Monday, July 25, 2011

BA Language Studies Summer Camp Highlights: a Photojournal (click to enlarge)

 Ma Wan Training Camp

Hahaha I got all soaked!!!!!

Hoi Ha Marina Park (protected by WWF)

Fishing for plankton.  Learning about sea life and environmental protection.
Examining plankton through microscope.
Secret Base for Environmental Protection-- :P
Glass bottom boat: a search for corals

Daya Bay Nuclear Plant in Shenzhen (usually a restricted area)
The nuclear plants x2
Nuclear Plant uses sea water for its cooling system:
the white foamy water is dead plankton life and sea water

Jewish Synagogue and Islam Mosque: Local Religious Santuaries

Torahs encased in beautiful cases
Islam Mosque in Tsim Sha Tsui: surprisingly big inside
Must be barefoot to go in!

Brushing Values

The Forbes List of HK Educational Institutions:
http://www.education18.com/index.php

It's all about ranking.

My friend graduated from a non-HKU institution and works in the same tutoring school as an HKU graduate.  Every time the boss tries to persuade a client to send their child to this tutoring school, he mentions that "we have a HKU graduate among our staff.  Here she is."  The HKU graduate is treated with every bit of respect while the non-HKU graduate is treated like trash.  The boss' wife once said something along the lines of "Oh if it's not necessary, you don't have to come out because it doesn't look good to our clients."  However, the boss and the wife overlooked one major problem.  The HKU graduate did not necessarily possess better qualifications.  She was once asked to take over a primary English tutoring class and do a dictation with the kids.  She had to ask the non-HKU graduate how to pronounce very basic words like "basement"...

My other friend went for an interview at a Macys Merchandising Group overseas office in Hong Kong.  The interviewer asked, "Which university did you go to?  Oh... York University.  Well, I went to University of Toronto."  Then she asked, "Have you been to New York?"  My friend answered "yes."  The interviewer asked again, "I see, did you go to Macy's?"  My friend pondered, wondering what to say, because she really hasn't been to Macy's.  She decided to be honest and answered "no."  Here's the interviewer's punch line:  "If you haven't been to Macy's, you haven't been to New York."

Maybe Toronto should consider putting "Toronto" in the beginning of all their post-secondary institution names, like "Toronto York University," or "Toronto Ryerson University," or "Toronto Brock University?"  What about "Ontario?"  That sounds even bigger.  "Ontario Waterloo University," "Ontario Queens University..."  What about "Ontario University of Information Technology?"  What about using "the" to emphasize its uniqueness and singularity?  "THE Toronto / Ontario [fill in the blank] University"?

Many people overlook the important things that actually matter in life.  Then again, what matters depends on the person, situation, and social norms.  How can we transcend such factors and see the essentials of life for what they are?  But then how can we say one value is more important than the other?  Where is the bar or the cut off?  Tolerance is good, but when do we say no? 

My dorm mate got caught in the rain two weeks ago.  I just happened to come by and so I shared an umbrella with her.  She said I was very nice because she wouldn't have shared an umbrella with anyone, "my umbrella is only for UV protection, not for the rain."  She then asked me, "Aren't you concerned about the UV oil protective layer being washed off by such heavy rain?"  I'm thinking "whaaaat, why are you concerned about things that happen in the far far future when you need this apparatus to get through the now?  not to mention that it can be replaced easily..."  So I just replied with "it's okay, I bought this umbrella for the rain."

To be fair... the UV oil protective layer was probably more important than some petty thunderstorm to her.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Canada Day


Sign: the government is useless,
we are in big trouble (big walk is a pun)
Canada Day is coincidentially the transfer of sovereignty from United Kingdom to the PRC in Hong Kong.  In Canada, I would have gotten together with a bunch of friends, had some drinks, and played with some fireworks to celebrate the national holiday.  Maybe buy a Canada Day hat too, who knows. It is a day to be merry. 

July 1st here is a day to be sad, angry, and disappointed.  It is a day to stay indoors if you are not politically active and ready to be arrested.  While I saw banners of "七一遊行" (July 1 march) on every street corner, I did not expect 50,000 people to actually protest.  (I foolishly thought that it was going to be a parade to celebrate the handover.)  People seem to protest whenever some important date comes up because of media exposure. 

