11 days until doomsday...

... at least if you take the word from my classmates. Next Saturday happens to be Parents' Day, meaning that the parents visit school and takes a look at their report cards and talks with the teacher.
If your grades are sub-par, or if you happened to fail, normal Hong Kong children will get big trouble from their parents.
This day is probably the scariest day of the year (yes, scarier than Halloween), and even worse than the day when exams are handed back after being graded.
The pass grade in Hong Kong is 50%, by the way, which really makes you appreciate how wussy the Norwegian fail grade 1 is. We'll be getting to see our grades soon too (hopefully before the parents do, so we can brace ourselves) but I don't have too high hopes. I didn't take the exams after all, and the exams are 70% of your term grade (the other 30% being tests that I mostly didn't take).

HMM

Hong Kong attitudes in homework

Yet another Saturday is here, so yet again, I sit with homework. Something I find very interesting is how much the homework you get says about attitudes in Hong Kong. Below you will find a list of questions I found in my homework that really says something about what's cool and what's not.

Question 6 : If my father ___ the Asian economic crisis, he ___ so much money on the stock market.

A. had foreseen/did not lost
B. foresaw/have not lost
C. foresaw/ would not lose
D. had foreseen/would not have lost

Question 5 : If I ___ the answer, I ___ in the examination.

A. have known/would not have failed
B. know/have not failed
C. had known/would not have failed
D. had known/have not failed

Question 1 : If I___ turn back time, I ___ more studying.

A. can...will do
B. can ...will be doing
C. could...would do
D. could...will do

Question 5 : I ___ smoking if I ___ him.

A. will stop...was
B. would stop...were
C. will stop...were
D. would stop...am

Question 5 : We ___ the examination room unless the teachers ___ us to do so.

A. shall not leave...allow
B. shall not leave...allowed
C. should not leave...allowed
D. leave...allowed

Question 6 : If we ___ our homework a little sooner, we ___ earlier.

A. started...will finish
B. had started...would have finished
C. started...would have finished
D. started...will have finished
>
...and now, for something completely different:

Question 8 : I ___ the police, if I ___ a rapist.

A. would call/meet
B. called/met
C. would call/met
D. would call/would meet

HMM

Still alive!

Yeah, I'm still alive and kicking. School has just started, and Christmas vacation was very interesting and fun, but way to short! In any case, I'm back in my school uniform, and had some giggles today, as it was cold today (Hong Kong standards, that is), and you could hear lots of "hou dung a"'s in the hall, to which I would usually reply "m dung a, hou yi a!" like the true butcher of languages I am. If I translate this directly, it looks like Tarzan language (hou dung a - very cold a, m dung a, hou yi a - not cold a, very hot a). Yes. I abuse the a. Just be ready for my new Norwegian, I'll add a's and la's and ga's after everything then too :p

Cantonese is fun, and I've been trying to learn more lately. It feels like it's helping, all though slowly. One of my awesome classmates just moved to one of the buildings next to me, and I've convinced her to help me learn more while we're taking the train to school. As of yet, it's mostly her finding random stuff to talk about, and I'll either answer or go ".... hai me a?" (is what a?). But it's a start!

I also have sports day tomorrow. Hong Kong schools are all about showing school spirit and being a pride of your school. The form 1's also have to cheer, apparently a school tradition, for the house they belong to. There are five houses with random names of famous people in my school, and everybody belongs to one. The form 1's (often referred to as poor form 1's) have to cheer on sports day and various other events as well, and I'm going to watch and giggle tomorrow (form 1A happens to be my art and Putonghua/Mandarin class). The good thing about sports day, from the perspective of a lazy person, sports day is a good day to rest, AND the day after sports day is a holiday, which means more sleep for me!

I should probably put in more culture notes... or whatever. Well, do that later, I'm tired and such.

HMM