關於 self introduction for school interview ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

There’s rhythm in writing! 🎶

這個禮拜Presentality的Andrew來分享英文寫作的節奏!

★★★★★★★★★★★★

我的工作需要看非常多的英文。

其中有英文母語的人寫的，也有非母語的人寫的。最近，我注意到一個兩者之間很明顯的差別。這個差別很少有人提到，因為它無關文法正確，也不是有學問的用語，或是文雅的詞彙。

是句子的長短。

Well，更正確的來說，是長句跟短句的交錯。我發現，非母語人士寫的英文句子，不但比英文母語的人寫的長，而且是大部分句子都很長。

母語的人，尤其是很會寫的人，則是會把長句跟短句混合搭配。
那又怎樣？

★★★★★★★★★★★★

你可能會說 ok，以英文為母語的人比較會用短的句子，那又怎樣？句子的長短，跟我寫作的好壞，有關嗎？

關係可大了。

就像音樂，或是影片，文字也是「內容」。只要是「內容」，就有它的節奏。你可以想像一首曲子，從頭到尾都是很長的音，而且一點變化都沒有嗎？或是一部很長的影片，從頭到尾都是很長的畫面，而且一點節奏的變化都沒有嗎？

Well actually，你應該可以想像，這些就是要幫助我們睡眠的。
如果你不想要你的讀者覺得無聊或甚至睡著，我建議適度變換你文字的節奏。

但我們先看案例。

我拿一篇台灣人寫的文，跟另一篇美國人寫的，來做比較：把每個句子都分拆成不同的段落，句子的長短就一目了然了。

★★★★★★★★★★★★

但我們先看案例。

我拿一篇台灣人寫的文，跟另一篇美國人寫的，來做比較：把每個句子都分拆成不同的段落，句子的長短就一目了然了。

📌 台灣案例：Taipei Times Opinion

1. The TAIEX last month rose above 17,000 points as rallies in steel, shipping and some non-tech stocks offset a weakness in semiconductor and electronics stocks.

2. While news about a cluster of local COVID-19 infections connected with China Airlines cargo pilots and a hotel in Taoyuan fueled selling pressure early this month and pushed the local stock market into consolidation mode, the daily market turnover in the first two trading sessions of this month hit fresh highs.

3. Moreover, Taiwan’s stock trading volume last month began to surpass that of Hong Kong for the first time in 15 years, which was beyond most market participants’ expectations.

4. Taiwan’s daily market turnover exceeding Hong Kong’s might gradually become a new normal from this year, and there are good reasons for this.

5. First, Hong Kong’s stock market has lost its appeal to foreign investors since China last year imposed national security legislation on the territory, triggering a potential flight of capital and talent.

6. Second, many wealthy Taiwanese tend to park their overseas funds in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Switzerland and the US, but government statistics showed that more than 80 percent of funds repatriated by wealthy individuals last year were from Hong Kong, as they saw the political situation in the territory worsen after its self-governance, human rights and freedom of speech were further suppressed.

7. Third, China’s new NASDAQ-style stock board — the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR board — has emerged as a fast-growing capital markets center for Chinese companies at a time when rising China-US tensions have triggered concerns about their prospects of listing in New York, posing a growing challenge to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

8. On the other hand, Taiwan’s economic fundamentals, the central bank’s adoption of extraordinary monetary easing and the government’s fiscal policies have fueled continued rallies in the nation’s stock market since last year.

9. It might be too early to tell how long the consolidation trend might last, as a resurgent COVID-19 outbreak is coloring the global economic outlook, but some insight can be drawn from the stock market:

10. Taiwan’s GDP grew a larger-than-expected 8.16 percent in the first quarter, as exports and private investment remained healthy.

都是一堆很長的句子對不對？我們來看美國人寫的句子，也是一個主流媒體的 opinion 文。

★★★★★★★★★★★★

📌 美國案例：New York Times Opinion

1. I miss torturing Liz Cheney.

2. But it must be said that the petite blonde from Wyoming suddenly seems like a Valkyrie amid halflings.

3. She is willing to sacrifice her leadership post — and risk her political career — to continue calling out Donald Trump’s Big Lie.

