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| At the railway museum. |
This week has been a really interesting week in Hong Kong. The Chairperson of the Parent-Teacher Association has been trying to make the most of having ‘English speaking’ student teachers in the primary school and this week had organised some “events” including a home visit to a pupil’s house and a ‘tour’ of the local town on Saturday morning by the students. Although possibly unconvinced at first, I now feel that both of these events were really beneficial and constructive for the children as it gave them an excellent opportunity to practice and use their English outside the formal setting of the classroom. As for me, I really enjoyed getting to know the children socially and spending time with them outside of school.
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| One of the old diesel electric trains. |
On Saturday morning we met at 10 o’clock at Tai Po Market station with around 30 of the school children some of whom were accompanied by their parents. My “guided tour” of Tai Po commenced with the 6 pupils in my group first taking me to the Railway Museum which showed the transition of trains from a couple of hundred years ago to the trains we now have today. After this, the children thought it was very important that I went with them to Man Mo temple which is a temple where you go to if you want to pray and ask for good academic results!
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| Hopefully our prayers come true! |
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| Trying some traditional Chinese desserts. |
We also had great fun visiting some of the morning markets and tasting Old Chinese traditional desserts which were surprisingly quite good! It was also really interesting seeing the wide range and varying types of fresh fish and different meat in the local market with the children particularly enjoying watching the butchers chopping up and slicing the meat right in front of us. After a quick visit to the local library where we discussed all the different types of books we liked reading, we finished our morning by having lunch together and enjoyed eating some ‘Dim Sum’ which is probably the only traditional Chinese food that I may actually miss when I leave Hong Kong!
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| Some of the colourful fish at the market! |
During the week I also had the opportunity of visiting a student’s house and spending an evening with his family. They generously invited me out to a restaurant and we all enjoyed dinner together. Not only was this very welcoming, but I felt it was a really worthwhile experience, because as student teachers we rarely get the chance to spend any time socially with children outside of the school environment and it provided me with an excellent opportunity to get to know the child better in an informal way. In Hong Kong helping children speak English is very important to their parents as it opens up many more opportunities and possibilities. The parent with whom I had dinner on Wednesday evening told me that her eldest child is over in England at a boarding school and really enjoying it. So much so that he doesn’t even want to come back to Hong Kong during the holidays because there is such a range of activities, sports and opportunities “outside” the school day in England. The impression I get is that many parents are quite keen to send their children away, not only to improve their English but because growing up and settling in Hong Kong is now particularly difficult because of the colossal house prices.
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| Enjoying some Japanese cuisine. |
A farewell party was also organised by the International Office on Friday and it was nice to have everyone gathered together for one final time before we all go off on our own separate journeys. We watched a presentation showing lots of photos since we came to Hong Kong and we shared a few stories and experiences about the great time we had here, before we all joined together for one last lunch. At this event, it finally hit me that my adventure in Hong Kong is now coming to an end, and with many students already having left it has made me realise that I must try and make the most of the remaining days I have left!
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| HKIEd International Students 2011! |
This week I am in school again and my final assignment is also due to be handed in so it will be a relief when that work is completed. Hopefully next weekend, which is my last here in Hong Kong, I will be free to do anything which I have not yet done!
Until next time...
Joi Gin (Goodbye)
Michael
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