When applying for continuers Chinese:

[samthebear]

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Title sounds ridiculous but for everyone who is of Chinese descent who wants to apply to study continuers chinese (especially if you're going to apply into a saturday school) this is going to be very handy.

Please note: if you are a true background speaker dont apply into a continuers course. because of past records of background students getting into the continuers course and pretty much raping everyone else in the exam they've made up all these rules and shit. Which makes it very hard for actual chinese continuers students who're of chinese descent to get into this course now.

When you apply and get a form thing (it looks like this: http://www.curriculumsupport.educati...11appen208.pdf ) make sure you NEVER fill in any of the boxes with an asian language. even if your parents occasionally (or often) speak canto/mando/hakka/hokkien/teochew/[insert name of another chinese dilect]
Also, and i quote:

"Note that:

• • Background Speakers of Cantonese and other Chinese dialects are considered to be Background Speakers of Chinese.*
  • Background Speakers of Indonesian and Malay are deemed to be equivalent." (taken directly from here: Board of Studies News: Official Notice - Eligibility rules for Stage 6 Languages Continuers/Background Speakers Courses )

This means; (for everyone who couldnt be bothered reading) if you (or your parents) can speak malay or indonesian you are NOT eligable to do continuers chinese. How does malay or indonesian compute to chinese - i have no idea.
My half swedish-half malay friend was put into background just because his dad can speak malay. Beware. halfies are not exempt from this rule.
* i have also learnt (the hard way) that it doesnt matter if YOU cant speak the language. as long as your parents can you will still be opted for the background course and denied entry into continuers. They operate on the assumption that because your parents can speak it therefore you can too. very fucked up reasoning but hey - this is the BoS.

Even if you have indicated an asian language as 'occasionally' you can still be put under suspicion of having more knowledge of the language than you've let on.
Things get harder still if you've attended school overseas. if you've even attended school up to grade 2 or 3 in a country with chinese as the main language you will NEVER be allowed to do continuers. so if you've studied primary/elementry school in china, HK, taiwan etc you will NEVER be allowed to study continuers chinese unless you've studied there for LESS than a year (in any grade as long as its under highschool standard).
Be prepared to justify why your abilities only extend to continuers. (my mother had to call the saturday school for a whole two weeks to convince the principal and language co-ordinator that i'm not a background speaker) and i quote:

"All students wishing to study a language for the HSC, where there is a Background Speakers course, are to be enrolled in the Background Speakers course unless they can clearly demonstrate:

• that their knowledge of that language derives solely from the study of the language as a second (or subsequent) language in an education system in which the language was not the medium of instruction;
  or
• that their knowledge of the language is derived from no more than one year's formal education (up to Year 1 or equivalent) in the language, in a country where the language is the medium of instruction." (taken directly from: Board of Studies News: Official Notice - Eligibility rules for Stage 6 Languages Continuers/Background Speakers Courses )

You will be assumed a background speaker unless you can convince them other wise. (guilty until proven innocent)

But i believe by 2011, the continuers course will not be available to anyone of Chinese heritage. they will instead have to do this thing called a "Heritage course" which sounds totally fucked up imo (and really racist - why dont they have a 'heritage' course for all other languages? why only chinese?) apparently, its supposed to provide more 'opportunities' for 'native' speakers (by native i mean people who're chinese - doesnt mean that you can actually speak the language) in that they can 'learn' more about their heritage while at the same time leveling out the playing field in the continuers course for 'non-native' speakers (by 'non-native' speakers i mean anyone who ISN'T Chinese by descent).

In short: Applying to get into continuers chinese when you're chinese is near impossible unless you're doing the course through your school in which they may be a bit more relaxed with the BoS regulations. If you're going to apply through saturday school, be prepared to justify (and provide evidence beyond doubt) why you (as a chinese person) has language abilities extending only to continuers chinese.

[Drongoski]

"Background speakers of Indonesian and Malay are deemed to be equivalent"

This is really retarded thinking. Many Malaysians and Singaporeans who can speak a dialect like Hokkien or Cantonese, cannot speak Mandarin and certainly cannot read Chinese. Even more ridiculous is to equate Indonesian/Malay which are completely distinct and unrelated languages. I'm surprised there are such muddled thinking around. I hope some of these idiots read this.

How about the native speakers of English? Shouldn't they be disallowed certain English units as well?

[DreamingReality]

I think that's quite stupid. However, I think it's more based on your actual test results than anything. I was born in New Zealand and have been educated in English for my entire life. At home, though, I speak Chinese, but if you compare background speakers and continuers, the difference in ability is insane. I should know because I'm doing Chinese Continuers right now.

The background speakers could sight read the entire translation of Obama's speech while the continuers struggle to understand a 14-lined poem. =.=''

However, when were the rules inforced? One of the students in our class studied in China for two years as an exchange student but she's accepted. Also, all of our class members are either full(chinese/indonesian), half (chinese/australian/polish)or partly chinese and speak either mandarin or a chinese dilect at home, so yeah, I think it is mainly the test and ability that they're looking for.

Also, leaving out things is being dishonest, if you get caught, it's not worth it because you'll just be pulled out of the course and then all that effort you put into the course will have been nothing so I seriously think you shouldn't leave what your parents speak , or what dialect etc.

I also think it's quite unfair, if anyone's noticed, it's only the asian languages which have "Background level" - Chinese, Japanese, Korean while most of the European ones - French, German, Italian don't have them. Background speakers are on a completely different level to continuers. In a way, they do need to be seperated to keep it fair however, sometimes, the line's a little hard to see.

[samthebear]

if you're doing chinese cont. through your school it might be easier to get into due to more relaxed enforcment of rules - but i know for saturday schools its quite hard. (or it might just be the strathfield branch - either way, those are the rules and everyone has to follow those rules. whether they do or not is up to the course provider's perogative but if found to be admiting background speakers as defined in the rules, the BoS can probably revoke the centre's ability to provide that course)