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March 19, 2024, 05:55:10 pm

Author Topic: Simple SLA Detailed Study topics?  (Read 2254 times)  Share 

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Yemily

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Simple SLA Detailed Study topics?
« on: November 24, 2018, 05:19:49 pm »
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Hi guys,
This is my first time posting in the forum, so please bear with me. I'm a SLA student, but only started learning Chinese formally again a few years ago. I'm going into 3/4 next year, so I'd like to start planning my Detailed Study. What are some easier kinds of topics that I could research? E.g. My Chinese teacher says researching a historical figure is one of the more challenging types.

hums_student

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Re: Simple SLA Detailed Study topics?
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2018, 11:41:23 am »
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Hey Yemily! Welcome to the forums :) I did a historical figure as my DS last year, from my personal experience historical figures are a lot easier to do as you only need to research about their biography and the socio-political features of the period. Of course, it depends on the figure. I did 容闳, who only had one major accomplishment in his lifetime - thus it would be a lot easier than doing someone like 孙中山。I would recommend, if you choose to do a historical figure, to only focus on one major event in his/her life. For example, my DS topic was ‘容闳与他的留美幼童计划’, which is a lot more focused than just the person.

I can’t speak from personal experiences for other types of topics, but I’ve heard that famous landmarks and cuisines are also quite straightforward. In 2017 the person who got 50 raw researched a famous landmark, for example. On the other hand, some ambiguous aspects of Chinese culture may be a lot harder (for example, a lot of people at the Chinese school I wen to researched 中国人的面子习惯, which was incredibly arbitrary - hence people didn’t score high).

Just my two cents! If you want a sample script just shoot me a PM ;) (97/100 oral score). Good luck with your Chinese studies :)
2019-21: Bachelor of Arts (Politics & Int'l Relations / Economics)

Yemily

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Re: Simple SLA Detailed Study topics?
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2018, 07:55:42 pm »
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Thank you so much! :D I ended up picking a 中国的国球——乒乓球with my mum, since our teacher really wanted us to make a decision last week and I didn't check this forum :( I think I might give that topic a go, and see how it feels  :) But I guess the main challenge with historical figures, for me personally, is that I struggle to comprehend the archaic language that is so prevalent in research material.

BTW, even though the oral exam is only 8 minutes, I'm paranoid that they will ask me obscure questions that I have no idea about, since I'm not adept at thinking on my feet in Chinese :-[  But realistically, I won't be able to memorise that much content even if I complete very comprehensive research. So I've been told to narrow my areas of focus and only present specific information, so as to guide the examiner to ask questions I've prepared for (if that makes any sense?) Is that an effective way of tackling that problem?