The challenge of academic writing for Chinese students within ...

to come back and I regrouped with my old friends. So, the next two years were still a
happy time for me. I would give it a score of 8 as well.
FS:
What happened when you were 15 years old
Peter: At the age 15, I was preparing the exam and going to attend a junior high school in
my home town. My parents have four children, and I‘m my father‘s favourite son. He
thinks I‘m a clever one among the four children, although, I don‘t think I‘m clever
than my sisters and brother. When I finished my primary school years, my father
thought I would be able get in a key/prestige junior high school based his assumption
of my good exam results. I knew that I wouldn‘t be able to get in a more prestige
school. At the end, it approved that I was right. My exam results were not good
enough to land me in a key/prestige junior high school. However, my father was not
going to give up. He paid thousands of pounds to get me in a top junior high school. I
felt a bit guilty about it.
In the next three years, I was just an ordinary student in the class. My performance in
the class was just in the middle, not bad and certainly not good enough to make tutors
to notice me. The only exception was happened on the third year of my junior school.
For some reason, I found the subject of chemistry become so attractive and I put in
lots of time to study hard. The efforts were paid of. I got a top mark for this subject.
As a result, I was mentioned in the class for the progress I made. It was quite
something [laughter]. Apart from this, my three years in junior high did have any high
lights and I was just an ordinary student. It may have explained why I give a score of
7 for these three years.
FS:
What happened after your junior school years
Peter: My story of junior school years didn‘t end there. Normally, once you complete a 3-
year junior high school, you will then progress to the senior high school in the
Chinese education system. For me, it did not happen that way. On the third year, my
whole family moved to Guangzhou, a big city next to Hong Kong. My father
purchased a property in this big city. The schools in Guangzhou did not recognise my
junior high school leaving exam results. At the time, my father was ready to pay a
much higher fee to get me and my sister in a top senior high school in Guangzhou. I
felt it‘s not right to pay my way into a key school again. If I have done that, I will feel
guilty again for a long time. So, I decided to re-attend the last year of junior high
school in Guangzhou. My father just paid for my sister to get in a top senior high
school.
Re-attending the third years of junior high school in Guangzhou wasn‘t easy for me. It
was most dramatic change in my school years. As a young boy from a small town, it
was so different to study in a metropolitan city. I believe that the experience of
studying in Guangzhou has changed me in many ways.
FS:
It sounds fascinating. Could you please explain it in more details
Peter: Most students in Guangzhou speak Cantonese which I didn‘t speak. My language is
another dialect and it is very different from Cantonese. In the beginning of my school
in Guangzhou, the local students didn‘t speak to me. Even they did, I couldn‘t
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