ALLEX Foundation

ALLEX: 留美全額獎學金
對於正在搜尋美國的獎學金選擇的人來說，ALLEX這個機構提供的全額獎學金一定是大家會看到的一個選項。 但是大部份的人，包括當初的魚子醬跟鳳梨酥，對於這個獎學金的內容除了網站的資訊之外其實很難有更進一步的瞭解。 在PTT留學版上也只有很少數的經驗分享，大部份也只是申請過沒有正式參與的前期資訊而已。甚至很多人都說ALLEX看起來就像是在詐騙的...

可以很確定的是，ALLEX並不是一個詐騙集團，魚子醬現在就是透過ALLEX在美國中部進修。但是這個獎學金適不適合你/妳，以及參加這個獎學金之後的美國生活是如何？這會是這個部落格希望可以分享的親身經驗～

ALLEX的官方資訊可以從網站上取得也非常仔細，由於魚子醬並不是以廣告ALLEX為目的，因此就不提供連接了！ (2013年受訓結業的資訊才剛剛更新於網站上，眼尖的人就可以看到魚子醬在其中嘍) !

首先ALLEX的全名是Alliance for Language Learning & Education Exchange，顧名思義，就是以語言交換為提供獎學金的基本條件。 簡單的說，透過ALLEX與美國的大學談好的協議，參與者會被分發到大學內擔任中文教師，並同時可以得到兩年的全額研究生獎學金取得碩士學位。 這個機構的起源其實是以日文教師交換起家，已經辦了快二十年了，而近幾年也因為學習中文在美國的興起，因此新增了中文的項目。 尤其今年的中文組快速的成長到跟日文組一樣多了。

聽起來不錯對吧？適不適合你見仁見智，但是要注意的是因為參與者是被分發到大學當老師，在大部份分發到的學校裡是被視為教職員的，可不是隨隨便便的會講中文就可以教中文的。 因此，在正式學期開始前，ALLEX會強制要求參與者為期7～8週的"自費"教師訓練 (2013年是在美國奧勒岡州的波特蘭大學, 2014年聽說會在密蘇里州的華盛頓大學舉辦)。 是的，自費是個重點。也就是說雖然之後的兩年你可以拿到全額的獎學金，但是這筆訓練費用是必須考慮的投資(當然還要再加上ALLEX配對成功之後的費用)，雖然每年這些費用會有些微變動(請參考ALLEX官方網站)，但是都不會是筆小數目。

另外一個很重要的，也很現實的一面是現階段與ALLEX配合的美國大學基本上是會以美國中西部的學校或是規模以及資源較有限的學校為主。而參與者是沒有辦法選擇要去的學校以及地區，而是ALLEX的顧問在參考過所有參與者的資料以及屬性之後與學校配對而成。 如果你／妳對常春藤名校或是美國百大有絕對的執著，大可以不用花太多時間考慮這個獎學金。 倒也不是說跟ALLEX配合的都是爛學校，參與者拿到的學位會沒價值之類的，只是一般大家熟知的名校不論是在經費上或是地點上都比較不需要依賴其他機構的輔導來發展中文課程。 請謹記美國非常的大，很多地方對於亞洲語言的熟悉度非常有限，但是學中文是一個趨勢，許多與ALLEX配合的學校期望的是透過ALLEX培訓的老師來開始學校裡第一堂的中文課。 雖然現況是如此，倒也不是說與名校配合對於ALLEX來說是絕對不可能，後面魚子醬會陸續分享ALLEX的教學法與一般美國現行的教學法的差異，以年資尚淺的中文ALLEX來說未來的發展是有潛力的。

值不值得，除了有形簡單的金錢數字加減之外，無形的也包括參與者對於在美國教中文這條路的想法，或是在美國研究所畢業之後可能的職業發展有關係。


ALLEX: Full scholarship to graduate school in the US. For those of you who are looking for scholarship in the US, ALLEX is definitely a program you will notice. For most people, including Caviar and Pineapple Cake at that time this is a mysterious program that you can't get much information about other than the official website. Even on the popular forum PPT, you find very limited information about ALLEX and lots of them were from applicants that didn't participate in the end. Some even say it is a scam for sure.



Well, one thing for sure is that ALLEX is not a scam at all. Caviar is currently a participant of 2013 ALLEX program and is receiving full scholarship in a state university of the mid west. However, whether the scholarship program is the right one for you, and what kind of life you should expect after participating in ALLEX Program is something you have to decide for yourself. And through this blog Caviar hope to share the experience, past and on-going, so that it may help you to decide if you are an ALLEX or not!

The program information can be easily obtained on official website of ALLEX. Since Caviar is writing this blog to promote ALLEX in terms of marketing purposes, the link will not be provided here. (There are new information updated recently on ALLEX website regarding the 2013 ALLEX group, if you pay attention you might find Caviar in some of the photos :))

First of, ALLEX stands for Alliance for Language Learning & Education Exchange. You can easily tell that language exchange is the foundation of the scholarship program. In other words, ALLEX matches applicants that are qualified for language exchange purposes to the universities that worked with them. The participants will be assigned to the universities as Chinese instructors teaching Chinese courses under official University curriculums, and at the same time receive scholarship for 2 years of graduate school studies. ALLEX has been operating this exchange program initially as Japanese based program for about 20 years and in recent years Chinese program has been added to fulfill the rising demand of Chinese learning in the US. Excitingly, the number of Chinese participants has increased significantly to the same as the Japanese participants in 2013 in just a short period of time.

Sounds good so far? Before you decide whether it's a good program for you please consider 2 factors very seriously and carefully. First of all, for most of the ALLEX participants assigned to the universities they are considered faculty members and teachers, not just some exchange students. Professionalism is key to the success of a continuing ALLEX program. Thus before the semester starts you will be required to go through intensive teacher training for 7 to 8 weeks during the summer. And it is a self-sponsored training. Yes, self-sponsored is the keyword for your consideration of the program. Also including the administration fee to ALLEX once you are successfully matched.

The other important factor, also a very realistic aspect of the program is that most of the schools working with ALLEX at this moment will be located somewhere in the mid west or rural areas, or schools or areas with less resources in terms of developing Chinese curriculums. And ALLEX participants cannot choose the school nor location, but rather it is assigned by the ALLEX consultants after they carefully considered your credentials and personal qualities. If you absolutely insist on getting an IVY League school or top 50 or 100, you may not need to spend too much time considering ALLEX. However,this is not saying that the schools that work with ALLEX are bad schools and your diploma after ALLEX program is useless. It's just a fact that most of the well known schools in Taiwan are very well funded and located in areas that are relatively easy to acquire resources to build their own Chinese programs. Bear in mind that the US is huge and many places have very limited access to Asian language resources, yet with the rising trend of Chinese learning many schools depend on the trained ALLEX teachers to start their very first Chinese program. Although this is the current condition of the ALLEX program in general, Caviar wouldn't consider the cooperation between some bigger name universities with ALLEX as impossible. Later on Caviar will share more details on the strength of the ALLEX pedagogy in comparison to current Chinese teaching style in the US. The potential of ALLEX Chinese program in the US is still promising.

Other than the numbers calculation on the investment needed for the program, you should also consider whether this program is worthy of your attention or if it's the right program for you based on the potential career path of Chinese teaching in the US and the additional internship experience you can gain after your study completed and they can be valuable asset for your resume back in Taiwan.