香港本地學校轉學到英國中學的英語及寫作挑戰 Creative writing

KIMLIFEINUK

Hello parents (and students)! 中文版在下面

(This post is written by a student in UK)
Anyone transitioning from a hk local school to a uk secondary school? Coming from a student who currently goes to school in the uk whilst also having ample experience with hk students and students from abroad, I can understand that transitioning from hk to uk schools pose many challenges. I was actually an assistant teacher in a summer school (in the uk) and there I learnt a lot about adapting and the difficulties students face. Generally, changing schools in are quite difficult for students, especially if in a different country. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?


Adapting to a new culture with its own different customs is no easy feat, navigating differences in social norms, traditions and expectations. Not only adapting the cultural differences but definitely also establishing friendships in this new unfamiliar environment. Not saying it’s impossible, but it’s certainly a challenge. And of course, the language barrier. Even if you are a fluent English speaker (but especially if you are not), grasping all the colloquial language terms and trying to communicate your thoughts can be daunting. I know the GCSE English curriculum inside out, and I recommend preparing early.


I’ll summarize what I’m trying to say in the points below:


- Creative writing: I’m well aware that in hk local schools they rarely teach or put emphasis on creative writing however in uk schools, it’s a key part of English lessons here. This is one of the challenges I’ve observed most students go through, often grammar mistakes, writing style and vocabulary can hinder progress.


- Grammar: Here in the uk, students rarely (almost never) make grammar mistakes so any made really stick out a lot and could even leave a bad impression. Students may lose their confidence, therefore, starting early to solve these issues are paramount.


- Did you know that in the GCSE English language paper (in the creative writing section), 40% of the marks go towards grammar, spelling and punctuation!? I wasn’t surprised to learn that though as it is very important.


- Maybe for you, grammar isn’t the issue, but vocabulary is, using flashcards and reading can definitely help and I do suggest it. A wide range of vocabulary elevates your writing and enhances your communication skills


- I’ve put an example paragraph below from a hk local school student transitioning to a uk secondary school (y7)- I have their permission to post this don’t worry!


"Me and my sister drive to my grandma’s house. We were driving calmly, but suddenly, the engine made a loud sound and suddenly stopped! My sister check the engine and she was very shocked. I got out of the car and looked as well. I was also extremely stunned, the engine was completely destroyed. Like a wild animal has clawed the entire engine. I felt panic and fear, my hands started shaking…"


There is a compelling plot, however there are some minor grammatical mistakes, and the writing style seems a bit stiff, which I’ve noticed can be common in hk students.


Here is a revised version:


"The car's engine sputtered and groaned and came to an abrupt halt, marooning us in the middle of what seemed to be a dark tunnel. The tunnel seemed to never end, a sort of darkness that engulfed everything in its way. Panic ensued. We both shared knowing anxious glances, asking ourselves what we will do? The atmosphere was heavy with thought- my sister, who was driving me to grandma's house seemed quiet. She opened the car's bonnet, and her face paled with trepidation, the colour from her face seemed to drain instantly.         


Confused and hesitant, I opened the car door and slowly approached the engine. I stood frozen on the spot, my blood ran cold, and my eyes widened at the sight- fear seemed to wrap its fingers around me holding me still as a statue. It was unexplainable. The car's engine appeared to be completely mauled, it was deformed, cracked and shred to pieces."



- I’ve added writing techniques, vocabulary and established a stronger atmosphere- expanding on their already good narrative, I suggest learning about figurative language and tone (e.g formal/ informal tone), it makes a big difference in creative writing and writing in general. Having guidance on this would definitely help a student make the big shift but also better them in the long term.


Thank you for reading this far, I know it’s a lot, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on this, my experiences and also give some advice or comfort to those who may be going through this. I wonder what your thoughts are on this? If you are a parent (or a student) what have been your struggles been so far?


I hope this helped those who needed it.

KIMLIFEINUK

家長（和學生）大家好！

有人從香港本地學校轉學到英國中學嗎？作為一名目前在英國上學的學生，同時也對香港學生和海外學生有豐富的經驗，我可以理解從香港學校過渡到英國學校會帶來許多挑戰。我實際上是（英國）一所暑期學校的助理老師，在那裡我學到了很多關於適應和學生面臨的困難的知識。一般來說，轉學對學生來說是相當困難的，尤其是在不同的國家。我想知道你對此有何看法？

適應不同習俗的新文化絕非易事，需要克服社會規範、傳統和期望的差異。不僅要適應文化差異，而且一定要在這個陌生的新環境中建立友誼。並不是說這是不可能的，但這確實是一個挑戰。當然，還有語言障礙。即使您能說一口流利的英語（尤其是如果您不是），掌握所有口語術語並嘗試表達您的想法可能會令人畏懼。我對 GCSE 英語課程瞭如指掌，我建議儘早準備。

