The Causes and Effects of Enrolling in “Pre-College” Courses
ENGL 011
Cause-and-Effect
The Causes and Effects of Enrolling in “Pre-College” Courses What is a “pre-college” course? I think every American knows what it is, but for me, I never heard about this term in my country; it is also new to me. When I decided to study in the United States, I began to become familiar with the word. After I took my placement test, I needed to enroll in a few “pre-college” courses. I finally understood at that time when my advisor told me. “Pre-college” courses are set up for all freshman students who do not have enough ability to reach the college level and are considered as “developmental courses.” In general, I can recognize that being an athlete and my background caused me to enroll in “pre-college” courses, and they also bring me some related effects, such as losing of money and time. First, “pre-college” courses are required as I am an international student; my background has a large difference between me and other native English speakers. I am an Asian student who is from Hong Kong. People in Hong Kong, including me, have a different culture, living style, and education system. Although Hong Kong was ruled by British before 1997, English was still most Hong Kong students’ second language. Since Hong Kong returned to China, students’ English standard has been degrading year by year. Even though some schools used English to teach subjects, students preferred using Cantonese to communicate with others in school. The situation was the same in my school. My school did not require using much English when I had classes. I had regular English class in school time; it still could not help me reach the advanced level because we had no chances to practice our reading and writing. Besides, my school had lower standard on English and I only needed some very basic skills to complete my English test. I had many extra subjects that I needed to handle every
Cause-and-Effect
The Causes and Effects of Enrolling in “Pre-College” Courses What is a “pre-college” course? I think every American knows what it is, but for me, I never heard about this term in my country; it is also new to me. When I decided to study in the United States, I began to become familiar with the word. After I took my placement test, I needed to enroll in a few “pre-college” courses. I finally understood at that time when my advisor told me. “Pre-college” courses are set up for all freshman students who do not have enough ability to reach the college level and are considered as “developmental courses.” In general, I can recognize that being an athlete and my background caused me to enroll in “pre-college” courses, and they also bring me some related effects, such as losing of money and time. First, “pre-college” courses are required as I am an international student; my background has a large difference between me and other native English speakers. I am an Asian student who is from Hong Kong. People in Hong Kong, including me, have a different culture, living style, and education system. Although Hong Kong was ruled by British before 1997, English was still most Hong Kong students’ second language. Since Hong Kong returned to China, students’ English standard has been degrading year by year. Even though some schools used English to teach subjects, students preferred using Cantonese to communicate with others in school. The situation was the same in my school. My school did not require using much English when I had classes. I had regular English class in school time; it still could not help me reach the advanced level because we had no chances to practice our reading and writing. Besides, my school had lower standard on English and I only needed some very basic skills to complete my English test. I had many extra subjects that I needed to handle every