"School days, school days, dear old golden rule days."
While all my teacher friends were preparing their classrooms for the new school year, I was preparing for my new life in Hong Kong. It was a strange feeling to walk out my front door and see the little Chinese kids lining up in their uniforms. It was an even stranger feeling that not a single one of them would be in my class this year. For a whole 5 minutes I longed to be back in room 249 in Chinatown. Then, I realized how nice it was going to be not to have the responsibility of caring for the needs of 28 students on a daily basis. I took a deep breath of polluted air and a sense of freedom and relief passed through my body.
Now don't get me wrong, I loved teaching for the past 6 years. I got such a sense of fulfillment when a student would come into my room, not knowing a word of English, and leave my classroom at the end of the of the year with an entirely new vocabulary. I wanted to continue to make a difference in the lives of youngsters so I decided to volunteer my skills.
I started teaching a conversational English class at a local girls school on Hong Kong Island. The girls are a little older than my usual students (they are 15 instead of 6, 7, 8 or 9). The first time I entered the building it was hot September day so I wore a long strapless dress. The staff looked at me in utter disbelief. One of the other volunteers said, "you do know this is a Catholic school don't you!" I took my sweater out of the bag and have only worn sweaters since then.
The girls I teach are amazing. They speak better English than half of the people in NYC. Schools in Hong Kong are much more formal than in the US. The students wear uniforms and stand up behind their desks when they want to speak. The girls have a deep respect for their teachers and learning. Several of them told me they want to go to University in Austrailia so being fluent in English is extremely important to them.
The girls in my class give up their lunchtimes to practice their oral skills. We have a blast talking about everything from Gossip girl (which they stream over the Internet) to their favorite singers Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber (I had to google them to get the latest updates). They love the fact that I'm from America and enjoy asking me questions about NYC. When I told them I was going to be away for a while, many of them were so upset. "Make sure you bring us back something cool from America" one girl said to me as I walked out of the room. Does anyone know where I can get 9 posters of Taylor or Justin?
omg ur going to be the coolest teacher out there for bringing them these gifts from america! :) i'd say target or those music stores, and maybe those teen pop magazines that have 9328401 photos of teen celebrities!
ReplyDeleteum....sorry to break it to you, but hon hon is still MAAAD fob china.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say I could work miracles JUDY!
ReplyDeleteOkay.... prepare yourself. I got a boat load of opinions I'm going to unload on you.
ReplyDelete1. These girls are rich. And half the people in NYC are not. They probably have private tutors and don't have anything to worry about besides their studies and TV. I remember in HS, I was stressing about all that and then some, like getting mugged after swim practice and why I was such a freak of nature.
2. Having blond hair and blue eyes helps a lot. I was in HK, everyone was extremely rude to me. It's because I was an ABC.
4. Judy and I will probably eat these girls alive. We can't stand their needy and timidness already. We call it " daye" . " Hoe daye"
3. Getting accepted into a school in Australia is not hard, at all. But, University of Australia does not exist I don't think.
Do they mean, Sydney University? University of New South Wales?
I went to University of New South Wales for a semester and that school will do nothing for them. It was a joke. Then again, I didn't go for the school. Students I met who were from HK were completely clueless or lazy. Or BOTH. There was a lot of them.
4. So my request or challenge to you is... try to teach some sense into these girls. They already have the manner and respect thing down. Now try to get them to be strong, open minded, independent women. Tell them to voice their opinions, stand their ground and be less introverted. When I was studying in Australia, all the HK kids clung together and didn't even socialize or take in what a different culture has to offer.
5. Try Spencers or Hot Topic? Or like what Benny said, get them a few copies of gossip mags. Did you see the new issue of Entertainment? Hot dayam...
6. We don't like Taylor Swift anymore. She needs to keep her paws off my man. I'm just sayin'
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteuhh.. my typos and grammatical errors are meant to be ironic. Yea, let's go with that.
ReplyDeleteWhat's an ABC?
ReplyDeleteGood for you Marisa, for helping young women to make their dreams come true.