Issue 10May 2018

Blossomin

CONTENTS Message from the principal P.1

Young Achievers A Decade of Blooming and Reflections - Lee Lai Ping P.2My Way with determination – Yip Po Lam P.3Get well-prepared – Ng Chun Sue, Adrian P.4To serve To learn – Chung Sze Yan, Catherine P.5A BIG heartfelt happy 10th anniversary to Hon Wah in Blossom – Tam Wing Yan P.6The friendship I gained from secondary school – Li Kat King P.7Solo Travel is fruitful – Cheung Yan Hei, Kobe P.8My message to Hon Wah – Saranukulwong Sirilak P.9“I Have a Dream” – My journey to the United Nations – Fong Ka Hei, Andy P.10Australian Experiences – Lee Cheuk Him, Rex P.11New Flavours in My Cocktail - Ng Cheuk Him, Nicholas P.12-13A ‘round’ peg in a round hole – Chow Hoi Ching, Dorothy P.14

School Life Diary entries about my new school life – S1A Chiu Man Ching, Nicole P.15What is English Wednesday? – Miss Tam Wing Yan, Mr Stephen Percy and Miss Chum Man Hoi P.16Reflections from Student Helpers – S3A Wong Ching Kam, Jenkin, S3A Lam Ming Chun, Jacky, S3A Chow Chit Yin, Tom P.17S3A Chui Ming Sze, Macy, S3A Choi Lam Ching, Ella, S3A Wong Sau Ching, Angelina P.18S3A Chan Chun Hei, Axel, S3A Chan Chun Pang, Tappy, S3A Lok Chun Po, Owen P.19Halloween? It’s ‘Storytime’! – S5A Lau Eilis Yee Ling P.20HW Campus TV – S4B Tse Sum Wing, S4C Hui Po Ching, S4B Choy Yuk Lam P.21S4A Chan Hong Ni, S6B Ng King Cheong, Kabi P.22Idioms 4 U – S3A Ng Cheuk Wang, Maurice, S3A Chan Hoi Tik, Heidi P.23S3A Tsang Wai Him, Justin, S3A Wong Sau Ching, Angelina P.24Social service programme – Mr Siu Heung Man, S3A Fung Tsz Yan, Gian, P.25S3A Shui Nga Yau, Sonia The service trip to Heyuan – S4A Wang Hong Jin, Alice P.26A Valuable Job Experience – S5A Tsui Chun Yin, Matthew P.26

Young Achievers Public Speaking Champion – S6C Ching Wai Nok, Martin P.27Basketball – my goal and my soul – S5A Ma Tan Fung P.28-29We are freshmen – S1A Sin Hau Huen, Natalie, S4A Wong Hiu Tung P.30S3A Wong Ching Kam, Jenkin, S1B Lee Shing Hei P.31Passion and skills – S6C Lee Hin Cheong, Jason P.32 Swimming Training is harsh – S2C Chan Ngai Shing, Mike P.32Bows + Arrows + Effort – S3A Lee See Lok, Ian, S3A Lo Yuk Yi, Jessica P.33Setbacks make a stronger runner – S6C Kwok Yu Yan, Fanny P.34Commitment and service awarded – S6A Cheng Lok Yi, Toby P.34

Young Minds at Work I am a spider – S6A Li Chuk Lin Chloe Mae P.35Light at the End of the Tunnel – S6A Ha Ming Wai, June P.36Life is full of surprises and shocks – S2A Xuan Yuchen, Kitty P.37I am Malala – S6A Li Wan, Elaine P.37A film that catches your attention! – S2C Dong Chao Feng, Avony P.38A reply to a blog entry – S2C Mok Ting Yan, Kobie P.38Fast and Furious 7 – S1A Tam Siu Ki, Arnold P.39Presto – S1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte, S1A Wu Victor P.39Happy Teens – S3B Tse Yee Man, Kary P.40S3A Cheung Ho Yin, Andrew P.41Different people, different minds – S1B Lam Cheuk Hin, Stanley P.42S1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte, S1A Kim Sung Won, Nathan P.43New school clubs to propose – S3B Lau Sze Ting P.44Playing Esport One Team, One Dream – S3A Cheung Ho Yin, Andrew P.45Hello from Earth – S4A Wong Hiu Tung, Carmen P.46S4A Zheng Zhengtai, Jimmy P.47S3B Cheng Cheuk Yee Twitty P.48

Hi! Our Poems S1B Wong Yu Yan, Cindy, S1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte, S1A Chui Tsz Kiu, AndreaS1B Tjhin Hao Prasada Chandra P.49S1B Au Po Ming, Sebastian, S1B Ma Cheuk Yiu, Adrianna, S1B Lee Yat Kwan, Justin P.50S1B Chan Sau Ching, Eunice, S1C Chu Ka Po, Kent, S1C Lam Pak Hang, Paco P.51

Forum The pros and cons of online shopping – S5C Ng Ka Kiu, Kelly P.52Can employees access private emails during office hours? – S5C Cheung Ho Yin, Justin P.52Private emails not so private – S5B Tang Ho Ting P.53Real Friends – S2A Guan Man Ching, Amy, S2A Wong Yin Leong, Andy P.54S2A Lin Tak Sum, Marvin, S2A Lau Cheuk Hei, Max, S2A Cheung Wing Yan, SophieS2A Xuan Yuchen, Kitty P.55S2A Leung Ka Wai, Annette, S2B Cheung Ip Ting, S2B Yeung Ching Nam, Janice P.56S2B Mak Ka Cheong, Leo P.57An Interview with a Former Drug Addict – S4B Yeung Justin P.58Comics, the best art form – S6A Wu Lijia, Lawrence P.59What Inspires Me? – S5C Choi Ka Yi P.60S5A Wong Pak Sing, Parco, S5B Cheng Hon Lam, Cookie P.61

Footsteps Study trip to Japan – S6A Chan Chue Hang, Andy P.62Belt Road awareness – S5B Wong Chi Wah, Gillian P.63S5B Kwong Yin Hong, Sharon P.64S5A Chan Ka Yu, Thomas P.65An exchange programme in Colombia – S6B Chan Cheuk Hei, Louis P.66New Zealand Trip – S4A Cheung Wai Kiu, Vicky P.67A Study Trip to Wuhan – S5B Law Yi Lok P.67School Field Trip Day – S2B Mok Ho Cheung, Horace, S2C Law Hiu Ting, S2C Dong Chao Feng, Avony P.68Students’ reflections – S2A Lin Tak Sum, Marvin, S2A Yeung Hei Tung, Rache, S2A Guan Man Ching, Amy P.69A Fun Visit in Sai Kung – S4A Wong Hiu Tung P.70Martial Training – S1A Chui Tsz Kiu, Andrea, S1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte P.70

Photo Gallery P.71-76

Message from the principalHon Wah In Blossom, a yearly publication of the English Department, is going to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Throughout the years, it provides a platform not only for sharpening students’ writing skills, but also nurturing many talents. Young writers in the past issues now serve in different professions after graduation. How they persevere on their academic or career paths showcases the Hon Wah spirit: to serve and to contribute to society whole-heartedly. Their valuable encounters and passion for pursuing their dreams and goals set good examples to our young Hon Wah students.

Our school first implemented an EMI class in Secondary 1 this year. The teaching and learning effectiveness is satisfactory in accordance with the teaching analysis. Students are offered a wide range of learning opportunities to use English outside the classroom. They enjoy an English-rich learning environment. Apart from the English announcements and sharing, EMI teachers communicate with students in English inside and outside the classroom.

English Department has gained a great harvest in the 69th Hong Kong Schools’ Speech Festival. Besides participating in our usual events, S1 – S5 students were encouraged to join the dramatic duologue, which is our new attempt. Through a series of tough training and practice, the participants gained knowledge, experience as well as good scores.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Ms Sin Lai Wan, Ms Lau Bik Yee and the whole English Department for their hard work and effort in making this publication a success.

1

An unexpected yet delightful message from Ms Lau reminds me that time really flies. It has been a decade since my alma master relocated to Siu Sai Wan. We heard about the relocation hoping to enjoy all new facilities when we were in the old school. After my graduation, our younger schoolmates have been fortunate enough to study at this new school. A few years later after my graduation, I met Ms Lau who is still friendly and cheerful. In fact, she understands me a lot and is always willing to give a helping hand to the students. I remember the first time I approached Ms Lau was to seek her advice to improve my communication skills in school. Later I asked her more about English and shared with her my daily life. She always listened to my sharing no matter how trivial it was and gave me emotional support. I once shared my terrible childhood experience with Ms Lau. My mother fed me many unknown insects when I was small and physically weak. I was ashamed of myself at not being able to reject my mother who lacked scientific knowledge. After hearing my complaint, Ms Lau gave me a warm smile with respect encouraging me to think from a positive perspective.

Looking back on my ten-year teaching career, it is indeed a great challenge to educate and assist students with special needs every year. We always put emphasis on educational psychology, special education theories in schools and accumulated teaching skills. However, the essence of education should be our caring heart and love for students. When they feel loved, they will learn to be more independent and stronger. I visited the new campus accompanied by Ms Lau experiencing the great transformation of the school. It is gratifying to see that our school is developing more and more vigorously. When we left the campus in the evening and it grew dark, I did not notice that Ms Lau was walking slowly and falling behind. I turned back and held her arm to walk at the same pace. I have been thankful for having such a supportive teacher in life especially when I encounter different kinds of confusion and setbacks.

A Decade of Blooming and ReflectionsLee Lai Ping

A Messages from alumni

2

It was a bumpy road for me to become a Chinese medicine pratitioner.

Bold to dreamAfter finishing my secondary education in Hon Wah, I passed the Chinese College Entrance Examination and successfully entered the Guangzhou Chinese Medicine University, which is named as the cradle of the Chinese medicine field.

I remember that when I was in secondary school, I had two dream jobs: to be a good government official who manages the city well and punishes corrupt officials or to be a kind-hearted Chinese medicine practitioner to cure and take good care of my patients. It is high time I set my goals and strived for excellence. What I solely want to do is help my patients to have a speedy recovery and thus, they can keep fit and be healthy and happy throughout life.

Dare to achieveIt took me five years to get a Bachelor’s degree

in Chinese medicine. I had to take up a wide variety of courses including both traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine. A great deal of understanding, learning, memorizing,

consolidating and applying were the keys to success. Memorization plays an important part in learning. I used to wake up early in the morning so as to make good use of time to memorize all the subject

materials effectively and efficiently. It took me years to lay a good foundation for mastering all this.

Apart from grasping knowledge, getting practical experience by assisting experienced Chinese medicine practitioners is extremely essential in this field. Lucky me! I could learn from an experienced professor at weekends. Taking part clinically is the main lifeline of being a successful Chinese medicine pratitioner. I followed the advice of professional seniors and made good use of time to gain more practical experience even though I was ovrwhelmed by loads of books and notes.

To retreat or to proceedIn my final year, I had the chance to have the practicum. I needed to be patient and persevering as many experienced Chinese medicine pratitioners were reluctant to take up student practitioners. On the first day of my practicum, ‘Good morning, professor, may I stay here and help you a little bit?’ I asked. ‘Of course, not. I don’t take students,’ the professor replied. I was rejected by seven professionals. I was in despair and felt hopeless. Finally came the eighth kind-hearted professor. I was allowed to stay in the ward for a while and help with the work. I tried hard and did my best during my practicum.

At the beginning, I was just allowed to stand and observe. Later, I could talk with patients and prescribe medicine for some minor illnesses. As time went by, I could seek advice from my professor and share my view with him. It was really a difficult time for me. However, I did it! I could proudly say to you, I did it. The praise and support from the professor enhanced my confidence and professionalism.

After getting a Bachelor’s degree, I kept on with my Master’s and Doctoral degrees as I was thirst for knowledge. In these 3 years, I was engaged in a wide range of studies, research and clinical work. Preparation for the professional examination brought me a lot of pressure. I overcame all the hardship, graduated and qualified as a professional Chinese medicine practitioner both in Hong Kong and China. Some famous Chinese clinics invited me to work in Hong Kong, but I prefer to work in Guangzhou for two days a week as a Chinese medicine practitioner. I would like to make a better use of my time to stretch my knowledge and improve my technique instead of earning much money. I treasure all the chances that I get to learn from the professionals. Whenever I face some difficult illnesses, I will consult my professor and help patients to have a better recovery. Their smiling faces are the source of my job satisfaction.

Far beyond medicineChinese medicine is Chinese culture. We need to learn, to develop, to accomplish and to pass it on generations after generations. What I possess is just some Chinese medicine, some knowledge, some needles and my presevering heart. I am sure this will pave me the way to become a successful Chinese medicine practitioner who not just heals patients but conserves the culture.

I was not born in a wealthy family. My parents were blue-collar workers. In order to reduce their burden, whenever I had term breaks, I would come back to Hong Kong to do part-time jobs for earning my living expenses and tuition fees. I treasure my learning chances. Learning to be a Chinese medicine practitioner is a long winding bumpy road. However, I have a strong belief that the effort and time you spend will reward you. .

Life is...Life is just like preparing a pot of healing Chinese herbal tea. Start by putting in clean water, followed by heating it until it boils, then simmering it patiently and finally producing a healing medicine. Loads of challenges and obstacles are lying ahead. No matter how hard life is, just keep going step by step. Success awaits you ahead. Be patient and determined.

My Way with determination Yip Po Lam

3

Get well-preparedNg Chun Sue, Adrian

It’s a great honor for me to have the opportunity to share something about my life in Hon Wah in Blossom.

My name is Adrian. I am 24 years old and I am an old student from Hon Wah College. I am studying in Maritime Service Training Institute(MSTI), a subsidiary of Vocational Training College. At the same time, I am a full time manager of a bar and restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui. I think you may be shocked when you hear this. You can never imagine how difficult it is to work your way through study. Till now, it’s still a hard time to me.

Actually, I was born in a well-to-do family. My father is a businessman and my mother is a housewife. However, it all ended up when I was fifteen years old. My father faced a big impact in his business and he was taken to court because of legal issues. At last, my father lost the case and he needed to pay all the litigation cost…. and the amount is substantial. My father used almost all his savings to pay for it. It was such a trauma to my family, especially to my father. After that, he suffered from Colorectal Cancer which took him over a year to get better. In order not to increase my parents’ burden, I started my first part-time job in KFC when I was fifteen years old. I worked six days a week and my salary was $23 per hour. Thinking back, I know how stupid I was at that time. In fact, no matter how long I worked, no matter how many days I worked a week, I could only earn $3-4,000 a month!! It could not help my family. However, I neglected my studies because of the job. And I have sacrificed the most precious thing of my life---time. You cannot imagine how I wish to go back to the past and tell the youngsters: “Please don’t waste your time. What you get now is just a short-term satisfaction, but you will feel regret for your whole life.” I had been trapped in this lifestyle for three years. As expected, I got a bad result in the DSE. I had to go in a foundation diploma if I chose to continue my studies. At last, I decided to quit and started working. As I have the experience, I can definitely tell you that it’s not a fun thing when you are a fresh school-leaver and to enter company. As you are “new”, you will run into snags and be foiled everywhere. No one is concerned about your feelings and you mist bear your mistakes. And there are only two things waiting for you when you make mistakes, a bad scolding and a lot of vulgar language. There are only teachers and your parents who will be concerned about your feelings all the time; however, such characters do not exist in society.

And so, I have been working in the catering industry for 5 years. Although I can afford my living and my parents’ as well, I refuse to accept my whole life will go on like this. I wish to do something about it. And there is only knowledge which can change one’s destiny, and this is why I chose to continue my study again. As young people, we are in the prime of our life. We should make good use of our golden time. The road is long. The modern age needs those who are well educated and the future is highly competitive. Opportunity only favors those who are well-prepared. Take your time to equip yourself and get ready for any challenges. You will never know when the opportunity comes and knocks at your door.

4

To serve To learnChung Sze Yan, Catherine

Spring just arrived and time really flies by in the blink of an eye, it has been already 6 years since I graduated from Hon Wah. The day when Miss Lau asked me to write an article for “Hon Wah in Blossom”, I started reviewing my past six years seriously.

After HKALE, I didn’t take up bachelor degree offered but chose Bilingual Communication (French & English) in CCCU. Luckily, in 2014, I got an overseas studies scholarship and started my study life in La Rochelle, a city in France. And my

major is International Tourism Management. Definitely, the program provided me with solid theoretical knowledge and international horizons while it strengthened my language and cultural studies. Completing the main subject, I’ve done two internships in Paris and Corfu Island in Greece respectively, both of which are related to the tourism industry. During this one and a half years in Europe, I’ve been to over 15 nearby countries and

explored many new things that I had not been done before, such as chasing northern lights, visiting a Nazi concentration camp, taking an overnight bus and cruise alone, sleeping in a stranger’s sofa... I gradually found my passion in travelling became more and more unquenchable. Still further, some of the amazing people who I encountered there even reinforced my aspiration in volunteering while travelling.

I began to engage in some voluntary programs after I come back to Hong Kong. I have served in mainland China, Sri Lanka and Africa. The most impressive one is in Uganda, which is in the eastern part of Africa. It was my friend who invited me to visit her husband’s hometown and teach African children simple Chinese and English in her charity association there. I promised without any slightest hesitation. When I really set foot on that land, I found the living environment is much better than I expected. Although most of the children I taught came from a broken family or suffered difficulties in life, they always smile and I felt their passion for life. I also helped organize the New Year party for these children and spent a joyful and priceless time with them. After that, I suddenly realized, in fact, the enlightenment of travelling and volunteering for me took place in Hon Wah, since it offered me numerous valuable chances to join various study tours, field trips and voluntary activities in my secondary school life. So far, I have left my footprint in more than 30 countries and 100 cities, and I still keep joining voluntary programs from time to time. Indeed, I gained fruitful experiences from every journey. I can proudly say that I am doing the thing that I am really keen on. Thus, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to my school Hon Wah College, which trained my sight on this wonderful world at a young age, and also to the lovely teachers who inspired me and steadied my belief on pursuing my dream.

No matter how long the winter is, spring is sure to follow. No matter which life path you choose, you will find the way which only belongs to you and is in full blossom.

5

A BIG heartfelt happy 10th anniversary to Hon Wah in Blossom Tam Wing Yan

I have had the luck and privilege to publish articles in the first issue (as a student), the seventh (as an alumna), and the tenth (as both an alumna and teacher). The change of roles made me ponder what I have done over the ten years and how education has become my career, or perhaps my lifelong commitment.

My struggle with languages and a shaky start in my early childhood basically convinced me once and for all to give up on any idea of becoming an educator. Nonetheless, the immense support from teachers and particular others in my life became the main source of my passion and strength. They always encouraged me to get out in the world to take risks and examine my hypothesis and preconceptions. Their acknowledgement has shaped my self-image and identity.

With an unflagging enthusiasm to explore the world, I applied to work for a maritime company where I worked three days in the office to conduct market analysis and two days at sea to communicate with clients. I had a good time working in the business sector but I had a genuine desire to utilize my professional skills in a more sustainable manner.

Back at that critical moment at university, I signed up for an overseas service leadership program. I was assigned to serve in a kindergarten in Vietnam, an elementary school in Nepal, and a refugee school in Australia. Not only did these opportunities expand my intellectual repertoire, but they also directed me towards a lifelong commitment to education.

