Chatateris LOVE - Tai Po Activity Day

Without wanting to jinx anything, I am going to be brave and say that the weather here is FINALLY getting a little cooler. There is a breeze in the air that is no longer hot wind, and walking to the MTR station no longer means breaking a sweat at 7am or 11pm any more. The air conditioning inside has also calmed down too. A combination of these things mean that it is actually quite pleasant to be outside! Autumn is when the Hong Kong hiking and outdoor activities take off properly, and in fitting with this new found coolness in the weather, Chatteris organised a wonderful afternoon up in the New Territories for us complete with biking, boating, Chinese kite flying and an amazing BBQ complete with marshmallows and home baked cakes by the Project management team! Tai Po is further north than my school and takes about an hour to get there, but it is worth the journey because the scenery was beautiful. There were green peaks to be seen in all directions and it was less built up and more like a community town feel, which again was a lovely welcome break from Wan Chai and Hong Kong island where I am living. Many Hong Kongers come for holidays here and there was quite a holiday feel to the place.

We biked along the edge of a resevoir and although very typically hazy, it was very pretty. As you can see from the photos, a couple of the boys chose the rather more adventurous sort of tuk tuk bike and proceeded to veer and precariously overtake everyone at any available opportunity and take speed bumps at an incredible speed! In true Hong Kong style, the paths were busy and the sheer number of people there served as a constant reminder that we were still in Hong Kong and you have to fight to get places!!

As ever, it was such a lovely afternoon and a really lovely idea to get us all together and to spend time with each other outside of the Chatteris office.
T

Thursday 8th October - Big Mouth Corner

The Polytechnic University (PolyU) wonderfully located in TST (right by Victoria harbour) runs a very popular english conversation evening called Big Mouth Corner, during which, PolyU students have an opportunity to come and chat to a group of us from the Chatteris program. It is one of the community programmes offered to us during Orientation. As well as being a great opportunity for the students to improve their spoken, conversational English ( which appears to be a common weakness with most students across Hong Kong, who don't get access to speak to native english speakers ) in an informal and relaxed environment, I have found it is also an invaluable experience for us, who get to chat to people doing the same thing we were all doing not even a year ago! and to find out how their experience is the same as ours in many ways. As well as chatting to them, we also take it in turns to arrange some sort of cultural activities for them to do as a way of learning and sharing about different cultures etc.

It is a wonderful complement to working at the primary level where, you don't get to have such interaction in English and a great way to find out about what life is like in Hong Kong for people our age! As well as having students, I had a lecturer who came along (can you believe all of their lectures are given in English?! it is so humbling when they come along and chat to you about politics, festivals, geography, history etc for an hour and still insist their english needs to be better!) and it was wonderful to chat to him and get an insight in to how life has changed for people living in Hong Kong.

I have to admit, wandering around their campus at dusk time, there was such a buzz and a sense of so much going on. There were posters, notices, signs, events, everything plastered everywhere. It made me remember how all encompassing student life is and what a bubble it becomes and did make me a little nostalgic for the freedom and the time that comes with the student lifestyle! However, I did also pass the glaring yellow lights of the library and was not so sure! haha! No, I miss every part of life of the St Andrews experience and made me think of all my lovely friends who are studying at St Andrews or elsewhere.

So much love to you all and hope you are settling back in to well worn routines or settling in to new ones. Good luck with the classes and the work, I am thinking of you all and can't wait to hear all of your new experiences. xxxxxxxxx

Sunday 11th October 2009 - 10,000 Buddhas

About noon on Sunday, a friend called and invited me to go and see the 10,000 Buddhas monastary with him in Sha Tin. Since I had very little other plans, other than to sort my life out, and since it is one of the must - see's in Hong Kong, I happily took the opportunity of procrastinating to see more of the city.

It was a rainy sunday afternoon by the time we arrived at Sha tin and embarked on the steep and kind of scary path leading all the way up to the monastary! Scary because lining the path on both sides are many golden buddhas all different shapes, sizes , and facial expressions. Some had children crawling all over them, some were holding different implements, some were leaning rather precariously in to the path, some were sitting etc. It was quite fun to see them lining this windy path all the way up.

