I ate my first artichoke yesterday when we had a BBQ for dinner. It's not the most economical of vegetables (technically, I'm told, the artichoke is a flower). You only eat the center and then the rest of the "petals" are disposed of because it's like eating dry leaves. Only about 20-30 percent of the bud is consumed. This explains why an artichoke is called an artichoke. According to wikipedia, the edible portion is the involucral bracts, the axel where the stalk of a flower arises, and therefore known as the "heart"; the mass of inedible immature florets in the center of the bud are called the "choke" . It doesn't give a meaning why it's called the choke, but perhaps if you tried to eat it you'll most likely choke to death.
The 'arti' part of the choke tastes like buttery avocado but with a stronger flavour like brussels sprouts. The nutritional value of an artichoke is that it has no fat or sugar and is low in salt. Good for people on diets. So the artichoke has been tried and tasted and if there were other options on offer I wouldn't be going back for more. Let's put it this way, if I was presented with an artichoke or brussels sprout, I'll choose the former. If I had to choose between asparagus and artichoke I'll go with the asparagus.
Jobhunting
I've started the process of jobhunting again and have applied for a couple of teaching jobs in Hong Kong. An interesting one that has come up is one to be an education counselor for the Australia Education Association, which I will probably not get because I'm asking for too much money due to my experience in being educated in the Australian education system. Selling Australian education to prospective Hong Kong students does not sound all that bad to me because it's so hard for Hong Kong students to gain a place at the universities in Hong Kong. You would have to be super-smart, not just smart to secure a place. It would be great if I can help to change the futures of some of these kids.
My greatest concern, however, is the level of English a student must have in order to study overseas at a tertiary level. I have lecture friends at universities and their biggest complaint is that these kids' parents are forking out huge sums of money for an overseas education and because of the lack of comprehension of the language that the course is taught they are failing subjects time and time again. I qualify this remark by saying that the courses my friends are teaching is law-related, where I think understanding of English is quite crucial. I've experienced doing group work with an international student who can barely read his textbook let alone write a report about teamwork development. Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience having to carry him through the subject and quite ironic, I might add, that the report was about teamwork.
On top of that, the course I was doing required groupwork for every subject. It could be the reason why it put me off completing the degree at the stage at which I would have liked to have completed it. Now I'm sounding bitter. Complaints were made but the general response was you're going to be dealing with this type of thing in the work place in the real world so put up with it. How stupid of me. I forgot that in the real world, there are people who can buy degrees without having to actually study for it. I don't mind doing the work and letting someone have the same grade as me but shouldn't they be paying me instead of the university for their degree?
Australian educators want the flow of income from their international students but I have yet to see an English proficiency test in place to ensure that the standard is acceptable before they allow students to embark on a course. Is there one? Sure there are students who go there and study English for 14 weeks before they start their courses but there are also those that don't. Should I even be worried about this? I mean the onus is on them to maximise their understanding in order to get the benefits from our educational institutions. Or I might just stick with trying to raise the level of their English.
In other news...
Hooray for more women in the High Court of Australia!
The 'arti' part of the choke tastes like buttery avocado but with a stronger flavour like brussels sprouts. The nutritional value of an artichoke is that it has no fat or sugar and is low in salt. Good for people on diets. So the artichoke has been tried and tasted and if there were other options on offer I wouldn't be going back for more. Let's put it this way, if I was presented with an artichoke or brussels sprout, I'll choose the former. If I had to choose between asparagus and artichoke I'll go with the asparagus.
Jobhunting
I've started the process of jobhunting again and have applied for a couple of teaching jobs in Hong Kong. An interesting one that has come up is one to be an education counselor for the Australia Education Association, which I will probably not get because I'm asking for too much money due to my experience in being educated in the Australian education system. Selling Australian education to prospective Hong Kong students does not sound all that bad to me because it's so hard for Hong Kong students to gain a place at the universities in Hong Kong. You would have to be super-smart, not just smart to secure a place. It would be great if I can help to change the futures of some of these kids.
My greatest concern, however, is the level of English a student must have in order to study overseas at a tertiary level. I have lecture friends at universities and their biggest complaint is that these kids' parents are forking out huge sums of money for an overseas education and because of the lack of comprehension of the language that the course is taught they are failing subjects time and time again. I qualify this remark by saying that the courses my friends are teaching is law-related, where I think understanding of English is quite crucial. I've experienced doing group work with an international student who can barely read his textbook let alone write a report about teamwork development. Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience having to carry him through the subject and quite ironic, I might add, that the report was about teamwork.
On top of that, the course I was doing required groupwork for every subject. It could be the reason why it put me off completing the degree at the stage at which I would have liked to have completed it. Now I'm sounding bitter. Complaints were made but the general response was you're going to be dealing with this type of thing in the work place in the real world so put up with it. How stupid of me. I forgot that in the real world, there are people who can buy degrees without having to actually study for it. I don't mind doing the work and letting someone have the same grade as me but shouldn't they be paying me instead of the university for their degree?
Australian educators want the flow of income from their international students but I have yet to see an English proficiency test in place to ensure that the standard is acceptable before they allow students to embark on a course. Is there one? Sure there are students who go there and study English for 14 weeks before they start their courses but there are also those that don't. Should I even be worried about this? I mean the onus is on them to maximise their understanding in order to get the benefits from our educational institutions. Or I might just stick with trying to raise the level of their English.
In other news...
Hooray for more women in the High Court of Australia!
4 comments:
Having spent the last 4 years teaching university entrance back home, I have to say that you're quite right. Students often don't have the English skills to cope with their discipline. Rumour has it that the IELTS testing score will soon go from 6.0 for undergrad and 6.5 for postgrad to 6.5 for undergrad and 7.0 for postgrad. I'm all for this change. I used to cop a lot of shit from students for being 'the hard teacher' and failing lots of my students. My reasoning was exactly that I didn't want them to fail subjects because of their English skills. If they fail because they're dumbshits... well, there's little I can do about that. Interestingly I received a lot of feedback from students who graduated to uni through me saying that they were grateful for the tough stance because they didn't feel they would have coped otherwise.
So, that's that. When are you headed back to HK????
It's about time they did something for the benefit of the local and international students and good on you for being the tough nut. You really did them a favour.
I'm headed back on Saturday. It's been a long summer but I'm looking forward to working the 9-6 again.
coincidentally i had my very first artichoke, in paris. tasted like tapioca to me. expensive piece of flower cos of how limited parts you can get out of it and it takes a long time to cook it.
Europe is the place for artichokes. My brother-in-law said they were not in season at the time, so I will give it another go when they are in season.
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