4. She has decided that, if the price of her job is being as unctuous to Trump as Kevin McCarthy is, it isn’t worth it, because McCarthy is totally disgracing himself.

5. It has been a dizzying fall for the scion of one of the most powerful political families in the land, a conservative chip off the old block who was once talked about as a comer, someone who could be the first woman president.

6. How naïve I was to think that Republicans would be eager to change the channel after Trump cost them the Senate and the White House and unleashed a mob on them.

7. I thought the Donald would evaporate in a poof of orange smoke, ending a supremely screwed-up period of history.

8. But the loudest mouth is not shutting up.

9. And Republicans continue to listen, clinging to the idea that the dinosaur is the future.

10. “We can’t grow without him,” Lindsey Graham said.

📌 Note: 即使是比較長的句子，這位作者也會用標點符號拆散它：She is willing to sacrifice her leadership post — and risk her political career — to continue calling out Donald Trump’s Big Lie. 這就好比用句點一樣，讓我們讀起來有點停頓休息的時間。

★★★★★★★★★★★★

📌 注意到了嗎？

台灣人寫的英文，句子都偏長，而且長度都差不多。
美國人寫的就不一樣了：一個只有五個字的句子開頭，然後一堆稍微長一點的句子，然後再來一串短句。

你可能懷疑我故意挑選很極端了例子出來，而且幹嘛專門打台灣人呢？

所以想到這裡，我從我的書架上，隨便挑了兩本跟科技有關的書出來。左邊的，是美國人，矽谷知名投資人 Peter Thiel。右邊的是德國人，但注意了，是一個英文非常好的德國人。他不但是世界經濟論壇的創辦人，研究所也是在哈佛大學唸的。

★★★★★★★★★★★★

📌 兩本書 Introduction 是怎麼寫的？

Klaus Schwab (德國)：

Of the many diverse and fascinating challenges we face today, the most intense and important is how to understand and shape the new technology revolution, which entails nothing less than a transformation of humankind.

We are at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another.
In its scale, scope and complexity, what I consider to be the fourth industrial revolution is unlike anything humankind has experienced before.

Peter Thiel (美國)：

Whenever I interview someone for a job, I like to ask this question: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"

The question sounds easy because it's straightforward.
Actually, it's very hard to answer.

It's intellectually difficult because the knowledge that everyone is taught in school is by definition agreed upon.

See the difference?

★★★★★★★★★★★★

📌 如何變換節奏呢？

需要Andrew的完整分享請留言「There’s rhythm in writing~」。

Follow Presentality for more!
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泰晤士報人物專訪【Joshua Wong interview: Xi won’t win this battle, says Hong Kong activist】

Beijing believes punitive prison sentences will put an end to pro-democracy protests. It couldn’t be more wrong, the 23-year-old says.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/joshua-wong-interview-xi-wont-win-this-battle-says-hong-kong-activist-p52wlmd0t

For Joshua Wong, activism began early and in his Hong Kong school canteen. The 13-year-old was so appalled by the bland, oily meals served for lunch at the United Christian College that he organised a petition to lobby for better fare. His precocious behaviour earned him and his parents a summons to the headmaster’s office. His mother played peacemaker, but the episode delivered a valuable message to the teenage rebel.

“It was an important lesson in political activism,” Wong concluded. “You can try as hard as you want, but until you force them to pay attention, those in power won’t listen to you.”

It was also the first stage in a remarkable journey that has transformed the bespectacled, geeky child into the globally recognised face of Hong Kong’s struggle for democracy. Wong is the most prominent international advocate for the protests that have convulsed the former British colony since last summer.

At 23, few people would have the material for a memoir. But that is certainly not a problem for Wong, whose book, #UnfreeSpeech, will be published in Britain this week.

