The Academic Problems which Hong Kong Students May Face if They Travel Overseas for Tertiary Education.
Hong Kong students may face many problems if they travel overseas for study. Especially for those start to study abroad for tertiary education. All of the major problems are derived from the difference of the learning habit between Hong Kong and the Western countries.
Firsts of all, the writing patterns are not the same in different parts of the world. Ballard B. and Clanchy J. (1984) thought Kaplan (1966)'s analysis interesting. Kaplan suggested that a student can write an adequate essay in his native language does not necessarily can write an adequate essay in a second language. This is because people in different culture write in different pattern. English pattern is moving directly from the central idea to explanations and examples. Romance and Russian patterns permit some movement away from the central idea. Semitic pattern emphasizes the development of an idea through parallelism. A statement is repeated with a slight variation like the Bible. However, Hong Kong is in Asia. The people there used to write in Oriental pattern no matter in which language. That is 'an approach by indirection'. The sentences circle round the topic, often defining something in terms of what it is not, avoid judgment or conclusions. When Hong Kong students go to other countries to study, it is hard for them to adopt a new pattern. Especially the English pattern, which contradicts with the Oriental one most. Even they can write fluent English in Hong Kong, their Western teachers will not admire their effort.
Ballard B. and Clanchy J. (1984) have given a foreign case. Long time ago, a Thai postgraduate wrote a thesis about population changes in northern Thailand. His Australian supervisor crossed out the whole first two chapters because they were 'not relevant'. To the Thai student this direct 'English' approach seemed too blunt. It went against all his training. Actually, this can also happen with Hong Kong people studying in Western countries. Even they can write fluent English in Hong Kong, their Western lectures will not admire them if their passages are a pattern strange to them.
It is also true that each academic discipline is a 'sub-culture' in itself. According to Ballard B. and Clanchy J., differences within the branches of these disciplines exist. We can decide which is relevant within each discipline. The use of statistics, formulae, graphic and illustrative material will vary. Only those students who have learnt to 'think differently' in the different disciplines and be flexible select the style that is most appropriate can overcome the problems.
Given heavy demands on rote memory functions in Chinese language from early in life may help these students may be a merit, but they do have problems in learning new vocabularies because English are alphabetic scripts. Most of those students finished their secondary education in English-medium schools, but Hong Kong students' English level is of course lower than the native speakers. And their level is declining in resent years. Many Hong Kong students cannot use English well and do not know the technique in learning English. If they then travel abroad study, though they are tertiary students, they also need to learn many difficult new words in their subjects, especially in the medical and engineering fields. It is a problem if they may continue to learn English key words by Chinese method. According to Bond M. (1991), there is some difference of the scripts' structure. Every different Chinese word is represented by one or more ideograph, or pictorial character. Three thousand and five hundred of these characters to be learned in order to read an ordinary book or newspaper. Each character contains one stem, which gives the phonetic element, and one radical, which gives the semantic element. There are many thousands of phonetics. Some 80 percent of characters contain one of 214 radicals. Balance among the components, and attention to fine are all required in order to depict the characters legibly. Words are made up of one to three characters. These word-characters must then be combined in various patterns to represent one word in English. However, English (and most languages in the world) are not like this. English only contains 26 alphabets. In addition, English and Chinese usages are usually different. For example, Chinese often use the word 'very' but English do not. It is not acceptable if they write English in Chinese style.
Another problem is the difference of the importance of examinations. According to Bond M., examinations are important and the rewards for success are considerable in all Chinese societies. The fairness of examinations is ensured by basing grades on objective scoring of quantifiable element - names, dates, facts, numbers. In some Western universities, the most hard-working students are Hong Kong people. It is because memorizing is their habit. However, they cannot get good results because the syllabuses there demand the students to think independently. Also course-work grade in discussions and activities is more important than exams in those countries.
The difference in how to arrange the time in classroom is another problem. According to Bond M., greater amounts of Asian classroom time are devoted to academic activities. Most of the class time is devoted to activities where the teacher is in change. It is very teacher centred. This is very obvious in Hong Kong. Hong Kong students are therefore very passive. In the Western countries, activities and group discussions are held in class very often. Hong Kong students over there do not like that format and they only wait for the lecturers?speak. They can only present a low level of participation.
The difference in the characteristics of an education person is another problem. According to Bond M., in ancient times an educated Chinese was a man who had memorized the classics. The discipline required to memorize produced a civilized man. The young mandarin would then use those laid down rules. Even today, moral instruction is taught in Chinese schools. Students study abroad cannot learn such things and they need not to memorized the classics. They may think that the Western cultural is not so complete. They may worry that they will not be so civilized in compare with students who did not study abroad.
The difference in how to show respect is also a problem. According to Bond M., Chinese thought, 'If your superiors are present, or directly involved, in any situation, then you are to respect and obey them.' Teacher is a substitute of father or emperor. One of the Chinese words for disobedience is composed of two characters roughly translated as 'month back' (talk back). Not surpassingly, students in class show their respect by keeping quiet. Students are not trained to develop their debating skills with a superior. The emphasis on acquisition of (measurable) knowledge requires considerable memory work. Chinese are shy to contact lecturers. Lecturers in the West seldom make a class quiet. Instead, asking them questions or even changeling them are popular. Actually, this kind of relationship between lecturers and students is friendly and has nothing bad. The difference can explain why Chinese find difficulties to perform well in debating.
Chinese students do practices very often. However, Bond M. said that, at higher level of education in the other countries, illumination of inner, hidden patterns and meaning are more important. Instead of description, one needs to draw a conclusion from evidence and facts. Almost every Chinese student finds difficulties when doing this.
Another problem is that Hong Kong students do not have any sense of development and conclusion when writing essays, but the Westerns have. Bond M. said that the so-called 'surface approaches to learning' emphasize mastery of facts through rote learning. Discover broad themes, underlying assumptions, directions of the argument. Hong Kong students in foreign countries often produce a paper with a collapse of facts that fit the general topic, but lacking any sense of development and conclusion.
Some local students thought that study abroad is perfect. They suffer from many difficulties and under great pressure in Hong Kong. And they know that students in other countries do not need to suffer. However, if they really travel overseas for study, they may face many special academic problems.
Bibliography
Ballard B. and Clanchy J. (1984) Study Abroad. A Manual for Asian Students, Longman Malaysia Sdn., Kuala Lumpur.
Kaplan R. (1966) 'Cultural Thought Patterns in inter-cultural Education'. Language Learning 16 in Ballard B. and Clanchy J. (1984) Study Abroad. A Manual for Asian Students, Longman Malaysia Sdn., Kuala Lumpur.
Bond M. (1991) Beyond the Chinese Face, Oxford University Press (China) Ltd., Hong Kong.