Posts by recordari
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Paul Campbell,
Was that because of language problems or culture shock?
I think this is certainly a problem. Arriving in Tokyo without any Japanese, they ran courses on culture shock at the youth hostel. Well, I certainly remember being told about the roller coaster ride that would be my life for the first 3 - 6 months. Aspects of it lasted the whole 14 months I was there.
They get perfectly respectable grades in the subjects they want to study, but their business grades are appalling.
Ain't that the truth? Probably equally so for many Kiwis nowadays, with the stigma attached to the 'arts' subjects.
One woman from Guatemala (true!) said that she had arrived with an IELTS of 7.5 (that's very high), to do a Masters, and she struggled to understand anything at all for the first three or four months.
Again I think it's because IELTS doesn't indicate proficiency in things like discourse, extended writing in English, or cultural competency, which are all significant factors when trying to succeed academically overseas. In general it can take at least 6 months to a year to acclimatise properly, IMhO.
ETA: Excuse the random reply to.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to chris,
Generally speaking, The attraction of the New Zealand beyond the obvious aesthetics is that it’s a second chance for Chinese students who failed the local university entrance exam or were unable to complete highschool, and it’s seen as a soft touch for immigration, serving as the perfect springboard for emigration to more attractive countries such as Australia or Canada.
I certainly recall this in some cases, but we did see a lot of young Chinese, Korean and Japanese students here to complete a second degree in an English speaking Uni, or with genuine intent to do well. One of the biggest problems with IELTS is the tendency of many schools to just teach the test, not the academic skills required to succeed at tertiary level. It was 8 years ago, as mentioned, but the school I worked at did better than most in providing proper English for Academic Purposes courses, and over the 9 years there, students tended to do well at Universities after completing usually 6 months to a year of studies. We tended to aim at IELTS 6.5 or 7 too, which helped a bit.
Anyway, thanks for all the updated information as I haven't been immersed in this for some time.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to BenWilson,
Btw, your email seems to be broken. I wanted to apologize for earlier tone.
Odd, I just sent myself a test message and got it. But anyway, thanks for that. I just didn't want to derail a thread that was going so well.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Dinah Dunavan,
My thought on moving is to take everything that you can get in the largest shipping container you can afford.
I would tend to agree with this. Particularly if you are going to have a shipping container in the first place. Might as well fill it, right?
But then I might be a hoarder, or, as someone here once politely suggested, a 'collector' even?
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Sacha,
emotionally
Funny though, we have ours on a plastic wall hanger with photos of the children at the different ages. Never thought about it's utility in being portable. I imagine the process of transcribing the years from one piece of wood to another would generate it's own emotional cachet, particularly as you relive each milestone while doing it.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Sacha,
Sure there were other factors, but our ability to provide a supportive, welcoming multi-cultural environment seems to have been evolving. It is a strength that's valuable in many ways.
I'd love to have this discussion in more detail one day with you Sacha. I don't seem to be choosing my words well today, so will keep it short. The biggest problem we faced was actually during Helen Clark's government. The influx of Chinese students was met with a number of poorly run, often foreign owned (being careful here in particular), schools who paid little regard for the legislation around protecting both students and student fees. Many excellent, long standing schools suffered as a result of bad press around some very unfortunate incidence with both Chinese and Japanese students. However, all this coincided with the New Zealand dollar beginning it's meteoric rise. In my view this was by far the most significant driver. My impression is that there was also a shift in Chinese Government Policy away from sending students abroad for English or international education to one of providing better quality services in China. This is more speculative though, as based on anecdotal evidence of teachers choosing China over Sth Korea and Japan.
Anyway, that's enough to start. Hopefully we'll catch up some time to continue the discussion.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to BenWilson,
<redacted>
Grrr.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Sacha,
How do you reckon NZ's evolving cultural competence affects that?
In 140 characters or less? Jeepers, apart from that being more than 8 years ago, I think I'd have to write a book, which I'm pretty sure is beyond me. How does the New Zealand Government's evolving competence in supporting our Education system (my area was private education for foreign language learners) affect it would be another question.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to BenWilson,
I hope not, but I haven't met her, and one thing I've learned from PAS is not to form judgments on people from their writings.
I have been debating how to continue this without it becoming uncomfortable for our host. I have met Jolisa. I stand by my comment. That is all.
Jack
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to BenWilson,
I’ve heard very good stories told by people who have spent most of their lives on their farms, and shockingly boring stories from people who have traveled the world endlessly. And vice versa, of course.
I don't think this will be a problem for Jolisa, just quietly.