Here's one of the issues they are protesting about: letting mainland Chinese women give birth in HK.  Some protest against because they will be taking away Hong Kongnese benefits.  Some protest against restricting the amount of mainland Chinese women to give birth in HK because their wives are from the mainland.  (The important thing to note here is that there is no "arguing for" beacuse the government is always wrong.  There seems to be an unsaid rule to "protest against"  at all times.)  This means that there are opposing factions within the protest.  Getting your voice heard or making a convincing demand is somewhat difficult...  and it might not be because the government isn't paying attention.

June 4th (Tianamen Square Massacre) was not an exception.  It wasn't just a memoir of the dead in Victoria Park, or reflecting upon what happened and hopefully not repeat the tragic history.  I went to this one, lit a candle for the dead and left.  The rest was propaganda to revolt against the government, all governments-- PRC and HK alike.  Then there was some kind of demonstration and conflict between protesters and police.  Thank goodness I got out of there early for dinner... 

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Recommended Readings

I will never underestimate the recommended readings on my course syllabus ever again.  Not only has the professor taken the time to read all of them, but some underling also read all of them to pick out the juicy parts that students may need.  I am doing such work now for a new course that is coming out at the institution called Catering for Learner Diversity in English Language Teaching.  It is a 5-week professional development program for secondary teachers of English.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Hitting Two Birds with One Stone: The definition of beautiful where you are; Something that touched your heart

Normal day at the office today.  I usually don't eat proper breakfasts anymore because work starts early in the morning.  If I am doing field work, I only eat lunch and dinner.  If I'm in the office, I bring a fruit to munch, have lunch, and dinner.  Not really a good idea rationally speaking but it's my little comfort that I'm not eating three fattening meals.  See.  Linda Chung works, and it's not something I can keep myself from thinking about.  The media is powerful and we should be highly critical of it.  With that said, I have totally succumbed to the general concept of beauty portrayed in the media.  It's hard to keep up a healthy image of yourself "as is" if the media denies it, if your peers deny it, if your family denies it, and if the whole society denies it.

The West has influenced the Asian concept of female beauty in very unfortunate ways.  You cannot ever be beautiful until you are pale and tall, or until you have large busts.  I say "or" because large busts can accentuate your waist (but your waist should preferably only have skin wrapped around your bones).  You must be the ultimate human Barbie, if not naturally then artificially. 

There are tons of products to choose from in beauty shops like Sasa, Bonjour, and Colourmix, to help you achieve this notion of beauty.  They are all set up to cater towards female consumption.  Skin too oily?  too dry?  too DARK?  This cream.  Add some powder.  Don't need to test whether it matches your skin tone, just use the lightest one.  Then add some blush.  Now you need to "put your eyes, ears, mouth, and nose back on"  (there's actually a Cantonese phrase for this) with mascara, eye liner, lipstick, eye shadow...  Sometimes I wonder how someone can still make an expression with all this powder caked on their faces.

As Dr. Aaron Koh said to the BA (language studies) students during a summer camp talk, "Ads make us feel like there's something missing in our lives, that our lives are not complete until we buy a particular product."  Most professors at York Fine Arts bring up "purpose and intent of media and art" on a daily basis and I was really glad to hear that people are also looking at what ads do to us in Hong Kong.  If you think you're bombarded by the media in North America, think again.  This is way more intense.  It gets to the point where you can't even have a moment of silence to yourself to reflect upon your day.  It's amazingly hard for me to sit down and blog.  I get a thought and the next second it's gone from my brain because something (usually on a screen) has distracted me.  Can't imagine having to study or research in this environment...

Anyway, I brought two US peaches into the office today for munching.  I really miss the assorted berries, nectarines, peaches, plums sold in Canada during the summer.  Strawberries are like luxury products here.  While I was washing the peach in the pantry, a cleaning lady walked up to me,

"is that a peach?" 
- yes
"did you eat anything before this?"
- no
"you can't eat the peach without something in your stomach, it will give you a stomach ache!"
- really? I didn't know...
"you need to eat something, like biscuits."
- oh... I'll go buy some downstairs then.  Thanks.
"nothing in your office?"
- no
"okay wait, I'll go get some for you"
- thank you!!