Once you reached the top, the temple itself was incredible. Inside the walls were covered from floor to ceiling in identical golden buddhas which each had a small light below it. It was quite a sight. The good thing about the temple and the surroundings being so high up is that it was very serene and peacdeful, being out of earshot and away from the bustle of sunday shoppers! and the noise of cars. Testamemnt to the peaceful way of life up here, we spotted some monkeys in the trees nearby who were so close to us! One hopped off the trees and on to the path right behind me to go and join another couple of monkeys, actually they looked more like gibbons or baboons to me (although I really am not sure!) across the path ! I could not believe that they were so close by and totally unfenced in and free to wander round as they pleased. They were unaffected by having people close by and shows the serenity of the place and the peaceful nature of the visitors and the monks who frequent the site. It was so nice to see!

As we wandered round seeing more painted and elaborate buddhas, the weather actually reminded me on an autumnal day in Britain, with the clouds, and the rain and the cars with thier lights on as we looked down over Sha Tin! Apart from the heat, and the scenery (being surrounded by woods and a buddhist monastary!) it could have been home! (I know its a stretch but rain adds a bit of diversity to the weather here, and I get a bit too excited!)

It was amazing to see this monastary and was a lovely way to spend a rainy sunday afternoon! Definitely worth a trip for anyone visiting Hong Kong! And, in true Buddhist style, there is a veggie restuaurant up there too ... although I have to say we decided on the decidely un-spiritual trip to McDonalds and Starbucks when we got back to Sha Tin, where Lucy, Hayley and I ended up being approached by some Chinese girls to have our photo taken with them ... I always appear to be looking particularly wet and bedraggled when these photos with randomers occur, although maybe its for the comedy value of how bad I look ...?! horrible thought!

Mid Autumn Festival

Last week, I experienced my first Mid Autumn Festival when they celebrated it here last week. It happens amazingly enough mid way through Autumn! and on that day the moon is apparantly at its fullest and brightest and roundest I think. On the day, many people light lanterns, eat mooncakes and also spend time with their family. Most public places were beautifully decorated with these lanterns which are strung across parks, hung from ceilings and floated in the sea across Hong Kong in the run up and during the festival. It is so lovely to see.

One traditional custom of the period is the giving and the sharing of mooncakes amongst family and friends. My teacher-in-charge, Cecily gave me one such cake, which are a real speciality and like nothing you would have experienced in the U.K. or at least I haven't! In the past, people really used to save up throughout the year in order to buy these cakes and be able to have them and give them to their families but nowadays it is less the case. However, special stalls are set up in the mtr stations so people can buy them in the few days beforehand and most of the bakeries are jammed full of people wanting boxes of mooncakes. It is very common to see people with signature boxes of mooncakes as you walk and travel around the city.

Aesthetically, it looks like very delicate. They are round and have the stamp of the bakery written on them and also Chinese symbols of the clouds, the moon and the rabbit(in Chinese of course, Cecily has to tell me that they do!)The traditional type of mooncake has nowadays been overtaken almost by the plethora of new forms of mooncake, which are usaully sweet. Indeed, haagan daaz has its own mooncake selection in Hong Kong (which appear quite popular among the students at my school!)

They are round pastries, usally about an inch thick - the closest way I can (crudely) describe them is like pork pies! They are filled with lotus seed paste (which is sort of clear, greyish substance, maybe the consistency of fudge or something quite dense. And then, within this paste, there are salted duck egg yolks - yes you are reading it right, they look and indeed taste like hard boiled egg yolks. And the taste...well unique, original, interesting are all words I have used in my description when I have been given some to try in front of local people. Luckily, most local people do not like them anyway. As I tried to share out the one I had been given by Cecily in the staff room, the looks people were giving both me and it, told me that they had had more than their fair share of such cakes!

On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, a group of us took lanterns and wine! (no mooncakes sadly) to Repulse Bay, a beach on the Island, where lots of people had bought lanterns, glow sticks, food and drink etc. It was a really lovely evening and of course you can see the moon quite clearly (relative to the city!) It is incredible to be able to sit out in a t'shirt until midnight here although I can't tell you how excited I am to wear jumpers (and not because the air conditioning is too cold which is my only need for long sleeves at the moment!)