我將總結我想說的內容如下：

- 創意寫作：我很清楚，在香港本地學校，他們很少教授或強調創意寫作，但在英國學校，這是英語課程的關鍵部分。這是我觀察到大多數學生面臨的挑戰之一，文法錯誤、寫作風格和詞彙常常會阻礙進步。

- 文法：在英國，學生很少（幾乎從不）犯下文法錯誤，因此任何文法錯誤都非常引人注目，甚至可能留下不好的印象。學生可能會失去信心，因此儘早開始解決這些問題至關重要。

- 你知道嗎，在英文考卷（創意寫作部分）中，40% 的分數用於文法、拼字和標點符號！ ？得知這一點我並不感到驚訝，因為它非常重要。

- 也許對你來說，文法不是問題，但詞彙才是問題，使用抽認卡和閱讀絕對有幫助，我確實建議這樣做。廣泛的詞彙量可以提高您的寫作水平並增強您的溝通技巧

- 我在下面放了一個來自香港本地學校學生過渡到英國中學（y7）的示例段落 - 我已獲得他們的許可發布此內容，不用擔心


"Me and my sister drive to my grandma’s house. We were driving calmly, but suddenly, the engine made a loud sound and suddenly stopped! My sister check the engine and she was very shocked. I got out of the car and looked as well. I was also extremely stunned, the engine was completely destroyed. Like a wild animal has clawed the entire engine. I felt panic and fear, my hands started shaking…"


情節引人入勝，但有一些小語法錯誤，而且寫作風格似乎有點僵硬，我發現這在香港學生中很常見。


這是修改後的版本：

"The car's engine sputtered and groaned and came to an abrupt halt, marooning us in the middle of what seemed to be a dark tunnel. The tunnel seemed to never end, a sort of darkness that engulfed everything in its way. Panic ensued. We both shared knowing anxious glances, asking ourselves what we will do? The atmosphere was heavy with thought- my sister, who was driving me to grandma's house seemed quiet. She opened the car's bonnet, and her face paled with trepidation, the colour from her face seemed to drain instantly.         


Confused and hesitant, I opened the car door and slowly approached the engine. I stood frozen on the spot, my blood ran cold, and my eyes widened at the sight- fear seemed to wrap its fingers around me holding me still as a statue. It was unexplainable. The car's engine appeared to be completely mauled, it was deformed, cracked and shred to pieces."

- 我添加了寫作技巧、詞彙並建立了更強烈的氛圍- 擴展他們已經很好的敘述，我建議學習比喻語言和語氣（例如正式/非正式語氣），這對創意寫作和一般寫作有很大的不同。對此進行指導肯定會幫助學生做出重大轉變，而且從長遠來看也會讓他們變得更好。


感謝您閱讀本文，我知道內容很多，但我真的很想分享我對此的想法、我的經歷，並為那些可能正在經歷這一過程的人提供一些建議或安慰。我想知道你對此有何看法？如果您是家長（或學生），到目前為止您遇到的困難是什麼？


我希望這可以幫助那些需要它的人。

Mrspan

Thank you very much for the sharing. Even though my kids are going to international school in Hk, I think the emphasis on a proper creative writing training is not a lot. Not to mention grammar…

swarovski2011

Mrspan 發表於 24-11-5 01:00
Thank you very much for the sharing. Even though my kids are going to international school in Hk, I  ...

I totally agree with you. I recently tried to understand more what creative writing is and what requirements it should have. It’s really challenging for local parents guiding their children too. In UK, there are a lot of sophisticated tutoring centres teaching creative writing for preparing 11+ exam or else but not easy to have one in HK.
Indeed, writing style in UK is totally different from those written by hk students. Many people always advise reading more. However, my children are not used to apply those techniques in their writing because of insufficient practice in school. How can I assist my children then? My son will not go to UK but I know English writing is also important in their studies in HK. What can I do for him? I have no clue at all.

asdzxc123

Creative writing or general writing 都好重要.我覺得就算個細路仔講得好好但唔代表佢寫得好.就算讀書讀得多又唔代表佢識發揮.所以都係溫習嚟操返嚟.自己有呢個體驗.Eye Level其實暑假有啲creative writing班.亦都可以搵個人老師.

cloud999

。。。

poonseelai

KIMLIFEINUK 發表於 24-10-7 16:45
Hello parents (and students)! 中文版在下面

honestly, your post here is far too long, I can't easily grab what you wanna say and will lose interest soon. You may try to be more creative.

KIMLIFEINUK

Mrspan 發表於 24-11-5 01:00
Thank you very much for the sharing. Even though my kids are going to international school in Hk, I  ...

No problem thanks for the reply.


