Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 1051

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76. In Class V 25 boys attempted the paper. With the exception of Chan Iu-tong, Ip Yuk-fau and two others whose papers were not at all good no boys obtained any marks. After looking through the papers of this class we feel that it is quite unreasonable to expect these boys to do translation into English.

A few of the replies to question 1 are appended :—

I. *"If the Emperor would take out the virtue to the noble thing and all the men

would follow him to do."

"The king is kinds also the men are kind if the king is herro also the men are

herro, the king is affairs also the men are affair."

"The gentleman has good nature if not nature that is not properly."

A king does not a good manner. A king does not a kindest, a king does not a

serious."

"The king was kind but not kind at all. The king was good but not very good

at all. The king was truth but not very truth at all.”

"If a king is kindness he never kinds to a man, and he is brave he never braves to

a man and he is truth he never trues."

It is quite futile for boys with a knowledge of a language such as is displayed above to attempt to translate from Chinese into that language.

ENGLISH TO CHINESE.

77. Classes I, II, III, IV & V were tested by means of written papers.

78. The paper was done by 6 boys in Class I A and the results were good. Ng Cheung Hau did an excellent paper and Wong Wan Ho was very good. One boy sent in a curious paper

in which the translation of the first extract, by far the most difficult, was very well done both as regards translation and style whereas the replies to the 2nd and 3rd portion of the paper were execrable both in translation and style. The difference was so marked that it was almost impossible to believe that the first portion represented his own unaided effort. Of the remaining 3 boys 1 was fair, 1 understood the English but wrote very indifferent Chinese and 1 boy failed being unable to understand English or to write Chinese.

79. The boys in Class I B evidently found some difficulty in understanding the mean- ing of the English which was before them. The paper was done by 8 boys. Three boy's wrote good Chinese but it did not always correspond with the English. Un Ki-ngok did the best paper.

Two papers were fair and three were bad.

80. Class II A. The paper was done by 10.boys. Four boys did very fair papers, the paper sent in by Li Chin Lung being particularly neat. Four boys understood the meaning of extracts 2 & 3, 8 wrote them down in Chinese devoid of style. One boy did not understand the English and 1 boy wrote such execrable characters that it was not possible for a Chinese teacher to decipher them.

81. Class II B. The failure to understand the English was more emphasised in this class. No boy had much idea of writing good Chinese. Three boys wrote down the mean- ing of the English but the 8 others were poor. "The situation seems somewhat graver in extract 3 puzzled many boys and they wrote about graves.

"

82. Class III A did very much better than Class II. The paper was done by 10 boys. Chan Kwok-ying did a very good paper and four other boys wrote good Chinese. They all made mistakes in translating owing to not always understanding the English but the Chinese they wrote was good. Two boys were fair but did not attempt more than a few lines and three boys were bad.

* Note. The correct rendering is: "When the prince is benevolent all will be benevolent; when the prince is righteous, all will be righteous; when the prince is upright all will be upright.