My school also had a Mid Autumn Festival Event which was so lovely and I real bonding experience for me with the students as they were out of their school uniform and with their parents. The covered playground was strung with lanterns, from which you hang riddles and people have to go round and answer them (again in Chinese so I had NO chance until someone came and translated it for me!) I wandered around not knowing ANYONE! apart from some of the children who, understandably had better things to do than talk to the English teacher all night. However, I decided that actually they hadn't and imposed myself on unsuspecting children to chat to them. The children were shy mainly and reluctant but the parents...anything but! They were extremely keen for their children to chat to me and for me to chat to them in English and wanted lots of photos with me! Parents would bring children I did not even know up and we would have photos together! The best thing about it is that we had had so much rain that day and I had not been home and so I looked A MESS! I had wet bottoms of my trousers, my hair was frizzy...oh it was joyful! But, on a more serious note, the parents see it as extremely important for their children to learn English and not only learn it, (which they do, many many lessons a week - it puts our language learning to shame) but be able to use it and speak it and their is a key dispaity in levels. many parents told me they wanted thier children to speak more English. So, after having promised lots of parents that yes I would speak to thier child and listened to thier ideas etc, I was convinced that you have to be cruel to be kind. Even if these children dont care less about learning to speak more English, not only is it my job, but their families are also behind it, and understand clearly how very important having english as a language is.

It made me ashamed chatting to all of these parents at how few languages i know. These parents speak Cantonese, probably Mandarin as well and also on the whole very good English which is extremely admirable. It is helpful of course to live in a multilingual society. Although the most widely spoken and used language here is Cantonese, people are explosed daily to English. for example, the annoucnemtns on the mtr are in 3 languages, and the media, through papers, tv, etc, and signs around the city are in both English and Chinese. However, it really is an invaluable skill to know different languages and I will try and take advantage and pick up as I can while I am here especially considering the rising prominence and place of China in the world. While they are keen to learn English, recognising it as a global language, equally Chinese will be more and more widely used as it is appearing to pick up and recover faster than most of the western economies from the downturn. Ha, enough of my pro China rant!

Sufficed to say, I really enjoyed experiencing a completely new festival here and its a great way to get to learn more about how people live here as you ask questions and learn about what they do and how they spend their holidays.

Oh, and don't worry, I will be true to the hospitable tradition of handing out mooncakes to one and all when I am back home..I don't want anyone to be missing out!

First Month At School.

This week, I have had to submit my first month evaluation to Chatteris as well as have a meeting with my teacher-in-charge on my progress so far and so I thought it a fitting time to share with you some of my observations and thoughts on my first month of teaching here.

Firstly, it has all just gone so super fast! Even though in some ways it feels as though I have been here for quite a long time, my weeks at school have raced by and I can't believe we are in to October already!

I think the best way to describe it all is that it has been quite a major and steep learning curve. After two weeks of general primary orientation, everyone on the program had to go in to schools where the English ability varied greatly as well as what was being required of us in and outside of the classroom. Although we are all on the same program, having had the same training, it is really interesting to see how much our experiences vary greatly in some areas as well as being able to share many common thoughts and feelings too. For me, being a school that is new to having a CNET (someone from our program) around the school, my goal has been to initiate some sort of speaking English outside of designated English lessons (I think they have 9 a week!). To try and get the children to open up and chat to me, and speak English when they see me around the school or when they are in my lessons, will be my Everest in this 9 months! This aim may sound rather simplistic and obvious but compared to some other schools with a structured ELEEP (English language environment enrichment programme - what goes on outside of the classroom and around the school, ie games, english signs etc), this goal will be already established and so their goal may be a matter of raising the bar or creating new ways to challenge them and make them more conversant, which is a real challenge too. Indeed, 8 of the girls are at one school where a common refrain from those working there, is that the children speak better English than they do. These children put on Shakespeare plays in English, and are very used to being around and chatting with English people, and so the challenge is how to stretch them and create new and different ways to get them to speak in english that won't either bore them or that they have not done in previous years or even with other girls on the program, which requires an awful lot of initiatve and innovative thinking so they don't get complacent.

However, at my school, its a different story. This ELEEP program has to be established in the framework of a morning school, where the children arrive at 7:30 and have two 15 minute recess breaks before they go home or out for lunch and then maybe come back for extra curricular activities at which point , the pm students are at the school having lessons (and no, I still can't really tell the difference between who are my students and who aren't apart from the more blank and confused looks I am getting from the supposed pm students who dont have a CNET!) However, after trying (and failing!) at many different strategies and activities to entice them, I am getting used to what works or more commonly what doesn't. Initially many a recess were spent with me in the middle of the playground, with a microphone asking if anyone wants to play duck duck goose (the answer, by the way, was a resounding no or just silent stares) or me dancing alone to actions to 10 little monkeys bouncing on the bed ... haha, its all good character building stuff! But, from next week, we lauch our English speaking day on Wednesday where everyone WILL speak English around the school for the day ... one can only hope!

