My name is Patrick and I live in Belgium, I have been self studying Chinese for about 2 years now and want to spend an academic year in Taiwan to give my Chinese the boost it needs and to have a great time getting to know the amazing Taiwanese people. I am currently in my final year of a BA in Information Technology and plan to go to Taiwan immediately after.
I have a few questions regarding the scholarship and am looking for people with experience in the application process with some tips (as it is pretty intimidating).
Question 1
One of the required documents to be included within the application package is the letter of recommendation (2). I have never studied Chinese officially and thus cannot get people with some clout to write the recommendations as would be ideal. Instead I was thinking of asking 2 of my best QQ friends to do so with whom I have been chatting for the last two years. Would such recommendation letters bear any weight or do I need more official persons to write them?
Question 2
The application process also requires me to state my highest education and provide a complete grade transcript. When applying I will not yet have graduated, but producing the full transcripts of my high school grades will be a bit difficult as I’m not sure I still posses all of the documents. Would it be alright to simply post the college grade transcripts even though I have not yet graduated?
Question 3
Are the TOCFL(Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) results absolutely required? It states in the application process information that it is, but the discussions on this forum talk about it as being optional. Also, would a “bad grade” on the test make me less eligible?
Any other words of encouragement and tips are greatly appreciated!
Hey, I know this probably is too late for you to ever see but hopefully someone searching the boards or googling the same questions will find this helpful.
Question 1
The letter of recommendation they want isn’t necessarily one from a Chinese teacher. You can probably ask any teacher at your school (preferably one who likes you, haha) to write it. Your friends’ letters probably wouldn’t hold much weight, I can imagine.
Question 2
Talk to the embassy about this. I was in the same situation, and I emailed the embassy and then also the schools to propose an ad-hoc solution, sending them a transcript of my high school grades up until that point and then send them the diploma as soon as I got it. No problems at all with the embassy (mission) in Sweden at least, but it might best for you to confirm with your country’s. I was very clear when I finally sent in my application that they had agreed to this, in case they had forgotten about it.
Question 3
This might differ from country to country and perhaps even from year to year. I got my scholarship this year from Sweden, I haven’t done any TOCFL-test. I remember it somewhere being written in what I read that it would increase the chances of getting it, but still being optional. Next year, however, I need to write it (and pass a certain level, I think it’s level 4 but don’t quite remember).
And just some general tips about the study plan. Show them that you really want this, not only by telling them how much effort you’ve been putting into just studying the language, but also proving how much thought you have given planning your entire year in Taiwan. Write about what you’re going to do to learn the language as effectively as possible, for example.
Hope someone, somewhere, at some point in time, can get some use out of this. I’ve gotten a lot of help from this community this past year when I was planning my time here in Taiwan, hope I can pay it forward.
I am also planning to apply for the HES 2014. I have been studying for about two and a half years and think I could probably pass the level 3, or at a push 4 TOCFL test. Unfortunately, going on the 2013 schedule, I wouldn’t be able to take the TOCFL until after the HES application deadline.
Does anyone know if there is any other recognised tests or whether I should go over to Hong Kong to sit the HSK?