Stanford University emeritus professor Albert Dien, one of the first foreign students to study Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) , has returned to Taiwan after more than half a century to accept an outstanding alumni award from the university on June 4. 'Before I came to Taiwan in 1956, I had studied classic Chinese for 10 years in the United States, but I could not speak a word of Mandarin,' Dien said at a welcome reception at NTNU Wednesday. The 82-year-old scholar recalled that during his first week in Taipei, he could not speak enough Mandarin to order food at a restaurant so he ate moon cakes from street stands for a whole week, as it was around the time of moon festival. After Dien's return to the U.S., he became a major figure in Chinese and Asian academic disciplines, serving as chairman of the East Asia Sectional Committee and American Oriental Society, and director of the Stanford East Asia National Resource Center, among other posts. 'Definitely, the training I received in Taiwan during the two years I spent here was important to my whole life,' he said. The first group of foreign students -- Dien and four others -- to study Mandarin at NTNU helped promote the establishment of the university's Mandarin Training Center (MTC) in 1956. Dien and his wife Ding Shu-fang, a graduate of NTNU's English Department, expressed appreciation to the school for providing them with what they said was a good education and the chance to meet each other. NTU's Mandarin Training Center, which teaches Chinese as a second language, is the largest of its kind in Taiwan, with an enrollment of 1,500 students from more than 60 countries each academic quarter. 