I remember how my refugee students from war-torn countries suddenly burst into tears when asked to write a recount about ‘yesterday’. They could not help but cry out the unutterable sadness in their native languages - Persian and Arabic. I recall how children in developing countries are bright and positive while conquering adversity. I am grateful to be inspired to see the world differently.

As a frontline teacher in Hong Kong, I sincerely hope that our students are empowered to explore their dreams in the ocean of possibilities. In this strong high-stake culture, they are reminded to be bold and open-minded and take chances. In this on-going journey toward self-definition, they are encouraged to stand strong and be committed to their dreams.

6

The friendship I gained from secondary schoolLi Kat King

I graduated from Hon Wah 7 years ago. I really enjoyed school life with my classmates and teachers. After graduation, although all my friends and I entered different higher education institutions to pursue our dreams, but still keep in touch and sometimes hang out together. Now, we are working in different fields, nursing, education, medicine, banking etc. We are all busy with our work but we still find some time to share our working experience and thoughts. During our chatting and sharing, I found most of us have positive attitudes towards our jobs, communicate well with colleagues and enjoy the work environment.

In fact, school plays a very important role in our growth, providing us with knowledge and skills, as well as shaping our personality. And the teachers are very kind and always stay with us, encouraging us to try, praising us when we got work done. Teachers are the role models who we learn from. That is the reason why we all have positive attitude not only to jobs but also to different aspects of life.

For me, I want to thank teachers for caring about me, supporting me and the values they taught me. Now, as a teacher, I want to continue the knowledge and spirit I gained from the teachers.

Taking part in the alumni association, I can keep in contact with fellow alumni in different fields, sharing the school news, achievements and our expectations about our school. Our school has a very long history and the alumni are in different age groups, but we chat like friends and I have gained life experience from them.

7

Solo Travel is fruitful

Cheung Yan Hei, Kobe

Hi everyone! I am Kobe. I graduated from Hon Wah a few years ago. Here I would like to share my travelling experience.

I love travelling very much. I have travelled to around 8 countries in Europe alone this year. If you are curious why I do this alone, I would like to say that I can enjoy more freedom when I travel alone. I am the kind of person who doesn’t like to have a detailed plan all day or ask for permissions to do things, When I travel alone I can do anything I want and go wherever I want. I don’t even need a plan. But of course, I need to be aware of safety.

To be honest, it is hard to tell what I have actually learnt during my trip. Maybe getting out of my comfort zone is the best I have experienced. During my solo travel, I met and talked with people from different countries. Most of them were interested in everything about Hong Kong, like “Does Hong Kong belong to Japan?” and “Is Hong Kong a country?” So I have to explain to them over and over about our history. That’s an endless topic after all. We learnt from each other and shared different cultures. I also learnt how to speak different languages and express myself clearly. I also learnt how to live like a local, which is the best and enjoyable experience in my trip. Getting along well with the locals was a great success. I have enjoyed my trips very much.

Guys, you may give it a try. You will have a fruitful experience.

8

My message to Hon WahSaranukulwong Sirilak

Hello everyone! I’m Angela. It is really hard to tell how much I miss the time in Hon Wah after graduation. And I remember every little thing that happened and become a part of me. Time seems unreal with the sweetest dreams and memory of my time at Hon Wah. I had a really great time here.

During that time, I tried to step out of my comfort zone and tried many new things. For example, I attended public speaking competition, took part in a 15-day summer military training camp, joined different competitions in sports and art as well as took up different responsibilities at school.

One of the most challenging experiences was being the main character in the musical “The Wizard of Oz” when I was in Form 2. I was really shy and it was my first time to perform in a musical. We spent a lot of time training and put in a lot of effort. It was a tough time for me and I felt quite tired and nervous, but I persisted until the actual performance. That experience gave me a really wonderful moment on stage and I became more confident in facing new challenges and difficult situations.

Fellow students, try different things in your young age, especially when you have a more flexible time in school. Those experiences and challenges will help you to know more about yourself and others. Whatever they are, those are the presents for you to discover a new place to go in the future.

If I could travel back to the past, I really want to be 18 again. It was the year of finding dreams and being true to yourself. The years in secondary school would be one of the refreshing memories where you meet great friends and teachers. In this Easter holiday, I was happy that I had joined a 5-day trip to Huangshan with Hon Wah alumni. It reminds me of the time at school and every lovely person I met. Without them, life lacks color.

Dear friends, finally, be real, be happy and be thankful for everything. Treasure every moment in your school life. When time flies, we will know how valuable time is. No matter whether it is a good or bad moment, I am sure we will miss it someday.

9

“I Have a Dream” – My journey to the United NationsFong Ka Hei, Andy

“Being a diplomat is my dream.” This quote is the first line of my personal statement when applying to a university’s degree programme. Participating in the National Model United Nations Conference in New York (NMUM-NY) helped me to achieve a wish that has existed since my childhood – entering and having meetings in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations.

The conference also provided me an opportunity to meet delegates around the world. I had a chance to meet delegates from several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. I was even able to have a re-union with a Taiwanese friend who joined the City University of Hong Kong Model United Nations Conference with me because he was the delegate from the Conference A of NMUN-NY. It shows that the world is connected to each other and friendships we built in the past Model United Nations conferences never disappear.

I represent Estonia in the United Nations Environment Assembly. The conference started from 25th March and lasted for 5 days and I understood the operation and functions of United Nations deeply through the process of meeting. I spent most of the sections on the unmoderated caucus to form blocs or discuss the details of working papers and resolutions. The whole committee only passed one resolutions out of the 3 topics. This reflects how it is difficult to gain support from different member states and you have to use your time and patience to negotiate with them. This also explains why the United Nations or international community takes such a long period of time discussing a global issue and providing solutions.

After the conference, I headed to Washington D.C. with some of my friends. The most important part of the trip was visiting the United States Congress. As a student of Government and International Studies, I learnt a lot about the political system and development of the United States. I found this information is beneficial because Government and Politics of the United States is my major elective course and I can use it as reference.

We also visited various attractions in New York including the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and the American Museum of Natural History. Those attractions always appear in Hollywood movies and they helped us to understand how the culture of the United States affects the world.

‘I Have a Dream’ is a famous speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. – an African-American leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His vision inspired numerous people to achieve their goals and I am also affected by him. That is why I participate in different conferences and events to gear myself up to be the one who can contribute to the globe. The whole journey is valuable to me as my global vision is broadened and it is my pleasure to represent my university at this conference. It is my desire that there will be another chance to participate in similar events in future.

10

Hello, everyone! I am Rex, and I have been staying in Australia for 2 years, and I am currently studying computer science at Monash University. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you guys my experience in Australia.

When I first came to Australia, I felt a bit lonely and helpless as it was the first time I was studying abroad by myself. The second thing I realised is I am no longer in the place where I grew up, the things I take for granted and felt accustomed to was no longer there. Furthermore, I also realised English has suddenly become my day-to-day language. However, as I settled into my new environment, I understood I have nothing to fear. This is because my English teachers in Hon Wah have already prepared me for this. The constant English speaking training in high school has made me feel comfortable with speaking in English on a day to day basis. This helped me a lot during the first six months in Australia, as it gave me the confidence to speak in English, use English to ask directions and meet new friends in Monash. And gradually, talking in English has become my second nature. I also made a lot of new friends in both my Foundation Year and at Uni.

Another thing I would like to share is my Uni life. After a year of studying in Monash Foundation Year, I finally got accepted into Monash University. University is very different compared with the high school and the foundation college. In University, there are many clubs to join such as a club which builds race cars, robotics and archery. For example, I joined the Monash Scuba Diving Club and went scuba diving with many of my new friends. The club is called MONUC (Monash Underwater Club). What makes this club so special is MONUC manages to host at least one scuba diving trip each week. Last week during the mid-semester break, we all went to Phillip Bay for scuba diving, and the site was lovely. There were many corals and funny looking fish, and we all had a great trip.

Aside from joining the Scuba Diving Club, I have also joined a club called Wired. This club is designed for I.T. students, and I had a lot of fun participating in Wired activities. Wired hosts different events throughout the year such as movie nights, BBQ days and hackathon. Now, what is a hackathon? A hackathon is an event in which I.T. students can put their skills to the test. In a hackathon, we are given some objectives to complete. For example, write some codes to solve a complex problem or create some software that the school may use later. In short, I had a great experience

in University as I could join the Scuba Diving club and go to many beautiful sites for diving, and I was able to put what I learn in Monash’s hackathon.

Additionally, I would also like to share my experience in the Peer Mentor Program. The Program is designed to help first-year students to settle in University smoothly by hosting different activities and helping them when they have questions. I had a great time in this program, and at the same time, I learnt a lot. I had a great time because each week we had different activities, from BBQ Day to movie night and more. The most memorable event was the games night. In the games night, we had a blast. Different people brought their gaming device to the hall, and we played together. There were competitive games such as FIFA, Halo, Mario Kart etc. and someone even brought their DIY controller for a rhythm game. Besides fun and games I also learnt a lot from the program. I learn how to work efficiently in a team, such as how to plan activities and how to ensure the operation runs smoothly. All in all, I felt the program was fun, and at the same time, I learn a lot of skills that I will never be able to learn from just studying a book.

Finally, I want to say that high school friends are your lifelong friends. After graduation, we all went our separate ways. Some found a job and excel in what they do, and some further studies in different countries. However, this does not mean that we drift apart. We keep in contact even though we are on different continents. Thanks to the power of technology, we can use Skype to have a facetime video to chat with each other and share our experience in Australia. Moreover, during the long holidays such as summer and winter breaks, we will usually go back to Hong Kong and meet up. Nevertheless, it is great that I can talk to my best friends just like we have never left.

To sum up, I think studying in Australia is a great experience. Just as I got to experience a very different culture and I can meet people from all around the world. I also wish all of you a great year and enjoy your time at Hon Wah.

Australian Experiences Lee Cheuk Him, Rex

11

New Flavours in My CocktailNg Cheuk Him, Nicholas

“Studying abroad was never ever the thing I would do in my life.” That is what I had lingered in my mind six months before I decided to study in the University of Queensland (UQ). I was afraid of leaving my family, friends and my hometown, all of which combined are my cozy “comfort zone”. However, I have to admit that the golden saying does apply--- time flies. This is my third year in Australia and I found out that I do embrace all the happiness and tears I have had until now.

Everyone who knows me well enough knows that I love gardening and plants. That is the reason why I chose agriculture for my degree. For a UQ agriculture degree, most of my courses are only available in Gatton, the old campus which is on the outskirts of Brisbane. It takes 3 hours to get to the city by public transport. I was lucky that my parents came with me and accompanied me for a few days. I felt settled. Yes, I really did but just for a moment.

Gatton campus is basically an isolated area with only a regular bus going to town center once an hour. The campus itself is surrounded by fields and farm animals.

Even in the Gatton town center, there is nothing more than a supermarket and a few restaurants. You cannot find a single shop open after 7pm.

As my parents’ rental car moved away from me, I was left in my room waving goodbye. I did not forget to smile to let them feel less worried about me, but in my heart, uncertainty started to fill. “From now on, I am on my own in this remote little campus.” That is what I had on my mind at that instant.

Students in this campus have two choices for accommodation: either living in the town or the student accommodation provided by the school. I chose the latter one which I regard as a smart choice.

The residents are of diverse backgrounds. The

people next to my room include a female second year vet student from Japan, and a local male PhD candidate specialising in soil science. I have a great chance to know people who are really different from me. Also, thanks to the remoteness of this campus, there is not much entertainment here. People, therefore, have more time to know each other and become respectful and trustful. Therefore, I made loads of close friends. This was totally

12

out of my expectation.

I even tried to have a week-long road trip with two of my Gatton friends to Sydney which is 500km away from Brisbane. We went hiking in Blue Mountain, feasted on seafood in fish market and visited the tower in Bryon Bay. It was a cool trip. In the Easter break, I visited Adelaide with another friend where I got the chance to hug a koala and visited a casino for the first time in my life.

Friends aside, I actually enjoy this campus itself because of its remoteness again. I am studying agricultural science because of my interest in plants. Other than the theory part, I really hope to apply it. In this campus, I am able to rent a mini farm land where I can grow my own vegetables and fruit. This is surely one of the best experiences I have had.

One should know that life is not that easy. Happiness and sadness always appear alternatively. I went back to Hong Kong for the first summer break. I visited my grandparents. In our chat, I knew my grandpa seldom leaves his wheelchair and my grandma barely does morning walks which she has kept doing for two decades. All of a sudden, my grandpa just casually slipped out a sentence. “I will wait for you to graduate and come back before I am ready to leave the world.” It touched the very bottom of the heart. I felt really guilty of spending less time with them as I am studying overseas and seemingly they know they are aging and getting weaker.

The second time I went back to Hong Kong. I visited them again. I discovered that my grandpa became forgetful. He started to ask the same question twice in a while. “When will you graduate? How is your life? Are you taking good care of yourself? Can you catch up with your study......?” I felt the warmth and care from him. Meanwhile I just cannot accept the truth that my grandpa is losing his memory. What I can only do is to take the chance to chat with them online every time my parents visit them. Tears do fill my eyes every time we talk. I try my very best to hold back and try not to make my grandparents feel worried, but I just can’t right after we end the call.

Life is hard and full of decisions to make. You need to be

responsible to every action you take. As I stay longer in Australia, I find myself less frustrated in trying new things. After spending two years in Gatton. I decided to try a new life in the main campus and I moved to Brisbane city. It is a hectic place, which is totally the opposite of Gatton. Entertainment and food don’t compare. The only thing I can complain is the attitudes of the people. In Gatton, we would say hi to anyone we met and even to a complete stranger, but not in Brisbane.

In this new campus, there are more courses available, when compared to only those have connections with agriculture in Gatton. I can find something else for my free electives which need not be related to the agriculture field. I decided to choose German. It is kind of a risky choice, as I was told that it is a hard language to learn and excel in, especially if you are going to learn a third language from a second language! Nevertheless, learning new languages is always something I would like to do, so I just went for it. At the beginning, I had a really hard time to understand German grammar and vocabs. What I can do is to find extra information from website, video on Youtube and anything else that is available. Also, I seek help from a friend who is currently having her major in German as well. I just try so hard to get all the bits and pieces of German in my head. Two weeks ago, I had my first test. I was really lucky that it turned out to be a really good result which I never expected. “Practice makes perfect” does work! Or in German “Übung macht den Meister!”

Indeed, the new experience and friends I encounter in Australia are fascinating, but I still cannot agree more on the statement that high school friends are lifelong friends. After graduation, we spend less time with each other, but we are not getting less bonded. We are still really close, even though we are in different parts of the world---- Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Hong Kong. Thanks to technology, we have Skype. We can keep updating each other with the new things we encounter in life regularly, which is good. During the holidays, as long as we have our holiday in Hong Kong, we will definitely meet up and grab the chance to talk face-to-face.

I have spent more than a half of my university life so far. I have no idea what to expect afterwards. I can still feel the uncertainty in me, but I am sure I get along better with it now. I will just follow my heart. There is never a wrong decision. All depends on how one treats it. However, do not forget one thing! Even though you are keen to explore what is ahead in your life, please stop at some points and recall the time you have spent with everyone around you, no matter whether it is tough or wonderful. Life is like a cocktail. All the memories are the flavours. Don’t let them slip away from you easily. You should keep them and make yourself a unique cocktail.

13

A ‘round’ peg in a round holeChow Hoi Ching, Dorothy

Happy 10th anniversary to Hon Wah In Blossom!

It’s my honour to share my experience with you guys here. I am Dorothy, and I have been studying in Australia for two and a half years. Now, I am a year 3 university student studying environmental management at Macquarie University in Sydney.

I think you guys may be surprised that environmental management is my major. That’s different from the others. Yes, I am. I was interested in studying Biology and Geography when I was in high school; therefore, environmental management is one of the bachelor degrees that consists both my favourite subjects.

It was my first time to study abroad when I was 18. I got no friends and family support as in Hong Kong when I just came to Australia. I felt a bit lonely and depressed because no one could help me. That’s the time I become independent. I

tried to cook, tried to meet some new friends, and tried to talk with the locals. Guess what? I just spent one week getting into this living practice. No homesickness, no depression.

Let me share with you my uni life. Since I am studying environmental management, I went on two field trips for exploration and gaining experience. That’s also an excellent opportunity to meet some new friends and having fun. For the first field trip, I went to Smith’s Lake Research Station and stayed there for 3 days. Smith’s Lake is approximately 274 kilometres north of Sydney. It took a

four-hour drive to get there. The field site is surrounded by forest and the accommodation that I stayed was rough. They only provided bunk beds and the shared bathroom. Most importantly, no signal or connections were received during those 3 days. It was my first time to live without telecommunications for more than 1 day. We did our fieldwork in the forest next to the accommodation. What I needed to do was to dig a hole around 2-3 meters deep and then observe the soil profile. That was fun because

I can learn by seeing the actual image in front of me.

Besides the field trip, I went to several places near Sydney for fun. I went to Port Stephens to try sandboarding a desert, I climbed up a sand dune and slid down with a board. There are so many activities that we can enjoy in Australia. One more activity I want to share with you guys is snowboarding! I went to Kosciuszko National Park near Canberra to enjoy snowboarding. This was an unforgettable experience for me.

When I finished my semester, I joined the 10 km Sydney marathon that was held around

the famous Sydney Opera House and Darling Harbour. This was my first time participating in a huge competition in Sydney. The scenery is gorgeous, and the atmosphere was good. Many people were encouraging me while I was running. It was a perfect experience to join a competition overseas.

Finally, I think studying in Australia is a good experience for me to meet people from different countries and know about their cultures. I hope you guys have a great time at Hon Wah College and get a good result in the HKDSE.

14

S chool Life

Diary entries about my new school lifeS1A Chiu Man Ching, Nicole

1 September, Friday RainyIt is the first day of my Secondary One lessons. I felt very nervous because I think making friends is hard. When I came to the classroom, I sweated a lot and sat on my chair feeling very worried. A few minutes later, a girl who sat in front of me started chatting with me and asking me about my background. At that moment, I felt relieved as making friends was not as difficult as I thought. My classmates in 1A are friendly. I think we’ll have a wonderful and amazing Secondary One life.

6 September, Wednesday Sunny Today, I had a lot of interesting lessons! The most interesting one is the English drama lesson. The drama teacher, Ms. Lau, introduced a lot of games. My favourite game is called ‘the memory game’. In this game, we needed to remember all the things in the box and told Ms. Lau which items were missing after several minutes. My group won this game! I look forward to the next lesson!

7 September, Thursday Windy Today we had the art and sports class for the first time in secondary school. In this lesson, students can join arts or sports classes as extra-curricular activities. I attended the Chinese musical instrument class – the Pipa class. I find the lesson meaningful for me because we can spend time on important things other than study. I think I will join the Chinese Orchestra next year. It’ll be a lot of fun!

15

English Wednesday is a highly student-led program that teachers and students work together to create school-wide English Language activities for each and every student to enhance language skills and develop global understanding. We are committed to providing authentic English language speaking opportunities outside the classroom so that our students can practise the language skills learnt in their curriculum and further internalize the skills through genuine discussions with their peers and teachers. We firmly believe that language learning can be consolidated through experience and interactions with others. Therefore, we put heavy emphasis on discussion, experiential learning, and game-based activities

Philosophy of English Wednesday

Student EmpowermentUnique to English Wednesday and key to its success is the student empowerment model, in which student helpers recruited are empowered to design and administer the programs throughout the academic years. We believe that our students should be the initiators and the beneficiaries of the learning process. We are proud to see that our student helpers have become more creative, spontaneous, and capable of managing parameters beyond their duties.

