Dear all,
Here I am, honouring my promise to NUS - A blog about my study exchange experiences in Hong Kong.
This is The University of Hong Kong's (HKU) Main Building. Does the design of this building not remind you of some ancient building? Well, let me give you some history of HKU.
The University is founded in 1910 - the birth of Hong Kong's first tertiary institution. In December 1916, the University held its first congregation, with just 23 graduates.
It was ten years after the founding of HKU that women students were admitted for the first time. In 1937, Queen Mary Hospital opened and has served as the University's teaching hospital since that time.
Up to today, it is now Hong Kong's largest tertiary-level institution for continuing education with cumulative enrolment totalling more than one million students.
Therefore, I am pretty sure I will be able to gain some quality education over here, together with some cultural exchange and interaction with the local students. I will definitely enjoy my semester here! So dear friends, enjoy along with me! =)
Friday, October 21, 2005
A summary of my HK exchange so far..It is turning colder in HK after the typhoon. The temperature is dropping gradually. Winter is coming soon! Now the average temperature is around 25-26 degree celsius. Cooling!
Getting to know more about HK's media. There are many newspapers! Unlike Singapore, there's only one dominating one - The Straits Times. In HK, there is International Herald Tribune, South China Morning Post, The Standard. These are the English ones, while the Chinese ones include Apple Daily, Ming Pao Daily News, Sing Pao Daily News, Sing Tao, Wen Wei Po, Tai Kung Po, Oriental Daily News, Asia Times and many many more! Amazing huh? HK is so small, yet there are so many newspapers catered for the population!
There are many mobile service providers too. Unlike Singapore, there are only 3 dominating ones - Singtel, M1 and Starhub. In HK, there are many! CSL, Peoples, Smartone, Sunday, New World Mobile and 3! If I am not wrong, that's about all. So there are about 6! All of them highly competitive, that is why it is so cheap to make local calls in HK. HKD$0.15 per minute!
It is legal to chew gums in HK. In Singapore, it is made illegal because some people spit their gums everywhere, and some mischievious kids stick their gums in letter box key holes. However, in HK, I realised that people chew gums and spit into rubbish bins! I hardly spot any chewing gums on seats or anywhere else. Honkies do not need people to discipline them, but Singaporeans does. Why? Does the fault lie in Singaporean or the government?
Had been doing my journalism assignment on Wikipedia. It is an online encyclopedia, whereby anyone can log in, edit and make changes to the information already on the page. This is one of the method they use to teach. They gave us one topic, and we are to add in information we can find, and anyone can edit to make it better. I kind of like Wikipedia. It is quite useful. Almost any information can be found there. You can check it out here.
WikipediaDuring lectures, they like to invite guest speakers to speak. Most of my module lecturers invited guest speakers to give lectures or to share their experiences. Quite interesting. However, most of these guest speakers either speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Therefore many exchange students need translations. Nevertheless, it is more interesting to have guest speakers than to face the same lecturer for the whole semester. Haa..
I find HK quite developed, with well developed technology. For instance, to cross the traffic light, all you need is to tap on the machine, and the green man will appear soon after that. In Singapore, you'll need to press the button. In addition, HKU toilets are equipped with energy saving lightings. Meaning when nobody's in the toilet, the lights will be switched off. When someone enters, the lights will automatically be switched on. How cool. Also, drivers do not have to tear parking coupons, unlike in Singapore. All they have to do is tap their Octopus Card (like ez-link card) and the amount will be deducted. Cool!
HK is less conservative as compared to Singapore. You can find pornographic films in VCD shops(other than HMV). They are arranged together with other films, meaning it is quite explicit. I wonder if it is legal to do so? Many VCDs shop have it, so I guess it is legal. How and why?
Oh by the way, there is something which I must really mention. Singapore english is easy to identify! Well, in the beginning when we just reached HK, many of the people will ask us if we are Singaporeans in only like 10 seconds of interaction with us! They said they can hear it from our accent. Alright man. I guess we are speaking Singlish, with the 'lah' and 'mah'. Initially, I couldnt' understand what they mean by Singapore accent. However, after that when I went out and heard some Singaporeans speak, I finally understood. It is indeed rather significant and identifiable. Haha. There was once when I was speaking English with my Singaporean friend, and my roommie actually asked me what language we were speaking, because she couldn't understand! *faint* They said we spoke very fast, and they couldn't figure out what we were talking about. Hmmz...
In HKU, there are many minor presentations of our tutorial assignments. Unlike in Singapore, I hardly get the chance to present anything.. It's alright, all we have to do is speak out loud to our tutors and classmates during class. That means presentation isn't it? So it's not a big problem I guess, till it comes to major presentation of our major assignments..
That's about it. Will update more in future. =)
11:13 PM , Reminisced
