MEP brings eastern promise to the West

2.32.26pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 7th Sep 2007

Graham meets Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Siao-Yue Chang to discuss the scheme

Local MEP Graham Watson has long dreamt of bringing teachers of Mandarin Chinese to schools in his constituency. As a qualified interpreter in European languages and a current student of Mandarin together with his 15 year old daughter he knows the importance of language skills and is deeply committed to providing language learning opportunities to young people in the region.

So when Graham travels to London on Thursday next week (13th September) with staff from five schools in his South West constituency to receive a Taiwanese language assistant for each school he'll be in seventh heaven.

The schools involved - Hayle Community in Cornwall; Pilton Community in Barnstaple, Devon; The Sir John Colfox, in Bridport, Dorset; Huish Episcopi in Langport, Somerset; The Sir Bernard Lovell, in South Gloucestershire - all signed up to a scheme which Graham negotiated with Taiwan's Deputy Prime Minister, Ing-Wen Tsai, last year and then offered to specialist language colleges in the region. It will bring qualified Mandarin teachers from Taiwan to act as Chinese language assistants in the schools for ten months, starting from 17th September. The teachers will offer introductions to Mandarin Chinese, as well as Taiwanese culture and customs, providing what the MEP hopes will be an appetising taste of the East to pupils here in the West.

"In one sense it will be their very own Chinese takeaway", Graham Watson commented, "and with three times more people on earth having Chinese as their mother tongue than any other language it will equip our children well to be world citizens."

Government Minister for the SW Ben Bradshaw and Taiwan's Education Minister will both be on hand to help launch Graham's scheme at the Taiwanese Embassy in London on 13th September. Press and broadcast media are welcome to attend.