Page 29 - ELG2005 Jul Issue 471

FIRST PERSON: HONG KONG . FEATURES & COMMENT

In at the deep eend JOSEPH CHAN/UNSPLASH plane, sit eight seats away from the next
masked passenger and watch the countries I
was unable to visit pass beneath my window.
Landing in Heathrow was my first time
experiencing a two-metre social distancing

in a way I hadn’t needed to be in Hong Kong.
Isabel Davies recounts her first teaching experience – rule and I was suddenly paranoid of strangers
Two weeks of quarantine was not how I
at an English-medium school in Hong Kong imagined my eventual return to the UK to
be, but the pandemic actually made my
first learned of TEFL from my older with six local teachers. I watched another adjustment back home easier: life in the UK
brother, who disappeared one summer to teacher teach my lessons twice, then, having feels strange, because it is.
volunteer at a Romanian summer camp. never taught a real school lesson in my life, it Often, I have found traveling makes the
IRomania, to me, seemed very far away was my turn. world feel smaller, bringing seemingly
and exotic, and I worried incessantly about Being thrown in front of forty-five unknowable places like Hong Kong into the
bear attacks, but when he returned energetic pre-teens, whose language and known, but now the world has really shrunk.
unscathed and with lively stories from culture was so different from my own, and Travel is restricted in a way I have never
Transylvania, my perspective was changed. who knew their school, their teachers and experienced. I am currently applying for more
By the time I started university, I had set their course far better than I did, was an jobs but I am wary of taking on anything as
my own sights on working abroad. As an instant trial by fire. demanding as my position in Hong Kong.
English Literature student, teaching seemed My lesson plans had been written for me I learned a huge amount across the year
like the natural route into working overseas. and adhered strictly to a curriculum of but if I have the choice I would rather
I had limited experience, mostly tutoring reading, vocabulary and discussion, and my develop my teaching through further
jobs and volunteering, so the TEFL course I main priority was to deliver the full content Hong Kong is fascinating, but can also be bewildering guidance and training than through high-
began in 2018 was my first teacher training, of these plans. I had 45 minutes to hit every pressure trial and error. In terms of
as well as my first point while maintaining Hong Kong is an expat-filled city, rich with my teaching from what I had already learnt Being a teacher gave me a unique insight destination, if I could relocate to a place half
introduction to phonics. the attention of the Western amenities and English speakers, and during my first four weeks and figure out how into the protests’ impact on ordinary lives, as compelling as Hong Kong, I would
There were few jobs class. yet it still felt bewilderingly alien to me. Food to teach children who had had limited and any inconvenience I experienced while consider myself lucky.
available to me when I Hong Kong was a Technically an shopping in supermarkets with aisles exposure to English. avoiding the violence pales in comparison
began looking in May turbulent place to assistant teacher, I was organised by country of import became an The difference in these students’ with the suffering of people who face the end Visas and Immigration
2019, but one of them never alone in the incomprehensible challenge for my fried backgrounds was apparent when teaching of their city as they know it.
was with an English spend my first year in classroom, but the brain. from textbooks based on life in England, When the pandemic closed schools in Hong Kong has a big demand for high
company in Hong Kong success of my lessons Socialising with my fellow teachers where I would attempt to explain the names February, it was another blow in what had quality English teaching, both in
who were advertising Asia. By October, the was my responsibility, exhausted what little emotional capacity I of different rooms in a house to children already been a difficult year for the children schools and out, so there are many jobs
entry-level teaching. I usual tourist thrum had and the local teachers had left. I was homesick but had no time or whose families lived in a one-room flat, with of Hong Kong. My colleagues and I available at various centres and schools
knew almost nothing each had their own energy to dwell on it. More than anything, I bedroom, kitchen and living area combined. improvised materials to send home, recording around the city.
about the city, but it halved and regular relationships with their was terrified that teaching would never click, Beyond the classroom, Hong Kong was a lessons and imbedding them into colourful The visa needed to legally be
seemed both far away protests replaced the classes that I needed to and I would spend the rest of the year living turbulent place to spend my first year in Asia. PowerPoint presentations, hoping it was employed in Hong Kong is called the
