a-l-i-n-e.com

Note: Entry edited to add the links to survey 1,2 and 3.

Please let me know if you did the survey or forwarded the links to other people. I want to know so that I know where to send my thanks to.

-Surveys-
1. Are you a Chinese language teacher who is currently teaching in Mauritius? (of Mauritian nationality or others, as long as you are teaching in Mauritius) (duration doesn’t matter)
>>Click here<<

2. Are you currently studying the Chinese language in Mauritius? (duration doesn’t matter)
>>Click here<<

3. Have you ever studied the Chinese language in Mauritius before? (duration doesn’t matter)
>>Click here<<

4. Are you a Mauritian who is now in mainland China or Hong Kong or Taiwan (studying or working) and who has studied the Chinese language there? (duration doesn’t matter)
>>Click here<< <- Link down for the time being. Contact me directly if it is still not up when you try to take the survey.
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5. Do you know anyone (of any ethnic group in Mauritius, not only the sino-Mauritians)who fit into any of the above 4 categories?

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Like I’ve mentioned in my entry dated 10 March 2008, I’m looking for people to fill in questionnaires/surveys. It will only take you a couple of minutes and the results of the surveys will help me to complete my thesis. Some people (unfortunately, only a few) have already filled in my surveys and I’m so grateful to them. Still, I need to find more people! I’m running out of time.

If you’ve replied Yes to 1 ,2 ,3 or 4 and would like to help me by taking my questionnaire/survey, please contact me in the comment form below or by using the contact form found here. ( <- Click the word here) If you already know my hotmail or gmail address, you can also email me directly.

If you’ve replied Yes to 5, do you mind forwarding the link to my surveys or the link to this entry to those persons? (From primary school students to adults, anyone, as long as they correspond to any of the 4 categories.)
Please contact me in the comment form below or by using the contact form found here. ( <- Click the word here) If you already know my hotmail or gmail address, you can also email me directly.

I’m finding it hard to find primary school students to fill in the survey. I’m aware that primary school students might have trouble understanding all the words in the survey and maybe don’t even use the computer. Parents/brothers/sisters/cousins please help them. Please think. Do you have neighbours with kids studying the Chinese language? Do you have little brothers/sisters/cousins who are studying the Chinese language? Or what about your friend’s little brother/sister/cousin?

All the 4 different surveys are available in paper or online version. The ‘intro’ page of both versions gives some explanation about my survey. All the surveys are in English and the one for the teachers is also available in Chinese. (Link available on request)

The online versions will be more convenient for a lot of people (as well as me)…. As for the paper versions, they are only available to people who are in Mauritius right now and who really can’t do the online surveys. My family lives in Port-Louis. My sister can meet up with people to give them the paper surveys but I don’t want to trouble her unless really necessary.
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Please help me. Thank you!

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Thank you Morinn, Kevin, Karina, Karen Y, Wendy, Tracy,Rosemary, Joanne, Clive, Pat, those 50+ years old people & the secondary students I don’t know but who took the survey, the 15 teachers who took the survey so far,the anonymous persons who took the survey, Kevin T & Oliver for the info and of course my family, especially my sis Cel who had to go many places for me. List will be updated accordingly.
You will all (if you’ve left your email address or if I know it ) get a Thank you email from me as soon as this is all over.
I’ll be your free guide if you come to Shanghai when I’m still here. Or if I’m not around, I’ll link you up with my friends in Shanghai or other parts of China. It mght sound unbelievable to those people who don’t know me but I’ve done it a couple of times already when people contacted me to let me know that they are coming. Else, see you all in Mauritius(in a couple of months) or in SG or Msia or CA (the countries on my GO TO list so far)
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I took the HSK advanced level exam yesterday. I almost didn’t sit for the exam because I didn’t prepare at all. I was reluctant to go but when I thought of the RMB 400 that I had spent to register for the exam, I decided to go. Frankly, I think the date chosen for the HSK exam is very bad. Only a month has passed since the semester began. Like my friends, I’m not really in a studying mood yet. I’m still busy trying to get used to the new classes(International trade law, Guide to thesis writing, Business negotiation, International settlement, Advanced Chinese,etc) that I have this semester after not touching any books during the 2 months summer hols. I think that it would have been better if the HSK exam was around the end of the semester. Anyway, it was a nice experience. I didn’t do well this time but at least now I know what the real exam is like. I’m looking forward to my second attempt next year in April.
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Comments about the exam and the location:

The exam was as hard as I expected. Compared to this exam , the HSK intermediate level exam is a piece of cake.
I took the exam at Fudan University. It is quite near Tongji University. There were too many students in each classroom. The majority were Korean and Japanese students.
During the oral exam, I was wearing a headset and had to talk into the mouthpiece. I could hear everyone talking. The reading aloud part was fine but when it came to answering the 2 questions, it was a bit hard to concentrate because I could hear the people around me saying their replies to the 2 questions. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the guy on my left was done with the exam. He had removed his headset. This caused me to panic a bit. I was only half-done replying the second question. I was perfectly aware that his head was tilt to one side and he was listening to me now that he was done. It was so hard to stay focused like that. Arghh. I think most people were like me. They hurriedly finished the oral exam because they noticed that the people around them were done already. I remember that there was a Korean girl who was still talking by the time everyone was done. I was thinking: “Wow, she managed to ignore the people around her and stayed focused” .

