ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: AllAboutTheLGs on January 11, 2013, 12:34:27 am
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Just wondering if there were any 2013 ESL students on this forum?
I know there were a few last year :p
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ESL 2012 represent!
Homer is ESL on the forum afaik
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I'm eligible.
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ESL for 2013 :)
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ESL 2012 represent!
Homer is ESL on the forum afaik
I'm 2012, too!
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ESL students on this board are a rare commodity. If any of you need help throughout the year feel free to PM me with questions.
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How long were you guys in Australia (or any other English speaking country) for before going into Yr12?
And which country are you from?
7 months, Germany
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I was here since year 7, so 5 years? From Malaysia :D
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Turkey, 2010 June and onwards..2.5 years?
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Vietnam, from 2010 Feb so about 3 yrs :D
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6 years, and I'll give you one guess :P
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How long were you guys in Australia (or any other English speaking country) for before going into Yr12?
And which country are you from?
7 months, Germany
7 months? Why? Afaik you came to Aus since sem 2 year 11 right? Thus it'd be 1.5 yrs
Edit:lol your ques is how long before year 12, sorry I didnt read it carefully :p
1yr, vietnam
I was here since year 7, so 5 years? From Malaysia :D
wow 50 esl so impressive!
They speak eng and chinese in Malay right?
Vietnam, from 2010 Feb so about 3 yrs :D
hi my viet fellow
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Malaysians speak Chinese, Malay and English :) my school was all Chinese though, maths science everything was taught in Chinese
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Malaysians speak Chinese, Malay and English :) my school was all Chinese though, maths science everything was taught in Chinese
Wow, I'm so evny with your amazing ability to know all 3 different languages :o
How about we start to discuss how we felt in love with English/ESL and to review the course?
I felt in love with Eng back in yr 6. I remembered vividly that we were taught a bit of Eng in primary school (yr 1-5) but my mind only started to click when I entered yr 6. At first it was just pure joy of memorising vocabulary or basic phrases of a new languge and then the culture itself :) I started to listen to its music and movies (of course with Viet subtitle on) and books (translated into Viet). But it wasn't until I came to Aus that I can fully discovered my ability. I started to read books and movies purely in Eng and I was so much enjoyed them (continue till now of course). I was no longer bound by the translator's interpretation but completely relied on my own imagination :)
Now, on the ESL course, I love it! It was only when I sat down on my first lesson of ESL that I was completely blown away thanks to my yr 10 teacher :) She was very patient with us international students who were just a flock of sheeps ;D Of course, there were many times when she's so frustrated when we spoke to eacher other in 1st lang ;D The course helped me to expose to new knowledge of Eng that I knew I wouldn't get anywhere in my home country (unless I studied in an international school :P)
One of my favourite book in the course was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho back in yr 11. It was a challenging book not because of the language but the meanings behind it. The book's main theme is to follow our dream and don't be fooled into the trap of "destiny" :) I loved the book so much that I found and read more books from Paulo. One of the things I love about Aus is the library system :) Back in my home country, there aren't many libraries, so if I want to read a book I need to buy it. It's not abig deal for me but I keep worrying that some books aren't worth to buy because I only read them once! :( On the other hand, if there is a good enough library system in vn, I'm sure that there will be many people benefit from the free knowledge that they can gain.
Back to ESL! Of course, because Eng is a humanities subjects so there're infinitely responses to a question but with no right or wrong answer! So I ended up with so many up and down marks with no consistency ;D This sometimes annoyed me :P But my teacher who taught me The Alchemist book told me, "It isn't matter how high or low you achieved, it's the knowledge itself that is important" But I'm still still so obsess with grades nowaday :P I understood my teacher but without high grades how can we get into our preferred course and finally our job?
I'm going to stop here cuz I wrote so much already :D Sorry if I write off-track sometimes :)
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I was here 3 years before I started Year 12. I could barely speak English before I came here. It became easier as I started reading more often. Now, I can barely speak my mother language... LOL
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Malaysians speak Chinese, Malay and English :) my school was all Chinese though, maths science everything was taught in Chinese
Really? I have some Malaysian mates and they said their languages were Chinese and Eng. Never heard about Malay language before :O
How about we start to discuss how we felt in love with English/ESL and to review the course?
Yeah Eng is taught from primary school in vietnam but I hate this subject so much thus never study it. When we have eng test at school, I and my classmates discuss the answers of MCQs and see whether we get the same ans or not lol
I didnt care about eng a lot until I finished yr 10 and joined in the eng camping. We spoke eng all day, studied and played games with some friends from Canada. I realised how interesting eng was then I stopped going to high school in vietnam (lol my teachers were so mad at me) and studied eng for 2 months, did IELTS test, went to Mel and started year 11
Now looking back, I have no regrets with my choice. I love eng and vce :)
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7 months? Why? Afaik you came to Aus since sem 2 year 11 right? Thus it'd be 1.5 yrs
Edit:lol your ques is how long before year 12, sorry I didnt read it carefully :p
Yup, July 2011
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In Turkey, English classes are taught from grade 4 and onwards but once students complete grade 8, they sit for an exam which determines their high school and eventually uni path. I wasn't doing very well for all of my subjects. I got 320/500 for highschool entrance exams. I didnt qualify for a nice school where english is taught very well. When I told people that I stayed in Australia when I was 5, almost everyone changed their approach to me, thinking that I could fluently speak English while I couldn't. In spite of all these difficulties, I had a very nice English teacher in high school. If i love English today, all credit goes to his high ability of teaching English. At the end of year 9, he told me that I should have taken a career path in English studies. Of course, difficult circumstances of teachers in Turkey made this choice impossible and I chose science branch for my further education at the end of year9. The only attempt I did towards improving my English was limited with video games.
It's really strange. I came to Australia to visit my grandparents. I had nothing to stay here. After all, I had no connection to this country besides my grand family and my Australian passport. As I said early, I first came to Australia when I was 2 years old and had a chance to go to kindergarten when I was 5. My mum told me that I was able to speak English like a 5 year old Aussie kid. When I went back to Turkey in 1997, I gave up speaking English...Although I remember my mum trying to speak English to me in Turkey, my ability to speak English wasn't far more than 5 sentences and of course swear words :)
In June 2010, I suddenly decided to study in Australia as my chance of getting into a university was impossible in Turkey. I had no idea how I was going to do it in Australia either. I continued studying English at a language centre for 6 months. Even though I couldn't speak two sentences in June, I left the language centre with high aims. When I started y11, I was lucky again to have such an awesome teacher. He enlightened the way I see my life with his thoughts. While every single relatives in Australia was considering me just like themselves from 1980s, I thought, hey I'm going to be different. Everyone was asking whether I was going back to Turkey again because none of them thought I could achieve my goals in Australia.
So lastly, Don't be scared. You can do this. No matter what everyone thinks or says, you have to promise yourself as I did. Woaw I haven't written this long in English after the exam :)