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| Clearwater Bay. |
If you know Hong Kong only as a metropolis of concrete canyons and neon signs, the notion of hiking here might seem as ludicrous as sunbathing at the North Pole or skiing in the Sahara. Yet, Hong Kong is actually, believe it or not, an excellent place for hiking. What many people do not know is that the city lies in a territory that's about three-quarters countryside, with rugged hills, islands and islets.
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| Tuomas and I with some of the local students who we went on the hike with. |
To be honest I’m not big into hiking when I am back home in Northern Ireland but after enjoying a few days of fantastic weather, I decided I would use the opportunity to see a different side to Hong Kong. Yesterday Tuomas (a fellow International student from Finland) and I joined some local students and went to Sai Kung for a 12km hike to see Hong Kong’s most varied – and finest - countryside. It was great to get out of the city and see a completely different region which few people associate with Hong Kong. I never imagined Hong Kong would have such beautiful, isolated beaches and untouched nature. After thoroughly enjoying the trail I now understand why hiking is one of the most popular past times among the locals.
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| There were some great beaches along the way. |
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| A rickety bridge across the river. |
This week I also visited Jockey Club Primary School where I will be doing my teaching practice. The reason it is called Jockey Club Primary School is because ‘The Hong Kong Jockey Club’ (a not-for-profit organisation which donates its surplus funds to community and charitable projects) helped fund the building of the primary school.
Firstly, we were taken on a tour of the school which is attended by approximately 500 pupils and has 3 classes of around 25 pupils per year group. The facilities within the school are very modern as it was only recently opened in 2002; the layout of the school is also drastically different compared to schools back in Northern Ireland and in typical Hong Kong fashion it consists of 7 floors!
I was introduced to the teacher with whom I will be working on my school placement. She was very friendly and welcoming and with her experience, I know I will learn a lot from her. I received my timetable and found out that I will be teaching English to grade 5 and 6 classes. I also have discovered that in contrast to primary schools back home in Northern Ireland, the primary schools here in Hong Kong are actually run more like Secondary schools. Instead of teaching one class the whole curriculum for a year like we do back home, primary school teachers teach their specialist subject to different classes within the school – just like a secondary school. It definitely will be a different and challenging experience teaching English to the local children. The teachers in the school seem happy to have us as it will give the pupils more practice and opportunities to improve their English oral skills. I realise that this teaching placement will be completely different from my previous experiences and I am slightly apprehensive about how much English the pupils can understand and if this will have an effect on my lessons. However, on the other hand, with the amount of EAL children increasing in primary schools back in Northern Ireland, I feel this experience will hopefully be invaluable and will help me develop more skills as a teacher in working with children who are not fluent in English.
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| Enjoying a good barbeque! |
As I mentioned earlier, we have had some absolutely fantastic weather this week. On Friday, after playing football in the morning for a couple of hours, a few of the International students decided to go to Clearwater Bay beach and have a barbeque. It was nice to go to the beach and have some fun, especially after being on campus for most of the week! On Saturday a group of us also went into Stanley where we walked through the markets and generally just relaxed! Stanley did not remind me at all of being in Asia. Actually if anyone had asked me where I was, I would have thought I was in a European seaside tourist destination!
This week I have to push on with my assignments, the first of which is due Tuesday week. I am also going into Jockey Club Primary School again to meet my teacher and observe a few lessons with the classes I am going to be working with. Hopefully this will give me a good idea of what sort of level the pupils are at in their English and I will be able to plan and prepare my lessons accordingly... so I will let you know how that goes in my blog next week.
Until next time...
Joi Gin (Goodbye)
Michael
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