A few tips for next time:

Prepare for the exam! Starting now! Buy HSK books to practice doing mock exams and try to finish the papers within the allocated time. Practice writing essays.( I did poorly in the essay writing exam this time.) I also need to watch TV more often, especially the news.

Bring a mechanical pencil to use for the essay. I had brought a blunt 2B pencil to be able to shade the boxes in the answer sheet fast. I had another extra pencil which wasn’t blunt but it wasn’t sharp either. I had to erase and rewrite many characters(esp. those with many strokes) because they looked horrible.The strokes looked out a tad too thick when written using that pencil I had brought. I wasted a lot of time because of that.

Wear a watch. Or bring a clock. I wore a watch this time but not everyone did that. There was no clock in the room where I had my exam. I guess it might be different for other universities.

Stay focused during the oral exam. Ignore the people around.

hmmm I can’t think of anything else to add to the list for the time being.

I hear that the results will be out in about a month. I’m expecting the worst.
My Japanese classmate Aki and I are planning to go to the bookstores on Fuzhou Road this Thursday. I plan to buy a few books which will help me get ready for the next exam. I’m also thinking of buying some Japanese books. I want to learn Japanese!

Something I want to get off my chest: Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I can’t believe I missed Lin jun jie(JJ Lin)’s Shanghai concert yesterday!

Today, I heard from a friend that the April 2006 HSK results are out online since yesterday afternoon.
I went to check my results online.

I didn’t mention the fact that I sat for the intermediary HSK exam in April (23 April 2006) because I didn’t find it important. The day of the exam was the same day that one of my hamsters escaped from the cage. I was so busy looking for my hamster after I got back home after the exam that I didn’t give a second thought to the exam.
I have to admit that I didn’t study at all for this exam. I was lazy, busy and had to deal with some personal problems at that time. On the eve of the exam, I opened my HSK book and tried to revise but I stopped after skimming over the first page. I told myself that it’s too late to start revising and that I should just go to sleep early instead of worrying. I have optional HSK classes every Wednesday afternoon this semester and I attend those classes for the sake of getting extra credits (so that I can opt out of taking the Chinese history class next year!:P) . My HSK teacher is a good teacher who explains things in details. Her class is a great opportunity for me to brush up on my grammar. I also attend my other classes regularly and it seems that all that was enough for me. I don’t mean that there is no need to study for the HSK exam. It’s just that each person has his/her own method.
Maybe it was mostly because I had sat for the HSK exam during my 1st year already (May 2005) but this time, I wasn’t stressed on the exam day. I sat for the exam at Shanghai International Studies University(SISU) instead of Fudan University this time because I couldn’t hear well with the wireless headset at Fudan last year. I didn’t want to take any risks this year. Many people I know chose SISU too. At SISU, we got old headsets but they weren’t wireless ones so the sound quality was better. The fact that they put a big clock in the front of the examination hall also made me feel relaxed. Last year at Fudan, there were no clocks in the examination classroom and I had forgotten to wear a watch.

This year, my results are as follows:

I couldn’t really believe it at first because I got full marks for 阅读 and my overall is 47 marks more than last year。
综合 is the last paper and I’m usually very tired when I reach this part. Still, I’m satisfied with my results this time. They didn’t write which level I got on the website but I know that it’s HSK level 8.

HSK单项等级分数

HSK总分等级分数

More info there.
I’ll get my HSK certificate next month maybe.

I have many essays to submit before Friday; overdue essays which have accumulated over the past few weeks. I can’t believe that I’m so late in submitting homework. It’s not that I didn’t do any of the essays. I did some of them, those with topics I find interesting. It’s only those with the topics I find boring which I haven’t done. For some of the essays, I’ve written a few sentences before casting the sheets of paper aside. I must write the essays, however boring I find the topics. *determined*
My teacher is a very understanding person and she probably won’t mind me submitting my essays so late but still, I feel very bad about it.
Today, I’m going to write at least 4 essays and I won’t sleep before I finish my 4th one.
My exams are next week and then it’s the one-week May holiday!