Service Leadership Service leadership is another concept that we truly believe in. We encourage our student helpers to serve and learn to understand others through offering help and support. This concept has proven to be effective for facilitating students to be more humble, compassionate, reflective, amongst other personal qualities essential for success in the 21st century.

Our activitiesEnglish Wednesday sessions have thus far been administered and presented by two English teachers, Ms. Tam and Ms. Chum, and one of the school’s Native English Teachers (NET) Mr. Percy. The monthly sessions are mainly lunchtime speaking activities on latest local and global issues. The school-wide concept welcomes all individuals on campus, including teachers and students, to gather at our Covered Playground to share and learn from one another.

The weekly sessions have been short seminars followed by a simple task to engage what the students have absorbed. There are debate and critical thinking exercises. Topics range from global issues such as deforestation, and brief snapshots of the cultures of Australia and Italy. The goal has been to hold the students’ attention and drive them to engage with a range of different ideas in English, as a supplement to their classroom learning. Student participation has been high year-round, as each week has been tailored to a different level which has allowed both strong and weaker students to participate.

Our Future Plan

Despite the success of English Wednesday to date, there is room for improvement. The sessions could be more inclusive and appealing to the students. Considering the length of time available for activities, shorter and more repetitive activities would likely be of greater benefit to the students’ academic needs. This idea has led to the concept of language-based games, which if scaled to the level of the students, could serve both as a revision of classroom learning and as a vehicle for acquisition of new vocabulary or grammatical items. Although this direction for English Wednesday is still very much in its infancy, such a paradigm will likely be explored over the remainder of the academic year.

What is English Wednesday?Miss Tam Wing Yan, Mr Stephen Percy and Miss Chum Man Hoi

16

Hi I am Jenkin, a member of the English Wednesday programme. In English Wednesday, we would like to encourage our classmates to speak more in English. I have joined this programme since Secondary Two. I like organising programmes for English Wednesday; I think it will improve my organisation skills. In this programme, I create posters and promote different activities. To make our events successful, promotion is important because we need students to know what we are doing. When I was invited to create posters, it was a bit difficult for me because I wanted to be better and be more creative. I become more outspoken after joining this programme. The Programme brings me a lot of fun and joy. In conclusion, through this programme, I have become braver and this is the factor that makes me a committee member of the Student Union.

This year I learnt a lot of things from English Wednesday. Besides the confidence and English language skills gained from experience, I have come to know more about the meaning of responsibility. When you talk with the students in English, it gives you a feeling that you ought to be more outstanding in order to demonstrate how students should talk or behave in the activities! I have also learnt more about sharing the happiness of helping others. I believe that if you join English Wednesday, you will have a big change in your personality too!

Greetings, this is Tom. I have learnt something unique and valuable which I think you can only learn in English Wednesday. First of all, there is a significant improvement in my English language. Such improvement may not necessarily be reflected in examinations or quizzes because it is about how I use English in real life to communicate with others, but not examination skills. In English Wednesday, we are used to talking, discussing, and expressing freely with other members and teachers. I’m sure this can hardly be taught during lessons alone. Secondly, I have learnt about responsibility. English Wednesday activities take place throughout the year. To be frank, I once thought of dropping out. But then I remember once you have signed up, you have got to do your best. It is all about COMMITMENT and RESPONSIBILITY.

Reflections from Student HelpersS3A Wong Ching Kam, Jenkin

S3A Lam Ming Chun, Jacky

S3A Chow Chit Yin, Tom

17

I have joined English Wednesday for almost 2 years. In this period, all of us have taken part in a lot of activities and we have all learned a lot. My duties include activity promotions in morning assemblies and talking with students in English during lunchtime. I have learnt how to write the script and make it funny instead of announcing what we are going to do directly. In these events, I could use more English to communicate with our schoolmates. After the events, we have a short debriefing with Miss Tam. Miss Tam usually asks us to reflect how and what we can do to improve next time. Joining the English Wednesday makes us learn a lot of things. Miss Tam also helps us a lot in English Wednesday. I would like to thank all the teachers who have helped us. I hope we will be even more successful in the future!

I’ve been one of the helpers of English Wednesday since Form 2, and I’m very grateful to be part of this community. We always have a discussion on the activities for English Wednesday. We also need to design posters to promote it and I have become more creative because of that. Through the Programme, I gain a lot of confidence to talk to students and teachers in English. After the events, we need to count the signatures on each passport. As you can imagine, there is a lot of work; but we finish it by doing it together. That’s how I have improved my teamwork. In short, I have learnt a lot from English Wednesday.

Hi I’m Angie! I’m a member of English Wednesday, and this is my second year as a member along with my co-helpers. Being an English Wednesday helper is really fun. Members of English Wednesday basically play the roles of teachers during the English Wednesday, so that the lines for the teacher won’t be too long and students can finish their English Passport homework in no time. We ask students questions about the topic of the month and we give them a stamp afterwards. Being an English Wednesday helper has made me more responsible. To think of topics for a upcoming English Wednesdays, we need to brainstorm ideas. Furthermore, being a helper helps us bond with students and friends, which increases our social skills and our English language skills. I personally think that being a helper increases English speaking time outside class and it makes me understand more about how English Wednesday works. The thing I love most about being an English Wednesday helper is that I can talk to people in English because I absolutely love English. I look forward to continuing being an English Wednesday helper next year!!

S3A Chui Ming Sze, Macy

S3A Choi Lam Ching, Ella

S3A Wong Sau Ching, Angelina

18

My name is Chan Chun Hei of S3A. I like Hon Wah College. I have had the pleasure to participate in the English Wednesday Enhancement program. It has been very delightful and interesting. When I did some group projects, I have learned everyone should share things equally and in a fair way, and how to tell my team classmates about my ideas, experiences and feelings.

S3A Chan Chun Hei, Axel

I have learnt three things from the Programme. First, I learnt how to interview a person, like what question are suitable and do not be scared to ask these questions. Second, I have improved vocab, grammar items and knowledge of Hong Kong from speaking activities with teachers and students in the covered playground. Moreover, during this activity, I found that lots of schoolmates come to collect their English passport, which is a good thing. When many students join the activities that I help organize, it gives me a sense of achievement!

S3A Chan Chun Pang, Tappy

I joined English Wednesday when I was in Form One. My duty in English Wednesday is to talk to our fellow students and make them speak more in English at school. Also, I often go on the stage and announce our notices in the morning assembly. I have learnt many speaking skills during these activities. Also, I thank our teacher Miss Tam, who invited us to joined English Wednesday.

S3A Lok Chun Po, Owen

19

Halloween? It’s ‘Storytime’!S5A Lau Eilis Yee Ling

English Society held a Halloween Storytelling event in late October, 2017, with horror stories to share, combined with the advanced vocabulary and sentence patterns for students of all grades to learn. Topped with accessories, stage effects and jack-o-lanterns, we engaged our students with a creepy story creating experience together. It was a big success. Smiles were written all over the faces of everyone.

Halloween is one of the most anticipated festivals for kids of all age in where I grew up. Running around the neighbourhood with princess and cartoon character costumes for candies on neighbour’s front porch was one of our best collective childhood memories. The hype and joy I get before and after halloween is ineffable, filled with anticipation and delight. After returning to Hong Kong to continue my primary school education, I still indulge myself in the nostalgia I get when Halloween is around the corner, like sharing horror stories with our friends and clicking on doorbells to yell “trick-or-treat” on the top of our lungs. This experience inspired me to hold a horror storytelling event for my fellow schoolmates. Hopefully, they could share the feelings and joy that I get to experience in Halloween, and also fulfill my childhood dream to experience Halloween just like how we used to.

It was never easy to successfully carry out this event. Since the idea was new to most of the committee members, there were disagreements on the event, such as the event’s popularity, and the feasibility of holding such an event at school. Though the activity was planned thoroughly, we made some mistakes when running the activity, like missing the stage effects and change of plans in the storymaking etc.

Overall, I could not be more happy over the fact that students and teachers genuinely loved the event and were very into it. Participants liked the stage effects that were played the in setting the mood. Participants felt creepy when they heard the sound effects in sync with the story. The effects made them turn around in their seats in fear and then sighed with smiles from overreacting.

I hope similar events to these can be held again, and I would love to see more students enjoy these kinds of activities in the future.

20

Campus TVS4C Hui Po Ching

S4B Tse Sum Wing

S4B Choy Yuk Lam

My name is Ceci Hui. I am a committee member of the Hon Wah Campus TV. I’ve participated in many activities at the Campus TV. The most memorable event would be interviewing TVB actors and actresses a couple of months ago. Jason Chan, the actor, shared with us some interviewing skills. He told us that maintaining eye contact is very important during an interview. Plus, we should always smile and be polite. If we do all that, he told me that I will look more confident when interviewing someone. I will never forget his advice.

Besides improving my interviewing skills, I have also learnt how to handle a camera. The senior members of the Campus TV are very patient when they teach us how to operate the camera. Now, I can handle it quite well. Thanks to them! After learning these skills, I would like to produce an English show which teaches students vocabulary. I believe that there aren’t enough educational programmes on our YouTube channel.

My name is Yumi. I’m a committee member of the Hon Wah Campus TV. Since joining the club, I have taken part in many activities. I have helped in producing the show, ‘Having Fun with the Teachers’, which is on our YouTube Channel. I also have a hand in handling the camera during major events such as the graduation ceremony.

My most memorable event is that I could interview some famous TVB actors. I was so close to them. It was really an honour. Another great memory was that I was behind the camera during the singing contest. I filmed most of the performances. It was fun. I felt like I was a real professional cameraman.

After joining the Campus TV, I’ve learnt that my responsibilities are very important because one small part can make a large difference. I’ve also polished my communication and interviewing skills. I know it’s essential for me to keep eye contact and be confident while interviewing someone. In the future, I would like to produce a show to share interesting music. I hope to recommend new and old songs of all genres in the show. I hope this will come true soon.

My name is Jacky Choy. I am a cameraman of the Hon Wah Campus TV.

Since joining the Campus TV, I have filmed many events at school. For instance, I helped to record the events when famous TVB celebrities came to promote their dramas. I also helped filming our annual singing contest before the Chinese New Year holiday. The most memorable event occurred during the School Open Day. We interviewed teachers and guests that day. All the crew members had a great time working together. I made some good friends at the Campus TV.

After joining the Campus TV, I have learnt some filming skills. Senior members of the club taught me a lot on filming. I could handle the cameras, equipment and gears better afterwards. Furthermore, I learnt how to edit videos. So now I can make more professional videos. It’s such a useful skill.

21

S4A Chan Hong Ni

S6B Ng King Cheong, Kabi

Hi, I am Tiffany Chan, the chairperson of the Hon Wah Campus TV. I have joined the club for almost 3 years. I have taken part in several events each year, namely the Inter-class Singing Contest, Open Day and the Speech Day.

There are tons of great memories between me and other members. If I really have to narrow down to one, it will definitely be the production of the game show ‘Having Fun with the Teachers’. From brainstorming ideas, selecting games, inviting teachers, writing scripts, filming and editing till the final product was made, it would be a long way. We encountered a lot of problems during our production. For instance, we had to invite teachers to join our show. Some teachers would turn down our invitations. Apart from that, we also made a lot of mistakes during the filming. However, when I saw the first edition of the show, I felt happy and satisfied and all the problems that appeared earlier were gone. It always seems impossible until we have done it.

From Campus TV, I learnt that issues or problems may pop up anytime. However, I do not have to be afraid of them. It may be hard and difficult to deal with them in the progress. I learnt to overcome them one by one and I learnt from mistakes. Trying my best and not giving up will lead me to final success.

At last, I would like to produce a great variety of programmes in the future. If you are a creative person and are interested in TV production, please join our crew. Hon Wah Campus TV is a big, sweet family.

Hi, I’m Kabi from 6B, the chairperson of Campus TV. I have been a member of the Campus TV since Form 1. When I was in junior forms, I was responsible to introduce equipment and gears in the Campus TV studio during School Open Days. I have developed interests in being the host of TV shows. There have been plentiful opportunities for me to foster my interests and skills as being a host. For instance, I had the chance to interview actors and actresses from TVB, guests and teachers on Open Day. I was also the most of the game show called ‘Having Fun with the Teachers’. All these experiences help to boost my confidence in interviewing and communicating with people from all walks of life.

When I was in Form 6, I was honored to be selected as the host of the Inter-class singing contest. I have always dreamed of being the host of such big event since Form one. Thanks to all the past experiences in Campus TV, I felt confident in mastering the duty. I was self-assured when talking to a large group of audience.

Hopefully, I could apply what I have learnt from Campus TV to the rest of my life.

22

I joined this group producing videos to teach students about the use of idioms because I would want students to be able to use idioms correctly in their writing. I hope that they can widen their scope of knowledge about English language.

We were given the freedom to choose 2 idioms to discuss in the video. I chose ‘to turn a blind eye’ and ‘have bigger fish to fry’. It was because I had an idea of explaining the idiom from what I had watched online that suits the explanation for one of the idioms. There were some difficulties in the process of the production, like recording our voices as we kept on making mistakes in reading our scripts. It took a lot of time to edit the video since we had to make a lot of transitions. Meanwhile, it took a long time for exporting the video. I made a lot of mistakes in the recording, therefore I needed to cut out the mistakes by myself while putting up some pictures to make the video interesting.

My video is not very good but I have done my best in editing the video with the limited time given by our teacher. Next time I will edit the video better as I am still improving my editing skills. At the moment, I might not have a show in mind that I would want to produce but I would love to participate in making other programmes.

S3A Chan Hoi Tik, Heidi

Idioms 4 US3A Ng Cheuk Wang, Maurice

We started the programme Idioms 4 U as we were inspired by a Facebook page, Uncle Siu’s British English Club. The blogger posts a video a day on Facebook to teach his followers English. So, Miss Chung, 3 other members of the campus TV and I decided to create this show.

The aim of the show is to arouse students’ interest in learning English idioms. Each of us has to choose 2 idioms, and after that we need to write a script about 200 words. After some researches and script writing, I handed in my script to Miss Chung.

I polished my script 3 times. After that, we started the recording, which was the most difficult part. I had to read out my script from the beginning to the end clearly, loudly and flawlessly. In addition, due to our limited editing skills, we had to make sure there are no errors between those takes. Some of us tried at least 5 takes.

From this production, I think my grammar and speaking skills have improved a lot. I have also overcome the fear of speaking to the microphone. In the future, I hope I can work on some projects that are more fun because I found this is a bit boring since only our voices are heard in the programme.

‘Idioms 4 U’ produced by Campus TV

23

This activity provided a very fresh experience. We had to choose our own idioms and record our own audio. At first I was not exactly happy about it because I had to stay after school to work on it, but I slowly started to enjoy it.

This was a very good activity to let us use our English in the way that we would not be able to do in a normal oral class. I think this was a great chance to actually use my English skills, instead of just using them in class. Using English in the English class feels very mechanical, not having much room for development.

We were also very lucky to have Maurice help us with editing. Even though it was hard in the beginning to speak for a minute, after some practice I could speak for a minute without jittering or stopping.

To be honest, we could have made the recordings a bit longer, and maybe we could have spoken a bit more clearly in the recordings. In my opinion, this was a great activity to participate in.

S3A Wong Sau Ching. Angelina

Making a video for the campus TV about idioms is a very interesting and very fun experience to me. We needed to edit our own videos. It was real fun because I love editing videos. It makes me feel free because I could edit whatever I want and it definitely sparks up my creativity. I decided to teach idioms related to the society in these few years. I looked up some idioms online and wrote them down. Definitely there were difficulties during the production process. The voice recording part was the hardest for me. Although I had no trouble pronouncing hard words and all that, I struggled with sudden pauses when recording because I didn’t practise reading the script much. So to deal with the problem, I read out the whole script a few times before recording again and I did it.

I’ve learnt that I should practise more before reading aloud, let alone the script for the video and that I should get better prepared. Moreover, I also improved my editing skills from editing my video. I’m glad that I could make a video for the campus TV because it could help improve my English speaking and editing skills.

I hope to produce some fun shows for the campus TV like pranks, like the show Just For Laugh Gags, because I love pranking, and producing a prank show could make use of some non-harming pranks in my mind and make it a successful show.

S3A Tsang Wai Him, Justin

24

I regard having a chance to help others as learning opportunities.

Before our Christmas holiday, we got a chance to visit the elderly who lived alone in Siu Sai Wan. This is a good chance to know about their life in Hong Kong.

When we arrived at an old woman’s home, we realized she is a blind person and lives alone. We asked her about her daily life, and she said she was always lonely. Her relatives have never visited her. They only meet in some important festivals such as the Chinese New Year.

Then, we asked where her happiness comes from. She said, ‘I feel happy when people visit and help me. Tomorrow, there will be people who come and help me with cutting my hair.’ I was satisfied and touched when I heard this.

I think all of us should give a helping hand to the needy people around us, including people living in our neighbourhood. After the activity, I have understood more about the needs of the old people in the same community. I was excited to know that Mr. Siu will nominate all of us to get the service award given by the Community Youth Club.

S3A Fung Tsz Yan, Gian As a member of the Community Youth Club, I like participating in various social service activities such as the flag-selling day, cleaning the Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground and visits to the homes for the aged. In December, Mr. Siu and the social workers led us to visit a community center in Siu Sai Wan. We bought a large variety of gifts to them ranging from towels to biscuits. I think what they wanted the most were not the daily necessities but our love and care.

At first, I was very nervous. Although there is an old lady at my home, I do not often talk with her so I don’t know how to take care of the elderly. Then my team members told me not to worry too much, and we finally designed a game which gaves us a sense of success.

After a few days, it was time to visit the elderly. First, we waited outside for them to be ready. Then, we entered a small preparation room preparing for the games. We were the first group. One of my team members stood up and started to introduce what our games were and how to play. We had to play once to teach them how to play. I realised we need to talk patiently with the elderly, and I felt satisfied seeing how excited the old people were.

I found this visit meaningful because I saw the elderly smile. If I am given a chance, I’ll do the visit again.

S3A Shui Nga Yau, Sonia

Social service programmeMr. Siu Heung Man

S.3A students have completed their social service programme serving the elderly in Siu Sai Wan. The students had attended two training sessions before they held activities for the elderly at community centers. During the preparation, they were all very active and serious. During the visit to the community center, they all conducted excellent and enjoyable games for the elderly. According to the social workers, the elderly were deeply impressed by the students. Some of the elderly even asked whether our students will go and play with them again!

Students mentioned in the post-activity feedback form that they have become more aware of the needs of the elderly, and have acquired skills for communicating with the elderly. They have also realized the importance of showing love and care for others. Encouragingly, most students expressed the hope to serve the needy again in the future.

25

From 9th to 11th Feb 2018, I joined the Business School Partnership Programme organized by Education Bureau and Marks and Spencer. I feel it is beneficial and meaningful to me as it can widen my horizons. The experience enables me to have a better understanding of this career.

