Saturday, March 9, 2013

Applying for Confucius Institute Scholarships

I'm currently considering applying for a Confucius Institute Scholarship. Unfortunately at the moment my mind is finding it hard to get around processing exactly how I'm meant to apply, but it seems to me that I'm meant to create an account on the Confucius Institute Scholarship website (cis.chinese.cn). So that's what I'm trying to do right now.

When you click the 注册 button, this is what comes up:

孔子学院奖学金申请者须需登录奖学金网站(http://cis.chinese.cn),注册个人申请账号,在线填报、打印《孔子学院奖学金申请表》,并附必需的证明材料。 奖学金授予须经过推荐机构遴选、接收院校审核和专家综合评审等程序。
1.各国孔子学院(孔子课堂)、有关驻外机构及接收院校负责受理奖学金申请材料,择优推荐符合条件的申请者。
2.接收院校负责审核申请者入学资格,提交奖学金留学生拟录取名单,并及时向推荐机构反馈学校录取和奖学金授予信息。
3.国家汉办/孔子学院总部组织专家审核拟录取人选及其申请材料,对符合条件者授予奖学金,并通过接收院校和推荐机构公布获奖者名单。未被录取者,不再另行通知。
4.申请者可凭个人帐号登录奖学金网站,查询申请进程和结果。
5.孔子学院奖学金一般每年春季接受申请,获奖者于秋季入学 。

Now, I'm normally one of those who skips over the terms and conditions, but I'm going to try not to because I don't want to completely screw up my application. I'm having to look up a hell of a lot of words (and add them onto Language Perfect) to understand this. This is what I have so far:

Confucius Institute Scholarship applicants must log in to the scholarship website and register for an account number, then complete and submit the online application form, print out the "Confucius Institute Scholarships Application Form" and attach proof of talent (?). For scholarships to be awarded, they must be recommended by an organisation (the word 遴选 means "strictly select," so maybe the organisation that recommends you must be from a certain list of reputable organisations or maybe they mean you have to pass that organisation's criteria), receive verification from the institution and a specialist's comprehensive appraisal (I'm assuming that this means you have to get thoroughly checked by someone important, like the scholarship officials or something. My Chinese isn't that good).

1. Each country's Confucius Institute, relevant organisations abroad and receiving institutions are responsible for reviewing the applicant's evidence (of learning, competitions participated in etc.- I didn't know what to call this), and choosing the best applicants.

2. Receiving institutions are responsible for verifying each applicant's qualifications, submitting the list of names and for providing recommending institutions with school application and scholarship award information.

3. China's Hanban/ Confucius Institute Headquarters specialists will review candidates and their application materials as well as whether they match the scholarship criteria, and announce the list of scholarship winners. Those who do not qualify will not be further notified.

4. Applicants can log in to the scholarship website with their application number to inquire about the progress of their applications.

5. Applications for Confucius Institute Scholarships are generally open in spring, and winners begin in autumn (I assume they mean that the spring application means that the winners start at their chosen university that following autumn).

And then under that are two checkboxes, and by reading half the words I know that the top one means that you have read and understood the scholarship process. At first I thought that the second one means that you haven't read that information, but then I realised that hardly any of the words are the same. But I'm too tired now, so I Google Translated it and this is what it says:
I have consulted the local nominating organization and receiving institutions understanding school enrollment conditions and professional information.
Okay, well that's one checkbox that I can't tick, because I only just sent an email to my local Confucius Institute today. I'll see if it lets me proceed anyway.