We meet in a cafe in the Admiralty district, amid the skyscrapers of Hong Kong’s waterfront, close to the site of the most famous scenes in his decade of protest. Wong explains that he remains optimistic about his home city’s prospects in its showdown with the might of communist China under President Xi Jinping.

“It’s not enough just to be dissidents or youth activists. We really need to enter politics and make some change inside the institution,” says Wong, hinting at his own ambitions to pursue elected office.

He has been jailed twice for his activism. He could face a third stint as a result of a case now going through the courts, a possibility he treats with equanimity. “Others have been given much longer sentences,” he says. Indeed, 7,000 people have been arrested since the protests broke out some seven months ago; 1,000 of them have been charged, with many facing a sentence of as much as 10 years.

There is a widespread belief that Beijing hopes such sentences will dampen support for future protests. Wong brushes off that argument. “It’s gone too far. Who would imagine that Generation Z and the millennials would be confronting rubber bullets and teargas, and be fully engaged in politics, instead of Instagram or Snapchat? The Hong Kong government may claim the worst is over, but Hong Kong will never be peaceful as long as police violence persists.”

In Unfree Speech, Wong argues that China is not only Hong Kong’s problem (the book’s subtitle is: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now). “It is an urgent message that people need to defend their rights, against China and other authoritarians, wherever they live,” he says.

At the heart of the book are Wong’s prison writings from a summer spent behind bars in 2017. Each evening in his cell, “I sat on my hard bed and put pen to paper under dim light” to tell his story.

Wong was born in October 1996, nine months before Britain ceded control of Hong Kong to Beijing. That makes him a fire rat, the same sign of the Chinese zodiac that was celebrated on the first day of the lunar new year yesterday. Fire rats are held to be adventurous, rebellious and garrulous. Wong is a Christian and does not believe in astrology, but those personality traits seem close to the mark.

His parents are Christians — his father quit his job in IT to become a pastor, while his mother works at a community centre that provides counselling — and named their son after the prophet who led the Israelites to the promised land.

Like many young people in Hong Kong, whose housing market has been ranked as the world’s most unaffordable, he still lives at home, in South Horizons, a commuter community on the south side of the main island.

Wong was a dyslexic but talkative child, telling jokes in church groups and bombarding his elders with questions about their faith. “By speaking confidently, I was able to make up for my weaknesses,” he writes. “The microphone loved me and I loved it even more.”

In 2011, he and a group of friends, some of whom are his fellow activists today, launched Scholarism, a student activist group, to oppose the introduction of “moral and national education” to their school curriculum — code for communist brainwashing, critics believed. “I lived the life of Peter Parker,” he says. “Like Spider-Man’s alter-ego, I went to class during the day and rushed out to fight evil after school.”

The next year, the authorities issued a teaching manual that hailed the Chinese Communist Party as an “advanced and selfless regime”. For Wong, “it confirmed all our suspicions and fears about communist propaganda”.

In August 2012, members of Scholarism launched an occupation protest outside the Hong Kong government’s headquarters. Wong told a crowd of 120,000 students and parents: “Tonight we have one message and one message only: withdraw the brainwashing curriculum. We’ve had enough of this government. Hong Kongers will prevail.”

Remarkably, the kids won. Leung Chun-ying, the territory’s chief executive at the time, backed down. Buoyed by their success, the youngsters of Scholarism joined forces with other civil rights groups to protest about the lack of progress towards electing the next chief executive by universal suffrage — laid out as a goal in the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution. Their protests culminated in the “umbrella movement” occupation of central Hong Kong for 79 days in 2014.

Two years later, Wong and other leaders set up a political group, Demosisto. He has always been at pains to emphasise he is not calling for independence — a complete red line for Beijing. Demosisto has even dropped the words “self-determination” from its stated goals — perhaps to ease prospects for its candidates in elections to Legco, the territory’s legislative council, in September.

Wong won’t say whether he will stand himself, but he is emphatically political, making a plea for change from within — not simply for anger on the streets — and for stepping up international pressure: “I am one of the facilitators to let the voices of Hong Kong people be heard in the international community, especially since 2016.”

