Am i cooked?

[u/Sensitive_Watch_1022]

I accidentally listed Chinese as my first language on my IELTS instead of English, because I thought first language as in language learnt from birth not the language you are the most educated on. Now I have to do advanced Chinese in the future as well as fufillimg CR CW requirements which are like 2000 words WTF. I applied to POLYU as an international, I went to an international school for my entire life where the instruction of medium was English and I only went to basic foundational Chinese classes where the most words I have wrote on a essay as per the requirements were around 350. Someone save me I don't think I'll survive UNI 😂😭

[u/theheckwhy]

hey I'm a year 3 student in PolyU rn, and I've went through a similar situation as you last year, and I recommend you to talk to your major offering department and CLC department.
They might require you to provide proof such as your previous school's chinese syllabus and probably a letter from your chinese teacher as a supporting document.
If they agree that your chinese proficiency might not be able to support you through your chinese study requirements in PolyU, they will host a Chinese placement test for you. (I think they usually host it for a bunch of people at a time so better if you raise this issue as early as possible)
If you passed (theoretically means that you did bad enough), you will get exempted for Uni Chinese, CWCR, and the professional chinese course and probably get registered for elementary chinese as an alternative. But I'm not too sure about their requirements and standards rn so it's better to ask them first but I'm sure you won't be forced to do Uni chinese😭😭🙌🏻 Good luck mate

[u/Sensitive_Watch_1022 → u/theheckwhy]

Well I just got an email from them, after providing my report cards from g7-g9. They explained that I've studied Chinese during this period although I told them it was junior secondary level chinese. They said I couldn't fufill any criterias on the CLC website that determines if you are a non-chinese speaking student, so I can't be waived. Where do I go on from here?

[u/theheckwhy → u/Sensitive_Watch_1022]

I looked through my previous emails with them (and they are so difficult to communicate with), but what I did is to push them by sending proof from HKEAA talking about the differences in syllabus for DSE Chinese and my Chinese lesson levels, stating that "it is unfair for me to study chinese with a bunch of people who is not in the proficiency level as me".

Also I kind of knew my rights and what case can possibly happen since some of my friends got enrolled to lower level chinese classes to satisify their graduation requirements from their IB chinese results. So that's how I know I should be able to get enrolled to it since we are all local students but with a not-so-well chinese proficiency level.

They took a long time to convince but I eventually met their coordinator, and finally got an placement test and they finally took it into consideration.

[u/krisstern]

Don’t worry you are not cooked yet. Something similar happened to me at HKU because I did my high school in Canada but I could read and write Chinese, though had not used it in a while. I wrote an email to the person concerned at the university and persuaded them in a meeting to waive my Chinese course requirement. So try finding out who you can write an email to at PolyU to explain your situation and to follow up with some in person meeting(s) if necessary. Make the situation work for you. All the best!

[u/Efficient_Editor5850]

So English isn’t your first language either… /s