Female student gets only 10 points in Chinese subject in Nghe An

Find joy in learning a foreign language

Nguyen Kieu Dung is the only student from Nghe An to achieve this.10 pointsThe foreign language is Chinese. And I am also one of the few candidates who chose Chinese as a graduation recognition and university admission point. The 2021 high school graduation exam has just been held, Dung took the exam at Huynh Thuc Khang High School - the school she attended for 3 years of high school. But because she is a rather special candidate, Dung's exam room also had independent candidates who registered for all three subjects: English, Korean and Chinese.

Recalling the feeling of taking the Foreign Language exam in this rather “strange” exam room, Dung shared: We were quite happy because in one exam room there were many different foreign languages. This was also an interesting experience for me in this year’s exam.

The owner of a perfect score in Chinese only started learning Chinese in 11th grade. Photo: NVCC.

LIVEHuynh Thuc Khang High SchoolDung is in class 12D4 and is a class oriented towards block D (Literature - Math - English). Personally, Dung has been quite good at English since middle school and later in high school and Dung also decided to choose English to register for the university entrance exam. Because she has a talent for foreign languages, in grade 11, her father "suggested" that she should learn another foreign language and Dung chose Chinese with the initial thought of just learning "to know", "for fun".

In Vinh city, there are not many people studying Chinese and it is not easy to find a Chinese class for high school students. Then, through research, I learned about a Chinese class - mainly for workers or those who intend to study abroad or work in China and I registered to study... Dung's first Chinese lessons were in this class. "When I first got acquainted with Chinese, it was really difficult because it was very different from studying English.English. The most difficult part was having to pronounce correctly and remember how to write the words" - Dung recalled.

Although no one in Dung’s family studies foreign languages, Dung is a child who loves challenges. (In the photo: Dung with her mother in 12th grade). Photo: NVCC

Since learning Chinese, in addition to completing homework in class, Dung tries to spend time every day practicing, talking to herself and practicing new words. Dung's learning methods are also quite diverse, for example, to remember new words "I rely on the logic of the language to remember the radicals and distinguish them by learning words that have the same strokes or have related meanings".

When learning Chinese, Dung also had to spend a lot of time learning about customs, culture and reading more Chinese films and literary works. Dung's biggest challenge when getting used to this subject was remembering the meaning of words because "the pronunciation and the way sentences are arranged are more special than in English".

Moreover, a Chinese word can have three meanings, so it is very important to determine the meaning of the word to suit each context.

Personal challenge

With a passion for Chinese, Dung persistently pursued this subject until grade 12. However, it was not until the beginning of the second semester of grade 12 that Dung decided to choose Chinese as her exam subject for the 2021 High School Graduation Exam. Making this decision 6 months ago, Dung was quite reckless because besides the Chinese that she only learned "well", learning to know and learning to take the exam are completely different.

Since making this choice, Dung has also changed her way of studying. At this time, she also decided to stop studying at the center and switch to self-study because she thought that it was more suitable for her goals. To supplement the lack of knowledge, Dung searched for information on social networks and joined some online groups to learn about Chinese exams in previous school years. Because the amount of knowledge was large and quite heavy, Dung practiced a lot, "there were even many nights when Dung stayed up until morning to do the test".

Dung's goal is to pass the university of her first choice. Photo: NVCC

The difficulty at that time was that Dung had almost no teacher to guide her. She looked up the answers, graded them herself, and gave her own experience for all the questions she did. However, because Chinese was not chosen by many candidates and it was not a popular foreign language, there were not many sources of study materials and exam preparation materials. To overcome this limitation, Dung did some questions over and over again, even memorized them.

Before applying, Dung boldly registered for the Chinese language test and she got the HSK5 Chinese certificate. This was also a pretty good result and she considered it a practice session to test her ability. After this exam, Dung boldly registered her first choice for the Chinese Language major - Hanoi University of Foreign Languages.

Since setting goals for herself, Dung has also studied more effectively because she has the motivation to strive. However, when entering the 2021 High School Graduation Exam, given the importance of this exam, Dung was quite nervous and worried. That is also the reason why when receiving and reading the exam questions, Dung focused entirely on her exam and only took 30 minutes to complete the Foreign Language subject. Talking more about this, Dung shared: I finished the test very quickly, but that also made me worried and kept wondering if I did it correctly or not. In the remaining 30 minutes, I read each question carefully, reviewed each answer and did not correct any mistakes. After finishing the exam, after re-reading the answers announced by the Ministry, I was quite happy because I thought I did everything correctly. However, when I heard that I got a score of 10, I was still very surprised and happy.

In class 12D4, in addition to Dung, another female student, Nguyen Van Dan (left), also chose Chinese for the 2021 high school graduation exam. This female student also scored 9.8 points in Chinese and had quite good test results, above 27 points. Photo: NVCC

Along with the Foreign Language score of 10, Dung's other two subjects are also quite high, in which she got 9 points in Literature and 8.6 points in Math. With 27.85 points, Dung's path to NV1 admission to the University of Foreign Languages ​​is very close and Dung believes that with her love for Foreign Languages ​​and her determination, she will have more achievements in the university lecture hall. The girl with the only score of 10 in Nghe An also hopes to become a future interpreter and will be able to do the job she loves in her hometown.