On the first day, I felt extremely nervous because I am a shy boy and didn’t want to communicate with people. I tried to say hello to the customers and kept smiling. Fortunately, they smiled back. It made me feel relaxed.

On the second day, it was a very busy day because it was a holiday and there were lots of people buying clothes, shoes and even chocolates to celebrate Chinese New Year. I needed to refill the products on the shelves and put them back in the correct places. Tidying up the products was very important because it helped customers find the products easily.

On the last day, I assisted the cashier to fold up customers’ new clothes and wrap the shoes with wrapping paper quickly when they were paying at the counter. After that, I had to put the items into a paper bag and thank them for their patronage with a sweet smile. The task was challenging because I needed to get the work done fast and calmly in front of the customer. Luckily the staff there shared their experience with me and guided me to do the job until I had confidence in handling the task smoothly.

During these three days, I have learnt the power of smile which can ease one’s feeling to perform better. I found myself become more confident. Thank the school and the company for giving me such a chance to upgrade myself.

A Valuable Job ExperienceS5A Tsui Chun Yin, Matthew

Every year, our school conducts a volunteering programme for Form 4 students. We went to a primary school in Heyuan to have a one-day service: teaching the primary students.

Before this activity, we did a lot of preparatory work. In the English class, we were divided into several groups. I really enjoyed designing the English learning activities for the primary students!

We designed three interesting games. I found the music chair game the most interesting. When we played the game with the primary students, they all paid attention and enjoyed the game a lot!

Another game we designed was a sharing game. Although the primary students there were a bit shy, they tried their best to share verbally about their personal life and school life. They were also eager to get the prizes!

Although there were some difficulties in the activity, we all enjoyed teaching and playing games with the primary kids in the mainland China. Their smile had given us a great deal of satisfaction. I also enjoyed the stay in Heyuan, and I am sure I will visit them again if I have a chance.

The service trip to HeyuanS4A Wang Hong Jin, Alice

26

Y oung Achievers

Public Speaking ChampionS6C Ching Wai Nok, Martin

Ching Wai Nok, Martin was the champion of the Public Speaking Solo Secondary 6 & University/Post-secondary category in the 69th Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival. The following is the script of his speech.

The best way to predict the future is to invent itHave you ever thought of going to space and living inside a space hotel? Have you ever thought of travelling between Germany and Denmark in just 30 minutes? As a matter of fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg as so much more will be happening in future.

Let’s set a timeline, perhaps 2050 alright? The future is bright especially since we are living in an advanced technological era that is making rapid strides.

For instance, the best way to predict the future is developing transport as the first priority. Transportation is a major issue that, in fact, almost everyone living on this planet has to use. We humans are the species seeking higher speeds. Perhaps you might think our transportation is fast enough to travel to different places. However, the best is yet to come.

Let’s take the vactrain for example. Even the president of the United States has not ever heard of this. It is a proposed design for very high speed rail transportation. It is a maglev line using partly elevated tubes or tunnels which enables travel at unimaginably high speed. It is so fast that we might have to use gravity to assist in acceleration! If these trains achieve their predicted speeds, they could surpass aircraft as the world’s fastest mode of public transportation. However, without major advances in tunneling and other technology, vactrains would be prohibitively expensive.

To move forward, people should think outside the box. Land transport alone can’t justify the human need for transportation. A Russian scientist suggested building a space elevator way back in 1895. “Why not go to the space?” asked an anonymous blogger.

More than a century later, the idea captured the interest of Google’s inter-stellar research team in 2014. A space elevator is a proposed type of space transportation system. The main component would be a cable anchored to the surface and extending into the space. This mixes components of the laws of physics and high level technology. It is expected to be completed by the year 2030. Provided everything goes correctly, it will be revolutionary for human transportation.

Imagine people going to the space just by taking an elevator. Perhaps you could even go to the moon if the space elevator could reach a maximum length! Isn’t this exciting?

The future is a mix of the unexpected and imagination. We can change everything by the decisions we make. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions,” said Stephen Covey, a psychologist.

Futuristic transport will be determined by our very decisions. Failure or success - this depends on just one small step.

Thank you!

27

‘Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.’ This renowned quote by NBA star Kobe Bryant engraves in my mind these two years when I am studying and fighting for my basketball dream in Hon Wah College. Basketball is my life and I will give all of me to it. Before I transferred to Hon Wah, I was weak in playing basketball and everyone who had seen my performance in a match would definitely laugh at me. My teammates also blamed me for being a terrible player on matches. Not only could I contribute nothing to my team, I also hindered the progress of the team. I had never felt team spirit as no one had treated me as a teammate. Despite the discouraging performance, I was not willing to be confined to such a situation. My goal was to grow stronger and let the people who looked down on me change their view. Looking back at the days in Hon Wah, I put lots of effort into basketball. I trained myself with great endeavour and was strict on myself. My position in the girls’ basketball team changed from a bench player to the sixth man and now the starter place. But it does not mean my basketball skills are good enough. I still need to improve myself, as once I stop moving forward, I will lag behind. I have met many good teammates in this team. They are caring and always support me in everything. When I get lost because of the bad performance in the match, they always cheer me up and motivate me. I always think I am fortunate to have them being my teammates. I am also genuinely grateful to my coach, Mr. Yung, who keeps giving me chances and never gives me up. From him, I learnt I should have fighting spirit no matter how hard the situation is. He always helps build up my confidence in doing what I want during the match. He also gives me lots of useful and wise advice to improve.

Basketball - my goal and my soul S5A Ma Tan Fung (captain of Girls Basketball Team)

ChampionInter-school Basketball

Competition 2017-18Division 1 (Hong Kong) Boys & Girls

A Grade

28

Without Hon Wah, I would not have become who I am today. Therefore, I would like to express gratitude from the bottom of my heart to Hon Wah for admitting me two years ago. She provides a suitable environment for me to study and many valuable opportunities and resources in nurturing me to be a more professional player. I will keep my passion in playing basketball. Keep the fire burning in my heart as Kobe Bryant does.

29

It was my first time I participated in the dramatic duologue competition and I was excited to have won the third prize. I would like to thank my family and Miss Lau. My family encouraged me to join this competition; Miss Lau introduced me to acting and English drama and taught me a lot. Also, my partner Kim Sung Won has done very well too. I couldn’t have won the prize without their support.

The reason we could win is that we worked hard together. Acting requires the characters to be able to express emotions and tell stories, using their voice and body language. The scene we acted in involves different kinds of emotions. We practised a lot. It took us lots of time to learn our lines and practise acting. Cooperation and communication with the partner is also important. I had to discuss with my partner each time before training and work things out when there were problems.

My life in Secondary 1 is very busy, so looking for time to practise is always difficult. After our discussion, we decided to practise mainly on Sundays. We had to work very hard from the first minute till the last. In fact, there is still much room for improvement. I think I should project my voice better. I hope I can become a better performer if I get a chance to participate again.

We are freshmenS1A Sin Hau Huen, Natalie

I am very glad that I had the opportunity to participate in the dramatic duologue of the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival this year. It was a pleasure to have won the second place with my partner Jimmy Zheng in this competition.

I was totally shocked when the adjudicator announced that we were the second place because it was the first time for us to join this kind of competition. We have never imagined that we had the chance to win. I felt very excited and happy about winning the competition. I would like to thank my partner Jimmy, Mr Poon and Ms Lau. It was Mr Poon who introduced me to the drama duologue; Jimmy always encouraged me to try my best; and Ms Lau, our coach, taught us lots of acting skills and how to use gestures and body language to convey emotions and make the characters believable. Without their help, I think I would not be able to win the prize.Before joining the competition, I thought drama acting would be very boring. However, it was totally different from what I had thought it to be! We had overcome a lot of difficulties: It was not an easy task when memorizing the lines. Also, we had to practise again and again in order to get perfect. It was really exhausting. Sometimes we forgot things. It was frustrating at first; however, after some time we started to enjoy it. Maybe we already got acquainted to act with each other.I had the training once a week. It was not easy to balance my study and training. Therefore, I tried to do all my work on Friday in order to save more time for the training.

I have learned a lot from the drama duologue. My partner Jimmy and I have established a rapport with each other. The competition has also broadened my horizons about English learning and acting. What’s more, I have become more confident and skilled on the stage than before. I hope you, the readers, will also find out more about drama!

S4A Wong Hiu Tung

30

Hi I am Jenkin. Have you ever joined a competition? Do you think it is hard? I think so because we need to practise and it takes a lot of time. I am going to share my story with you.

First, my English teacher encouraged me to join ‘Dramatic Duologue Programme’. At that time, I was interested so I agreed without asking my parents. Next, I was interviewed by Ms Lau, who taught me dramatic skills. I tried my best and I was paired up with Angie, who was my partner in the competition.

Then my practising journey started. We were advised to practise on Mondays and Wednesdays. Angie didn’t turn up many times. So I started to practise first. My tutor was very kind to me. He taught me the skills patiently and I listened attentively. Angie suggested if we should give up because it was so hard. But I thought that we should not give up. We had to face the challenge. We practised on and on. During practising, we recited the lines. During lunchtime, we also practised. We did not give up.

Before the competition, we were so nervous. In the competition, we acted smoothly and we tried our best.

After the competition, we got 86 marks and I think this is the best score for me.

I have become more confident and learnt more English after the competition. I learnt that we should listen to each other when we are acting. We should not just stand there. We need to make the drama more interactive.

I love watching movies. I always wonder how the actors and actresses act in front of the camera. After joining this competition, I learnt more about acting. We need to show more actions and emotions in order to express the feelings in the story.This competition lingers in my mind and it brings me a lot of knowledge in acting. I hope I can join the same competition next year and get better results

S1B Lee Shing Hei

This year, I was so glad to be chosen to compete in the solo verse speaking at the Hong Kong Music and Speech Festival. It was delightful to be the 2nd runner-up in the competition.One day, my English teacher, Miss Chum asked me to participate in the Speech Festival. At that time, I was very afraid because I haven’t participated in it since I was in Primary 4. To prepare for the competition, I practised the poem with my teacher at every recess.After a few weeks, the competition started. I was very excited, but nervous because this was my first competition after studying in the secondary school. ‘Number 38, Isaac Lee,” called the adjudicator. At that time, my heart was pounding very hard. Because of that, I spoke one word wrongly. I thought that I didn’t have any chances in getting any prizes in the competition. A few hours later, the adjudicator announced, ‘The 2nd runner-up goes to Isaac Lee.’ I was very surprised. My hard work had paid off.I would like to thank my teacher since she spent her free time helping me to practise the poem. I hope that I can do better next year.

S3A Wong Ching Kam, Jenkin

31

Passion and skillsS6C Lee Hin Cheong, Jason

On behalf of the table tennis team, I would like to write about

the match we won and share something about playing table tennis and myself.

We were excited to have won the champion of Inter-School Table Tennis Competition Division Three (Hong Kong) Boys A Grade Final. There are two main reasons that we clinched the award. Firstly, our skills have drastically improved. We started preparing for the competition since the summer holiday. In each training section, we were trained very hard. We all wanted to win the battle lost last year. Secondly, we had very good team spirit. During the competition, we cheered on each other. That motivated us to perform better. I would like to give

special thanks to our coach Mr Mui for helping us during the training and throughout the competitions. Mr Sit has given us great encouragement too.

I have started to learn to play table tennis since the age of 10. It has been 7 years. I like this sport because it is healthy and challenging. It is definitely good for the brain. There is a lot of thinking, planning, and strategising going on during a match, all of which helps activate the brain! Also, it helps me improve hand-eye coordination and stay balanced while moving.

Here is some advice for table tennis lovers: Good footwork is a key component to table tennis success. If anyone wants to get to the top, they should pay extra attention to their footwork. It helps improve their mobility, and it helps them return serves more easily. They should try to practise different serving techniques as well, such as sidespin, topspin, down spin etc. A good serve always puts the player at good advantage when scoring. Finally, one should be relaxed during a game. Anxiety affects performance. Relax his or her body so that they can focus again on the process of playing.

Swimming Training is harsh S2C Chan Ngai Shing, Mike

I was excited to get the 2nd place in 100m Breast Stroke in the Inter-School Swimming Competition 2017-2018 (Hong Kong Island). I would like to thank my family and my coach because they have given me so much encouragement. They always tell me not to give up so easily no matter how difficult it is. Finally I succeeded. I have to give special thanks to my dad. It was him who made me think swimming can bring so much fun. I was also invited to join the Swimming Academia 2016-2017, organized by Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Secondary Schools Regional Committee. I had participated in 100m breaststroke and 50m freestyle. These competitions were memorable to me.

It was not easy to get this achievement. Every week I had to swim five times per week. Sometimes I wanted to give up but I did not want to disappoint my family and my coach. In order to save time to keep up with my studying, I had to finish the homework at school first or do my review there.

Perseverance is essential to success. Having good attitudes and being passionate about what you like are important too.

32

Bows + Arrows + EffortS3A Lee See Lok, Ian

S3A Lo Yuk Yi, Jessica

I participated in the archery competition organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Hong Kong Island Archery Club and I won the 1st runner-up. I felt very happy about winning the competition. I would like to thank my teacher, Mr Siu who gave me the opportunity to try archery. My parents’ support to me was important too. Doing archery is very expensive. I was thankful that they have given me lots of financial support for the competition and the equipment.

I could win the prize because I practised very hard. I spent more than 2 months preparing for the competition. I had to practise 4 times a week, from3:45p.m to 5:00p.m. On the day of competition, it was raining dogs and cats. But it did not affect me much. I think I have been trained to be tough and adaptable to adversity.

Archery is a very challenging sport. The bow weighs at least 11kg and we need to shoot 72 times in one event. If you do not have enough strength you may not be able to finish the competition.

I value both my hobby and studying. I have made a timetable, so it is easy to balance my study and training. I really have learnt a great deal from my hobby. If we want to do very well in archery, we should get more training. Practice makes perfect. Also, it is important to nurture our adaptability. Sometimes competitions are organized outdoors, and there will be a lot of factors which might affect the performance. Prepare ourselves well and relax. We will be able to perform our best.

It was a fantastic moment to win the gold medal in the archery Competition organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Hong Kong Island Archery Club. In fact, this was my third time to be a winner in archery competitions. Archery is a sport that involves a bow and an arrow. When people talk about archery, they thought it was easy to manipulate them both. I had the same assumption too when I was not a member of our archery team, but now I know it takes a lot more to do archery well.

To manage this sport and my study, I practise archery every Tuesday after school. I have to practise it from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30p.m. The practice will be more intensive when there is a competition ahead. I certainly agree with the saying, practice makes perfect. I felt confident and became more skillful after series of training. I felt I had the obligation to keep trying and do the best in every competition.

I enjoy playing archery. When I hold up my bow, I immerse myself fully and am highly concentrated when aiming at the target. The biggest rival in archery is ourselves. I have to learn to relax while maintaining my concentration. That is how I improve my performance.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my coach and teammates who support me during the competition. I know this is not the end and just the beginning of my journey in archery.

Study Practice

33

Commitment and service awardedS6A Cheng Lok Yi, Toby

When I was awarded the Hon Wah Most Outstanding Student 2017-2018 and The Best School Prefect 2016-2017, I felt very happy and encouraged. These awards further affirm my effort and hard work.

I have great passion in acting since I was introduced to drama. Drama is usually seen as entertainment; however, it can also be used to inspire and bond people. I hope that I can tell stories with acting, and understand more about human nature. I would like to influence others positively. Knowing that it is not going to be easy, I will do my best and my goal will be achieved some day.

It was my honour to be selected to be one of the Best School Prefects. I have started serving as a prefect when I was in Secondary One. At that time, Mr. Cheng, my class teacher recommended me to join the prefect team. It has been more than five years now. My duties are divided into two sessions: morning and lunchtime. In the morning, my team and I stand at the school entrance to help check the students’ student ID card and uniforms, or to find if there are irregularities. During the lunch time, prefects are divided into two groups. One group is responsible for checking the lunch card at the canteen and maintaining the order. The other group is responsible for inspecting the classes to ensure that no students break rules.

To be the best prefect, he or she has to set a good example to the schoolmates in following school rules, being serious about their commitments, and caring about their team members. I hope that more students will join the prefect team and serve the school.

When I was in Form 4, my PE teacher, Miss Leung, introduced a long-distance running competition to me. It was about 8km. I participated in it and surprisingly I achieved a satisfactory result - 1st runner-up. Since then, I became interested in this sport and that was the start of my path as a runner.

After a 2-month regular training, my running skill had improved a lot. I got the fourth place in my second inter-school competition. I also did well in an open 10km competition. But it was a great pity that after participating in all those competitions, I injured my leg and had to rest for more than 3 months. I cannot go to Hong Kong Athletic Team selection and I was at a low ebb at that time. I lost my confidence and fighting spirit. I wanted to give the sport up.

Luckily, my coach and Miss Leung encouraged me a lot. Therefore, I pulled myself through and tried again. I started with 4km races and now I can run for 21km. Right now, I am at the top of the Hong Kong junior ranking.

I am grateful to Miss Leung, who always helps me and gives me advice when I encounter obstacles. My head coach from my

running association was patient with me and he relentlessly worked with me to help me reach the top. Although I am going to sit for the HKDSE in April, I will not stop my running practice. It is because I can do well in time management and I will not give up the sport. I think there is no conflict between sports and studying if time is managed well.

Setbacks make a stronger runner S6C Kwok Yu Yan, Fanny

34

I am a spider S6A Li Chuk Lin Chloe Mae

Hi there! I’m Chris the spider. I live in a flat with a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and also two young children. They are Mary and Peter. I love living with them a lot. I treated them as my family. Given that they are my family, I try my very best to help them by eating insects around me. However, I noticed that they didn’t seem to appreciate my hard work and even got afraid of me. Why? Back in the month of June, I remember it was raining cats and dogs. I couldn’t stay outside for a long time or else I would die, so I crawled everywhere to find a shelter. I crawled through holes and pipes and swung across from one place to another with my spider web. Luckily, I landed on the Smiths’ flat. I was so tired searching for shelter that I immediately made a spider bed myself up in the corner of the ceiling and took a nap. From that time onwards, the corner was my bedroom. I was so thankful that the Smith family provided me with a shelter. That’s why I decided to stay at their flat as long as I want to! In this hot and stuffy summer, bugs and insects were flying around the Smiths causing a lot disturbances. In order to thank the Smiths, I ate all the insects I saw flying. I ate mosquitoes, flies, ants and so on. I became their insect killer. I enjoyed eating insects because I noticed that the Smiths were a lot happier when there were no bees or bugs around. And I felt relieved seeing the happy faces. I swore to myself that I will kill all the insects in the flat. To make my work more efficient, I crawled down the wall and swung my spider web everywhere and searched for insects. While I was working hard, I heard a shriek, ‘A spider!’ It was Mary. I thought she was there to thank me for what I had done. In fact, she was very afraid of me. She was screaming and shouting for help. Not only was Mary afraid of me but also Mr. Smith and Peter. In order not to further frighten them, I crawled back to the

corner of the ceiling. The next day, since I didn’t believe that they were afraid of me, I decided to crawl down the wall again. They shouted at me again and they tried to use a flat object to hit me. Fortunately, I was fast enough to escape. I secretly crawled towards the toilet and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t notice my body had changed. I grew larger than before. No wonder they were afraid of me. A few hours later, I was hiding in the corner. Suddenly I smelled something horrible. The horrible smell made me feel so weak and dizzy. I slowly crawled down the wall and noticed that the Smiths were spraying spider repellant. They wanted to get rid of me. I was so dizzy that I couldn’t see my way clearly. With my blurred vision, I knew that I was on the floor. I told myself to keep crawling. I didn’t want to die yet. I had no choice but to crawl through the door slip and escape. I nearly died. Although the Smiths didn’t appreciate my work, I still love them. They were once my family. I was so upset that I had to part with my family and find a new home. But looking on the bright side, I had made my contribution. I don’t need them to thank me. It is better to give than to receive. Right? Don’t expect something in return even though you have done something great. Maybe it is my responsibility to do so!