There are tensions between moderates and radicals. Some of the hardliners on the streets last year considered Wong already to be part of the Establishment, a backer of the failed protests of the past.

So why bother? What’s the point of a city of seven million taking on one of the world’s nastiest authoritarian states, with a population of about 1.4 billion? And in any case, won’t it all be over in 2047, the end of the “one country, two systems” deal agreed between China and Britain, which was supposed to guarantee a high degree of autonomy for another 50 years? Does he fear tanks and a repetition of the Tiananmen Square killings?

Wong acknowledges there are gloomy scenarios but remains a robust optimist. “Freedom and democracy can prevail in the same way that they did in eastern Europe, even though before the Berlin Wall fell, few people believed it would happen.”

He is tired of the predictions of think-tank pundits, journalists and the like. Three decades ago, with the implosion of communism in the Soviet bloc, many were confidently saying that the demise of the people’s republic was only a matter of time. Jump forward 20 years, amid the enthusiasm after the Beijing Olympics, and they were predicting market reforms and a growing middle class would presage liberalisation.

Neither scenario has unfolded, Wong notes. “They are pretending to hold the crystal ball to predict the future, but look at their record and it is clear no one knows what will happen by 2047. Will the Communist Party even still exist?”

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1119445/unfree-speech

【專題訪問 Interview Feature】2019年度香港大學學生會周年大選中央幹事會候選内閣蒼傲訪問（內務篇） | Interview with Prism, the Proposed Cabinet of Executive Committee, The Hong Kong University Students’ Union of Annual Election 2019 (Internal Affairs)

(Please scroll down for English version.)

中央幹事會候選內閣蒼傲就內務議題接受本台訪問，就內閣理念、參選原因、及政綱如增設中央幹事會席位專注管理國際生事務等發/表意見。

訪問節錄如下：

1. 你們可否簡單自我介紹？
鄭鎮熙（下稱鄭）：大家好我是鄭鎮熙（候選會長）， 來自理學院五年級。 今次參選學生會因為對學生會有一些意見、 一些改進空間、 自己一直以來都希望為學校和學校未來的發展而發出一些聲音。

張信一（下稱張）：Hi, so I am Shaun, studying Economics and Finance Year 3. The main reason why I have nominated myself to be the executive committee of the HKUSU is because, I have been a little bit unhappy with the way it has been running in the last few years I have been here. I want to see if I could make a difference.

李鎔津（下稱李）：我是李鎔津， 候選大學事務秘書， 現就讀文學士及法學士二年級，參選中央幹事會的原因與其他兩位一樣希望令港大變得更加好， 我們有意見想提出和改進。關於議題參與率低的問題，若果我們有很幸當選， 便會為各個議題製作簡介， 希望讓同學知道怎樣從議題入手，從而提高參與率。 第二個原因是希望學生會會作為橋樑與校方討論大學事務，大學事務與每一個同學息息相關， 於各種議題同學都會想提出意見。

2. 你們可否解釋莊理念？
鄭：我們內閣名字是蒼傲， 分開八個字便是「蒼茫大地，傲骨依然」，頭四字是我們認為今屆學生會選舉只有四個人出選，反映出港大學生投入讀書以外活動有很大的疑問。蒼汒大地、傲骨依然正正代表了學校現在的情況、社會現在的情況、甚至整體香港的未來其實都是一個大問號。至於「傲骨依然」四個字我們認為作為港大學生應有一份榮譽感，畢竟港大是最高學府，所以每一個在港大學習的學生都是十分有能力，所以傲字不單是自我的鼓勵，亦是向所有的學生說面對不如意或逆境時，都希望能有一份永不放棄、倔強的精神，去迎接當下的困難，因為我們相信困難過後必會雨過天晴，會看見彩虹，所以這也是我們選擇Prism為我們英文閣名的原因。

張：What we think Prism represents is simple. We want to act like a prism, and we think everybody in HKU is like a light. We have a lot of potential in all of us and we want to use your light and turn the campus into a more vibrant environment for all of us. Hence, Prism, we think is pretty good symbol of what we intend to do.

