TKU Taipei Campus was home to the 2011 Cross-Strait Insurance and Danger Management Symposium. The symposium was a joint event held by the TKU Department of Insurance and the School of Insurance, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SUFE). It featured opening speeches from the TKU Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Gwo-hsin Yu, the Dean of the College of Business, Dr. Hu Yi-jen, and the Dean of the School of Insurance, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Dr. Chen Tao. There was also a closing speech by the Director General of the Financial Supervisory Committee, Huang Tien-mu. In all, close to 200 attendees from 17 universities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait took part in the event.

The 2011 International and Overseas Chinese Student Cup

This year, the annual Overseas Chinese Student Cup was extended to include foreign, non-Chinese students. The expanded version of the annual sports competition attracted 188 participants in the subcategories of basketball, badminton, soccer, volleyball, and dodge ball.

Intensive Training for Student Society Teaching Assistants

Starting from this year, TKU freshmen are required to take courses related to the operation and management of student clubs and societies. This initiative is the first of its kind among universities in Taiwan.

The EU Essay and Photography Competition

The results of the 2011 Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Essay and Photograph Competition were recently announced. The first three places in the Essay subcategory went to fourth year Department of German student Chang Yong-ting (first), second year Department of Information and Library Science student Huang Li-Ching (second), and fourth year German student Wu Hsuan-jin.

TKU and XMU Exchange Statistics Students

Recently, Tamkang University and Xiamen University concluded a unique agreement that will entail close exchange and cooperation between the universities’ departments of statistics. Starting from September this year, Department of Statistics students from the undergraduate section of each university have made short-term exchange visits to enhance their knowledge in the professional field of statistics and gain a more international perspective.

French Exchange Student, Delphine Rizzolo

Delphine Rizzolo is a first year exchange student from France. She has always been interested in Asian culture which is why, when entering university, she decided to major in Chinese. Now, having studied Chinese for two years, she used a mixture of Chinese and English to describe her passion for studying Chinese, saying that, for her, the hardest part of studying Chinese is learning Chinese characters, especially as traditional characters’ brush strokes are complex, and the associated meaning difficult to grasp. But through hard work and unwavering commitment, she practices writing one character after another, “because being able to understand the Chinese language will allow me to understand Chinese culture, so it’s worth the effort.”