Y oung Minds at Work

35

Light at the End of the TunnelS6A Ha Ming Wai, June

I have lived in a dark place with some little stars since I had my memories. I have a torch that allows me to use magic. I also have a missing brother. That’s all I have.

I wanted to find my brother, so I started my journey. For me, this place is nothing good without my brother. Although I have already forgotten my brother’s face. I love him very much.

He told me in one of my dreams, “Find the light at the end of the tunnel, sis, find the light and you can find me.”

I asked him, “Brother, how?”

His face was in a blur, and I couldn’t tell anything from his expression. I just heard him reply, “Walk forward, your torch will guide you, my dearest sister.”

I wanted to hug him, but he disappeared. I woke up.

Then, I started following the torch’s guiding light. I could not tell how the torch’s guidance worked, but I knew the direction. I walked onward, onward and onward. But the view around me didn’t change. Where’s the light? There must be a light somewhere, I know. What I needed to do was just keeping going forward.

The darkness around me became suffocating. It filled my heart with loneliness and helplessness. I tried to use my magic to make the darkness disappear for a moment, create a little white bunny as my companion and make things glow. But it all failed. The darkness came back as soon as the firework disappeared. The bunny was only a virtual image and much less cute than my brother, and nothing could glow successfully in this place.

But I continued my journey. I believed there must be a beam of light somewhere ahead. There must be, for sure. Brother would never tell a lie to me, would he? I

started to hesitate. I started to consider the possibility. I tried to ask my brother in dreams. However, I could not even dream of him. It must be a challenge, it must be, mustn’t it?

Would there be some light at the end of the tunnel? What if I gave up? Thousands of what-ifs appeared in my mind. But, when I stopped and really thought about the questions, I found that I had nothing to lose, nothing to give up, so I continued.

After what it seemed like millions of years, the landscape started to change. Rocky ground turned smooth. Soil disappeared. The light of little stars disappeared too. The only thing remained unchanged was the surroundings – total darkness! Did that mean hope lay ahead? I tried to ask my brother in my dreams again, but I still could not dream of him.

Then, all of a sudden, I saw light at the end of the tunnel. I ran into the light, my eyes filled with tears, my heart filled with excitement. Brother! I was finally here! I threw away my beloved torch that I once strongly relied on and-

-And I fainted.

I finally dreamt of my brother.

“Welcome to The Gingerbread Factory,” he said. I finally saw his face clearly. But it was blank, with no expressions on it. This terrified me.

“Brother? What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

“Wait for a while-” his tone went into a rush, “Subject: Delusion is waking up,” “What is he talking about?” I was lost.

36

Life is full of surprises and shocksS2A Xuan Yuchen, Kitty

Books to recommend

I am MalalaS6A Li Wan, Elaine

Many teenagers feel upset about life. I am writing to encourage everyone to stay positive no matter what.

I have read a book called James and the Giant Peach. It is about a boy, James. His life was so miserable at the beginning. When he was just four years old, his parents were killed by a rhino in the middle of the day while they were doing shopping. After that, he was sent to live with his two aunts. His aunts treated him like a slave. Yet he did not give up his hope on life. One day, he met an old man who looked like a dwarf in the garden. The old man gave him a bag of magical pellets. He told James that if he followed a special set of instructions, something wonderful would happen to him. He was so excited about it. Unfortunately, James tripped when walking them back into the house. He thought all the hopes were gone. But again, he did not give up.

Many teenagers say that they have lots of pressure from school and family. However, when compared to James, their pressure is much less than his. Mostly they just have lots of homework to do and confrontations with family. Are they unbearable? Why do they still complain about life? Life is full of ups and downs like James’s. As long as we do not give up so easily, talk with our friends and family if necessary, we shall overcome most problems.

A 15-year-old schoolgirl in Pakistan was shot by a Taliban gunman on her way home from school. She was fighting for girls’ education. In 2014, this girl became the youngest ever person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. So, I suppose you know who I am talking about? Right, this is Malala.

I would like to share with you a book Malala has written. This autobiography is called I Am Malala and it tells of Malala’s courage and dreams. Malala describes her experiences. She was born in 1997 in Swat, a river valley in Pakistan. In this valley, females have a very weak social position and don’t have much freedom. They are not supposed to be educated and have only two duties, that is, cooking and giving birth to children. Her family came to run a school in the region. When Malala grew up, she was inspired by her father’s humanitarian work.

In 2012, the Taliban gunman attempted to murder Malala because they wanted to stop her campaign for girls’ education and rights. Malala survived this attempt and was later sent to England for treatment. This incident did not stop Malala from fighting for the rights of females and children.

After reading this book, I was impressed. I am the same age as Malala. I think she is a role model for all teenagers because she is brave enough to fight against injustice and for human rights. She did not give up even though her life was threatened. And I realize that there are a lot of people in this world who are unfortunate. They don’t have human rights and they can’t receive education. They can’t control their life and I realize how fortunate I am.

I particularly like a sentence Malala wrote in this book. She said, “When the whole world is silenced even one voice can be powerful.” Yes, we can’t make sure that everyone is treated fairly in this world but when we face injustice, we have to stand up. We can’t be silenced because if everyone keeps quiet, the world will never change and the unfortunate people will never be saved.

This book teaches me to pursue my goals. It is worth reading.

37

A film that catches your attention!S2C Dong Chao Feng, Avony

A reply to a blog entryS2C Mok Ting Yan, Kobie

Most of you should have heard of J.K. Rowling, the writer of Harry Potter and also one of the best serialized storytellers. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first instalment of the long-running Harry Potter movie series.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is about an 11-year-old young boy named Harry Potter who has been living with his unpleasant aunt and uncle for as long as he can remember. Treated as a servant and forced to live under a dusty staircase, Harry muddles through his miserable youth until one day when he starts receiving some curious mails. After a sudden visit

by Hagrid, Harry learns the truth. His parents were wizards and so is Harry. Hagrid has come to escort Harry to Hogwarts School of Magic.

The film is absolutely the best choice for those magic lovers since it is a fiction-packed and eye-catching magic film. The computer graphics in the film is full of surprises and it is entertaining, which leads the audience into a magical world. What’s more, the unexpected story plot has the audience on the edge of their seat throughout the whole film.

All in all, this film won’t let you feel disappointed because I think the whole plot is very interesting. If you enjoy magic themed films, go and watch it!

Hey Jenny,

I have read your blog about your favourite type of films. I like Toy Story too! I am going to share one of my favourite films I have watched recently. It’s LaLa Land. It’s a musical romance film.

The movie is about a girl who falls in love with a boy and both of them love music very much. They are then in a relationship. But later they always argue because of some reasons. If you want to know the ending, you should watch it.

I like this film because the music is so catchy. I love the lead actor because he is so handsome. The script, editing and the plot are fantastic too.

Love,Kobie

Film Review

38

Fast and Furious 7S1A Tam Siu Ki, Arnold

PrestoS1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte

PrestoS1A Wu Victor

This film is an action film with actors Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Cody Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jason Statham and Natalie Emmanuel. The movie is about these characters helping the FBI catch some villains. Filmed in 2013, the film was interrupted by the death of Paul Walker, causing his brother Cody Walker to help finish some scenes for him.At first, the main characters of the film thought that their friend Letty was dead. But when Dom visited her grave, he found her, although she has lost her memory. The FBI gave them a mission to rescue a hacker called Ramsey. She has developed a software system called God’s Eye, which they use to track down their old enemy Shaw.I think that the cars look really good and the actors are hilarious, especially Paul Walker. I’ve watched the bloopers of this film, which made me laugh so hard! Finally, I really liked how the editors played the song “See you again” by Charlie Puth and finished by saying “For Paul”. I think those who like cars and action films will really like this. This film has a lot of beautiful cars and gunfights!

This short movie is a comedy and also an animation named Presto. It was made by Pixar Studios in 2008. The makings of this movie are great! The main characters are a magician and a bunny.The magician was ready to perform the show with his partner, the bunny. The bunny wanted the carrot but it could not get it. So the bunny interrupted the magician to get what it wanted, leading the magician to do many funny things.The background music is good because it makes the scene more hilarious. The drawings are good because they look realistic. Also, the story and the plot are very interesting.I think most children would enjoy this movie, and adults may also enjoy it. Fans of comedy or animation should definitely watch it since this movie is so funny, especially the bunny which has so many thoughts and emotions in this movie!

Presto is both an animation and a comedy. In the film, the characters are a magician and a rabbit. It was made by Pixar Studios in 2008 and it is good, because it is funny, animated and has a lot of actions.In the movie, the magician didn’t give the rabbit his carrot. Therefore, the rabbit messed up the magician’s performance by electrocuting him and putting his finger in a mouse trap. Even though the magician’s performance was bad, the audience loved it!I thought the part in which the rabbit electrocuted the magician was very funny, because while he was electrified, he was also tap dancing! Also the music is fast-paced and funny. I also think the animations really suit the magician and the rabbit.I think young children will love the movie because it is hilarious and full of comic elements. People who like comedy would love it!

39

Happy TeensS3B Tse Yee Man, Kary

Being happy is important for teenagers.

Our purpose is to let you feel happy when you feel sad. How do you feel now? Depressed? Frustrated? Confused? If your answers are ‘YES’, you must read this leaflet.

Why teenagers have a stressful life?StudiesFirst, teenagers have stress from studies. We need to study a lot to prepare for quizzes, dictations and examinations. Parents’ expectationsParents have high expectations on our academic achievement. They just want us to STUDY, STUDY AND STUDY.Because of these, how can we have an unstressed life? That is IMPOSSIBLE!!!

What should you do?You need to stop comparing your academic results with others. You need to make sure you enjoy and understand in the process of studying. The marks only show your understanding of the subjects, but not how capable or valuable you are. If you feel stressed, you can take a break, listen to some relaxing music or even watch some funny videos to let your mind relax.

Where to get help?You’re welcome to talk to our school counsellor, Mr. Leung, and share with him why you feel stressed. He’s available during recess, lunch break and after school every Tuesday and Thursday. His door at Room 111 is wide open to you.

Teen problemsThese are the leaflets designed by Andrew and Kary on the solution of the problems.

40

S3A Cheung Ho Yin, Andrew

Purpose of this leafletDo you feel stressful, lonely, depressed, frustrated or

pessimistic? If you have these symptoms, you should read this leaflet. The

purpose of this leaflet is to tell you some reasons why teenagers feel negative and give you some advice on being happy.

Reasons for having a stressful teenage lifeFirst of all, the reason why teenagers are stressful is that they suffer from sleep deprivation because of homework and exams. According to an investigation by Brown University teenagers should sleep for at least 9 hours to get enough energy for a day. About 3000 teenagers have been surveyed by that university, however, the result did not match the

expectation. The average sleeping time of a teen is only 7.5 hours each night.

Second, teenagers have academic problems. They have much pressure from the family and teachers. The parents always require their sons or daughters to get high marks in order to get into a good university. If the teenagers could not get the expected marks, they would get punished by parents. The teachers also exert pressure on the teenagers. It is because the teachers want the students to get higher marks in order to get good results in DSE.

AdviceTeenagers should have a healthy diet, think positively and do what makes them happy. Having a healthy diet can make you healthier and may solve your health problems. Thinking positively can let you forget the negativity. For example, if you fail the exams, some of you may think of the punishments from the parents. Yet, you should think of something positive like there is more room for improvement. At last, you can do something that makes you happy, for example, doing sports, singing karaoke and playing video games.

Where to get help?If you face the above problems and you do not know how to solve them, you can go to the first floor to find the counsellor, Ms.Lau or call Hong Kong Mood Disorders Center at 2144 6004.This centre is operated by the Chinese University of Hong Kong to offer help to teenagers who struggle with emotional illnesses.

41

Different people, different mindsS1B Lam Cheuk Hin, Stanley

It was an incredible experience when I was being invisible in the world. I experienced and learnt a lot of things because of this magic paint. I’m glad to have applied it on myself yesterday, so I could have a different life experience.

In the morning, after my parents left for work, I applied the magic paint on myself and I became invisible to everyone. When I was young, my class teacher, parents and relatives always asked, “What is your dream job?” or “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I didn’t answer these questions because I couldn’t decide which job I would like to do. There are many choices of jobs in the world. Using this magic paint, I could try different kinds of jobs and find out the most suitable job for myself.

First of all, I went to a hospital as I would like to know the duties of a surgeon. Because of the magic paint, nobody saw me in the hospital. I followed a surgeon into an operating theatre, where a patient was undergoing a cardiac surgery. The surgeon was so great as he was very calm during the surgery and his movements were so precise in the operation. Although the scene was too bloody, I appreciated the professional spirit of the surgeon. And, I learnt that being a surgeon needs to bear the life of patients, which could be a great responsibility. I was afraid that I couldn’t be a surgeon.

After that, I went to a police station. I followed a police officer to get on a police car. They were going to investigate an illegal drug centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. When we arrived at the apartment, there were many drug addicts lying on the floor and most of them were unconscious. The environment was terrible and the hygienic condition was bad. The police officer had to fight with the drug dealers and arrested them. The whole process was exciting and dangerous. I believed that I was not brave enough to be a police officer.

Finally, I went to the Government Flying Service (GFS), which is located at the south-western corner of the Hong Kong International Airport. The GFS is responsible for flight operations, mainly for search and rescue. It was my first time to get on a helicopter. I followed the pilot of the GFS to start a mission of rescuing a group of lost hikers. The pilot controlled the helicopter and started climbing up to 1000 km. I enjoyed fabulous panoramic views of the Hong Kong Island. I thought it was enjoyable to be a pilot. At the same time, the pilot needed to communicate with the controller to find out the exact location of the hikers. At last, we arrived at the destination. It was difficult to search for people from the helicopter. There were some high-tech tools for the pilot to search for the hikers. After a moment, we found the hikers and sent a staff member to rescue them. Being a pilot of the GFS needs to face a lot of challenges, but I enjoyed taking this challenge and having a sense of fulfilment after the mission. I think I would like to be a pilot of the GFS when I grow up.

Thanks to the magic paint, I’ve got a memorable experience in trying different kinds of jobs. And, I can answer the question about my future dream job thereafter.

42

S1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte

I have invented a magic paint that could turn things invisible. One day, I applied it on myself and left home. Being invisible was honestly very strange but cool. It’s like I could do anything I want and no one could see. I was walking on the street, thinking what I could actually do. I thought about stealing things from stores, pranking people, and getting on a plane or train for free. These are just imaginations. I would never do things like these.

I was just walking and wondering what I would do next. Suddenly, I saw a guy snatch a woman’s bag and he just ran so fast in front of me. He must be a thief! Then I saw a woman wearing high-heels running after him. That’s just so unfair. I thought, since the thief couldn’t see me, how about trying to help the poor woman?

I took the shortcut and ran as fast as possible to catch the thief. I grabbed the back of his collar and grabbed the bag back. The thief was totally shocked and he looked so scared. That’s definitely because of ME, an invisible person just took the bag back. The thief ran away, and I put the bag on the ground. The woman took the bag and said “thank god”. To be honest, I was the one she should thank!

After helping the woman, I kept on walking on the street, thinking what I should do next. Then the next second, I heard a loud, high-pitched screaming sound of a teenager. The sound came from the back lane. I rushed into the back lane and saw a group of people standing around a short boy. I guess they were bullying him, asking him for money. ‘I don’t have money,’ the boy begged. Then the bullies put their fists in the air. I could see the boy’s face. He was scared to death! I decided to help again. I ran to them and laughed in a creepy way. The bullies looked around and shouted, ‘Who is there?’ It was just so funny and hilarious! But as long as the boy was saved, it meant that I did something very meaningful. I represented justice! The power of being invisible should be used to help others.

S1A Kim Sung Won, Nathan

I have invented a magic paint which turns everything invisible. One day, I decided to test the paint. I soaked myself in the paint and walked out of the door.

I took the lift and was wondering if the security camera would detect me. After getting down to the ground floor, the security lady looked a little bit puzzled to see the empty lift. I smirked at her and left, feeling confident that I was completely invisible.

So I walked on the street, starting to prank the strangers as hard as I could. I blew an air horn right by their ears, spooking them by taking away their stuff and showing it in front of them. They could only see an object floating around. That was amazingly fun.

When I came back home, I found out that a drop of water could wash away the paint. So I washed myself and began thinking if I should sell the paint to make a fortune. I also contemplated what would happen if it was sold publicly. Still, I decided to sell it. I managed to make a mass production of the magic paint and sold it to the people I know ONLY.

After a few days, the news started to pop out. There were many reports about missing money from the banks, missing people and unresolved criminal cases. A wave of guilt pounded my heart. It was so powerful that I almost burst into tears. My paint had fallen into the wrong hands. It was me who made and sold the paint and brought chaos to the whole wide world. I swore to myself ‘I, Nathan Kim, ought to stop these criminals from now on.’ I have totally abused my invention. I should be held accountable for everything I have done.

I stopped producing the paint and destroyed every can of the unsold and encrypted the recipe. Later, I found out that head detecting cameras can detect people with paint on. I informed people in town anonymously through social media. I told them the flaws of my paint and how to detect criminals with my paint on.

A week later, there were news reporting my message; in the meantime, there was a significant reduction in criminal offences in the city. Things returned to normal. I locked my formula in a cabinet at home.

43

New school clubs to proposeS3B Lau Sze Ting

Dear Mr. Kwan,

I am writing to propose a new school club. Please see the attached copy of our design.

The proposed new school club is the Cooking Club. Cooking, which is suitable for both boys and girls, is a way to boost our schoolmates’ creativity. Besides creating their own recipes, they can decorate and present their food in different ways. The joy and satisfaction are something unique that they cannot find from other existing school clubs.

Apart from learning various cooking skills, our schoolmates also have an opportunity to work with their teammates. Joining this club brings them even more benefits. For example, they learn how to make the food become presentable, how to cooperate with others and how not to rely on their parents anymore. All these are mentioned in our advertisement. Also, students who join this club will gain a lot of knowledge about cooking and have fun.

Our school will benefit from this new club as well. The club will attract a lot of ‘LIKEs’ on our school’s Facebook page as the members’ food, videos and pictures will be uploaded on it regularly. Students will be encouraged to take part in competitions outside school and this will bring glory and boost the reputation of our school.

The advertisement that we designed is eye-catching and straightforward. Our schoolmates can get the highlights of the club easily as we use the colour contrast to grab their attention. It is appealing to them. Our advertisement, which displays a lot of food pictures, lets our viewers think of food immediately. Nowadays, students prefer visual stimulation such as pictures more than words.

