User Comments - BrokenJoker

Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors

Bababardwan

I presume that in future the university authorities will take into account the difficulty level of the language when looking at the final grades - but who can be sure. As a former full-time academic I doubt that the entrance examiners will be so sophisticated.

One of the problems here of course is that the average grade in a chinese class will be dramatically skewed because those with chinese backgrounds have a definite advantage.

There was even talk at some time of having two levels but this will never fly for public policy, logistical  and financial reasons. Anyway I doubt we will see an expansion of mandarin teaching in the UK for some of the problems I previously pointed out. I for one am not convinced that mandarin will take off in the UK.

Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors

the mom is doing her kids a mega favour

Here in the UK i also wanted my kids to start studying mandarin at school. In fact the government is talking up the mandarin option and calling for more teaching. However when I looked into the possibility I was advised against it. The key problems appear to be that the difficulty of the language impacts upon our equivalent of grade point averages which in turn impacts upon university acceptance. While some teachers have talked about making the tests somewhat more accessible the problem is that a sizable portion of the students are from a cantonese background and so making the exams easier will not solve the problem. I also understand that the schools sometimes have difficulty recruiting teachers.

Interestingly I have also seen some figures: approximately only 2000 high school students are taking mandarin for A levels (the final high school year before university) and approx 400 are studying it at a university degree level.

it is unclear what percentage of these represent cantonese speakers but presumably that number is quite high.

Whatever the case the take up is not great.

Posted on: Office Christmas Party

With regard to the first sentence would it be possible sometime to have a lesson on the use of 'ba' ?

thanks

Posted on: Jet Lag

I use stuff called melatonin which you can buy over the counter in the US and with a  prescription in the UK.

I find it works most of the time

Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原

really good podcast

nice job pete