and exotic. I applied, negotiate. in this constant state of anxiety. By October, the usual tourist thrum had enough to get the language across. Z Visa. Only registered schools are
attended three big city bustle. The energy of a In late September, I began teaching after- halved and regular protests replaced the big Though there was no official lockdown, authorised to provide Z visas for their
interviews, and, five teacher did not come school classes at Kei Wing, a government city bustle. most families chose to self-isolate, and when I teachers. The government has set the
weeks after graduating, naturally to me at first school, on top of my other lessons. My classes I was finally settling in when a police siege began teaching over Zoom in April it was to following minimum requirements for all
boarded a flight to Hong Kong. because my stage fright was so intense I here were smaller, younger and learned of the Polytechnic University shut down students who hadn’t been outside in months, teachers applying for a visa:
I had one day to get acquainted with my thought I might pass out every time I stood in through activities and games rather than schools for a week in November and trapped let alone practised English. - A bachelor’s degree (in just about
new surroundings before initial training front of a class. Nerves, lack of experience books. This time I was alone in the classroom me with my colleagues in our apartment When I said goodbye to my classes for the any subject)
began. This consisted of a few days of and ignorance of Hong Kong culture and quickly learned that the level of English block, next door to the battleground of the last time in June, it was over Zoom – a - Either two years of previous TEFL
orientation in the company’s head office conspired together, and, despite my best was far lower than at the more privileged Cross-Harbour Tunnel. detached and anticlimactic end to what had experience and/or a 120-hour TEFL
before heading in for the first day of school. efforts, my first weeks of lessons were dire. private school, where most students had The protestors were rigidly well-organised turned out to be, despite early difficulties, an certificate from a verifiable source /
My job was teaching Upper Primary Hong Kong-ers work long hours, six days a attended a bilingual kindergarten. and never intentionally endangered us, but it amazing ten months of teaching. If you had
Reading at Munsang College, a private week, and I became so exhausted and At Kei Wing, some of my students didn’t became difficult to explore when riot police told me in September that I would be in tears teaching qualification.
Attempting to gain employment in
English-medium school. I had eight classes, overwhelmed that I was struggling to know the words sit down, let alone how to and their accompanying tear gas regularly at the prospect of leaving, I wouldn’t have Hong Kong without these qualifications
nearly 350 students, and would be working maintain anything outside of work. construct a sentence. I was forced to adapt closed roads and MTR stations, trapping us believed you. is not advised.
unexpectedly as we moved around the city. Adapting to life in Hong Kong was a huge Generally speaking, teachers in Hong
PIXABAY to perform, now faced the anxiety of intense challenge that I managed thanks to an Kong are well paid. Average monthly
My students, already under huge pressures
amazing group of fellow expat teachers, and
political unrest. While we were advised not to the amazing students who inspired me salaries start at around £2,000 GBP,
depending on the type of school and
to talk about the protests in school, they every day to be a better teacher, even when your experience. However, Hong Kong
became hard to ignore. they were trying to annoy me (the thing has a high cost of living and is among
“Hong Kong is such a mess,” one of my about teaching English is that when a kid
students informed me sadly on Sports Day, mutters ‘Wow, that’s SO interesting,’ behind the world’s most expensive cities.
two weeks after I had started at Munsang. your back, you secretly cheer at their perfect
Many children of wealthier Hong Kong use of sarcasm). Isabel Davies is
families had dual nationality, and one student I was lucky to keep my job, but my 23 years old and
told me that her parents were increasingly contract did eventually end up being cut recently returned to
arguing about emigrating. Her father insisted short by two weeks. I had originally planned the UK after her
he would never leave; her mother insisted she to return home slowly, reducing my carbon first TEFL job,
would go anyway and take the kids with her. footprint and taking trains through China, teaching at primary
Despite everything I saw, I know that I will Russia and Europe. Instead, I was forced to schools in Hong
never understand the hopelessness many book one of limited direct flights to London, Kong.
Pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong Hong Kong-ers feel about their future. swap the backpacker route for a near-empty

28 July 2020 editorial@elgazette.com 29