Random Thoughts by Pauline

April 6 2016, Wednesday

More re-unions

I must be one of the happiest teachers in town! In March alone, I was re-connected with two former students, Tina and Lawrence. The stories of re-connections are quite dramatic. I feel so flattered that I can’t help sharing my pride and joy.

On March 5, I was invited by HKKKWA Sung Fong Chung Primary School and Bowie Anglo-Chinese Kindergarten in Taipo to give a talk on how parents can support their children in learning English. That topic has been quite welcomed by parents of kindergartens and primary schools. In the past years, I have delivered this talk quite a few times with school hall at full capacity each time. I keep updating the content though the framework remains the same – parents are to encourage and support not to teach and that they should respect school efforts!

Tina has her two sons studying at Bowie Anglo-Chinese Kindergarten. The audience was adorable responding most appropriately and raising thought-provoking questions. At the end of the one-hour talk, as I was leaving the hall, a young lady approached me and spoke to me awkwardly. She told me that I was her English Language teacher and that she herself is also an English Language teacher of a primary school in Kowloon Tong. She acted as though she had just met her superstar idol. We chatted as she walked me to the bus stop. She even boarded the bus though she lives next door to the school. Tina reminiscence all the loving memories emphasizing that it was my strict demand of grammatical accuracy that led to her taking up teaching as her career. She was so full of compliments of me that I almost blushed. I invited her to join the 10^th Anniversary Ceremony of the Hong Kong Women Teachers’ Organization.

On March 23, I received an email message from a former student, Lawrence. He is now a senior training Captain of Singapore Airlines. He and his classmates are trying to organize a reunion event. So he searched for his teachers and found my blog entries. In his first message, Lawrence wrote fondly “You would be pleased to know that many of the students that you had nurtured have achieved great accolades in their respective fields today.” He repeated a number of times that it was because of me he has a strong foundation in English. We have been in correspondence for a week now by both email and WhatsApp messaging. He even sent me stunning photos of lightening and halo and islands as seen from the cockpit. I have promised to attend their gathering to be held in July.

What more can a teacher ask for! I am blessed!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

September 4 2015 Friday      

I never knew

 

I never knew this would be the last summer, the last Sunday, the last conversation, the last meal, the last holding hands, the last shopping spree, the last trip with my mother. Had I known, I would have stayed with her the whole summer vacation. I would not have taken the Balkan trip. I would not have arranged the massage on that Sunday. I would have lingered longer after the meal. I would not have let go of her hands to go to the canteen for lunch. Only now I realized why she was nagging for round-the-clock companionship. She would not want to leave this world alone. She didn’t. We were all there. Oh how I regret not to have treasured her more! Why was it I couldn’t see it coming? She knew her days, hours and minutes were on countdown. But we were not sensitive enough! She had always been such a fighter! Only a week after the operation, she was discharged from the hospital with the doctor declaring that her recovery was satisfactory. And yet when home, she was not her strong agile self anymore. She was so feeble and fragile that she seemed to have shrunk. Five days later, she complained of breathing difficulty and was rushed to hospital on the sixth day. She died two days later at 11:35 in the morning on September 2 Wednesday because of multiple organ failure. Now she is lying all alone in the freezing box awaiting cremation. She would love to have her hair done and cheeks moisturized. Mom, I miss you so! I could have done better! 

Random Thoughts by Pauline

July 3 2015 Friday          

A Tale of Two Cities

I just returned from a four-day trip to Singapore. I have been to Singapore quite frequently in recent years not only for educational exchanges but also because my sister’s family had moved to Singapore in early 1990s. More importantly, I have a very good Singaporean friend whom I crown as the Ambassador of Hospitality. He takes leave every time I visit and insists that he pays for all expenses. In his words, he is “reciprocating” for what I do for him when he is in Hong Kong. But for sure I have not been generous as he is in terms of money and time. I have never taken any leave driving him around. Nor have I put him up in world-class hotels. That is how this friendship of close to three decades has sustained.

 While I was enjoying my holiday savouring local cuisines and fresh air, I couldn’t help comparing Singapore with Hong Kong.  

 If the ethnic composition of a country can reflect the degree of its globalization, then the city-country of Singapore is intrinsically more cosmopolitan than Hong Kong. According to 2014 figures, of the 5.5 million people living in Singapore, 2.1 million people are foreign nationals. One-third of the 3.4 million citizens are foreign-born naturalized citizens. Ethnic Chinese predominate (74.1%) followed by significant minorities of Malays (13.4%), Indians (9.2%), and Eurasians. There are four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the lingua franca of the country and you hear it spoken even at street stalls.

 Hong Kong is predominantly a Chinese society. According to 2011 figures, ethnic minorities made up only 6.4% of the 7 million population. Our official languages are English and Chinese. Unlike Singapore, rarely do we hear English being spoken. Cantonese is everyday spoken dialect with the use of Putonghua or Mandarin catching up due to the increase of mainland tourists.

 So which government has a tougher task to unify the people? Singapore for sure! And yet, scenes of confrontations between pro- and anti- government fronts have become quite a common sight in this demographically homogeneous city of Hong Kong. We can cheer that this is democracy in manifestation and despise Singapore for the lack of it. But at what cost and for what cause? We seem to have forgotten that conflicts can be resolved and differences can be tolerated for benefits and successes to be shared. Meanwhile with the government faltering and councillors filibustering, Hong Kong stagnates!