3. 你們為何於重開提名期後才報名參選？
鄭：我們在（12月）24、25日左右收到重開提名期的電郵，剛好我跟一大班的朋友舉行聖誕派對，期間我們就這問題（重開提名期）進行討論。剛好認識到Shaun和 Kelly，我們三人想法上十分接近，就是認為既然沒有人參選，我們或者可以試一試，所以最後參選今屆的學生會。

4. 為何沒有人競逐外務副會長一職？
鄭：其實我們希望將視線放在會務及校務上。當然我們並非將外務議題全面拋棄，只是我們認為就校內參選氣氛、學生關注的事情等，都是在提醒我們今年學生會認該將更多的時間放在內務常務的議題上。

5. 你們於政綱提出「是時候做不同的事」，是什麼意思？
張：The thing we want to do differently, is to provide a more positive atmosphere that I think is more reflective of the student body in HKU as a whole. Because, if you look around, a lot of the posters and and lot of notices put out by the Student(s’) Unions of the past have been predominantly negative, I think they are right to be upset about some of the issues, but I think it’s a bit overboarded and a bit dramatic, and it turns a lot of students off. So, we acknowledge that there are issues but we will face them in a positive manner.

6. 近年學生會就社會時事（如DQ議員事件) 出聲明 ，若果來年當選會否出聲明？
鄭：我們認為學生會代表了全學校的學生去發聲，所以學生會應該絕大部份的時候保持中立，因為它只是一個連接外界及學生的橋樑。

7. 你們可否解釋就國際生議題上與往年學生會有何分別
張：First thing is, we are going to consider opening a new seat in the executive committee that is dedicated to non-local students' affairs. And of course we are going to have a series of activities that we hope to be more effective (in the issue of international students). For example, we are considering hosting a non-local orientation camp and some other cultural immersion activities, for example a mahjong class for non-local students, and also some cultural heritage tours. We hope to invite students of different nationalities to take part in it.

Campus TV has interviewed with Prism, the Proposed Cabinet of Executive Committee, The Hong Kong University Students’ Union, Session 2019, with regards to their treatment of internal affairs. Prism has expressed their opinions on internal affairs, which include: the Cabinet’s mission statement, the reasons for running as candidate, and details on their platform such as increasing the seats in the Students’ Union, and focusing on international students’ affairs.

The interview excerpts are as follows:

1. Could you please introduce yourselves?
Andrew Cheng Chun Hei (Cheng): Hello, I am Andrew Cheng Chun Hei (Proposed President), from the Faculty of Science Year 5. I am running for the Students’ Union because I have some opinions about the Union, I think there is some room for improvement. All along, I have wished to voice my opinions regarding the school and the school’s future development.

Shaun Cheung Shun Yat (Cheung): Hi, so I am Shaun, studying Economics and Finance Year 3. The main reason why I have nominated myself to be the executive committee of the HKUSU is because, I have been a little bit unhappy with the way it has been running in the last few years I have been here. I want to see if I could make a difference.

Kelly Li Yung Chun (Li): I am Kelly Li Yung Chun, the Proposed University Affairs Secretary, I am a Year 2 pursuing the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. The reason why I am running as candidate in the Annual Election 2019 is in line with the other two candidates in a sense that I wish to see the University of Hong Kong become better; we have comments we wish to raise and matters we wish to improve on. The first reason (of running as candidate) is due to the (students’) low participation rate in (social) issues. If we have the honour to be elected, we will make an introduction for each issue or topic, so that students know how to understand these issues, thus increasing (their) participation rate. The second reason is (we) wish to act as a bridge between students and the school in discussing about university affairs. Since each and every student are related to university affairs, they would want to express their opinions on various issues.

