TKU’s own software for learning Chinese characters, dubbed “e-Pen”, will be launched in the US! This system, developed by Chang Ben-hang, the Associate Director of the Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center, Dr. Kuo Chin-hwa of the Center for Distance Education, and Dr. Horng Wen-bing of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, was introduced to some K-12 schools in and out of New York City region that include Patria Middle School, Renaissance Charter School and Asbury Park High School by Dr. Kao Po-yuan, the Vice President for the Administrative Affairs of TKU. He and his entourage arrived in the US on March 28 to meet up with GKE (Global Knowledge Exchange) Company who will be responsible for launching e-Pen on to the US market. Allowing American school children to manipulate with the program on the spot, GKE could identify any necessary adjustment required for the system to suit local culture and mentality in order to generate better sales. In Taiwan there exists a trial version of e-Pen on the market already.

Dr. Kao’s entourage includes Associate Director Chang, Dr. Kuo, Wang Yi-ling, an project researcher at Dr. Kuo’s Center, and Cheng Shia, the Director of Huang-Hsiang e-Pen Company. Apart from schools in New York and GKE, they also visited Long Beach and Sacramento Campuses of California State University, and the National Council of Association of Chinese Language Schools in order to promote teaching Chinese through the e-Pen system. They are scheduled to return to Taiwan on April 5.

Associate Director Chang explains that this computerized writing tool consists of a writing pad, window operating system, deconstructed characters for a step by step learning, and other learning tools. He believes that this system is suitable for non-native speakers of Chinese to master Chinese writing in a short time. This trip to the US is to test the water across the Pacific, so to speak, so that he and his colleagues can further improve their product for that particular market. He is proud that he is able to play a key role in promoting an important resource for learning Chinese worldwide. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )