Enrollment

So, this will be a bit of a boring post for those of you not interested in actually attending CUHK, because this is all about enrollment and subjects and the agreements between Adelaide Uni and CUHK about exchange students etc etc etc.

Back in November (when we had a million other things to do) we also had to 'pre-enrol' in our prospective subjects. It basically guaranteed us a place in the subjects we wanted to take at CUHK, which was great and it gave me a sense of security. HOWEVER, having spent hours in the previous weeks planning a perfect timetable with a wonderful balance of subjects, we were told in the pre-enrollment email that there is a 'list' of subjects for exchange students to pre-enroll in - NOT ALL SUBJECTS were open to us for pre-enrollment. Unfortunately for me, Japanese Language and Korean Language were not on the list of classes available for pre-enrollment, and after sending an email to CUHK about it, they replied that my only option would be to wait until I arrived at the university and hope that there would be places available in the classes I wanted.

So that's what I did. I pre-enrolled in four courses (the minimum number of subjects the Humanities Dept. at Adelaide Uni allows for exchange students to CUHK), two of which I wanted to take - Semantics and Language Disorders - and two which I thought I might drop if I could enroll in the language courses.

The next issue that came up was to do with the number of subjects I would take. It seems every university has a different agreement with CUHK regarding how many units at CUHK corresponds to how many of their institutions units/credits. My friend from LaTrobe University in Melbourne is doing four subjects of 3 units (most non-law, non-specialist undergraduate courses at CUHK are 3 units), which equates to four subjects of 3 units  back at LaTrobe. Simple.
For REASONS UNKNOWN, Humanities and Social Sciences Dept at Adelaide Uni has decided that your average full-time, 12 unit semester is equivalent to 16 units at CUHK. That means taking SIX subjects at CUHK! Note that six is the maximum number of subjects any student at CUHK can enroll in in one semester. It is ridiculous because I find the workload for each subject here to be pretty much the same as at Adelaide. Where they pulled the 16 unit requirement from I have no idea. But after a week experiencing the workload for classes here, I sent an email to HUMSS arguing that five subjects (15 units) should suffice to be equivalent to full time study, and they agreed.

After chopping and changing subjects and trying to figure out which department back in Adelaide will give me credit for which subjects (that part still hasn't quite been worked out, but I hope to credit for a subject of generic HUMSS, two Linguistics subjects and an Asian Studies subject) the following is the list of subjects I am enrolled in and that I now cannot drop (as the add/drop period is over):

Language Disorders
Semantics
English as an L2
Korean II
IASP Senior Seminar

Japanese is a long story. Cut short. I was able to enroll in a Japanese class that I thought and that the Japanese teacher thought was appropriate for my level. The grammar and vocabulary was familiar, but they were expected to learn/know 50 kanji a week and speak every class - two skills which I thought would keep me very busy! After attending Japanese classes for two weeks and trying to finalise enrollment (there were pieces of paper involved, very low-tech)... it didn't happen. There was something to do with my grammar being too advanced for that class. There was something to do with the exam only being in Chinese (then why they offered classes where the medium of instruction was English is beyond me). Basically, it was all very weird and with different teachers signing different forms and not agreeing with each other, it is not an experience I want anyone else to go through.

Korean on the other hand was totally different. I went to the head of department's office, gave her the form for the class I though was my level, and she said 'Well, introduce yourself in Korean'. So I did. She said for me to review the chapters already covered in the textbook, and she signed the form. Done.

Introductions

So, I'm Sophie, I'm 24, and as of January 2013 I'm going to spend a semester studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I only found out about my acceptance yesterday (Grrrr), and though it is not official yet, I figured I'd start this blog anyway to at least record the timeline of the application process (that will be the next post).
This blog is for family, friends and future exchange students wanting to know more about CUHK. I have found blogs about a post-grad student's time at CUHK, and a few posts about a Danish girl who went there as part of GLOBE, and a few videos on YouTube about the dorms, but there is nothing really comprehensive. So that's what I want this blog to be:

Sophie's Comprehensive English Guide To Studying And Living At The Chinese University of Hong Kong As An Undergraduate For One Semester.

There's probably a million blogs in Chinese about CUHK, but I can't really read Chinese... yet!

Why CUHK?

Because their Linguistics and Modern Languages Department is AMAZING.

Next year I will (hopefully) graduate from a Bachelor of Languages degree from the University of Adelaide, and then go on to post-graduate study, and then make a career for myself in academia. However, my university does not have a particularly robust Linguistics department e.g. we have one course called 'Morphology and Syntax' taught over a 12-week semester. CUHK has FOUR semester-long subjects of M&S, so their students obviously get more than just the 'quick and dirty' version we have to whip through at uni. CUHK offers a range of undergrad linguistics courses that are simply not available in most universities in Australia until post-grad level, so I think I have made a good decision on a good university in that respect. Also, I have been studying Japanese for two years now, and in December I will be taking JLPT Level 4. I studied Mandarin up until high school (but in Australia that doesn't necessarily mean we actually learned anything) and I have been studying Korean on my own for about a year. So now... let's study Cantonese and traditional characters! Wooooo! I am actually really excited about this - I am yet to meet a language I don't like. Of course, languages are difficult, but they are also beautiful and rich and diverse, and seeing as they will be my bread and butter in the future, for me, it is a rewarding investment.

Anyway, I'll be taking six courses over the semester: four linguistics courses, and two more just for fun!

More to follow soon.

~ Sophie