National Taiwan University

Our increasingly globalized world presents us with advantages and disadvantages, with both opportunities and challenges, and therefore also with paradoxes. The annually updated, UN-sponsored Millennium Project identifies 15 challenges our world faces: climate change; insufficient clean water; population growth; authoritarian regimes; lack of global foresight; sharing the benefits and reducing the threats of new information and communications technologies; the widening gap between rich and poor; new and reemerging diseases; educational deficiencies; ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the threat of weapons of mass destruction; the unequal status of women; transnational crime networks; growing energy demands; the need for accelerated scientific and technological breakthroughs; and incorporating ethics into global decisions. This course navigate all these challenges through the lenses of geography, politics, and trade. This course only introduces theoretical perspectives on how these challenges can be analyzed and addressed, but also contextualize them in real-world cases. The ultimate goal is to make students able to think independently and formulate their own views on critical world affairs.

Students basically learn by doing, trying out different techniques and approaches for teaching children English, devising their own lesson plans, and presenting these in class. Topics include total physical response, songs, stories, cross-curricular activities, classroom language and textbooks. Theoretical issues are arrived at via the consideration of practical considerations. Activity-based rather than language-based teaching is encouraged. This course aims to explore the characteristics of children, and their needs in the classroom. Students develop basic techniques for teaching children, and practice these techniques in class. Students also develop ideas and materials for teaching children and examine the differences between language-based and activity-based courses.

Because Taiwan is not a major producer of coffee, coffee in Taiwan is not a major cash crop. The consumption of coffee is increasing and this course focuses on various areas of the coffee industry and the culture of coffee in Taiwan. Topics include a profile of coffee; coffee plant taxonomy; reproductive ecology and environment for coffee growth; reproductive physiology of of coffee; propagation techniques; cultivation and management techniques; harvest and yield management; pest and disease prevention; quality improvement and breeding; green coffee bean appearance; coffee roasting and modulation; coffee liquors; and coffee and health. Assessment: midterm and final exams.

This course imparts the relevant knowledge of basic marine science, but also analyzes the marine environment in Taiwan from the perspectives of sea power, resources, ecological environment, climate change and environmental protection, etc., so as to enhance students' understanding of the ocean around Taiwan. The course enhances students' critical thinking and discussion skills on global environmental changes, the occurrence and prevention of natural disasters, and environmental protection.

This course explores Taiwan's relationship with the United States. It also examines the scope of the Department of the Communist Party of China since the normalization of relations with the United States in 1978 from the final stages of negotiations to the end Chen's presidency in 2008. The two countries have safely survived relations, including arms sales, strategic dialogue and military exchanges. Due to the United States’ status as a global power, the "Taiwan Relations Act" (and its concerns with major issues of democracy, economic development, national defense, foreign relations, and developing relations with mainland China) is of great importance to continued relations. This course examines several major events over a 30-year period from the points of view of Taipei, Washington, and Beijing. During this period, the teachers have actually participated in various events, and can offer personal observation and reflections to students. Students select topics from the China, the United States and the Communist point of view to write a paper (less than 1,500 Chinese characters) on the day before class to upload to the CEIBA website for downloading the class to read.

Operations Research is a field in which people use mathematical and engineering methods to study optimization problems in Business and Management, Economics, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, etc. This course focuses on deterministic optimization techniques, a major part of the field of Operations Research. The course is divided into four modules: (1) Linear programming, (2) Integer programming, (3) Nonlinear programming, and (4) Dynamic programming.

This course develops a framework for understanding how taxes affect day-to-day lives and how to be tax efficient at every stage of life. Discussion topics include how much tax is paid in everyday life; taxes based on where you live and work, shopping and luxury taxes; investment taxes; entertainment taxes (alcohol, cigarettes, other kinds of fun), and estate and inheritance tax.

This course teaches basic Taiwanese language. The course includes basic pronunciation of consonants, vowels and tones; Taiwanese advanced pronunciation: tone, softly, legato; Taiwanese Romanization spelling and Taiwanese Chinese characters; simple greetings, basic vocabulary terms and a variety of topics; Taiwanese life (living in Taiwan, customs and taboos); basic sentence of sentences exercises, quizzes and conversation practice; Taiwanese songs; basic information, family status, personal preferences; and basic terminology (numbers, time, color, orientation, call). The course utilizes the text, HARVARD TAIWANESE 101.

This course is designed to improve students' decision making abilities, as well as their ability to predict and influence the behavior of others—employees, consumers, stakeholders, etc. Students learn potential errors and biases in their judgment and decision making, and strategies to overcome barriers to decision making. The course analyzes empirical research and strategies drawn from multiple disciplines, including cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, social psychology, and organizational behavior. Topics include common biases, heuristics, escalation of commitment, group decision making, influence, behavior change, etc.

This course provides skills to find, use, and read legal resources (e.g., statutes, cases, and so on) associated with English law. The lectures mainly deal with the law and legal system of England (e.g., what are main legal sources in English law, how English courts are organized, what are main features of the English legal profession, what is the meaning of common law or case law and how it works, and how common lawyers interpret statutes, etc.). The course also provides an understanding of the differences between civil and common law traditions.