Day 23: Pay attention to the needs of others

In an award presentation today, a student shared her experience in voluntary services. She mentioned one important thing: pay attention to the needs of others; when visiting the eldery, she would play the role of a good listener, but when working with the kids, she would approach them actively and try to resolve the arguments that often occur among kids of different age groups.

As I listened to what she said, I was thinking whether we adopt similar approaches in teaching. In some cases we have to be excellent listeners, but in other situations we have to be proactive and even "control" what is happening.

Day 22: Weddings in Shanghai

Before the afternoon sessions, I had some time to chat with D, who just came back from Shanghai. When asked about her trip, D told me that she went to a wedding in Shanghai.

The banquet dishes served are different from those in Hong Kong (I wasn't aware that roasted piglet is uniquely Cantonese), and so is the music and the games. I told D about weddings I went to in other places and in Hong Kong and we laughed a lot about the strange bits.

It's nice to learn about the world outside through D. I'll try and talk to N who also went away during Easter later.

Day 21: Interview by reflective listening

Yesterday two students interviewed me for their final year project. It was supposed to be a stuctured interview, but they tried to ask extra questions when they found necessary.

It had a very good flow, and one of the students didn't ask a lot of open questions but with a lot of "it seems that you think... could you tell me more about it?", evidence of reflective listening.

After the interview, I told her that the interview was very fluent, especially the follow-up part. One of them also said she tried to not to ask too many new questions but to develop from the previous question.

I haven't done a formal interview for a while and thanks R for reminding me some of the good interview techniques.

Day 20: Be a "benefit finder"

I stayed up all night for some school work. In order not to look like a walking mummy, I tried to wear a vintage colourful one-piece minidress with a pair of colourful earrings that matches the outfit.

In spite of what I wore, I still looked tired and maybe a bit pale. A janitor noticed that too, but when I told her what I did, surprisingly, she said "then you can manage time well later and don't have to rush".

This made me feel much better. She's definitely a "benefit finder", as she sees the benefit in an issue, rather than the downside.

Now I've to take the benefit of quality sleeping. Bonne nuit!

Day 19: Feel free to make a lot of mistakes as we learn

I was addicted to Andrew Matthews' books like "Being happy" and "Making friends" when I was still a high school student, and I think it's probably where I was first introduced to the concept "learning to fail".

It's such a long time and I really can't remember very well how I learnt my second and third langauge, especially the tough part. And today, in the elementary Japanese class, I just asked my students about things they did during the Easter break. Instead of giving simple answers using phrases they have already learnt, many used their smartphones to look up some new expressions and tried to put together their thoughts in a foreign language.

Some of their "experiments" didn't work out, but they tried over and over again, as if they were babies who were learning how to walk and looked quite excited about the new ways to say something in Japanese.

So maybe I should try and appreciate the mistakes that we make as we learn, and then, think about what we can do to make things work.

Maybe this is what I should do about my own final paper too hahaha
"What can I do to make it work?" instead of "How come it doesn't seem the work the way I want it to be?"

Day 18: Listen more, speak more and write better

Some of my students have  a lot interesting ideas for writing. During the break in the lesson today, I asked N how she came up with so many great ideas in her article. N told me that she actually didn't learn how to write by writing or reading, but listening and speaking!

She enjoys listening to American talk shows and learnt most of the expressions there, plus the skills to create a climax in story, just like what people do when giving a humourous speech, and these skills are transferred to her writing and speaking.

Without N, I would have never thought about the miraculous relationship between listening, speaking and writing. We often think that when we read more, we'd naturally become better writers, but there seems to be an alternative for people who are not into reading.

This is such an interesting topic!

Day 17: Timing is important

It's the last day of my Easter break, a short one when compared with the primary and secondary schools but a rather long one for the post-secondary sector.

Today I hanged out with E, who took my Japanese interest class a couple of years ago. At first we thought E must be a housewife, but it turned out that she was a member of the management board in a famous bank! We didn't know that until one day when we had a hotpot gathering and happened to talk about investment. To our surprise, E was well versed with stocks and other investment products, in and out of Hong Kong!

Now I still meet E a few times a year, sometimes with Y, the writer. We often exchange our views about life and the current economy. I enjoy reading the news and just regurgitate what I read plus a bit of my own opinions, and E would give me her analysis. It seems that both E and Y are successful investors, but today E pointed out a very important point: the key is not just about what you buy, but when you buy it. As soon as everyone's getting crazy about something, it's too late, she said.

Does this resonate with Warren Buffett's famous quote, "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful"?