{"id":13829,"date":"2016-04-06T09:28:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T08:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rockhaq.com\/?p=13829"},"modified":"2018-01-10T16:07:01","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T16:07:01","slug":"music-student-interview-mark-wong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockhaq.com\/1546951672250\/?p=13829","title":{"rendered":"Music Student Interview: Mark Wong"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I’ll keep writing on The Rockhaq Community until Michelle takes it all down! It’s the best thing out there for music, improving English skills and learning more about the industry.
\n– Mark Wong<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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[tw-divider]Mark Wong’s Story[\/tw-divider]<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Welcome to our Music student interview with Mark Wong. We have a written interview with Mark from 2016 and a video interview with him from 2017. Rockhaq workshops were first piloted in 2011-2012 with students from colleges in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Some of our pilot students have now returned to the new relaunched community. We thought you may like to hear how Rockhaq workshops helped a pupil studying BTEC Music Technology, hence this Music student interview.<\/div>\n
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When he first heard about Rockhaq, Mark was not interested in writing about music at all. By the end of the pilot, Mark was our top reviewer having won hundreds of points and writing an average of 3,000 words a week<\/strong><\/em> on the Rockhaq community. Astonishing! We rewarded Mark with tickets to see his favourite band, Blink 182<\/a>\u00a0and have a case study on Mark’s progress<\/a> from our pilot.<\/div>\n
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We caught up with Mark to ask what he’s upto now and what impact the Rockhaq community had on him from 2012 through to 2017. We’d also like to say a big thanks to Mark for being so awesome, and we’re very pleased to welcome him back to the community \ud83d\ude00<\/div>\n
We have another interview with\u00a0English student Sam Brookes too.<\/a><\/div>\n

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[tw-parallax image=”http:\/\/rockhaq.com\/1546951672250\/wp-content\/uploads\/markwongrockhaq14.jpg” target=”self” lightbox=”no” link=”http:\/\/rockhaq.com\/1546951672250\/case-studies\/music-student-case-study-mark-wong\/” ]<\/p>\n

CHECK OUT MARK’S CASE STUDY<\/h3>\n

CLICK HERE<\/p>\n

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[tw-divider]Music Student Interview: Mark Wong[\/tw-divider]<\/div>\n
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q1. When and where were you first introduced to the Rockhaq community?”]
\nI was introduced to Rockhaq in 2012 when founder Michelle Dhillon came into South Notts College – now Central College Nottingham – to tell us about the website.
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q2. How much effort did you put into writing before Rockhaq?”]
\nA lot of effort does go into writing up a review because you’re always trying to explain to the reader about what the music sounds like. I would say that old albums or classical pieces take more time then the music reviews that are written about artists in the last 10 years. This is because with older reviews, I often research as much as I can about the artist and album from sources such as the internet or documentaries as often there are more considerations to take into account such as the artist’s impact on the music world.
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q3. And how much effort did you put into writing after Rockhaq?”]
\nRockhaq has definitely made me want to write more for it’s website as once you start writing reviews you become more motivated because you start to enjoy it more and I think the reason for this is, it’s because of Michelle Dhillon’s encouragement and praise for the work we do on it.\u00a0Also with writing older pieces on Rockhaq, because you have to do those reviews justice by researching a lot into that album and artist, it can also influence you to put the same kind of effort into other things like coursework.
\n[\/tw-accordion-section][tw-accordion-section title=”Q4. What are the BEST and WORST things about Rockhaq?”]
\nWith Rockhaq being a writing platform that welcomes music, the diversity of the music reviews that\u2019s on the website is absolutely incredible which shows how wonderful that community has been brought together. As everyone has different music tastes, Rockhaq allows the community members to have debates about various music pieces which can potentially influence others to explore new music genres where members might have not been interested in those genres before. As well as music reviews, Rockhaq has had some brilliant opinion pieces which really shows how much you can write around the subject and I think this stems from the members themselves as well as Michelle\u2019s passion and curiosity for the subject.
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q5. What difference has Rockhaq made to your life\/work\/education prospects? Was it positive or negative?”]
\nRockhaq has made many changes to my life, one of them being how I write. To have someone that tells you how you can make a piece of writing sound more professional is such a valuable lesson because whether you’re writing up a music review or a piece of coursework at university, you can apply those grammar techniques to your work which will benefit yourself for the long run. In terms of education, when I was at college studying music technology, I did consider journalism as a career path. Even three years down the line I’m still considering it which shows how much Rockhaq has made an impact on my life.
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q6. Has Rockhaq made any lasting changes to how you write?\u00a0“]
\nRockhaq has made changes in which I write, for example the biggest mistake that I used to make was writing a sentence which would say “It could of” but through guidance I now know I should have put “It could have” and after so many reviews later it always sticks with you and this is one of the best things you can take away from Rockhaq is that it improves your writing for life.
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q7. What do you think could be improved about Rockhaq?”]
\nI really can’t think of anything that could improve Rockhaq really as it’s so accessible and easy to use. When I didn’t use it for 3 years between 2013 to 2015 I did miss it a lot because when I was at college it was something I invested a lot of time in and when something as enjoyable as that doesn’t fill a part of your life anymore, it does become boring and frustrating as in the time that I didn’t write on it, i would listen to so many bands and have several ideas about what I could write about that particular artist. But I guess that’s what happens when you enjoy something as much as Rockhaq.
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\n[tw-accordion-section title=”Q8. Is there anything else you’d like to say?”]
\nHonest opinion? In 2012 I said that Rockhaq was far superior than all types of social media. Four years down the line and I still stick to that comment.
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[tw-divider]2017 Video Interview: Shanghai Surprise![\/tw-divider]<\/p>\n

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\nWhat to know what\u00a0Mark Wong<\/a><\/strong> is up to right now? Mark made excellent use of the English skills he’s honed on The Rockhaq Community by writing over 50 in depth reviews. He’s developed transferable skills and is now teaching English to students at Shane English School in Shanghai, China! Mark took up his new position in late 2017 and will be there until 2018.<\/p>\n

[STUDIED]<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 BTEC Music Technology Level 3, BSc Music Technology (Hons)
\n[INSTRUMENTS PLAYED]\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Guitar, Bass
\n[CURRENT STATUS]<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>English Teacher, Shane English School, Shanghai, China
\n[ROCKHAQ LEAD WRITER]\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Written over 50 reviews, planning more reviews and interviews across Japan\/Australia in 2018. Watch this space!<\/p>\n

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