Teaching wasn’t what I expected. Years ago, I went into teaching thinking that I would make a difference in the lives of young people. Now years later, as I reflect, I realize that there was something gained and something lost. I gained skills and experience to become a better teacher, but I went through a lot of loneliness to get to this point. I teach in a band 3 school. For those of you who don’t know, there are 3 bands and band 1 is the best. Students are “banded” according to their academic performance. Lots of people have asked me, “Why don’t you teach in an international school.” Yes I agree with them in that, it would be easier to work in an English environment. but I knew I needed to be surrounded by Cantonese in order to learn it. You might be asking yourself – Is Studying a Language Worth it. More specifically is studying Cantonese worth it.
Co-teaching With Local Teachers
For 6 years I co- taught with local teachers. This was great because I didn’t have to handle classroom discipline, homework inspection, daily marks etc… Most days I could go home at 4pm and my time table was relaxed compared to local teachers. I regularly chatted with the 10 local teachers at my school, to find out what they wanted and how to best prepare my lesson for their classes. Some teachers gave me a lot of freedom others were more structured in their expectations. I have a number of positive memories from those days. I actually got to learn teaching strategies and styles from excellent teachers and we generally enjoyed talking with each other. Now I can see that it was a privilege. In contrast, I have spoken to a number of NETs around Hong Kong who have been thrown into classrooms where the kids don’t speak English and of course the NETs don’t speak Cantonese. Here’s an Article – Culture Shock and Life as a Net Teacher in Hong Kong.
As you read this you might be thinking to yourself, wow Ken sounds like you had it pretty good. If you compare me to the local teachers around me, yes I did. But remember what I said at the beginning, I wanted to reach young people. The problem with having local teachers handle all of the important structural stuff is kids naturally go to them when they want to talk about life in general. To them I was an almost unapproachable foreigner. Many of them liked my class, but they were afraid of English, so they tried to avoid speaking it and thus they avoided me. The end result was I felt left out. However to some extent I felt like I connected with the local teachers. I spent more time talking to them one on one or in small groups than I did with the students one on one or in small groups. They appreciated me and I tried hard to teach their classes well.
My Own Class
The nature of my job, as a NET teacher, has changed. Now I am in the classroom by myself. For the most part I am able to translate for myself when my students don’t understand. It’s strange though, even with my translating a number of students still don’t understand. Not that long ago in form 3, I explained something in English. As I looked at the students faces, I could tell that a lot of them didn’t get it, so I said it again in Cantonese. Then shortly after some of the students were asking one of the smarter girls in the class what I had said. Later I asked the girl, didn’t I explain it in Cantonese. She told me that I did and she didn’t understand why they didn’t understand. On a positive note, I make the decisions for my classes and the students come to me when there is a problem. There aren’t many coming to me to me just to talk about what’s happening in their life, but maybe that will improve with time.
Not as Close to the Local Teachers
While I am thankful to be independent, it’s a little bit like becoming an adult, I am a little bit sad because I no longer have the same connection I had with the local teachers in the past. We just don’t talk that much anymore. I mean without work, what else is there to talk about right? Hahaha, I shouldn’t joke here, but Hong Kong’s work culture is very strong. Many Hong Kong people compartmentalize their lives. Here’s an article on work – Overtime – Because You Want it. They talk about work with the people at work, but they don’t share their personal lives. They can be happy together, but they recognize that that happiness is centered around getting jobs done. Many of them are not really friends; they are work colleagues. I have run into this with several of my colleagues.
Adjusting
The other day I was shocked. It was after school, I was talking with students in the Maker Space. Some of the assistant teachers came up to me to talk about personal matters. I started to share briefly, but then I actually turned them away. I told them not now. I need to talk with the students. The very thing that had bothered me about my English colleagues, I was now doing to other colleagues. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk with them. It was simply a matter of timing and integrity. I was there to do a job. I know on the flip side my English colleagues are also here to do a job. Sometimes our paths intersect and we work together. Sometimes our paths don’t intersect and we work separately. I think I am still learning to be okay with that.
