PROBLEMS OF HONG KONG EDUCATION SYSTEM

The education system in Hong Kong is examination-oriented. Before the implementation of 334 curriculum, secondary school students have to attend public examination - HKCEE and HKALE for the promotion of form 6 and entering the university respectively. To get the limited places, Hong Kong students sometimes are learning everything by rote without deeper understanding. Most students concentrate on their academic results, but put less emphasis on what they have learnt. It is true that some students have an outstanding academic achievement. Unfortunately, there is a lot of criticism that Hong Kong students lack critical thinking, analytical and problem solving skills. The reason for this phenomenon is the passive learning attitude of Hong Kong students which is the result of the examination-oriented education system.

The new senior secondary curriculum was introduced, but I think the problems I have mentioned above are not solved. The liberal studies became the core subject in the new system so as to improve students’ critical thinking skills. However, students in Hong Kong remain silent and are unwilling to raise questions during the lessons, compared with the counterpart in western countries. Raising questions for what they don’t understand or what they oppose is the key for students to improve their critical thinking skills. (Some teachers in primary and secondary school don’t like students who ask “too many” questions in the classes. They may think that those active students cause troubles to them or challenge them.) The learning atmosphere won’t improve unless the traditional teaching methods are changed in Hong Kong.

There is a lot of contradiction between Hong Kong education system and the society. I remember that the government official commercial shown in the TV has a slogan - “求學不是求分數”, which remind students that what they have learnt is more important than the academic results they get. On the other hand, the education system still sticks to the examination as the assessment. Besides, the employers will only look at the public examination results and other academic qualifications or achievement when we seek the jobs. Moreover, some students may have potentials and skills in other fields rather than the academic fields. The government also claims that those have their own “uniqueness” and have ability to achieve their goals. However, the education system doesn’t fully support those students to develop their “uniqueness” and their non-academic skills. In fact, professional skills are required for most of the career in Hong Kong, as well as the essential elements for employers’ consideration to the applicants for jobs. Therefore, most Hong Kong students believe that having good academic achievement and higher academic qualification is the only way to succeed in the future careers, and even their life in future.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT FROM THE PRESENTATIONS OF SURVEY PROJECTS

Group 1:

I’m one of the members of group 1. Our survey topic is “The Japanese animations and comics”. We have analyzed and compared the data collected from the survey. Since the age range (average age) are different from the survey done by Japanese and SPACE students. The results we obtained may have been influenced, but we still find that some results and comments are interesting and unexpected. The Cultural value on the animations and comics are interesting issue to discuss.

Group 2:

The topic of group 2 is "Perception of the Japanese people towards Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths”. I didn’t know too much about this issue but it is worthwhile to discuss. The effectiveness of the ordinance, which imposes restriction on the animations and comics related to sex or violence, are the main concern. Group 2 gives a suggestion that the government should promote sex education rather that imposing a law. I also agree with sex education is more effective as the enforcement of the ordinance is another problems that arise. Education is a better way to deal with the relative problems in long term.

Group 3:

Group 3’s topic is “How do Japanese feel about Hong Kong?”. I expected that the first image of Hong Kong is small and polluted city with too high density of population, but many Japanese people response that they think Hong Kong is lively rather than polluted and noisy. I am surprised to hear that the impression of Hong Kong is the artist, Jackie Chan. I wonder if Bruce Lee is also one of the impression of Hong Kong given to Japanese people.

PERSONAL PRONOUN PROJECT

Personal pronoun for both gender:

  私(わたくし): Most polite and formal version

  私(わたし): This is gender neutral in formal or polite situation, but showing a sign of femininity when it’s used in casual or informal siutation

  我(われ): formal and polite, but old-fashioned (except plural "我々", used in a humble way to talk about

  我（が）(わ(が)) : Used in the meaning of "my" or "our"

  自分 (じぶん): Neutral. Refers to the "self", so can be use for "I" or "you". "自分の" means "my" or "your" and "自分で" means "myself" or "youself".

Personal Pronoun for female:

  あたし: Mostly used by young females. Sounds cute.

  あたくし

  あたい: Slang version of "Atashi"

  うち: Used mostly by women. A neutral version also refers to "us" (family, company, etc.) as opposed to "them" or "you".

Personal Pronoun only for male:

  俺 (おれ) : Informal. Used for indicating one’s own status. A sign of masculinity. A sign of familiarity among close friends and family.

  俺様 (おれさま): Arrogant and rude version of "おれ"

  僕 (ぼく): Common for younger men (sometimes for women). Sounds more refine than "おれ".

  わし: Mostly used by older men to younger or lower rank people.

Characters from “のだめカンタービレ”

野田恵(のだめぐみ)

She is an extremely talented pianist who wants to be a preschool teacher. She prefers playing by ear rather than reading the music score. She is messy and disorganized, takes baths several days apart and loves to eat.

Personal pronoun she uses : わたし.But, she is being cute and always uses のだめ instead of “わたし” as the subject.

千秋真一(ちあきしんいち)

He is talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. An arrogant multi-lingual perfectionist.

Personal pronoun he uses: 俺.“俺様” is often used when he talks to Nodame.

Characters from “こどものおもちゃ”

倉田 紗南（くらた サナ）

Sana is an 11-year-old child star who is cheerful and generally outgoing.

Personal pronoun she uses : わたし

羽山 秋人（はやま あきと）

A sullen boy of few words and physically strong. Despite his troublemaking ways, he is smart and gets good grades. Although capable of cruelty, he has his own code of honor. His friendship with Sana softens his behaviour.