I know exactly what you mean, even in international schools creative writing is not really emphasized enough, if you don't mind me sharing my experience, I suggest your children could familiarize themselves with figurative language/ writing techniques to help improve creative writing  (e.g triadic structures, foreshadowing, oxymorons..etc), as for grammar I think that skill definetly comes naturally/ develops over time.


I think doing more of it makes it more interesting and they would also learn lots of other skills on the way.

KIMLIFEINUK

swarovski2011 發表於 24-11-11 01:35
本帖最後由 swarovski2011 於 24-11-11 08:13 編輯

I totally agree with you. I recently tried to un ...

Hello, thanks for the reply, and I'm honored you're asking for my advice! I agree with you on everything the writing style is very different and it's easy to say to just read more but it is difficult to actually apply it.


I said something similar for the other reply but I suggest looking up writing techniques and figurative language (e.g similes, motifs, semantic fields..etc)- perhaps analyzing some pieces of writing- trying to spot those techniques in use, this could help with applying it as seeing how it is being used would help with applying it yourself.   


You could do activities like printing an image out (of mountains for example) and annotating/making notes around it- what atmosphere does the image evoke? what colours, features stick out the most? what similes, metaphors, personification could be used? this activity could take up to 10 ish minutes but you may find they enjoy it, especially with the visual element of pictures.

For the style of writing, it's true it's something difficult to change or improve but it can be influenced. What I mean is, identifying what makes some pieces of writing more interesting than others, is it the language, humor, description? or what makes it uninteresting, like clichés? and keeping it in mind the next time they write something .


If you wish, I don't mind reading your kid's writing and giving some advice or feedback as that would be more direct, sorry for the long message but I hope it helps, goodluck!

KIMLIFEINUK

asdzxc123 發表於 24-11-11 21:00
Creative writing or general writing 都好重要.我覺得就算個細路仔講得好好但唔代表佢寫得好.就算讀書讀得 ...

I agree, this is very true- in the UK, everyone's fluent in English but as you said, that doesn't mean everyone automatically has the skill to write well, it is a skill that's developed through practice, thanks for the reply by the way, I love hearing everyone's responses!

KIMLIFEINUK

poonseelai 發表於 24-11-12 12:42
本帖最後由 poonseelai 於 24-11-12 12:48 編輯

honestly, your post here is far too long, I can't e ...

Fair enough! it was quite long but I did have lots to share about this, in essence I was just trying to explain the differences between UK and HK schools and adapting to them especially about the writing element of English.


Creative writing is generally a commonly discussed topic, hence my intention is to see if anyone had any thoughts about this.

poonseelai

KIMLIFEINUK 發表於 24-11-13 05:48
Fair enough! it was quite long but I did have lots to share about this, in essence I was just tryi ...

I have no doubt of your good intention.  I appreciate your sharing.
My comments are simply from a reader's perspective.

Mrspan

香港有冇好嘅creative writing班？

asdzxc123

Mrspan 發表於 24-11-16 13:45
香港有冇好嘅creative writing班？

我之前用過一間鬼婆開嘅,你pm我，我話畀你聽.
如果唔係就我之前提過eye level有.

KIMLIFEINUK

This doesn't really answer your question about tuition, but in my experience teaching in an English summer camp in the uk for international students (lots of different students such as hk, mainland chinese, korean, european.. Etc) , I saw most students struggled with changing the way they write. As a suggestion, a good activity I recommend they could do is write a paragraph using a prompt such as 'write a description of a forest'- then over a month add a new phrase or vocabulary they learnt over time each week it could be replacing words with better ambitious adjectives/ writing techniques they learnt at school or grammatical corrections. I have found a year 8 UK good guide/ workbook and I'll link below.


Year 8 creative writing workbook


這並不能真正回答你關於學習班的問題，但根據我在英國為國際學生教授英語夏令營的經驗（很多不同的學生，如香港、中國大陸、韓國、歐洲......等，我看到了大多數學生們努力改變他們的寫作方式。作為一個建議，我建議他們可以做的一個很好的活動是使用提示寫一個段落，例如“寫森林的描述”——然後在一個月的時間內添加他們每週學到的新短語或詞彙，它可以被替換他們在學校或語法更正中學到的具有更好雄心勃勃的形容詞/寫作技巧的單字。我找到了一本英國八年級的好指南/練習冊，我將在下面鏈接


Year 8 creative writing workbook

KIMLIFEINUK

Here's a vocabulary list to start with- they're examples of sophisticated ambitious vocabulary to stretch students



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964000

KIMLIFEINUK 發表於 24-10-7 16:45
Hello parents (and students)! 中文版在下面

(This post is written by a student in UK)

Agree with your point regarding grammar. People always think that grammar is not taught but that’s not true. They are just not taught as explicitly as in local schools.