Early on Monday morning, everyone put on Western-style uniforms custom-made by the school and embroidered with the school logo, and gathered in the hotel lobby.
The boys are all wearing black suits, white shirts and dark red ties, while the girls are wearing small black suits on the upper body and long dark plaid skirts on the lower body.
In fact, China Overseas College does not have school uniforms. In Mr. Hu’s words, during the four years of college life, the only set of camouflage uniforms that could barely be regarded as school uniforms was left to Xu Yiyang and sold to construction sites.
This time the school customized such a costume for everyone to improve the overall image of the school.
Mr. Hu explained the details of the exchange to everyone last night. The person who communicated with them this time was mainly the English Department of the Faculty of Liberal Arts of the University of Hong Kong.
In addition to some exchange activities, the twelve students have to integrate into the four grades from freshman to senior in the English Department of HKU.
You should be like a transfer student and learn their courses and experience their teaching methods.
At the same time, we should also export the teaching methods and concepts of China Overseas College to the classmates and teachers in the class.
For example, if we take the same English and American literature course, the teaching materials and education methods are different, and the students’ experiences will be different.
When students from China Overseas Chinese University transfer to the English Department of HKU to take classes, they can compare the teaching methods of the two schools, and then give their true thoughts to the professors at HKU and their own professors at China Overseas University.
One of the key points that Mr. Hu has always explained is that HKU has always adopted all-English teaching.
Not only English majors, but in addition to other language majors, other science, engineering, economics and management, and forensic medicine are almost all taught in English.
Therefore, let alone the English department, the lectures given by professors and the communication between students are basically all in English.
This is very different from China.
Domestic schools naturally teach in Chinese, and even language subjects like English are taught in Chinese and English.
Therefore, Mr. Hu is worried that everyone will not adapt to this kind of class rhythm, and is also worried that everyone’s English level is not enough to support all-English teaching, so he reminds everyone to pay enough attention, otherwise they may not understand what the teacher is saying.
Most of us are under great pressure, but Xu Yiyang doesn't care at all.
Seeing that he seemed to be absent-minded, Mr. Hu said: "Xu Yiyang, although your spoken English is very good, you must also pay more attention. Don't think that if you are good at English, you will be able to do well at the University of Hong Kong. Let me tell you, I am so old and cannot learn English so well." After many years, it is still difficult to communicate in English with several senior professors majoring in English at the University of Hong Kong. Do you know why?"
Xu Yiyang shook his head.
Other students also became curious.
Mr. Hu said: "Although they learn English very well, their spoken English is really not flattering. Many people speak with a strong Cantonese accent. Once they speak too fast or off-kilter, you won't understand what they mean at all. Then the other party will think that your English level is not very good and they can’t understand you.”
Xu Yiyang suddenly realized.
Yes.
Everyone has an accent.
There are so many big names in China Internet worth tens of billions of dollars, and most of them don’t speak Mandarin very well.
Mr. Lei, the founder of Xiaomi, is the one who is often ridiculed for his accent.
Can you blame him? Of course not.
As the saying goes, local pronunciation is hard to change, and not everyone can overcome the problems of language and pronunciation habits.
Among other things, when Australians chat with British people, they often don’t understand what the other person is saying.
Although they use the same language, it feels like one speaks Mandarin and the other speaks Chinese. The gap is still very big.
If you come to the University of Hong Kong for exchange, it will be okay if you are a foreign teacher from Europe and the United States. If you are a local professor, there is a real possibility that your spoken English will be mixed with local accents.
In his previous business life, Xu Yiyang had many contacts with businessmen from Guangdong Province or Hong Kong. Although he didn't speak Cantonese well, he could still understand it. However, when Mr. Hu said this, he nodded repeatedly to express that he must listen carefully.
Later, Hu Laocai said with a smile: "Okay, it's almost time. Let's set off. Everyone must behave well. While learning from other people's advanced teaching experience, we must not embarrass China Overseas!"
Although the area of HKU is not very large, it is much larger than the small China Overseas University.
Since we had already visited the venue in advance yesterday, everyone came to the Faculty of Arts of HKU with ease.
A vice-dean from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Hong Kong was responsible for this matchmaking. He had been waiting downstairs in the administration building early, and then enthusiastically introduced himself to everyone.
The vice-president's name is Huang Zongyao. He is about fifty years old and has a severe Mediterranean hairstyle. He looks naive but is actually a warm-hearted person.
Huang Zongyao's Mandarin was not very good, and people couldn't understand him when he spoke Cantonese, so after he explained it, he simply used English.
As soon as he started speaking, Xu Yiyang secretly sighed that what Hu Bingwen said couldn't be more correct. This uncle's English had such a pronounced local accent that it was almost comparable to the accent of Indians speaking English.
However, fortunately, the uncle seemed to be self-aware, so he spoke slowly and it didn't sound too difficult.
The uncle said that the English Department of the School of Liberal Arts had prepared a welcome ceremony for everyone, so he took everyone directly to a small auditorium.
The small auditorium is not big, and can accommodate a few hundred people in total. It is said that all those who come are students from the English Department of the Faculty of Arts.
There was no communication between us. We just stood on the stage. First, the person in charge of the other party expressed welcome, and then the person in charge of both sides talked about the significance and importance of exchanges between the two places.
