Language

Last Saturday wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty close. I decided not to bring my camera with me to Trio beach because there was some chance of rain, and my mind was on other things. Mistake, I should have brought it. One well opportunity waits for no one. As I drove the motorcycle down Sai Sha Road, overlooking the waterfront, I saw some beautiful views. The sun was peering through the fog over the water. It looked amazing. https://vimeo.com/808256022 Making Excuses I arrived at the geological park and took my usual walk to the beach. The ground was wet, and…

Home is where the heart is. There are still a lot of things to like about Hong Kong and for now it is my home. I have friends here but I would not say I have a lot of close friends here. I think going deep with people requires the ability to communicate well in their language. There are a lot of foreigners who have lived here for more than 10 years without learning to speak much Cantonese. From my perspective language is essential to feeling at home. Of course, Cantonese is difficult and most foreigners have foreign friends that…

Do you find that the locals speak too fast for you to keep up with? Try finding another source to study from. You have to take baby steps towards your goal. For years people in Hong Kong tried to discourage me from learning Cantonese. They didn't want to speak with me in Cantonese. I found this to be very different than China. On the mainland, they were more willing to put up with my Mandarin mistakes. If it weren’t for the fact that I married a Hong Kong girl, I would have given up. At the time, even my wife,…

A lot of people travel all over the world teaching ESL. With a 4 year degree and a TEFL, Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate, a native speaker can teach English in more than 100 countries. It is a great opportunity to see and experience another culture. More than 70 percent of the people who leave their home country to teach ESL decide to get out of teaching ESL abroad after 1 to 2 years. It seems that for most people teaching abroad represents a relatively short-term adventure and not a career. Teaching English can be quite lucrative, but…

Hong Kong inherited a lot from the British, for example, their love for the rule of law and their love for the English language both stem from the British. Hong Kong’s location made it a perfect hub for international trade. Westerners wanted goods from China, but they couldn't speak Chinese. Hong Kong people provided a go between. Business flourished here and many people came here to make money. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and political conditions the mood has changed. Many people are immigrating to other countries and taking up jobs there. Hong Kong’s population increased by an average of 53,000…

Is language exchange right for you? It works best when the two people engaging in it have already reached a communicative level in their target languages. They can save money, learn, and help the other person out at the same time. What's not to love right? Well, I guess it depends on where you are in your language journey. If one or both of you have not reached a communicative level it probably won't work. There is a lot of learning that should proceed a language exchange. Grade School The early stages of learning a language require a lot of…

Ask yourself, am I really willing put in the work it will take to learn a foreign language? Is the cost of learning: financially, emotionally, time commitment etc… worth it? You might determine that it is not worth it for you. There are lots of people that start out learning a language but then later they give up on it. In Hong Kong Chinese students sometimes give up on studying English because they don’t see a need for it. Sure, intellectually they know that learning English is good for them when it comes to finding a future job. English is…

Last week my school went on a field trip. Actually there were several different field trips. A different trip for each grade level. I went farming with the S2 students. We went to a farm in GamTin, YuenLong. It has been a few years since we have been able to do this type of outing. We had fun together. In the following video, I describe the experience with pictures and video from the event. https://vimeo.com/769306176