I also have a program of activities and games to implement around the school aided by an English Ambassador Team (EAT!) composed of some of the strongest English students, which I train weekly! The activities range from movie clips and questions, to playground games, skipping, drawing, board games, twister (which is more common than not a pile on the board). Its chaotic with only 15 minute break of which part of it is having to go and get ready for the next 30 minute lessons, the poor children are so hungry that really all they want to do at recess is eat which is totally understandable - I have been there! But, as the saying goes, you must be cruel to be kind, they will thank me later when their English is incredible (?!) and bless them, more often than not, they have shown themselves willing to multi task for the sake of an interesting game or a film!

Inside the classroom, I teach every P4 - P6 class once a week. The lessons themselves are based around the National Geographic student editions, which I am a little too excited about, because I love that magazine, and there is such scope with the articles. As you can imagine the photographs are amazing (Jonathan, my mentor tells me some of the girls are even afraid of the photos, and I dont blame them actually!) but it gives me a great stimulus from which to design lessons to get them speaking, rather than the usual Suzie went to the shop...etc readers which are much harder to make fun! This month I have done a lot of animals, under the sea, animals in camoflage and mimicing each other (hmm, yes this one was tough!) and I really enjoyed it. Poor students, I am learning a lot on the job as to their english ability as it varies both between classes in one year as well as within each class, as does their level of enthusiasm and their energy but I guess that is teaching for you! Hong Kong students are extremely intelligent, hard working and consciencious as a whole; they excel at maths and science and also on written and very structured tasks, where they have to fill in the answers or complete something on a sheet. They are weaker at the creative side of things where they have to use their imagination to make up things not in a book, and also in speaking English. There is a wide discrepency between what they can write (which is really impressive; sometimes I see their written work and it's about hwo they would improve their school or writing formal letters to people) and what I hear or don't hear them say in class. Even if they know the answer, they are reluctant to say it to me and are very shy and softly spoken. Since most of my lessons are informal, based on being creative and imaginitive and also speaking and not reading focused, it is very different and strange for them to get used to it.

In training, we learned many many games which involved moving the desks to the side of the classroom or puttings desks in to a circle to enhance and enourage a more informal environment but I have very quickly lost that battle at my school. Either they look at you as though you are joking, when you are widely gesticulating or even demonstrating moving a desk to the side of the classroom, or,after MUCH perusasion, they move the desks to the side and then sit at them, squashed around the corners and the walls! You can almost feel the relief when I say okay desks back in to the normal places, as though they have returned in to familair territory!

I also run a drama club (!) For P2 and P3 (which I must say was remarkably popular, 88 of the poor souls had to be turned away, I wanted to cry! - I was willing to say let them all just come but Cecily, probably quite rightly pointed out this would be unwise, and we have chosen 24) Apparantly we are putting on a play (any ideas people?) in May so book your flights out now! I also run weekly meetings with the EAT - the ambassador team, who will help me implement English (hopefully!) around the school. I will also run interview practice for the P6 students as they prepare for their secondary entrance exams later on in the term.

Although I could write more and more about this, I have gone on far enough, sufficed to say that the nice thing about my school is that you appreciate everything, big or small! If you are walking around the corridors and someone sees you and says Good Morning Miss Hannah, I get a little too excited inside but pretend not too as they get scared if I try and engage them in conversation afterwards! Also, sometimes they tell each other off for speaking in Cantonese in class, in case their team loses a point. Or, if people come and find me at recess to come and skip with them or play with them, I am grateful for any English interaction!

All in all, I have just been so lucky with my school. It's a challenge but it'a a really exciting, nice challenge which I am determined to succeed with! The teachers have all been so kind and nice to me considering English is not their first language and my aim is to be quieter and tidier with my desk and all of my things in the staffroom, as I seem to be the only person making any kind of noise as I bang my drawer open to make another cup of tea (they dont drink caffenated drinks hardly either, COMPLETELY unlike practically all english school staff rooms, they just seem to drink water, its amazing!) or as bits of paper splay on to other staffs desks, honestly, I am a mess, but I am trying my best to be more teacher like and profesonal and tidy!

I feel as though I learn so much of what and what not to do every single day, hopefully soon I will start to get a better grasp of it all. All in all, it has been a super fast and overwhelming but enjoyable first few weeks. I can ' t believe how fast it is all going!