Education in Hong Kong --- GOOD or NOT??

Nothing is perfect. No matter how great a thing is, it still has its own flaws.

In the eyes of foreigners, generally they think Hong Kong students are good at taking written examinations.

Somehow, this is ture as Hong Kong students are facing thousands of tests or exams in their school lives.

And doing good in examination becomes important in Hong Kong these years.

As the results of public examination is an important indicator for students' abilities,

people, including the Education Bureau, start focusing on the results but not the process of learning.

The policies made by the bureau in fact did not improve the whole situation.

For most of time, teachers tend to teach only according to the syllabus.

At the same time, students don't show any interests in  knowledge outside the examination syllabus.

They only concern about how to make their academic result an impressive one.

To get a higher grade, memorising the notes seems to be effective.

However, for most of the students they mermorize notes without digesting the meaning or theory behind.

They even don't ask their teachers when they find something they can hardly understand.

Instead, they just memorise them without making the concept clear.

In fact, under such a learning environment, for those who have great results in the public examination,

they may be just good at memorising notes or using examination techniques.

Academic result is no longer a reliable factor to judge one's intelligence.


Though the Education Bureau always emphasizes learning is not for the marks, it failed to do so.

Knowledge is becoming more important in Hong Kong.

As what i have mentioned above, people nowadays tend to use knowldge to judge one's abilities, ignoring one's passion and other skills.

Having a impressive certificate can definitely help one to get a job with a higher salary and better welfare.

But in Hong Kong nowadays, the economy is not that good.

If you have a high qualification, you may not also be guarantted to got a job after university graduation.

You can imagine how harsh will the situation of a student who failed in the CE or AL exams be.

Therefore, students try every means to get a higher grade in exam.

At least, this can increase their competiveness.


We can see that the original intention of learning is vanishing.

Of course the education bureau should take bear the largest responsibility.

And the views of society make the whole thing pragmatic,

In fact, we can see there are more problems in HK education.

The above is just a small part of it.

For example, when we compare HK students with students in foreign countries like USA,

it is not hard to discover that creativity of HK students is lower and they are a bit rigid, not flexible enough.

I think it may because HK students keep on absorbing knowledge but seldom think.

To solve this problems, of course the education policy should firts be amended.

and the values of the public should also be changed.

In recent years, we start ot have a subject called liberal studies.

In fact i think the idea is quite good.

However, the ways of teaching are still traditonal,

students sitting in the classrooms and receiving knwoledge from teachers.

We should learn from the foreign countires ,finding different ways which can inspire creativity in students.

Providing them more chances to ask. This can greatly enhace communication in the classrooms and

makes the learning process a reciprocal one, but not one-way teaching.

Also, we may sometimes bring them out of the classrooms such as having field trips,

this may arouse students' interests in learning and motivate them to learn something outside the exam syllabus.

As the traditional way of teaching does not work, we have to try something new.

However,  it will also takes a long time and effort and it is hard to achieve these without cooperation.

Therefore,society should hold hands and help making a better learning environment for our children together.

There is NO doubt that Hong Kong students are smart and intelligent.

It is just the way enlightening them is ineffective and unsuitable.

I do hope that the outlook of the education in HK is a bright one. :)

Project Reflection

This is the first Japanese project in my life.
Thanks that lecturer gave us the freedom to choose the topic that we are really interested in.
We really enjoy doing the project as the topic is what we really want to know.

In this project, i know more about Japanese local cultures, like Japanese male thinking.
When i was small, i did not have many channel for me to gain more information of Japanese cultures.
For most of the time, i received information related to Japan through the words of people or drama.
So i have an idea that Japanese male is male chauvinist.
(I don't know will this word be offensive or not, if this makes you feel bad, i am sorry for my poor English.)

As for most of time, like in drama, we can see the social status of women is very low.
When women are married, they should stay at home and take care of the children and elder people.
And they had to do and listen to what their husbands said without asking.
For girls who work in a company, generally their status are low also.
The hig posts are generally occupied by men. and women who are clerks who are responsible for some paper works, they have to serve men like making coffee which are not part of her jobs.
And i did feel sorry for Japanesewomen at that time. They were treated unequally and unfairly.
They were always looked down by man and you may even say they were subordinate to men.
As a Hong Kong girl, it is hard for me to understand why it can still be happening in theis century?!

But after doing this project, my view towards them is greatly changes.
The situation nowadays has drastically changed.
What i am saying above is something old and traditional.
Now the status of men and women are being balanced.
Women can work after married. And they have a say at home.
husbands and wives now are more tended to compromise rather than order and acccept.
And knowing how to cook or do houseworks are no longer a must for Japnese men choose their wives.
Also they can take up some high posts in company. Their working abilities are being recognized.

The mindset of Japanese people are noe changing (in a good way)
This is really out of my exoectation. i am sorry for my misconception before.
And now i start to see Japanese men in a different angle. 

If i have a chance to modify my project,
i would like to make one that can show the difference between the thinking of people nowadays and before.
As this time, we do it based on out own perception but not the real situation in Japan.
So the result can show the changing process of the mindset of Japanese people.
Also i think it would be great if we make a survey for HK male.
So that we can compare the mindsets of these 2 group of people.