I hope my explanation regarding the advertisement design is clear. If you accept this new school club to be launched next year, it will bring a lot of benefits to both our schoolmates and school. Your approval for us to post and broadcast this advertisement would be highly appreciated. Should you have any queries, please call me at 9111 1111. I look forward to your favorable response.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,Cindy Lau (3B)

44

S3A Cheung Ho Yin, Andrew

Playing EsportsOne Team, One Dream

IntroductionESports is a form of competition that is facilitated by video games. Most commonly, eSports takes the form of organised, multi-player video game competitions, particularly among professional players. The most common video game genres associated with eSports are real-time strategy, fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), and multi-player online battle arena (MOBA).

Why do we establish this club?It is generally agreed that the development of technology in Hong Kong is slow. As a matter of fact, Hong Kong has already started to rouse herself to catch up. Hong Kong has already established the Innovation and Technology Bureau and invited some big technology companies such as China Literature, Za Online and Razer, to become the Hong Kong Listed Shares.

Esports is one of the heated topics of the newest latest technologyThe development of Esports in Hong Kong is slower than the other developed countries, for example, Korea and the United States. Therefore, Esports should become common in Hong Kong. Schools should take the lead to start ESports.Contrary to this belief, parents have a load of reasons to ban playing computer games or mobile games because of the concern of their children’s academic results and their physical health, in particular, their eyes. However, it may seem justifiable to play games if we examine the matter from the perspective of the students. Students consider that playing games not only helps people overcome dyslexia, but also makes new social connections.

Activities to be heldWe are going to hold lots of activities, for example, a Esports competition which will be jointly organised by two to three schools. We will also invite some popular players to give a talk on topics like the raiders, and the behaviour of games.In the regular meetings, we will play some games like Clash Royale, Arena of Valor, and Hearthstone.We will teach students about some basic rules and techniques of Esports.

The benefits the club will bring to the schoolSome people may wonder if playing Esports can bring benefits to school. Strange though it may sound, we cannot overlook that not only does it bring glory to school if this club wins the international Esports competitions, but also attracts Primary Six students to enter our school since many students like Esports.

The advantages of EsportsPlaying Esports can improve team spirit since playing Esports is always in teams. Esports is always played with computers or mobile phones, so we can know more about the technology through Esports.

45

Hello from EarthS4A Wong Hiu Tung, Carmen

‘Beep…beep’, a strange sound emitted from nowhere.‘Hello?’ I asked.Everything was quiet. The air was freezing and still. There were images in red, yellow, and blue popping up in front of me. It was completely bizarre. My hands were full of sweat. My eyes were as big as the moon. That was the first moment I believed in the universe.

Three hours ago, I was observing the galaxy through a smart television I created in my laboratory. I have been fond of using advanced technology to discover and observe the universe since I was 10. That was my favorite thing to do during my weekends.

At 10:23 a.m., I was trying my latest innovation, named ‘Detecting ET’. Obviously, the function of this particular innovation was to detect unknown organism or even aliens out of the Earth through radiation. I was very excited and anxious; after all, it was my first time using this machine.

At 10:55 a.m., there was something on my television screen. To be exact, it was not something recognizable but just some black and white static noise from TV.

At 11:15 a.m., a weird silver shiny bean-like organism was shown on the TV. I was very terrified and screamed loudly. The body of the ‘bean’ was red; it had face, arms, legs, and hands of any human being. Watching this, I couldn’t help shouting.

At 11:20 a.m., the bean-like entity gazed at me. My heart was pounding but still gave me some courage to say hi to it. I said, ‘Hi there! This is Carmen. I am a human from the Earth.’ Thinking that it didn’t understand what I had just said, I was standing there, observing any possible action or movement. To my surprise, it replied, saying ‘Hi Carmen, you are so funny. This is Tom from Planet M&M. That’s why I look like a bean. You are the first human being I have ever contacted.’ That privilege washed my fear away. I continued talking to it like an English group discussion in HKDSE. While I was indulged in the conversation, it suddenly said, ‘this is the end of the introduction’ and urged me to move on to the next section, Q&A, which could only accommodate three questions. Although it sounded very awkward, I stuck to its plan and improvised some questions. I asked the following questions out of the blue.

Question list:Q: Are you going to destroy our planet?A: Absolutely not! We are very nice. We promote inner peace and we hate wars. Wars will lead to a very big and devastating impact on the world. If we have any conflict with anyone, we should peacefully manage it through genuine discussion. Question one checked!

Q: What do you think about the Earth?A: In my opinion, the Earth was very nice and it was full of natural resources like coal and natural gas. I loved this place very much. In recent years, however, humans have started to take advantage of the Earth. They have wasted a lot of resources, most of which ended up in landfills where trash and unwanted things are buried, leading to global warming. Question two checked!

Q: Why do you choose me?A: It is because I want to exchange some ideas with anyone who is interested in aliens. There may be some differences between our cultures and traditions. I believe this is a good opportunity to share my views about the Earth. Question three checked!

The alien suddenly said, ‘Mission completed. Bye!’ The red bean basically vanished in front of me.

I was almost speechless and felt guilty after finishing the conversation. I learned a lot from the alien whom I thought would destroy my planet. I wish the alien could stay longer and tell me more about the problems that we had on the planet. I was so glad it came to talk to me. At the very least, it made me deeply ponder about the planet in which I live.

46

S4A ZHENG Zhengtai, Jimmy

I am an astronaut from NASA. I was tasked with mission X-1 which is a classified mission about searching for Aliens on earth. Unfortunately, my teammates and I were lost in an accident. Our spaceship was damaged by a strong pre-medieval cosmic magnetic field and it exploded. However, my escape pod had successfully launched. I was the only survivor.

I woke up in the escape pod. I looked out of the window and I did not know where I was. It was dark, so dark that it was not like any universe that anyone has ever known. Then, a blue planet emerged in front of my eyes. Firstly, I was excited. I thought it was the Earth. However, it was not. It was a planet that we had not yet discovered.

Later, an enormous spaceship blocked my way. Then, thousands of aliens came out and I was surrounded by them. Their appearance was similar to humans, but they were much taller. The alien standing in the middle front was different from others. ‘He’ was holding a sceptre, which seemed to represent power. Then, ‘he’ ordered the others to arrest me.

They put me into a huge glass cabinet. Luckily, I could still breathe. We passed through the city and I was totally shocked. Their…urban construction was quite similar to ours, even better. There were skyscrapers, roads, bridges and even football field. They looked like human, walked like human and acted like human.

Finally, we arrived at the palace. I was able to see the king of this planet.

‘Welcome!’ the king said.

‘Unbelievable, you can speak English!’ I responded.

‘Why can’t I?’ the king boasted.

‘Where am I?’ I anxiously yelled.

‘You are in Kelper, my planet and once your planet?,’ the king said calmly. I was confused and said, ‘What do you mean?’

‘You know, billions of years ago, after the Big Bang, the Earth and Kepler used to be on the same planet. However, there was an explosion and they had been separated by that explosion. Although the Earth and Kepler have now been separated, we are still similar to each other,’ he explained.

‘Wow! That’s really something! I am basically wordless,’ I exclaimed.

‘We have been observing human for a long, long time. We learned from you, your civilization, your city development, and your living systems. However, we don’t have pollution. We don’t have wars and diseases. This is why we are better than the Earth. If the human beings still don’t make any changes, I will take over your planet in order to control the quality of life!’ he warned me.

‘No! You can’t do this!’ I shouted.

‘Jimmy! Jimmy! Wake up!’ my mom yelled.

Then I realized that it was just a dream. However, it could really be our future!

47

S3B Cheng Cheuk Yee Twitty

The NASA gave me a mission to travel to the space for discovering more planets. After riding on a spaceship for months, I landed on a brand new planet that no one had ever discovered. This planet was yellow in colour. Its shape was like a sphere but rather irregular.

After observing this planet, I decided to move on the first step. I brought a machine to check the gravity of this planet. While I was putting the machine on the “land”, a shadow went past me. It made me tremble…… Having no idea what the shadow was and where it came from, I was scared. There was no doubt that someone or something just ran past me.

I grabbed a rock randomly to defend myself. Then, something strange happened. The rock suddenly changed its shape. It grew bigger and became heavier. That freaked me out and I dropped it right away.

‘Ouch!’ The rock shouted.

I felt so shocked by the rock. ‘What on earth are you?’ I screamed.‘Hello! I’m Alien No. 136. It’s my pleasure to meet you, Twitty!’ The rock replied in fluent English. I was very confused and mumbled to myself, ‘What?! How does it know my name? ’

‘Wow! I have never thought that an alien’s shape could be like a rock. That’s cute!’ I beamed with delight. The alien laughed, ‘Oh no! You silly human! Aliens can change to any shape as we want! Let me show you how we normally look like! ’ Immediately afterwards, it changed its shape again! Its body became very slim. It had four long fingers without any nails and two big dark eyes. I thought it was around 3 miles tall!

‘Wow! You look so cool! By the way, how do you know my language? How do you even understand what I’m saying?’ I fired questions at it.

‘Well, it’s easy. I scanned your brain and learnt everything from it. That’s how I know your name.’ The alien answered.

I was so surprised that they could read my mind and check everything out.

‘Oh well, it’s time for me to go now. Bye! It changed its shape to liquid and dropped on the “land” and slid away…

48

S1B Wong Yu Yan, Cindy

S1A Chui Tsz Kiu, Andrea

S1A Yu Chin Nam, Charlotte

Halloween

Halloween is comingA lot of kids on the streetsLook for the candyLook at them, On the streetsWe can see they wear their costumesEating the candyEnd of the partyNever go back to the graveyard! C hristmas is coming soon!

H ouse is more beautiful each day!R ose cake and chicken wings are my favourite Christmas foods.I am very interested in my Christmas gift!S anta, I hope you can come to my house soon!T ik, tik….. Is that Santa??M um! Is Santa coming to our home?A ndrea, you are just too excited to see Santa…S anta will come to our house when you fall asleep.

Halloween

How do you feel about Halloween?All the children trick or treat,Look for houses on the streets,Lots of candy you can see,Oh my God!Wearing costumes for Halloween,Everywhere there‘re ghosts and teens,Everybody wants candy,None of us are falling asleep.

S1B Tjhin Hao Prasada Chandra

“I Can Rhyme”He said “You can’t do it!”He said “You’re not so bright.”But I can rhyme,He just wasn’t right.He said “Blue,”And I said “Zoo.”He said “Purple” with a grin.Well, what could I do?

Hi ! Our

Poems

49

S1B Lee Yat Kwan, Justin

French Fries

So many French fries in one package,The taste just drives me to the edge.

They’re always so crunchy and hot,And they always have a salty taste.

I realized that they’re so good,That’s why they’re my favorite food!

S1B Ma Cheuk Yiu, Adrianna

Adrianna’s Habits

Adrianna is nice,She loves eating rice.

Sitting next to her is Ben,But he never uses a pen.

Adrianna goes to school in a van,But in the van they never use the fan.

Adrianna sees a tree,The tree has a lot of bees.

Adrianna’s mum wants to go outside in a cap,But she forgot to bring the map.

S1B Au Po Ming, Sebastian

S ebastian is my nameE gg is my favorite foodB aby is my nicknameA ndreas is my elder brotherS alad is healthy for our bodyT igers are scary for meI play basketball on holidaysA good boyN ever forget to hand in homework

50

S1B Chan Sau Ching, Eunice

Shall I think you are the winter?Snow is sweet and cold, butYour smile is sweet and warm.You are the sun in winter,You are the light in the dark.Shall I think you are the winter?I think that’s not best,‘Cause you are the sun in winter,‘Cause you are the cat for me.That’s what I think you are.

S1C Chu Ka Po, Kent S1C, Lam Pak Hang, Paco

Hon Wah CollegeBig, beautifulStudying, reading, paintingMiss Chan, Miss Chang, Miss Chui, Miss LeungSporty School

S econdary school is lots of funC lass teachers are polite and kindH all in school is quiet and peacefulO h tests are hard but I don’t mindO range is the best colour in the hallL earn a lot in this fun school!

51

F orum

The pros and cons of online shoppingS5C Ng Ka Kiu, Kelly

Can employees access private emails during office hours?S5C Cheung Ho Yin, Justin

Online shopping is more popular nowadays. Many people like to shop using apps. There are some advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.

First, online shopping is convenient. People can buy anything they like, any time anywhere. Before online shopping became popular, people had to physically go to a shop. But with the help of technology, people can buy anything with just a few clicks no matter whether they are at home or even on the bus.

Online shopping saves money too. Commodities are usually cheaper in virtual shops. Sometimes, big discounts are given on certain festivals. Singles’ Day is an example. Some websites offer discounts regularly to attract customers too.

In spite of these advantages, there are some disadvantages too.

Since customers cannot check the product before buying, sometimes they get defective commodities. All they can do is to look at the pictures on the website. So, if the commodity has problems, they will not know that instantly. When purchasing branded products, people may get fake products or products of poor quality. Some online stores accept the return of the defective goods, but the shipping fee is usually paid by the customer. So, this will increase the cost of the product.

Online shopping has brought us lots of convenience. However, I do not think it is wise to reduce the number of brick and mortar stores. This is because many online stores are unreliable. It is difficult for the police to investigate online fraud cases. In addition, many people still prefer to go out shopping as they can enjoy the experience.

Why don’t I agree? This is because employees are hired by an employer. They should put more focus on their work. If they have the right to access to private emails, they will not be concentrated on their work and make more careless mistakes while sending or receiving emails. Employees might send their private emails via the company’s network. That will bring the problem of leaking information because some hackers or some people could use this breach to hack in. Besides, if employees can access to private emails while working, their working efficiency will be slowed down. It is not beneficial to the company as the profit will be reduced.

I suggest the employer should relax the rule. Employees are allowed to access to private emails during lunch time. This is a good choice for both employers and employees. Do you agree?

52

Private emails not so privateS5B Tang Ho Ting

There are more ways than ever to communicate at home or work. Despite the prevalence of text messages, Snapchat and Instagram, email remains one of the commonest ways to pass messages around. When you send an email, you might think it is private as only you and the recipient are able to view the content. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Recently, some companies have been rooting for being allowed to access private emails of their employees. This has stirred up heat controversy. As an employee, I personally think it is unreasonable and I am going to share my views on this. Read on and know more about this!

The foremost reason that companies shouldn’t be given a right to access private emails of employees is that employees’ privacy will be infringed. Some companies point out that they want to build up closer relationships with their employees for the sake of arranging more suitable work for them to get more profits. Yet, those companies usually find no ways to know more about their employees and hence they prefer building a close link with employees through viewing employees’ private emails. However, devastating consequences might be caused if companies take this action. Private emails consist of much information of the daily life of employees. Some may be photos of friends or families; some may be letters to others. Companies should spend time pondering on whether employees are willing to reveal this private information to them. Do you think a company can still build a closer link with the employee once the employee finds out some private information is disclosed? Companies should understand privacy is a vital right of everyone, no one can take it away. Earning profits is vital for companies, but employees’ feelings and privacy always outweigh all other considerations. Therefore, companies shouldn’t have the right to access employees’ private emails.

Another reason deserving our justification is that accessing employees’ private emails may leak companies’ confidential documents. Although

employees usually do not send business content through private emails to others, we still shouldn’t overlook some exceptional cases. Some employees may send business content via private emails when their work emails are full. What if things go wrong? Once the boss views the private email and leaks the content to others, irretrievable consequence may become inevitable seriously. Taking Hillary Clinton as an example, she has come under scrutiny for exclusively using her personal email account for all of her work communications. Despite the fact that her email wasn’t viewed by anyone before it was leaked out to the public, yet this shows that leaking confidential information will definitely lead to serious consequences. Companies should consider what will be caused and what effect will be brought about if business contents are leaked out. Thus, never can companies say they can access private emails after considering the risk of leaking confidential information of businesses.

It should also be noted that accessing employees’ private emails may also breed legal disputes. As mentioned above, employees will be dissatisfied with the action of employers viewing their personal emails. If they find out their privacies are encroached upon, they might take legal action. It is understandable that employers want to find out whether employees have made excessive use of companies’ resources. Nevertheless, it seems that companies shouldn’t attach inordinate importance to this as legal dispute is a long-term war. In the long run, this must be harmful and have no benefit to the company. With this in mind, companies shouldn’t monitor employees’ private emails owing to unavoidable legal disputes.

Based on the above rationale, it is my firm conviction that companies should not be given the right to view employees’ emails as there is a host of bane that we may have overlooked. It is hoped that companies could respect every employee’s privacy. Earning profits is vital, but privacy of a person is equally important too.

53

A: Why not? I’m your friend and you should help me no matter what!

B: Copying homework is not right! You must do your homework yourself so you can learn. I won’t give it to you to copy because I don’t want to harm you.

A: But if you don’t lend it to me I would never know how to do it!

B: Oh my God! You are making me mad!!

A: You are also making me very angry! Just lend me your work already!

B: I am so disappointed in you – copying homework is so wrong. I can’t believe I had even met you in the first place…

A: I’m sorry. I agree with you – I should not copy people’s homework. I am just worried about having no homework to hand in…

B: Well, it’s fine. Hey, we can do it together! If we work together on this we can definitely get it finished on time!

A: Hey, can I copy your homework? I have to hand it in in 15 minutes!

B: I’m sorry, but no…

A: I thought we were best friends? How could you do this to me?!

B: It’s just wrong – copying is wrong! Why didn’t you just do your homework instead of copying?

A: That’s dumb! Just give it to me and I will forgive you.

B: What?! It’s not my damn fault! You’re so stupid!

A: Wow – you’re the one that’s stupid! Why can’t you just give me your homework and everything will be fine?

B: You don’t understand. I just want you to know that copying is wrong, and how copying will actually hurt you.

A: Alright, I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I shouldn’t be talking to you like that. I’m just so worried because I have no homework to hand in…

B: That’s ok, you’ve learnt your mistake, it’s fine. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again!

Real Friends“You are my friend, right? Please lend me your homework! ”The following are the conversation between FRIENDS.S2A Guan Man Ching, Amy

S2A Guan Man Ching, Amy S2A Wong Yin Leong, Andy

B: Sorry, I can’t…. I just don’t think that’s right. We’ll both get in a lot of trouble!

A: Come on! It’s just this once… I don’t want to go to detention! If I do, we won’t be able to walk home together…

B: You do make this a hard choice…but it’s better that you learn your lesson in detention. Plus, you will have the time to finish your homework as well.

A: But don’t you want to walk home together?! Like…talk and play games on the way?? It’ll be fun – plus I can do homework on the weekend.

B: Please. Just don’t. You know the teachers aren’t dumb enough to not notice the similarities between our worksheets.

A: Ugh…why can’t you just help me?! I’m just asking for help from a friend… This feels a lot like a stab in the back!

B: This is just disappointing. You even promised me that you would hand it all in yesterday. Why can’t you just be more responsible?

54

A: (happy) Hello, Ocean

B: (happy) Hi, Marvin

A: (nervous) Can I copy your homework?

B: (angry) No, of course not!!

A: (scared) But…I have no time to do my homework!

B: (angry) No – you should have time finish your homework!

A: No, I have to play football…

B: (angry) Why?? You should make time for homework!

A: (angry) You are not my friend!!

B: (disappointed) No – a real friend should never help you do wrong things.

A: (sad) Ok ok, this is my mistake, but…I have no homework to hand in!

B: (happy) Don’t be sad.

