A Taste of Asia: A Lashing of Hong Kong (Part 2)
May 30th 2008 10:44
The morning of my second day in Hong Kong I found myself in one of the impossibly high office buildings near Mongkok station, where Wanda welcomed me into her office. This was a woman who had her 'business' cap on and wasn't very interested in my personal life. She assumed that Zara and I were closer than we actually were, and this was one of the reasons she was welcoming me into her family business. Just like for many Chinese people, the business was handled by the family as much as possible. The difference here is that Wanda was a female, and so was her sister. They were clearly (partially) empowered females who knew how to conduct themselves in the male-dominated business world. There were two other non-family employees including a young Chinese man, and I got the impression that Wanda was somewhat referring to him when she offered the opinion that Chinese people weren't the best at logical thinking. "A equals C. They jump to conclusions," she told me, particularly where people from the mainland were concerned. Then there was her personal assistant, who was happy to be back in Hong Kong after studying in Guangzhou. She struck me as loud and insensitive, but I didn't have to do much with her.
I had a bit of experience with teaching, after my two-week stint in Opole, Poland, and realised that that was more experience than anyone else had. They were just beginning their management of an entire school program, so I was lucky to be part of this enterprise. The guy showed me the teaching aids that he had obviously spent a lot of time on, and I was impressed with how pretty they were. I realised that visual stimulus was important for the entry-level primary school kids we would be teaching. They were in the "summer" colour range, with rosy pinks and crisp-looking greens, and I brightened up a bit while looking at them. How hard could teaching children the basics of English be, especially when I had such attractive accompanying material? Our preparation room was pretty small, but I had my own section with a computer, with unrestricted internet use, so I was happy.
I discovered that Hong Kong-ers are used to working from 9am to 7pm every day, with some even working until 9pm! It was common to work on Saturdays as well. I was flabbergasted at this, and hoped that Wanda would never expect me to work those hours. Meanwhile, I had moved hotels and was now sleeping in a place that resembled a large box. There were no windows and nothing else in the room except a bed, with a small adjoining bathroom. I had got it for 250 after some Congoan guys I befriended helped me bargain it down from several hundred more. There was a guy sitting in the foyer of the hotel inspecting the human traffic of the hotel, who never smiled at me for the entire length of my stay, as much as I tried to radiate warmth at him.
Before I knew it, it was Monday of the next week, and I met Wanda's sister at Diamond Hill train station where we were picked up by a minivan which would be used to transport the kids as well as us to the school. On the half-hour ride I saw building after building towering much higher than you would expect for a residential building, incredibly nestling up to high hills. The buildings were a stark white against the dark green, and this landscape seemed to go on forever. I recalled people telling me that due to the lack of space in Hong Kong, the only way to build was up. I hadn't yet seen the harbour, which was more of the same, only more metallic, varied and multi-coloured.
The classes were kind of fun, and I felt like I was actually in the right place - the rest of my team was far too timid and inexperienced to provide the leadership for these kids that I was. The kids were very cute, and a few were enamoured with me. I taught from 8am to 12pm or so, and we did classes in Maths, English, Music, Art and 'Putonghua', which is Cantonese. 'Hua' means language variant. Overall, it wasn't a bad job. But the money I received at the end of the week was not even enough to pay my hotel bill, so I decided to venture out into the mainland to see what I could find. I didn't feel like I had connected with the Mediapower people very well, and I figured that I didn't have to settle for this infuriatingly noisy, humid, congested Kowloon, with its unappetising local cuisine (sorry to the lovers of Southern Chinese food) - there had to be some place on this continent that I could call a home, and I was interested in finding it. I just hoped that it was nearby, because I had very little money to travel with.
Mongkok at night - congested, multi-coloured, providing sensory overload for this Westerner
I had a bit of experience with teaching, after my two-week stint in Opole, Poland, and realised that that was more experience than anyone else had. They were just beginning their management of an entire school program, so I was lucky to be part of this enterprise. The guy showed me the teaching aids that he had obviously spent a lot of time on, and I was impressed with how pretty they were. I realised that visual stimulus was important for the entry-level primary school kids we would be teaching. They were in the "summer" colour range, with rosy pinks and crisp-looking greens, and I brightened up a bit while looking at them. How hard could teaching children the basics of English be, especially when I had such attractive accompanying material? Our preparation room was pretty small, but I had my own section with a computer, with unrestricted internet use, so I was happy.
Fresh 'summer' shades
I discovered that Hong Kong-ers are used to working from 9am to 7pm every day, with some even working until 9pm! It was common to work on Saturdays as well. I was flabbergasted at this, and hoped that Wanda would never expect me to work those hours. Meanwhile, I had moved hotels and was now sleeping in a place that resembled a large box. There were no windows and nothing else in the room except a bed, with a small adjoining bathroom. I had got it for 250 after some Congoan guys I befriended helped me bargain it down from several hundred more. There was a guy sitting in the foyer of the hotel inspecting the human traffic of the hotel, who never smiled at me for the entire length of my stay, as much as I tried to radiate warmth at him.
Before I knew it, it was Monday of the next week, and I met Wanda's sister at Diamond Hill train station where we were picked up by a minivan which would be used to transport the kids as well as us to the school. On the half-hour ride I saw building after building towering much higher than you would expect for a residential building, incredibly nestling up to high hills. The buildings were a stark white against the dark green, and this landscape seemed to go on forever. I recalled people telling me that due to the lack of space in Hong Kong, the only way to build was up. I hadn't yet seen the harbour, which was more of the same, only more metallic, varied and multi-coloured.
Go to the fabulous www.terragalleria.com for some breathtaking photos
The classes were kind of fun, and I felt like I was actually in the right place - the rest of my team was far too timid and inexperienced to provide the leadership for these kids that I was. The kids were very cute, and a few were enamoured with me. I taught from 8am to 12pm or so, and we did classes in Maths, English, Music, Art and 'Putonghua', which is Cantonese. 'Hua' means language variant. Overall, it wasn't a bad job. But the money I received at the end of the week was not even enough to pay my hotel bill, so I decided to venture out into the mainland to see what I could find. I didn't feel like I had connected with the Mediapower people very well, and I figured that I didn't have to settle for this infuriatingly noisy, humid, congested Kowloon, with its unappetising local cuisine (sorry to the lovers of Southern Chinese food) - there had to be some place on this continent that I could call a home, and I was interested in finding it. I just hoped that it was nearby, because I had very little money to travel with.
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