Then, the twelve students from China Overseas Chinese Language and Culture University were asked to come on stage and introduce themselves.
Xu Yiyang was placed first by Mr. Hu.
At the same time, Mr. Hu also whispered in his ear: "You have the best spoken English in our team. Say more later."
Xu Yiyang nodded, it's okay to say a few more words.
But, what to say
I didn’t prepare any manuscript myself.
I originally thought that I would just go up and say a set of polite words in English.
For example, hello everyone, my name is Xu Yiyang. I am honored to come to the University of Hong Kong for exchange and study. I hope you can take care of me in the coming days.
However, Mr. Hu obviously wanted to give him more.
After all, he was a forty-year-old uncle. Although Xu Yiyang was unprepared for this moment, he did not have stage fright.
So he was the first to walk to the center of the auditorium stage and said seriously: "Hello everyone, my name is Xu Yiyang, you can call me Jeremy."
Just this sentence immediately made many people look shocked.
The quality of spoken English can be said to be known from a glance.
If you want to know whether a foreigner speaks Chinese well, ask him to say "Hello" in Mandarin, and you can basically tell how much he weighs.
If the pronunciation is "Ni Hao", it is basically not good.
If it's pronounced as "Nihao", that's not good either.
why
Because these two words look very simple, but the standard pronunciation has three tones, so you have to twist them.
There are four normal pronunciations in Chinese and there are no twists and turns, which means that a quarter of the pronunciations are not standard.
Such spoken language is certainly not considered good.
The reverse is also true.
To determine the quality of spoken English, one sentence, or even one word, is enough.
The sentence Xu Yiyang came up with is basically the standard British pronunciation. Since Hong Kong has only returned to the motherland for more than two years, many professors at the University of Hong Kong are British, so the students at the University of Hong Kong are most familiar with the British pronunciation of English.
As soon as he opened his mouth, he could tell that Xu Yiyang's pronunciation was exactly the same as those of the professors.
It is indeed difficult for Asians to learn a standard English accent in an Asian environment, and it is also difficult for Europeans and Americans to learn a standard Chinese accent in a European and American environment.
It is very rare to be able to speak like a native speaker.
And Xu Yiyang is such a picker.
Just when the audience was shocked, he deliberately lowered his voice, making it a little magnetic, and continued: "I am very honored to come to Hong Kong and to the University of Hong Kong to meet face to face with all my compatriots and classmates. We were at the campus of the University of Hong Kong yesterday. , I took a quick tour on my own, and after just a brief experience, I can feel that the University of Hong Kong is indeed a very beautiful, very open, and at the same time an institution of higher learning with a rich history... "
At this moment, some girls in the audience screamed.
The boys were also shocked and speechless.
What are you doing? Don’t you mean college students from mainland China? Are you sure this guy on stage didn't come back from the UK
Xu Yiyang didn't want to develop himself into a voice actor, and he didn't want to speak with the British accent that he and Gu Sijia had practiced for more than ten years, but the key was that he couldn't speak other accents.
Besides, he still carries the trust of Mr. Hu. The old man just wants to show off his speaking skills, so he won't do it if he doesn't say it.
Besides, isn’t it just that they went to such great lengths to open a back door for themselves and recruit themselves to China Overseas just to be useful in situations like this
As the saying goes, half a year of raising soldiers is spent in one day. I really have to satisfy the desire of a lot of old Hu to show off.
So, while everyone was stunned, he continued: "Confucius once said a famous saying: When three people walk together, there must be one teacher. My classmates and I all have a humble heart and look forward to the next three weeks. I look forward to learning from everyone through exchanges and learning, and looking forward to learning more knowledge and experience from everyone in this exchange, and looking forward to becoming friends with everyone.”
As he spoke, Xu Yiyang continued without pausing or thinking: "At the same time, I also hope that our exchange will kick off the long-term exchanges between China Overseas International Studies University and the University of Hong Kong, a well-known Asian university, and let the two Both universities can have more exchanges and discussions in the future, and the friendship will last forever, thank you all!"
He is quite tall, has a handsome face, has a magnetic voice, and his speaking skills are surprisingly good.
Xu Yiyang caused a commotion in the audience as soon as he appeared on the stage.
Many students from the University of Hong Kong in the audience have actually never heard of China Overseas International Studies University. In addition, Xu Yiyang and others are college students from the mainland, which makes some people feel like distant relatives from the countryside visiting the city.
Therefore, some people instinctively feel that these people must be much worse than themselves, especially in English, which is incomparable.
As a result, when Xu Yiyang went to this stop, there was a series of self-introductions without manuscripts, pauses, or stumbles.
The spoken language is impeccable and authentic.
The vocabulary is also large, and many of the grammar and sentence structures are beyond the scope of first-year college textbooks, making them more interesting.
It can be said that as soon as Xu Yiyang came up, he shattered the sense of superiority in some people's hearts.
Hong Kong students who originally didn't think highly of these exchange students couldn't help but take them seriously.
Mr. Hu was particularly satisfied.
This is why I would rather beg for nothing and get Xu Yiyang to China Overseas!
It’s really embarrassing for the school!
(End of chapter)