Personal pronoun he uses: 俺

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This is the song “嘆きのキス” sung by AIKO

君の肩に顔を埋めて　大きく息を吸い込んだ

忘れないだろう　消えないだろう

君と僕の最後の日

小さな始まりが　今はつたを絡めて

紡いだ大切な言葉や日々すらも縛って

繰り返し　涙が落ちる音を

静かに聞いていたあの日

誰よりも想い続ける事が

僕の今を支える大きな糧

今は君の空が晴れなのか曇りなのか

解らないよ

切なくなる程に　逢いたいと胸が泣く

僕が想う君への気持ちここにあるのに

僕を呼ぶ　そして笑いかける

君は夢の星の様に

大切な僕の宝物だよ

今も昔も変わらぬ大きな糧

嘆きのキスに気付いてただろう

知っていても認めたくない優しい目の奥

繰り返し　涙が落ちる音を

静かに聞いていたあの日

誰よりも想い続ける事が

僕の今を支える大きな糧

ここに残る　嘆きのキスを胸に

僕は生きる

“僕” is used instead of “私” in the lyrics
 It is much impressive to say that “僕は生きる" instead of " 私は生きる"

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns

http://www.wa-pedia.com/language/japanese_personal_pronouns.shtml

JAPANESE GEOGRAPHY PROJECT

I have never been to Japan. I would like to visit Yokote because its own festivals help me understand the traditional culture and history of Japan. The beautiful scenery surrounding Yokote attract my eyes.

Yokote is a city located in Akita in the Tōhoku region. There are many festivals in Yokote which passesd down from generartion to generation: Kamakura, Numairi Bonden, Kashima Festival, Okuri Bon Festival, Masuda Town Fireworks, Niida Bangaku, Chrysanthemum Festival, Haushiwake Shrine Shimotsukikagura and Asahiokayama Shrine Bonden. That’s why people call Yokote as “The Home of Festivals”.

I would like to visit Yokote in February because both Kamakura festival and asahiokayama Shrine festival are held in that month. “Kamakura”(snow huts) in Yokote are well-known throughout Japan and around the world. The famous mid-winter festival is Kamakura festival, in which the snow huts are built and dedicated to the water god referred to as the “Oshizu” god in the snowy region of Akita.
 

 Children will serve “amazake” and “mocchi” to visitor, and the stalls selling traditonal Japanese foods are situated.

The following festival, Asahiokayama Shrine Bonden , is a bonden contest. People have competition with each other in a procession heading to the shrine and the bonden are dedicated to the gods for the sake of having good harvest and good health of their families.

The scenery surrounding Yokote is attractive and amazing, especially the Great cedar tree of Ikada and the Yokote Castle.

 

Foods such as Yokote Yakisoba and Jumonji Noodles are popular in Yokote. 

JAPANESE WRITING PROJECT 1

The department store I visited is called “SOGO”. In hiragana, it is “そごう”. From this photos, we can see that the both word“そごう”and“SOGO” are on the wall of the building, so both Japanese people, local and foreigners can recognise the department store. In fact, The romaji“そごう”should be “SOGOU”. I think the reason why they use “SOGO”instead of“SOGOU”is that “SOGO”is easier for foreigners to pronounce. Just like the example of the kanji“日本”can be pronounced as“にっぽん”or“にほん”. It is easier for foreigner to pronounce it as“にほん”instead of“にっぽん”.

 This pack of frozen food was found in SOGO

The word written in Katakana“サクサク”is the onomatopoeia. “サクサク” is the sound made by people who eat the crispy food. I think it can also emphasize the food will become crispy and tastes good after frying, so the consumers may be interested in this food product.
 “フライ” is the loan word. “フライ” is fry(fried) in English.

In general, we use Katakana to write“エビ”(prawn/shrimp) because animals’ and plants’ name should be written in Katakana. Therefore, “fried prawn” should be written in katakana “エビフライ”. From this package, we can see that the designer uses hiragana to write “えび”(prawn/shrimp) instead of “エビ”. I think the designer wants to emphasize the word“えび”to tell people what kind of food they are selling.

Packed lunch box should be written as“お弁当” which should consists of hiragana and kanji. Here we see they use hiragana to write the word“おべんとう”. I think this is their idea that unify the design by using hiragana and katakana only. If they use kanji“お弁当”, the design may look strange.

These are the apple juice and mandarin orange juice that are found in SOGO. We usually use Hiragana to write“りんご”(apple), and “みかん”(mandarin orange). Kanji of these two words,“林檎”and“蜜柑”, are not commonly used because these two words are old kanji. In this case, the designer of this brand used kanji“林檎”and“蜜柑”for the packing of the drinks. I think the designer wants to make their drinks different from other brands’ packing design, so they use old kanji for the names of the drinks so as to draw customers’ attention. I also think that the designer tries to create a traditional style or image for this brand by using old kanji. They can especially draw Chinese people's attention because the kanji are similar to the Chinese characters.

自己紹介

初めましで
私は静です
今、HKU SPACEで日本語の勉強をしています
甘い物の中でイチゴのショートケーキが一番好きです
暇のときにいろいろなケーキを作ります
今は手作りパンに挑戦しますw
とても楽しいです

私は女性グループパフュームのファンです
彼女たちのダンスも歌も上手と思います
絢香さんのことも好きです
辛いとき、わたしは絢香さんの「みんな空の下」を聴いて、勇気をもらいました

日本語の勉強を頑張ります！
これからもどうぞよろしくお願いします