And i would like to conduct a survey about how female choose their husbands in future.
As Hong Kong women nowadays are so strong and independent.
and we are generally labelled by Hong Kong male as bad and bothersome.
They may think Hong Kong women are too pragmatic, always focus on men's wealth, faces and qualifications when they choose their future partners.
So i would like to know how Japanese girls choose their husbands and make a comparison to HK girls.

I think it would be a good idea if we have chances to talk to Japanese in person.
We may prepare a list of questions (all under a certain topic compromised by your group) before we meet them.
After the meeting, we may do a presentation to show what you have learnt and found in the conversation or what you want to share with us.
I think it may be a quite interesting experience. :)

Project Presentation (2)

Finally, all the project presentations are done.
I would like to thx all of you as you guys did teach me something i don't really know.

For the group who talked about tourism in HK,
I think it is great to choose this topic as we don't know how people from other countries see HK.
We always hear people say HK is a food/shopping paradise.
Is it really the fact or there are some attractions of HK we don't know but foreigner can discover?
And i do agree with what you 3 said, if your project includes more information about shopping in HK,
the project will be better.
and for the one talking about animation, this is reli surprising, at least for :),
In fact i seldom watch animation or read manga.
So i don't know much but only some old famous manga.
Among the list of animation they showed us, i only know some of them.
and again, we have an idea all Japanese must love animation and they can't live without it
becuase Japanese is the origin of manga and animation.
However, the presentation just told us that the importance of manga to Japanese is not as high as we expected.

By the way, I do want to search for DRRR when i am free.
Just want to have a look, see what the story is about :)


Thanks for the interesting presentation.

Project Presentation (1)

After hearing the last 2 presentations, i have discovered some interesting information which surprised me a lot.

For the first group which talks about the Japanese msuic, the results of some of the questions are so unexpected.
For example the figures show that indeed classic music is one of the common types of music that Japanses always listen to.
Besides, we Hong Kong people always have an idea that Ayumi Hamasaki is popular in Japan as most Hong Kong people , though many of them may not be familiar with Japanese culture, only know who Ayumi is among all the Japanese female singers. However, this is not the case in Japan.
This presentation provided me additional information that correct my wrong ideas towards Japanese music.

The second group is talking about OTAKU. In fact i do not know much about it. You may say i have the same idea as other Hong Kong people, i have a negative impression towards this group of people. And i do not know under what situation i can describe a person OTAKU. But the Q&A session of this presentation told us more about their real lifestyles and how Japanese see them.
This indeed is a quite interesting topic as the information of OTAKU is not much in Hong Kong.

I learnt a lot from these 2 groups. Thanks a lot.

Personal Pronoun Projects -- I

In English, the pronoun 'I' is a very simple word.

But in Japanese, the case is totally different.

There are different usage between Gender , Age, Situation etc.

The pronoun 'I' in Japanese can have different meaning behind.

So it may a bit confusing when we are using 'I' in Japanese.

To make it clear, we can look at the table below.

You can see the above characters are using 'I' in different style.

For example ,
for the little boy, he uses 僕,
for the girls, she uses あたし,
for the lady, she uses あたくし,
and for the old man , he uses わし.

So let me choose some of them to talk about.

わたくし

This is a very polite pronoun that we can use in some formal occasion.

For the table above, the lady uses わたくし.

It shows that she possesses politeness.

Most probably she comes from a wealthy family which provides her a good education.

Apart from it, this pronoun can be found in book titles. These are the examples i found on web.

   

わし
From wikipedia, this pronoun is commonly used in the west of Japan,
most probably is used by old man.
we can also see from the table above,
the old man uses it to express himself but not other pronoun like 俺、僕.

If we translate this word into Chinese, it means 老子.
When you use this word, you may be an arrogant person.

In the pictures above, the people using わし are 魏延, 劉備＆曹操.
As they were famous general in history, they used this pronoun to express their power and ability.

せっしゃ、それがし
せっしゃ is a pronoun used by samurai in the past. We may more familiar with this word.
But there is another pronoun ,それがし, which is similar to せっしゃ used by samurai before.
And these two words are in a polite and humble manner.

    

あたし、ぼく、俺、俺様

This three pronoun is commonly used by Japanese nowadays.

The first one is used by girls and the second and the third one is used by boys.
All cannot be used in formal occasion but only in front of friends or other people who you are close with.

From the table above,
ぼく is usually used by little boys and おれ is usually used by the scrapper.
We can already notice the different between the two pronoun.
ぼく is used by boys who is more polite or a bit weak.
But おれ is used by boys or man who are strong. But this word is a bit rude and impolite.

Here is a video of 花より男子.

 In this , we can see that 牧野 uses あたし, 類uses僕 and 道明寺uses俺.

The characters of 類and 道明寺are clearly shown by these pronoun.
類 is a bit weak and polite while 道明寺 is impolite and rude.


俺様 is more rude than 俺.
As this implies a message like i am your boss and you are my servants .
You have to listen to my words and follow my orders.
This is commonly used by rich people especially those naive and arrogant one.
This pronoun is also sometimes used by 道明寺.