 Look at our West Kowloon Cultural District project first proposed in 1996. Almost 10 years have gone. On this wedge-shaped development site of 40 hectares, only a temporary promenade has been developed. If software is to be counted, then there was the West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre, a combination of traditional Cantonese opera, contemporary visual art installations and film shows in collaboration with the Chinese Artist Association of Hong Kong and various renowned visual artists held for 7 days at the future site of Xiqu Centre in 2012.

 In Singapore, the Marina Bay district built on reclaimed land, a concept similar to our West Kowloon Cultural District Project, is now complete with a 101-hectare Gardens by the Bay, the giant Singapore Flyer, and Marina Bay Sands etc. To name but a few, this resort complex features a 2,561-room hotel, a 1,300,000-square-foot convention-exhibition centre topped by a 340m-long SkyPark with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m Infinity Pool.

 As Hong Kongers applaud Singapore for her many successes, maybe it is high time we examined the “why”!

Happy 50^th anniversary, Singapore! May you stay united and prosperous!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

June 25 2015  Thursday       

Are you brave?

 Do you patronize the same restaurants and order the same dishes day in and day out? Is your family life on a mechanized routine? Have you been in the same post for years? Do you keep listening to the same oldies and watching the same classics for the hundredth time? Do you prefer wearing the same pair of worn out slippers to the new one you bought but left lying in the corner? Has your circle of friends ever expanded?

 

Yes, we all have our comfort zones in various aspects of our life! It takes courage to step out into the unknown and the unfamiliar! What if the new dish tastes awful?  What else is there to do if not following the same routine? Oh, I am too old to change my career! I never listen to the pop songs! God knows what they are singing! I don’t want to soil my new slippers and so I wear the old pair. Friends are like wine, the older the relationship, the better friends they are!
 

There is nothing wrong in clinging onto our familiar life as it is. I agree to almost all of the above defences. But I do not harbour a steadfast loyalty to my habits and routines. I believe changes in life especially those we initiate are like lubrication to a car engine. Even when the car is running nicely, we still bring it to the garage regularly for maintenance. We need courage to be naughty occasionally. We might even discover that the life we are so used to can be further enhanced.
 

So don’t be idle! Step out! Step forward! Look away! Look up! Be brave! You can always retreat but at least you have tried!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

 June 24 2015  Wednesday         

 What does the number 40 mean to you?

To me, the number 40 signifies a turning point! I was 40 going on 41 when my world tumbled down in a matter of three months! The husband I wedded for 15 years eloped with the secretary. The school I served for decades closed down. My son I treasured was hospitalized for acute kidney failure. Those dark days were difficult but I survived! Life is never the same! I have been exploring a new world with a new partner and achieving unfamiliar successes. My son recovered steadily, went to Australia for his university studies, returned, built a career and is now a married man with a seven-year old daughter.

Many of my young friends around me develop unknown fear as they turn 40. They begin to assess themselves comparing what they have and not have with those of their peers. Then they feel belittled upon discovering that their friends are doing better than they do. Somebody has a bigger apartment. Another has a fancier car. Or, a couple others have made to the top of their career!

This seems to be in contradiction with what The Analects of Confucius (論語) preaches: When you are 40, you no longer doubt. (四十而不惑). Maybe, it is only after re-assessing and re-assuring oneself to find his bearings, can one then move on.

If you have time, browse the internet and you will be amazed by all the interesting implications of this number. Just take the Bible for instance. It has been calculated that this number is used 98 times. Forty is used to indicate a long period of time such as the 40 days of fast of Jesus Christ in the desert, the 40 days between the Ascension and the Resurrection of Jesus and plenty more.

Random Thoughts by Pauline

June 1 2015     Monday           

Longevity

Chinese aspire to a good life blessed with the three attributes of prosperity (福), status (祿) and longevity (壽) each personified with a deity. With advances in science, longevity has become more possible and ageing can be graceful too.

Just take a look of ourselves or the people around us. When tribal villagers living in deprived remote areas suffer from blurred eyesight, hard of hearing, toothless mouth or crippled movements, we are supported with artificial lenses, hearing aids, dentures and prostheses. We can perform daily activities such as reading, eating, walking or dressing nearly as well as when we are young. These put meaning to a long life.

My mother has been wearing hearing aids for a few months now. She is getting used to it. As to me, cataracts have developed in both eyes and I am undergoing the two surgeries next week. We are both attended to by a very patient domestic helper. Not all old people are so fortunate.

Many elderly have to live in homes either because they are bed-ridden and need intensive care or their children are either too poor or too busy. This does not mean they are not loved. And yet once in nursing homes, their fate is in the hands of the nurses and attendants. When I saw on television how the staff of the privately owned Tai Po Cambridge Nursing Home were filmed stripping female residents bare before they took a shower on a balcony in full view of neighbours, I was heart-broken. These elderly are herded like cattle with every ounce of dignity taken away from them. They sat there helpless, voiceless, waiting for the final call!

Life is a cycle. Infants are feeble at the mercy of the adults and so are the old who can no longer take care of themselves. There is one difference, though. Infants have not been “socialized”. They do not know they should feel shameful when being stripped naked in public! Such acts of brutal abuse of the elderly must be severely penalized but the root of the issue is the urgency to tackle the aging problem. I am sure this incident of abuse is only the tip of the iceberg.