"My major is to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language" - Personal Statement

Requirement: submit a written statement explaining the purpose of their application and the focus of their academic interests.

Applied Program: Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition

My undergraduate major is to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language, which contains courses like Introduction to Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Chinese Language Phonetics, Chinese Lexicology, Contemporary Chinese Language and Ancient Chinese.

One of my academic interests is Chinese dialects. I enjoy listening to people talking in dialects, wondering what they are talking about and happy for the parts I can understand, which is one of the most exiting things in my life. My favorite Chinese dialect is Cantonese. In the very beginning, I love it because I love Hong Kong movies and love to murmur the speech in them----only some words and short sentences. In the university, I have the course of Ancient Chinese and learned some ancient Chinese phonetics theories. It is surprising that I can thought up three to five examples from Cantonese for every theory I learned, thanks for my pretty tiny Cantonese knowledge. Thus, I deeply feel that Cantonese is the living fossil of ancient Chinese.

Another academic interest is to continue thinking up examples for the contemporary Chinese theories I am learning. The hobby opens a new way for me to understand and remember linguistics theories. Also, it fixes my shortage of having no dialects, because my standard Putonghua helps me to think up more examples more quickly than others.

I wish to enter the graduate program in Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition in your university, because of the following three reasons.

Firstly, it may advance me to teach Chinese as a foreign language which is my career ambition. Even though my undergraduate program now is teaching Chinese as A Foreign Language, the linguistics courses it offers are all taught in Chinese. When I am taking these courses, I am all too often wondering how to speak the items I encounter in English. Even though I am reading some linguistics publications written in English, most of them are only introductions to linguistics and I can hardly find books in certain specialized field, say phonetics and semantics and it is more difficult to find original vision of foreign scholars' works. I am deeply afraid that I cannot teach learners in early stages in English. Even though there are many other teaching methods, I would like to be able to teach in any method required in the future. Nevertheless, when I read the course list of your program, I am relieved because most of the linguistics courses I have taken in university will be taught in your program in English.

Secondly, in undergraduate study I have done Field Work of Linguistic Surveys in the course of Introduction of Linguistics and a dialect investigation in Contemporary Chinese Language. But none of the two courses were closely related to linguistics general research and analysis methodology. I plan to do research in the future research program so I pretty need this knowledge. And your courses of Linguistics Research and Research Project will help me to fix this shortage.

Thirdly, I apply for university in Hong Kong because I can acquire Cantonese there. I am preparing to apply for research program after the graduation from your program and the acquisition of Cantonese is very necessary for my research. Even though I can also refer to the language database and do investigation among the users of Cantonese, some knowledge of Cantonese will be necessary if I want to do research about it. Besides the intention to apply for research program, speaking Cantonese is my dream.

Based on the statements above, I seriously wish that I may be admitted to this program in your university.

Editor comment:

The story about movies in Hong Kong is interesting but does not really move the essay toward your goal of getting in. The wandering in the street listening to dialects may be a hobby of yours, but we hope that is really isn't the most fascinating thing you do.

If it is, you need to make some more friends and get out a little more. ;-)

The part about academic interests should tell what you intend to study, which you do at the end, but not too specifically. I am not sure of the conventions of applying for school in Hong Kong, so I may be wrong, but I would advise a simple and direct approach.

Also, I'm not sure I would tell them that their program is a stepping stone to another one that you are applying for. It might be better to talk about the good things that you want to get from being in their program. Telling them that they are just a path to somewhere else is like telling a girl that you are dating her so that you can be close to her sister. It does not win you any points.

I really like the style of writing used here. It makes me feel like I am in a movie. Let me see where we can INFUSE it with a strong intention/aspiration... a vision of the future.

Look at how you can make it stronger by expressing ideas in fewer words:
In the university, I have the I took a course called Ancient Chinese and learned some ancient Chinese phonetics theories. It is surprising that I can thought up think of three to five examples from Cantonese for every theory I learned, thanks to my pretty limited Cantonese knowledge.

I think you did a great job of explaining clear, specific goals. I was going to try to find a way to infuse it with a strong intention, but you seem to already have a strong intention to be a great language teacher. Can you get even more specific? In what way can your work as a teacher transform or benefit society?

:-)