I am a non-Chinese international student. I admit that I did not have chance to know much about HK and HKU before I entered this school and was immensely disappointed after I realized how the school life was different from as it was introduced in the schools official website. Now I am doing an exchange study in a European country where people do not really speak English and are very proud of their native language (I do not speak the native language). After having these experiences, I have come up with these thoughts: 1) In my exchange school, lectures are offered in both English and the native language. Its full time undergrad students are required to take the certain number of lectures in English but the rest is up to them. Having English curriculum is supposed to be one of the competitive edges of HKU. But I doubt if it is really working. More radically, I think officially having lectures in both Cantonese and English can really do good for ALL. And I do not think having Cantonese classes in the curriculum will harm HKUs global reputation. You do not need to go too far. U of Tokyo teaches in Japanese but still considered as one of the best in the world. 2) I read the comment of 李啟迪 from during the annual debate. He said .... 建議非本地生入鄉隨俗. I think many international students try to 入鄉隨俗 at least once in their uni life. But when i was in yr 1 there were only two very basic level Cantonese classes offered in HKU (I completed them all) while five (or six?) different levels of Mandarin courses were taught. I doubt if the situation has changed much. Survival Cantonese is not enough. Putonghua course will never let the internationals integrate into the larger school community. HKU needs to come up with more solid and structured solutions to help them overcome language barriers. 3) Having said all these, I think HKU must reconsider its identity and what (or who) it really is. Even now, HKU is virtually advertising itself as the school where you can fully immerse in Chinese/Asian settings while enjoying all the convenience of English speaking school life. This is simply not true. The more HKU ignores this fact, the deeper the gap between the international and local students is going to be. HKU must come clear to the point that Cantonese and HK (Chinese)culture is THE dominant medium in this university community in general, so that furture international students can have fuller picture of the school. I believe this is also beneficial to the local students. I just hope everyone in HKU can have better chance to fully enjoy their one and only uni time in their life. Now is really the time for HKU to make a decision.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:48:10 +0000
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