IPA Certification for Chinese teachers - Anybody know anything about this test?

[chai2zhe2]

I'm trying to understand this IPA (International Profession Certification Association). Supposedly its a type of certificate recognized in China for Chinese teachers wanting to teacher foreigners Chinese, and some schools/jobs in China require his. My interest is finding what value this certificate is in the United States? I googled/baidu'ed and couldn't find any information. That leads me to believe American institutions don't recognize this certificate??? If true, does anyone know what American instiutes recognize for a certified Chinese teacher?

[Meng Lelan]

I'm in Texas and certified to teach Chinese in the public schools and never heard of the IPA. Texas has its own exams to certify teachers of the Chinese language. In the US, each state has its own teaching certificate standards, usually a college degree and taking a set of exams administered by the state.

[chai2zhe2]

Thanks for the reply. This is supposedly their official website http://www.ipaus.org/ but it doesn't look too professional to me, no address or contact number. Here is their chinese website http://www.ipa.org.cn/ but I can't get the characters to display correctly on my computers (mac & pc). This is far from what I would expect from a professional certification program. Surprisingly my chinese teacher says there are many Chinese people in China taking this test and she's considering organizing a training class for it, weird...

[LongwenChinese]

Thanks for the explanation, Meng Lelan.

How difficult is the test, please?

[roddy]

The Chinese website is GB18030 encoded.

I'd either steer clear or approach with extreme caution. © 1998 on a domain registered in 2008, and the English site mentions lots of impressive names - UN, UNESCO, International Department of Education (whose, pray tell) - with no detail of what they've actually done. The entire English side of things looks like it's been set up (amateurishly) to give the Chinese site more weight, and the Chinese stuff looks very much like it's geared up to selling pieces of paper for money. Which is great work if you can get it.

What I do like is that they have a Certified Inventor certificate. That'd be nice for the bathroom wall.

[Meng Lelan]

roddy, professional certificates are meant to be posted in one's workplace, not on a bathroom wall) as documentation of one's qualifications. As a teacher and administrator, I am expected to post in my office any certificates and licenses I have.

Longwen Chinese, are you asking me about the teacher certification exams that I had to take to be certified to teach Chinese in Texas?

[LongwenChinese]

Yes, I am very interested in learning more about the certification exams. I have sent you a private message with my information.

Thanks a lot!

[Meng Lelan]

oooh, small forum world isn't this, you're only 90 miles from me. You might want to join the Texas sub thread we have somewhere here in this forums.

[amypisces]

I know this is an extremely old conversation, but still want to try to follow up on this discussion. is IPA certificate recognized and appreciated today in the US?

[roddy]

I'm going to say no and wait and see if anyone contradicts me. 

 

It just looks dubious. The US site has a hotmail email address, for starters. And apart from that email address, I can't spot any changes to the home page for years. The "certification certificates" on the Chinese site are all non-expandable thumbnails but look highly doubtful - is it just me, or has the same certificate signer been moonlighting at several embassies?