 In fact this is the Taiwan Version of 花より男子, but it is with Japanese dubbing.
If you have watched this Taiwan version, you may found a bit funny when hearing Jerry Yan speaking Japanese.



Apart from the above, i found one more pronoun which is a bit special and not common.

吾輩
When you use this word, it may refer you an arrogant and pround person.

There is a book called『吾輩は猫である』.

This a satirical novel written by 夏目漱石 which talks about the Japanese society during Meiji period.

The first sentence of this novel is something like' I am a cat, without name.' (sorry for this sketchy translation). Though it is a cat has no name, it is still proud of itself and see human nothing.

The reader can know more about the lives of the Japanese middle class through the eyes of the cat.

This is a well-know Japanese novel and it has many translated version. But still the meaning and the style of 吾輩 cannot be well expressed by other languages.



Because of this famous book, people nowadays use this (吾輩は名詞である) format in their daily life.
For example, the picture below shows the poster of a Japanese drama.
Its name is also using this style of writing.

I have read the gist of this drama, it sounds interesting. i will watch it if i have time.








In fact, more pronoun for 'I' can be found in Japanese.
Though it is hard for us to learn all of them,
at least we know how to  use the pronouns we are familiar with in an appropriate way.

Geography Project -- Hiroshima Prefecture

It is always a pity for me that i have never been to Japan before.


So visiting Japan 2 years later is my current goal.


I hope that i can make it.


For my first visit to Japan, i would like to make my trip a special one.


Therefore, those popular places such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Hokkaido are not in my list.


The uniqueness of Hiroshima prefecture attracts me to treat it as the first place to go in Japan.

If you love history of Japan, i strongly recommend this place as it  has  two UNESCO World Heritage sites.

I am going to introduce you the most popular tourist attractions to you all.


1. 広島平和記念公園

  

This  is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack.

Every year on 6 August, "A-bomb Day," the City of Hiroshima holds the ceremony to console the victims of the atomic bombs and to pray for the realization of lasting world peace.

The ceremony is held in the morning from 8:00, in front of the Memorial Cenotaph with many citizens including the families of the deceased.

A one-minute silence is observed at 8:15 for the victims, at the time of the atomic bomb's explosion


原爆ドーム is part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

The building serves as a memorial to the people who were killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

 

It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

The building was designed by the Czech architect, Jan Letzel and was completed in April 1915 but was destroyed in the atomic bombing during the WWII.


 

2. 広島城

Sometimes called 鯉城, Rijō, is a castle in Hiroshima, Japan which was the home of the daimyō (feudal lord) of the Hiroshima han (fief).

Originally constructed in the 1590s, the castle was destroyed in the atomic bombing in 1945.

It was rebuilt in 1958, a replica of the original which now serves as a museum of Hiroshima's history prior to WWII.

The above places are recommended to those who love Japan history.

And now i would like to recommend 1 special spot.
厳島神社

 is a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima) in the city of Hatsukaichi.

The shrine complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Japanese government has designated several buildings and possessions as National Treasures.




In fact i would like to go there when i was small.

I still remember once there was a tv programme introducing this shrine and the floating 鳥居 was introduced in it. i think everyone will become speechless if they are in front of this marvel but 'wow' instead 

Though i have never been to Japan, i hope the above information may arouse your interest to visit there or other special places rather the popular tourist spots in Japan .

All sources are from Wikipedia.

Writing Project

Becuase of this homework, i discovered that Katakana is always with us.

As Hong Kong people love to use Japanese goods, we can easily find things with Katakana on them.

I think people must be so familiar with Katakana though they may not know the meaning of them.

Of the things i found at home, i chose 3 to illustrate the usage of katakana.

1. Onomatopoeia

  

This the the envelop i found in my bedroom. I brought it when i was in Form 2.

At thet time, i didn't understand the word next to the cartoon.

At first i thought they were just some decoration.

But after i learn Japanese, i know that it is something to immitate the sound by using words.

For example the first picture, the words プハーッ is the sound produced after drinking beer.  

And the second one イェーイ is the sound "yeah'.

These words can express the feeling of the characters such as excitement and happiness.

2. Emphasized words:

This is the thing (sorry i don't know the name of it) that we need when we are cleaning our dishes.

The word ピカピカ means "shiny". 

Sometime, we use Katakana to emphasize the message we would like to bring out.

For this, the company want to pursue people to buy their product by using the Katakana above ,

to empahsize the product can make their oily dishes become clean and shiney once again.

They use the Katakana to attract people's eyes and attention, so more people will buy it.

3. Loan Words:

This is the aroma that i bought from a famous Japanes shop in Hong Kong.
I have to use it everyday before i sleep.
I seldom look at the Katakana on the label as their are Enlgish below.
アロマミスト is the loan word of Aromatic Mist.
We use Katakana becuase this is a foreign word which cannot be originally found in Japanese.
So we need Katakana to express it.

If we pay more attention, we can find many examples in our daily lives.

It is quite interesting as you may find out something that you used to neglect it.

Thius can help us to know/understand more about our lives  :)