On May 28, Trish came to HKIEd to do an orientation for students going to York University in the fall term of 2012. It is part of their teaching program to do an exchange and they get a choice between going to Canada and England (lucky!). I was a language partner for the last cohort in the winter term of 2011, and I was coincidentally in HK, so I joined the orientation and talked about the experience a little bit. Not much of an expressive person unless I'm angry (and I definitely wasn't angry) so not sure if I actually helped any. Hopefully just being there, smiling, helped to reinforce how Canadians are welcoming and friendly. The best part of the day was going to a Shanghainese dinner at Tsim Sha Tsui with Trish and the HKIEd students I met last term!
The reunion was interesting. I was used to being the one doing the show-and-tell in Canada, but our roles had instantaneously reversed in Hong Kong. All of a sudden, they were telling me about things I must do and places I must go to. It was all very exciting. Being a language partner at York, I had to speak to them in English to increase their language proficiency. Since I'm off the job now, I spoke to them in the language they preferred (that being Cantonese). Many of them found it both funny and strange to hear their own language coming out of my mouth even though they know fully well that I can speak Cantonese.
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| All of us at dinner! |
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| Trish, IEd students and me at the MTR station before saying goodbye |
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