She went away and came back quickly with two packets of biscuits :)  So nicee...!  I'm  not entirely sure whether eating a peach on an empty stomach will give me a stomach ache, but I certainly don't want to take that chance. 

My tummy's like a bunny's,
breakable like glass,
can only take grass,
or acid will burn
and blood will return
opening the wound again would really suck.

There was also a man who shared an umbrella with me when I was caught in pouring rain, but I'll tell you that story another time.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Tech Universe in HK Science Park

On June 14, 2011, we went to the Tech Universe in the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks for the first BA (language studies) summer camp outing.  I always pass by this place on the KCR because it's between Tai Po Market Station and University Station, so I was really looking forward to visiting.  Here is what it looks like from inside one of the buildings:
The whole facility is 225 000 square meters or something.  Had to check that stat because I obviously wasn't paying attention to the corporate video they showed us at the time.  It was propaganda overload for the full duration.  Here is the link: http://www.hkstp.org/HKSTPC/en_html/en_corporateVideo.jsp  You have been warned.  I am still unsure of what this facility does..  something about providing scientists with the technology, facility, and space to create new entrepreneurial inventions, so they can sell it and somehow support Hong Kong's development into a technological hub of the world and global prosperity?  Their overuse of buzz words actually confused all of our staffs and students.  Terms are always used too vaguely.  Needless to say, the visit was a disappointment... Our students were so upset they complained to the camp administrators. 

I personally thought the two showroom were quite nice, but our students thought the toys innovations were too childish for university students to play with for 2 hours.  Anyway, below are some of the highlights of the Innonest and Funnest.

Concentration... Are you ready?  If so, let's go!  Zero zero one one, one one zero zero....
Description: Here is a machine that can measure your level of concentration.  You have to wear this headphone-looking headgear and somehow it measures your brainwaves.  When you concetrate hard enough, a dynamite on the screen in front of you will blow up.  The one who makes the dynamite blow up the fastest wins. 

Review:  It doesn't work on everyone.  It didn't work when I put it on.  Does that mean I have no brain... :(  I was seriously concerned for a while there.  The people who could be measured did not exactly know when they are concentrating and when they are not.  Results seem to be random, since nobody was there to explain the science behind the machine.  Some students said it seems to measure brain activity, not concentration.  Not sure how someone can use this in a real life scenario though.  Can you imagine "measuring" some kid's "level of concentration" as a substitute for an exam?
Musical Cubes
Description:  Musical Cubes!  Get the cubes from the white box and place them (strategically or not) on a square on the floor.  A sound will begin to play and loop unti you take the box off the square carpet. 

Review: Awesome fun!! Now even your toddler can be a professional DJ / mixer.  (S)he just has to be able to lift those cubes up.  They are pretty heavy.  This is great for people who just like to chill and sprawl out with some drinks.  Turn the sound level up to dance.  Start kicking blocks if you're throwing a wild party.  You can even sit on the blocks.  I see endless possibilities for this and I'd actually install it in my home if it was available.
"Sustainable" dance floor (?)
Description:  "Sustainable" dance floor.  There's this bar beside it that lights up if you jump on the dance floor long enough.

Review: I'm not really sure how it works, and whether I was doing it right or not.  The bar lit up at random intervals.
3D Image Decoder
Description:  There are boards with these black and white patterns.  The screen in front of the students (not captured in this picture) reflects your image and shows you a 3D image on top of the card.  It's like watching a horror movie when you see a vampire in the mirror but nothing beside you.

Review:  Pretty interesting, but loses its appeal after 3 seconds beacuse our IPhones can already scan codes and download something instantaeously.  Showing it 3D is just half a notch up from our existing technology.


Go again?Yes, to visit the WHOLE park, not just the Innonest and Funnest.  I wish they showed us how they created "innovative designs and technology."  That would be more educational and engaging for both students and staff.