2. Could you explain your Proposed Cabinet’s vision/ mission statement?
Cheng: Our (Proposed) Cabinet’s name is Prism, in a non-abbreviated form (of the Chinese name of the Cabinet), it means “in face of the boundless land, remain a lofty and unyielding character”. The former part of the phrase reflects how we view Annual Election 2019, it shows a problematic lack of extra-curriculars for the University's students outside of academics. The whole phrase precisely represents the school’s current situation, the society’s current situation, even the whole of Hong Kong’s future, which is actually a huge question mark. The former part of the phrase means that the students of the University definitely has a sense of pride and honour, nevertheless it is the elitist of educational institutions, every student of the University must have superb abilities. Therefore, the words “lofty” and “unyielding” are not only a form of self-encouragement, they are to tell students to always have a persevering spirit in face of predicaments. Because we believe after tribulations, there is always rainbow after rain, which is why we chose “Prism” to be the English name of our Cabinet.

Cheung: What we think Prism represents is simple. We want to act like a prism, and we think everybody in HKU is like a light. We have a lot of potential in all of us and we want to use your light and turn the campus into a more vibrant environment for all of us. Hence, Prism, we think is pretty good symbol of what we intend to do.

3. Why did you run as candidate only after the reopening of nomination?
Cheng: We received the email about the Notice of Reopening Nomination (of Annual Election 2019) on around the 24th or 25th (of December). Coincidentally, me and a group of friends were having a Christmas celebration, during which we discussed about the matter (of reopening of nomination). Coincidentally, I met Shaun and Kelly, the three of us shared similar thoughts, that if nobody was running as candidate, perhaps we could give it a try, and so we nominated ourselves as the candidates.

4. Why is nobody running for the position of the Vice-President (External)?
Cheng: Actually, we wish to focus on affairs of student societies and organisations, and university affairs. That being said, we are not neglecting all of the external issues, we just believe that in view of the school’s participation atmosphere, and students’ awareness to issues, all of these (situations) are reminding us as the (Proposed) Students’ Union that we should spend more time in dealing with internal affairs and general affairs.

5. In your platform you raised that “it is time to do something different”, what does that mean?
Cheung: The thing we want to do differently, is to provide a more positive atmosphere that I think is more reflective of the student body in HKU as a whole. Because, if you look around, a lot of the posters and and lot of notices put out by the Student Unions of the past have been predominantly negative, I think they are right to be upset about some of the issues, but I think it’s a bit overboard and a bit dramatic, and it turns a lot of students off. So, we acknowledge that there are issues but we will face them in a positive manner.

6. The Students’ Unions of recent years have always issued statements in response to social issues. If you are elected for the coming session, will you do the same?
Cheng: We think that the Union represents and speaks on behalf of the whole of student community. Therefore, the Union should for the most part stay neutral on matters, because it is merely a tool that bridges the outside world and the students.

7. Can you explain what are the differences of your Proposed Cabinet compared to last year’s regarding the issue of international students?
Cheung: First thing is, we are going to consider opening a new seat in the executive committee that is dedicated to non-local students' affairs. And of course we are going to have a series of activities that we hope to be more effective (in the issue of international students). For example, we are considering hosting a non-local orientation camp and some other cultural immersion activities, for example a mahjong class for non-local students, and also some cultural heritage tours. We hope to invite students of different nationalities to take part in it.

___________________________________

二零一九年度香港大學學生會周年大選其他候選人包括候選常務秘書麥嘉晉、校園電視候選內閣、學苑候選編輯委員會及候選普選評議員。

2019年度周年大選中央諮詢大會將於一月二十一日至一月二十五日在中山廣場舉行，時間為下午十二時半至二時半。

Other candidates for the Annual Election 2019 include the Proposed General Secretary Mak Ka Chun Eugene, the Proposed Cabinet of Campus TV, the Proposed Editorial Board of Undergrad, and the Proposed Popularly Elected Union Councillor.

The Central Campaign for Annual Election 2019 will be held from the 21st to 25th of January at the Sun Yat-sen Place, from 12:30 to 14:30.