A: I forgot to do my homework yesterday – can I copy yours for a minute?

B: Yes, ok sure.

A: Ummm…why is this answer “was”?

B: Because the question needs me to write either “was” or “had”.

A: But it should be “had” and not “was”.

B: This is my answer – if you don’t like it write your own on your own work!

A: But your answer is not correct! I’m just trying to tell you…

B: I’m sorry, but this is my homework and this is what I think.

A: Yeah. You are right, I’m sorry. I’m just afraid that I can’t hand in my homework because I haven’t done it all.

B: I’m sorry for getting angry before. Don’t worry and don’t be sad – go talk to the teacher.

B: Miss Fok told us we cannot copy other’s homework before we hand ours in.

A: It’s fine if no one knows about it…

B: Why should I let you copy it? I just don’t want to give my homework to you!

A: But I don’t know how to do it…

B: You can ask the teacher how to do the questions or you can find more information in the text book.

A: Come on – I didn’t get home until late last night…

B: Me too, but I still did my homework.

A: …and I also left my homework at school yesterday!!

B: God dammit – I said NO!

A: Come on just give me the damn homework!

B: Look, you can’t copy my homework unless you pay me.

A: Oh no, I don’t have any cash on me…

B: Look, it’s ok… Here, take my homework and pay me $30 tomorrow.

S2A Lin Tak Sum, Marvin

S2A Cheung Wing Yan, Sophie S2A Xuan Yuchen, Kitty

S2A Lau Cheuk Hei, Max

Homework?TOT

55

A: (quietly) Hey, can I copy your homework?

B: (surprised/shocked) What?! No way!!

A: Please?! I really need to – last time in class while the teacher was talking about the homework!

B: But copying is not what a good student will do.

A: (angrily) I don’t mind, just give me your homework and let me copy it!

B: Nope – I will never lend my homework to you!

A: Oh come on!! Give it to me!!

B: No, and I don’t want to be your friend – I am ashamed of you!

A: You’re right – I’m so sorry! But today I will not have any homework to hand in!

B: You can still do it. It’s still before eight o’clock, you can do your homework now!

A: Can you let me copy your homework? It’s too much – help me please!! I know you’re very smart and your homework is all done…

B: No way!

A: Why not?! We are friends!

B: Your homework must be done by yourself! It’s not good letting you copy my homework.

A: But we are friends – friends should help each other!!

B: I can help teach you, but I cannot give you my homework.

A: So we are not friends – you do not help me! I’m going to find a new friend!

B: Hey – you should not do that! I am helping you, doing homework is helping you to review the lesson.

A: Ok, you are right. I’m so sorry for what I said just now. I’m sorry. So what am I going to do now… I have not done my homework!!

B: Well, I have done all of my homework, let me help you! I will help you with what you don’t know – you can do it! Let’s do the homework together!!

A: (Nervous) By the way, can I copy your homework? I haven’t done my Chinese homework very well…

B: No – I won’t let you copy my homework, but I will teach you how to do it.

A: (Angry) Why won’t you show me your homework? We are friends, you must help me please!

B: My answer is still no, because when you copy my homework, you will never know how to do it yourself and you will never improve.

A: I knew it before but I’m stuck with it now. If you don’t lend me your homework, I can’t hand in mine and Miss Lee will punish me for that later!

B: I said NO! The only thing I can do is help teach you how to do it. You are so annoying!!

A: Fine – don’t show me your homework! I’ll get it from someone else and never talk to you again!

B: I just want to help you – why don’t you understand my feelings?

S2A Leung Ka Wai, Annette

S2B Yeung Ching Nam, Janice

S2B Cheung Ip Ting

56

A: Can I copy your homework?

B: No you can’t! I don’t want you to copy my homework.

A: (Angry) Why not?!

B: You need to do your homework yourself. A good student doesn’t copy others.

A: (Angrier) Why? Best friends can let each other copy the homework. Are you not my best friend?

B: (Angry) Best friends do not let each other copy homework because it will not help you!

A: Why? Of course they can!

B: If they’re your best friend they will leave it to you, because homework helps you learn more!

A: Oh, I’m so sorry. Thank you for your tips. You are my best friend, and I’m sorry for getting angry like this.

B: That’s OK! As your friend, let me help you do your homework!

S2B Mak Ka Cheong, Leo

57

Recently, I have interviewed Peter Wong, who is a former drug addict. He has shared his experiences with me.

Peter, now 23, was 15 when he first started taking drugs. He came from a poor family. His father used to beat his mother and was an alcoholic. His father left the family when Peter was 6 years old. As a result, Peter’s mum had to do two jobs just to afford basic necessities, such as food and electricity. This meant that Peter didn’t feel loved and would often stay out late.

After finishing primary schooling, Peter’s grades dropped drastically. ‘I just want to give up sometimes. It seems that everything in the world is against me,’ Peter added. His mother was sick at that time and had to be hospitalized. This put a great amount of pressure onto the young boy who had to repeat a year in school.

Things got worse when he met Frank. Frank was a drug dealer. He would often sell his drugs to students in the local area to make money. Frank took advantage of Peter’s situation and befriended the boy. Frank kept urging Peter to crack cocaine, claiming it would ease the pain that he was suffering.

After about a month, Peter finally agreed to take the drugs, but only once. He became addicted. The drugs did take his mind off of his current situation, but at what cost? ‘I still remember the day I took it from Frank. It was the worst day of my life.’

While taking drugs, Peter met another friend, Eric. ‘He’s a grown-up, in his late twenties. He was seriously addicted. He was skinny, looking pale and weak.’ Peter recalled that they took drugs in designated areas where the police seldom checked. They would get high together and go home separately.

After about three months, one day Peter woke up, dazed in one of the ‘cocaine spots’. He was dizzy and couldn’t focus. But what he saw changed the course of his life. Lying in front of him was his friend, Eric, but he was dead. He overdosed and was lying there with his eyes closed like he was asleep, except that he didn’t breathe at all. Peter got up and left as soon as he could.

This scared him beyond imagination. He didn’t want to die, so he called a drug abuse counselling hotline and asked for help. ‘The workers there are quite friendly.’ He recalled. The social workers gradually wore him off of the substance and after four months of hard work, Peter is completely sober.

‘It was hard at first. I kept screaming and couldn’t sleep because I didn’t take any drugs. But I was determined.’ Peter kept saying that he was lucky enough that he stopped before it was too late.

At the end of the interview, I asked him if he had any advice to give to our students. He said, ‘if you ever feel hopeless, depressed, or even lonely, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Once you do, you will find that many people out there are willing to help. Don’t feel embarrassed. These people are friendly even though they are strangers. They can help you solve your problems. However, the first step is to reach out.’

An Interview with a Former Drug AddictS4B Yeung Justin

58

Recently, someone commented on my blog that there is no artistic value in comics. However, I disagree as this shows the writer’s limited knowledge of art and is also disrespectful to producers of comics.

First of all, comics are an important artistic way to express the producers’ ideas. It tells a story through drawings and words uttered by different characters. Therefore, it has an important place in art. For example, Captain America tells us of the patriotism of an American soldier in World War II; Dragon Balls creates a fantastic world to reveal hope for peace; Batman tells us of the struggles of a hero. These comics are some of the most famous examples to reveal the beliefs, thoughts, struggles and even hopes of different generations. Obviously, comics are one of the best art forms to be accepted by the general public. We value this art form and enjoy reading it.

Apart from that, comics have high artistic value because producers have put a lot of effort on it. It’s an open secret that one comic book may require several years to be completed. Half a century ago, producers had to draw by hands. Nowadays, these can be drawn on computers. With the advance of high technology, the details of each picture can be greater. Creativity and imagination can be better expressed.

Besides, the style of comics from different countries, different studios, and even different producers is not the same. For instance, Japanese producers prefer to use sharp and straight lines in drawing; American comics may focus on the American Dream; and European comics feature many tall buildings to express hopelessness in industrial development. Some comics are for teenagers while others are for adults. The variety of comics allow for its acceptance by different readers.

Moreover, comics can have historical value. In World War II, Americans used comics to encourage the whole country to fight against Germany and Japan. Let’s take Marvel comics as an example. They created a new terrorist organization called Hydra. Different heroes united to fight against Hydra. It shows the history of the war. During the cold war, the Chinese government used comics to tell people about the ‘bright future’ of socialism, and encourage them to fight for Chairman Mao. This shows the unique function of comics during the Cultural Revolution. Since 2000, most people in the world have lived in a peaceful world, so comic themes now focus on love among people, especially in school. In recent years, people have started dreaming of living on a new planet. Therefore, comics about the universe are very popular. Comics reflect the thoughts of different historical periods.

Comics are a unique art form. These are not like paintings as images are related to one another and by going over all of them, we can understand the story. Comics are not like movies as the characters are not moving, so people are freer to imagine. However, it shows the producers’ sweat and tears. It reflects their opinions, beliefs, or questions. To conclude, comics have high artistic value.

Comics, the best art formS6A Wu Lijia, Lawrence

59

What Inspires Me?S5C Choi Ka Yi

In one’s life, sometimes we fail. The reality punches us in the face, which makes us cry and hurt. However, we need to get back up again when we are knocked down. While coping with the difficulties, I always find my courage when I think about my family and future.

My childhood was great, full of fun, and it seemed that I had nothing to worry about. Although I was happy about my ‘funny time’, the school life made me scared. I always failed my exams. Sadly, I wanted to work hard, but I failed again and again. What’s more, my parents expected me to work even harder. When I grew up, I knew what I should do, and what my goal was.

I worked extremely hard as I didn’t want to fail over and over again, but my life played tricks on me most of the time.One day, I failed again. I was frightened to face my parents and I couldn’t stand their sight, so I didn’t tell them about the result. I thought they would never know. I was trying to pretend nothing had happened.

After a few days, when I arrived home, my parents were sitting on the sofa. On my father’s hand was a sheet of paper. Suddenly, the house was full of fear. I couldn’t move a step or say a word, like there was a devil in front of me, forcing me to hold my breath tight.

“Come here,” said my father. I moved slowly. “Hurry up!” He urged. “What is this?” My mother asked, pointing at the paper. “Um… my exam paper…” I felt like I was a fly; my voice was so small that I even couldn’t hear myself clearly. I looked at them, expecting them to judge me.

“Take a deep breath,” they said. “We have known about it for a week, you know?” My father’s voice was soft. “Why don’t you tell us?”

“I… I was scared to tell you about this,” said I shakily.

“Look, don’t be nervous. We know you have worked hard and spent a lot of effort preparing for it. You are doing well. Just keep trying. We believe in you.”

Just a few words, I felt touched.

After that day, I was brave and willing to fight for myself. I realized that my family will stand by me, always and forever.

60

Failure is an indispensable part of our life. It brings us either progress or depression. Overcoming frustrations is important since that will be the nutrients for our life.

I sometimes encounter difficulties. However, I never give up. Everyone needs to have a motivation which makes us insist on doing something. The pillar that supports me to stand up is my sense of responsibility. If I insist on performing my duties, I can improve myself. This thinking helps me to overcome all the difficulties I have encountered. Actually, if we can wipe out our bad feeling, everything can become much better. So I always remind myself to endure the frustration and develop myself to a greater extent. I can learn a lot of things through those experiences and my problem-solving skill is enhanced accordingly. That is why I can be able to challenge all my frustrations. After I overcome the difficulties, I become stronger and better-equipped to solve the harder problems. So I become willing to come up with something that upsets me.

The second thing inspires me is an optimistic mind. I know that it is certain to encounter something challenging. When I encounter them, I try my best to tackle them. I don’t mind how hard I try to tackle the problem but I am glad to solve them eventually. That is why I can rise up again after a fall.

Of course, there is something behind that backs me up. They are my friends and my parents. Whenever I suffer, they will encourage me and give me much useful golden advice. Their support gives me power to try my best. Although I sometimes try to escape from hardship, they will give me some helpful directions. So I can rise up after being frustrated. I think having a strong spirit together with my friends and my parents inspire me most to try my best in handling difficulties.

S5A Wong Pak Sing, Parco

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela said, ‘The greatest glory of living lies not in never rallying but in rising every time you fall.’ That means you should not give up easily even though the things you encounter may be difficult. There must be many difficult things lying in our life. For the time being, we may face some tasks such as tests, exams or going out for an exchange tour. We need to overcome these difficulties to be an all-rounded person. Although these things are hard to handle, we should not give up easily. This is because when we give up easily, we cannot solve these problems right away and we may not be able to fix them anymore in future. For example, on the eve of your exam, you do not understand the texts and questions. If you do not try to seek help from other people to solve this problem, you give up immediately. This will hinder your progress. This means you are bound by yourself

Whenever you are facing difficult problems, do not give up easily. You should be patient and solve it with your friends. You will improve and widen your horizons. You will become more independent and fix the problem easily next time because you have already understood how to do it.

Why do we need to seek help from our friends? This is because they may inspire us how to solve the problem easily. In the course of solving the problems, the relationship between you and your friends will be enhanced. A lot of discussion encourages more communication among you and your friends. You may not be worried about facing difficult problems anymore. Never give up.

Therefore, friends can inspire you to try your best from time to time even though things may be very harsh.

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

S5B Cheng Hon Lam, Cookie

61

F ootsteps

“Konnichiwa!” meaning good afternoon in Japanese, along with an adorable smile on a stewardess’ face as I was leaving the plane were my first impression upon arriving in Japan.

Back in October of 2016 I was nominated by my school teacher to interview for an exchange program - ‘Jeanesys Programme 2.0’ (Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths). Fortunately, I received the honour to take part in this exchange programme. I was filled with ignorance and curiosity as I’ve never been a participant of an exchange tour. As a result, there were lots of questions catapulting around my head; what does ‘exchange’ really mean? What would it be like if I couldn’t give any response when a Japanese tries to talk with me? Are there any specific procedures before having a meal in Japan?

After several training sessions we learned lots of basic communication skills and something about Japanese culture. In the meantime, an incredible relationship was fostered among all of my teammates and our tutor. We understood more about each other including our likes and dislikes, sharing our own thoughts and brainstormed our ideas whenever we faced a problem.

Finally, on the 13th of December, this extraordinary adventure commenced along with our unbridled enthusiasm and dreams.

One of the most important parts of the itinerary was visiting a local high school in Japan. When we arrived there, I saw lots of people waving at the front door of their school and through the windows. Fortunately, I wasn’t taking a nap on the bus, or else it would have been such an impolite and awkward moment. Their zealous greetings already roused everyone, and once we got off the bus, we went straight to one of their classrooms to have a brief introduction of the activities we’d be doing that day. Then, I was arranged to meet my buddy-Kazuma. At first, we were both remained silent as we didn’t really know what to start with. Nevertheless, with his few gestures that led me to their welcoming performance staged by their school’s marching band. I finally overcame my silence by asking what kind of sports and extracurricular activities their school provided. All of a sudden, he grinned and talked about his daily school life and interests such as playing basketball. Subsequently,

we went on and

on talking about our personal experience like a non-stop conversation. It was the longest conversation I’ve ever had with a Japanese. It turns out that there’re no boundaries or restrictions when you communicate with people in other countries even if you have a different mother tongue!

Nevertheless, the most memorable experience was staying with the host family. I was accompanied by three other teammates, one of whom knew a bit Japanese. As we were waiting for the host family to pick us up in the transitional centre, we saw an old man walking towards us and directing us to his car with no verbal instructions. There was some anxiety lurking in my mind: Does he speak English? If not, are we able to communicate with the host family? What should we do or say if he suddenly says a bunch of complex Japanese? When we had dinner with them, we started to have some conversation in Japanese, which was only comprehensible to one of my teammates. However, all of a sudden, my teammate was petrified as he couldn’t translate one of the words. We gazed at each other instantly with puzzling faces. However, the older man in the host family came up with an idea, and he gave us a paper and a pen, alluding us to draw something as another way to express our thoughts. At last, we realized that he was asking us to turn off the heater after it had operated for 5 hours. Although we couldn’t understand this sentence through verbal expression, we were able to receive the message in a unique way. It indicated to me that the connection between humans isn’t only linked by what we say but also how we act.

To conclude, it was a delightful experience in Japan. I was touched by their enthusiasm and natural sincerity. In addition, I think the word ‘exchange’ is defined as verbal and behavioural unconditional sharing among people including those from different countries. Hopefully, we can cherish the moment when we exchange and share our culture with other people, with our faithful heart.

Study trip to JapanS6A Chan Chue Hang, Andy

62

It is a great privilege to participate in the Hong Kong Youth’s New Runway Project of the One Belt One Road Project to exchange and study in the Philippines.

The person who caused the greatest impact on me during the entire trip was the King of Rice, Professor Chan Guangxuan. I learned from his speech in the symposium that he had started his business in the Philippines and he worked tirelessly and successfully developed into today’s achievement. Even if the path is thorny, he never gives up. His business has expanded from two acres of factories to four hundred acres, which I really admire.

In different forums, we had the opportunity to interact with our school alumni. They gave us a lot of beneficial ideas. The alumni shared their respective experiences in entrepreneurship in the Philippines and gave us hope and made us more motivated to work for our future. They also mentioned the factors leading to entrepreneurial success: being brave to try, having confidence in yourself, never giving up. As long as you dare to try, do not be afraid of failure, and success will not be far away.

A school chief also mentioned an important point. Learning is not the most important thing. On the road to success, character or personality is the most important thing. We must endure failures. We should not rely on others. The alumni also explained why they chose to start a business in the Philippines. As Chinese have a certain status in the Philippines, they are part of the GDP. With low prices and good fortune, plus the fact that the Philippines is a Catholic country, compatibility is strong and people do not exclude other people. Therefore, it is a good place for development. In addition, as a country along the Belt and Road, and driven by globalization, it is a good place with unlimited business opportunities, room and resources for entrepreneurship and to develop.

As an international city, talents from all countries often visit Hong Kong. No matter whether it is working or starting a business, we have a certain degree of competitiveness. In addition to the large number of people in Hong Kong, even if they have good job opportunities, they may not be able to own a flat. Therefore, I think that there is a great possibility of development in countries along the Belt and Road initiative, just as the older generation said: we have the motherland in heart and a world outlook in mind. They pointed out that today’s young people in Hong Kong really do not understand contentment,

have high anti-social sentiment and are short-sighted politically. Although I am one of the teenagers in Hong Kong, I have to agree with him. Broadening horizons is what young people should do. With the help of one belt one road, we, the younger generations, should seize this opportunity to broaden our sight.

Nonetheless, if I have to choose between working and starting a business, I think I will still choose to be a worker than a businessman. Due to the fact that, the risk of starting a business is always higher than that of working, and it is less stable. If it fails to develop, it will waste money and time. Hence, I think it is a better choice to go step by step to a higher position and make progress.

After this trip, I deepened my understanding of the opportunities brought about by the Belt and Road. I have witnessed the brilliant achievements of my predecessors

and made me even more convinced of China’s bright future.

Last but not least, thanks to the Li Wenjun Charity Fund, we can participate in this study mission and understand the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road initiative, and thank you for the advent of our predecessors over the past few days. They unflinchingly shared the entrepreneurship with us and gave us inspiration and encouragement. We have benefited greatly from these days and experienced great and warm hospitality.

