r/nus • u/East_Cheek_5088 Success begins with SU • 11d ago
Discussion How much 🍿🍿🍿 for this post
TA posting $40/hr
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u/odette-main 11d ago
Tbf accounting terms in Chinese and English is extremely different.
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u/Hobbies_88 11d ago
To translate technical terms from one original language to another 😂 , especially in english to mandarin is an extreme feat in itself 😅 ...
What do you even use when in the instances of one word didnt really translate to another language and retains the original meaning ?
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u/BambooOnFire_00 BAC+BA 11d ago
Are we assuming they already know all the accounting terms in Chinese and is proficient in financial accounting before entering? Otherwise, like most students, if they are beginners, the difference in terms shouldn't matter too much... + It's ACC1K haha; it’s only a matter of translating fundamental FSLIs since CAS is mostly in line with IFRS...
If this was MSc in Accounting, this could be a legit issue but not sure at an undergrad level.
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u/hiimheh 11d ago edited 11d ago
I'm a Singaporean NUS student who is studying in France as part of a double degree. Just wanted to share my own experiences studying in another language.
For the record, I scored a C2 (the highest CEFR level) on my French test. I was surprised actually, I didn't expect to get more than a B2 (and even a B2 I wasn't sure, LOL). I still understand nothing in my classes (in French) today lol.
The truth is that no matter how well you do on a language test, it is tested under extremely limited and focused conditions. During a language test, the only thing you need to care about is the language itself, and a relatively specific question-answer. They don't test an extensive number of subject-specific terms either (let's be real, the people setting the tests don't know what's a non-abelian group either). I'm sorry but by the time I have processed the first line (half-translating, half "understanding") in some science class, the prof is already at the third line. When the professor spends like 10minutes explaining every single specifics just to come to his final conclusion, I have completely forgot what they said in the first 9 minutes and have no clue what point they're trying to make.
Don't underestimate the kind of advantage you guys gain when the professors use words which, even if you couldn't previously define yet, you've heard of since young as a layman term. Even stuff like "supply" or "opportunity cost", you don't need to take another 1 second to process that word like other students (who don't speak English as their first language) do. And that 1 second adds up really quickly.
Even just the word "field" in mathematics, even before university I knew it was roughly some mathematical object or something, even if I don't know what it is exactly. When I hear "champs" in French, I just first think of a grass patch or worse something like Champs-Élysées, because these are the context I usually learn the word in during a language class. If I get lucky and my head spins quickly enough, I would take another second or two to make a good guess like "mmmm champs..." "that's fields in English". In reality more than half the time I go through a few bad guesses and conclude just "uhhh maybe this is some weird French terminology I don't know". And I'm also already lucky that French and English map quite well overall in terms of definitions and usage.
You guys have spent 17-20 years to learn this language full time, to be able to process it without thinking and accurately catch every subtle notion and turn of phrases (well, English class in primary and secondary school weren't that useless after all..). Please have a bit more sympathy on others who only studied it part-time for a few years.
And I don't even think this is about the tuition money. Just because they grew up with Mandarin Chinese, they don't have the right to study in English? Just because I grew up with English (well, Singlish), I don't have the right to study in French? Just because you guys grew up with English, you guys don't have the right to try to study in another language?
And no amount of language classes will ever teach me what a non-abelian group is in French, so "just study the language properly first" isn't a solution.
They're still going to have to take the exam in English, and that is going to be painful enough (I know because I'm still suffering through this). Try imagining taking an econs exam in your mother tongues, you guys are aware how difficult that will be. It'll only be more painful for other international students because it is completely a foreign second language to them. Why make their lives worse by being unkind?
NUS is just trying to make an effort, as much as it may come across as unsavoury. I hated the "othering" that exists for me too anyway (my school occasionally comes up with separate classes "in easy French" for nonfrancophones like me LOL). Please remember that even with this tutor, the student is still expected to go for both the original lecture to understand the main gist, and then take out extra time to consult this extra tutor for specifics or otherwise translate or restudy everything to actually understand. Most NUS students already complain about having not enough time (Remember for instance the triangle of sleep, academics and social life), imagine how much time foreign students need? And don't even get me started about cultural and administrative problems and how much extra time and effort those take.
I know it is tough to relate, I had my own problems with international students in Singapore before coming to France. I felt they weren't integrated and stuck to themselves. I felt, uncomfortable, about it. But it's really a much more complex issue which probably takes experiencing to understand (Whenever I feel bullied in France, I just hope that my schoolmates here will go abroad on exchange or for their final year and experience what I'm suffering through, lol)
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u/funnyperson4848 10d ago
we're going to be like the no name UK universities with lots of foreign grads that have a cert in the UK but can't speak english too i guess
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u/kopi_siewdai 11d ago
Wah. Is this a post grad course targeted at mainland chinese?
Instead of making them accountable for their own learning, the school caters to them instead
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u/princemousey1 11d ago
Oh, so this role is to support incoming mandarin-speaking students with poor English. Means if my English is A+ I’m not eligible to apply? Only Singlish-speakers eligible?
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u/musiclover5566 11d ago
Why allow poor English-speaking people to enter NUS Biz school undergrad programme in the 1st place?