Belt Road awarenessS5B Wong Chi Wah, Gillian

63

Before I went to the Philippines, I imagined that it was a relatively underdeveloped and primitive country. However, I now see it in a new dimension after the 5-day visit which enriched my understanding of its economic and cultural life.

The first thing that impressed me was the Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport, it which is not outdated at all! Instead, its facilities are cutting-edge and efficient. While leaving the airport and heading to San Diego Fortress and the Philippine History Museum, I could see so many modern high-rise buildings on the way. The capital Manila is actually a contemporary city with plenty of well-built infrastructure! Besides, the city has been highly influenced by Chinese culture. We could see a lot of Chinese characters everywhere and on the signboards. There were many Chinese restaurants serving tasty and traditional Chinese foods. Our culture having such high impacts there was out of my expectation.

Another thing which caught my attention was the nice attitude of the domestic Filipinos. They are very friendly and always carry a smile on their faces. Unlike many other metropolitans, say Hongkongers, they are very helpful and don’t mind being bothered. For example, they were always willing to help us take group photos at the scenery points with so many smartphones given by us. According to our alumni there, the Filipinos wish to live in harmony, help each other and don’t care so much about personal benefits. Their cheerful character sustains their willingness to serve as household helpers in many Asian countries. In addition, being a Catholic country, the Filipinos feel graceful of what they’ve got and self-contained without many complaints about their livings.

On the fourth day of our trip, we moved from Manila to Cauayan. While Manila is a well-developed city, Cauayan is a comparatively rural farmland. Simply comparing their airport facilities with that in Manila and we will find a big gap between these two places. In Cauayan airport, there are no luggage trucks or belts. Baggage has to be unloaded and transported manually by ground workers.

One of the key focuses of the delegation study tour is to learn and understand our alumni entrepreneurship in the Philippines. Going to Cauayan was a field study for this purpose. Besides visiting the factories, we participated in the Philippine Chinese Business School Alumni Symposium. Our alumni shared with us their careers and business development experiences. They also told us their hardships and the keys to success in Cauayan. One of the most important take-aways was about lifelong

learning. Our alumnus Chen Guangyi, who has got great achievements in growing rice and the related by-products because of his continuous studies on improving machinery. Other valuable sharings included how to shape personal integrity, the importance of business credit and confidence. They said all these contributed to pave a sucessful road of an enterprise.

The second focus was on the Belt and Road opportunities. The alumni encouraged us to develop our career in the Philippines because Hong Kong people are very well-connected with both the Mainland China and the Philippines. Being a middleman, we can made full use of our Hong Kong unique competencies to line up the Chinese capitals and the Philipino natural resources to facilitate production, which brings mutual benefit to trade and businesses amongst the countries on the Belt and Road.

Time flies! Our trip quickly came to the end but it didn’t finish well. Cauayan Airport again! As there is no advanced aviation and weather forecasting system, the flight was cancelled simply because of the rain! We had to take several vans to rush ahead to Manila to catch the connecting flight back home. Just a 45-minute flight from there to Manila, we spent nearly 10 hours but finally still missed the flight! We were forced to stay one more night and got a safe return in the next morning.

S5B Kwong Yin Hong, Sharon

64

Months ago, I was privileged to participate in the “One Belt One Road” Project for Youth Runway Sponsorship to visit two cities of the Philippines, Manila and Cauayan. I have benefited a lot. I witnessed the development of the Philippines and the opportunities brought about by the Belt and Road Policy.

The trips were well designed and arranged by our alumni there. Visiting the museum that let us understand the history of relationship between the Philippines and China, watching the business district with the best development, attending the seminars with businessmen, as well as visiting the alumni’s huge rice factory and power plants, we all had an unforgettable experience.

The Philippines is still a developing country. Some of it’s places have developed relatively well, such as the central urban areas of Manila, but some places lag far behind. So I think the Philippines is a place full of business opportunities because there are still many aspects that need to be developed. Take the Internet as an example. The Philippines is very large in size when compared with Hong Kong, but there are only two telecommunications companies. Moreover, from the aspect of roads, the development of the highways in the Philippines is not well-developed. Some of the more remote areas are difficult to access. Only those nearer to the urban areas will have freeways, and traffic jams are often encountered in urban area. In addition, in terms of prices, when compared with Hong Kong the same kind of food can be nearly half the price.

The delegation also has many opportunities to communicate with alumni and entrepreneurs, which was a very valuable experience for us. We asked our alumni why they chose to start businesses in the Philippines. Most of them said that it was because

their family members were there and they, therefore, came to the Philippines to study or work. We also asked them about what entrepreneurs need to pay attention to when starting a business there. The alumni were very enthusiastic to answer this question. They all had different opinions. To sum up, self-confidence, courage, trust and working skills are essential. One of my alumni said, “Personality decides everything.” I very much agree with him. It is true if we want to start a business, we should have the courage to try in face of different adversities or setbacks. Without courage, we cannot pursue our goals with determination, which is impossible for a businessman to succeed.

In the current situation in the Philippines, I believe that it is a good place to start a business. The relations between China and the Philippines are friendly, and at the same time, the Filipinos are very friendly. The Philippine president has the intention to maintain a good relationship with China. From the policy of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Xi Jinping in 2013, up to now, as many as 100 countries have participated in it. It is obvious that there are already many business opportunities in it. When we visited the rice plant of the alumni in the delegation, he said that he had bought only one hectare of land there 20 years ago. Now he has 40 hectares and has set up professional and advanced drying rice equipment. Rice that has no use is burnt to generate electricity, and all of us have seen amazing things.

The trip brought me an unforgettable experience. It was very meaningful as it deepens our understanding of the Philippines in its history, present situation and future development. It also inspired me to think if I would develop my career in the Philippines.

S5A Chan Ka Yu, Thomas

65

¡Hola! ¿Como estas? This is how to say hello in Spanish. In 2016-2017, I went to Colombia for 10 months of exchange with the AFS intercultural program. In these 10 months, I not only learnt how to speak in Spanish, I also learnt many other wonderful things.

Going for 1 year exchange is a very big decision since I need to stay away from my family for a year and temporarily put down my academic work to go to another country that I wasn’t familiar with. Surprisingly, the biggest motivation for me to go on exchange was my sister as she also went on exchange a few years ago and she became more sociable and outgoing. I want to have a change like my sister and I want to try to live in another country, so finally I too chose to go on exchange.

The difference in culture between Colombia and Hong Kong is massive. Let’s take the relationship between boys and girls as an example. An embrace and kiss between a boy and a girl to say hello always happens in Colombia, but people in Hong Kong would be very resistant to that. Also they always ask you ‘how are you?’ because they care about you. However, in Hong Kong there’s always a hidden agenda, so the values of people in Hong Kong and Colombia are very different.

Let’s talk about the most important part of my exchange

life, my host. I was living in a local’s house during these 10 months. Although I’m a stranger to them, they treated me like I’m a part of them. I have 3 host brothers and 1 host sister. When there are some important festivals like Christmas, they don’t hang out with friends. Instead, they always stay with their family at home to celebrate together. Also, they always share the responsibility of doing housework, such as making lunch and cleaning the house. I really admire how they still put their family in the first place.

This 10-month trip inspired me a lot, in particular, to get along with my family. I feel that I have grown up through this experience and I have become more mature. These 10 months is a series of unforgettable memories. I made a lot of new friends and explored the world. I need to thank my family for supporting me in the whole journey.

An exchange programme in ColombiaS6B Chan Cheuk Hei, Louis

66

Have you ever been on a study trip before? It is really worth it for you to participate. I realize how tremendous the world is. Hong Kong, which is an international city, is full of challenges and competition. (If your view like that, I can tell you that is wrong definitely.) [I have no idea what he is trying to say here.]

The No. 1 Middle School Affiliated to Central China Normal University, which we visited during the trip, is a top school in Wuhan city. After we had attended a lesson in this school, I realized the educational differences between Hong Kong and China. Although the environment for study is not as good as Hong Kong’s, Chinese students overcome it with strong willpower. Compared with Hong Kong, they are facing harsh competition. Can you believe that only one out of seven million students can enter the top university, such as Tsinghua University or Peking University? This is the real situation which they are facing.

On the other hand, the competition is not as fierce in China. Around one out of twenty students can study in a district famous university equivalent to Hong Kong University. But the learning attitude of Hong Kong students is not as serious as that of Chinese students. Some Hong Kong students usually said that they lost the opportunity to study in a Hong Kong local university because Chinese students come to Hong Kong to study. It is really sad to see that happens in Hong Kong which is an international city. This act also reflects a lack of comprehension of how tremendous the world is.

I believe that we have to face the challenge not only from China but also other parts of the world. But we are not strong enough to win the competition. Furthermore, we need to bear the terrible consequences which we are making today. To increase the competitiveness of the Hong Kong students, we should adopt some effective methods, such as learning to learn, broadening their horizons and developing a target to pursue

Finally, study trip is really deserving of you to participate in. You can learn the knowledge beyond the textbook or classroom and see the world in different dimensions.

A Study Trip to WuhanS5B Law Yi Lok

Last summer, I joined a study tour to New Zealand for two weeks. It was a really nice experience for me.I joined this trip because I wanted to know more about a different culture like its food and lifestyle. Also, I wanted to meet new friends and learn more English there. I wanted to understand how students feel when they leave their own country to stay in a totally different place.The day I left Hong Kong I was very excited to see the view there. After I got on the bus, I began to imagine what will happen in these two weeks.After 13 hours of flight, I arrived in New Zealand. I met my host family and we got to know more about each other on the first day.

Over these two weeks, I spent lots of time getting along with our host family. Also, we went to the school to take lessons, which were more fun and relaxing than lessons in Hong Kong. We got to visit a lot of famous buildings in New Zealand.

When we got to the south of New Zealand, we didn’t have any lessons. In that week, we visited a lot of famous places and on some days we got to play happily, although the weather was a bit cold.

I took lots of beautiful pictures like the view in the morning, some animals and famous buildings.I have learnt different cultures and languages on this trip. However, the most invaluable thing that I have is the memories with my friends.

New Zealand TripS4A Cheung Wai Kiu, Vicky

67

Script for the promotional videoS2B Mok Ho Cheung, Horace

School Field Trip Day

Project - Start a business in StanleyStudents in groups have to interview the tourists and make a video to promote Stanley or their business.

It was my first time to do interviews. The experience gained was memorable and rewarding.

The purpose of our project is to explore why tourists like to visit Stanley. I felt so worried when I was told to do the project. My teammates and I discussed a lot on how to make the questions on the questionnaire short and precise. Although designing the questionnaire was time-consuming, it allowed us to share ideas.

During the day of interview, I felt very nervous since it was my first time to do an English interview with foreigners. Luckily, my teammates gave me lots of encouragement. The success of my first interview gave me the confidence to interview more foreigners afterwards.

The part I enjoyed most during the project was the teamwork and the joyful experience of speaking with foreigners.

Hello everyone, I’m going to have a video and it’s about promoting Stanley.

Let’s talk about Stanley Plaza first. Stanley Plaza is a good place for shopping and there are a lot of overseas visitors coming for shopping here! People like to eat in McDonald’s and Starbucks. There is also a playground for children to play. We also see the historic Murray House, Stanley Ma Hang Park and Tin Hau Temple. Dog lovers are allowed to walk their dogs and play with them there! Let’s visit Murray House now!

Here is Murray House. Murray House is a 160-year old three-storey colonial building. It was first built in Central and has moved to Stanley since early 2000s. It’s Hong Kong’s longest surviving building and it becomes an iconic landmark in Stanley. There are lots of restaurants and boutiques. Let’s move to Stanley Main Street.

Now, we are in Stanley Main Street. There are lots of restaurants and all of them offer outdoor dining experiences. People like having dinner there because there are good sea views and they can go to Stanley Market for a walk after dinner. Now, let’s talk about the history and information of Stanley Market.

Stanley Market is the must-go place and there are a lot of good things to buy such as jewellery, souvenirs, knick-knacks and the price is reasonable.

Stanley is a good place. If there is a wider variety of shops, I think more tourists, local people and dog lovers will come. This is the end of our video. Thank you very much.

S2C Dong Chao Feng, Avony

Script for interviewing touristsS2C Law Hiu Ting

Good morning Sir/Madam,

I come from Hon Wah College. May I have an interview with you? And, may I record the interview? It just takes a few minutes.

The first question is where are you from and why do you come to Stanley?

The second question is what do you like about Stanley?

The next question is will you visit Stanley again?

Thank you very much. That’s the end of the interview. May I take a photo with you? Have a nice day. Goodbye!

68

On 17th November, all secondary two students went on a study trip to Stanley. We went there because we had to promote Stanley on behalf of the Tourism Board. We met up at the covered playground at 10:30 a.m. Then, our teacher Ms Lai told us about the dos and don’ts during the trip. She told us clearly what to do. Then, we got on the coach and left school.

When we arrived at Stanley, we started to do the interview with the tourists. Most of them accepted our requests. They were very nice and good-looking! They answered us in a friendly way. As far as I observed, there were many people who come from different countries. They seemed to be very broad-minded too.

I have learnt that it is important to learn English as it allows us to talk with people who come from different countries. It definitely helps us make more friends too. If I could suggest something to make the trip better, I hope that the trip could be made longer. We needed more time to finish our interviews, take photos and video-tape our promotion about the must-visit places. I think a half day would be ideal, from afternoon to evening.

Before going to Stanley, we needed to draft questions which are for interviewing tourists. Our aim of this Stanley field trip is to introduce Stanley and make a promotional video. We had taken part in the Travel Ambassador programme and interviewed some tourists. When I was first told to do the project, I felt shocked because it looked difficult.

In Stanley, we interviewed the tourists first, which is my favourite part in this field trip. The tourists were very nice and helpful. They didn’t turn us down for interviews. Also, I learnt to be a brave person and take the initiative to interview tourists. We also made a video about Stanley. We introduced the Stanley Market, Murray House and Stanley Plaza.

I think that our group completed the mission promptly and also, the teamwork was important in this trip. If we could not get along well on this trip, we couldn’t have completed the mission so quickly.

Our project was about promoting Stanley, and I still remember how much of a mess it was before we actually went to Stanley because the schedules were quite drastic and tight!

When we started to draft our questionnaire, I had a bit of an insight about the schedule and planning. While exploring Stanley, we decided to record at the spot – specifically Stanley Market. As we recorded, it wasalmost time to go back to the Amphitheatre! Luckily,our group was quite cooperative, and we finished therecording with just a few tries. Since we returned to theAmphitheatre, we decided to do the opening scenethere– of course, we also went to Murray House after thethird scene. When we were done for that scene, I figuredthat we should do a 180-degree view to make ourproduction more professional. After that, we decided totake photos for the presentation. As we progressed, wewent back to the Amphitheatre for the last scene of theday. As you may know, I love professional work, so Oyiand I went back to Stanley Market for more shots andphotos for our video and presentation.

I’ve got to say, we actually finished the promotional video fairly quickly as everyone was willing to cooperate and contribute, which is great. Our team’s collaboration makes our work more efficient and professional.

Of course, there were ups and downs in this trip, but isn’t that bound to happen? I enjoyed producing the video the most as the bloopers were quite funny, and we were able to enjoy our time. Then there’s interviewing. I can’t say I hated it, because some people were nice, but some were quite impatient, giving us a grim look. Of course, these people were mostly the stall/shop owners as we were blocking them from doing business. You can tell by the glare they gave us, as if they were the eagles looking at their next prey.

Overall, this trip was worthwhile, but we need to pay more attention to some points. We should definitely not stand outside the stalls/shops as the owners got quite impatient or displeased with us.

Students’ reflectionsS2A Lin Tak Sum, Marvin

S2A Yeung Hei Tung, Rache

S2A Guan Man Ching, Amy

69

I would like to share my unforgettable experience at the military camp.

It was the escape from the cave. The cave was 1.8 meters deep, and that is really deep! We needed to escape the cave by ourselves, and we couldn’t help others after we escaped from the cave. That means we needed to discuss who would be the last one out because the last one needed to escape the cave by herself. After discussion, we decided Nicole and I would be the last ones. After we helped all the girls escape, we were already very tired, but we didn’t give up and we tried our best. Finally, we successfully escaped the cave. We all felt really surprised, but that means everything can succeed. The important thing is: never give up.

Going to the Military Training Camp is definitely one of the most unforgettable experiences in life. Though it was only three days to survive through, I still cannot forget about those days without Mom.

Basically, as everyone can see, we learned a lot of skills and actions which the soldiers need to do. But those are the only things that I learned physically. What I truly learned and will never forget is to thank people. Principal Ma of the training school gave us a lesson about thanking people. Many of us even cried! Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? I think we weren’t crying because of the strict discipline or the push-ups they made me do. We cried for the guilt of not knowing we should thank our parents. It seems normal that many of us always think that our parents are annoying. But when we try and do everything on ourselves, it’s clear that it is not easy. Our parents have done a lot for us which we don’t even know about! Someday, when we grow more independent, we must never forget to thank our parents.

S1A Yu Chin Nam, CharlotteMartial TrainingS1A Chui Tsz Kiu, Andrea

I’m really surprised that I had so much fun in Sai Kung yesterday.

I went to Sai Kung with my friend Amy to try unique seafood and other delicious dishes. The seafood was really scrumptious. We planned to do shopping around the area after our meal. We later changed our mind instead, joined an interesting event at the Sai Kung Waterfront Park.

Guess what we saw? Basically nothing but a stampede in the park. When I took a closer look at the crowd, I saw some kids throwing bean bags in stalls while the elderly people practised Taichi together. From the distance, I could almost feel the excitement in the park. Since Amy and I are big fans of cultural performances, we decided to check out the carnival.

We walked to the park and took a brochure about performances in the carnival. Guess what? We were so lucky to be able to attend a music performance featuring a rising star singing ‘Happy’, one of my favorite songs lately. Amy and I enjoyed the performance. We almost danced with the dancers on stage but didn’t give in to our temptation.

The Art Exhibition was the most impressive. I couldn’t believe that Sai Kung, a comparatively small community, can produce and contribute so many good paintings. Most importantly of all, they were drawn by the elderly. I could see from the paintings that the elderly are full of imagination and innovative ideas.

We spent almost four hours in the carnival and realized we ought to leave before dark. On the way home, I couldn’t help thinking how the organizer had united people in the community. I believe their passion does not just come from monetary reward but from their love of the community. I hope to go there again next year. I am looking forward to going with my family and classmates.

A Fun Visit in Sai KungS4A Wong Hiu Tung

70

P hoto Gallery

Welcome, visitors!

71

Ms Elsie Leung Oi-Sie

Mr. Kevin Yeung Yun Hung

Secretary for Education

72

As teachers As learners in Heyuan

73

Exploring New Zealand

Wuhan Study Trip

Belt Road Awareness – the Philippines

74

75

D e c a d e s o n w a r d . . .

Issue 1-2009-

Issue 2-2010-

Issue 3-2011-

Issue 4-2012-

Issue 5-2013-

Meet the astronaut76

We would like to

express our heartfelt gratitude to

Professor Rowson LEE(BSc, MSc, MRICS, MHKIS, FAIB, FCIOB, FABE)

his genuine support and sponsorship

of this publication.

for

Editors:

Editorial Board

Consultant: Ms SIN Lai Wan

Teacher-in-charge: Miss LAU Bik Yee

Ms DEWAN Raka

Miss FOK Kit Man

Miss MA Ying Ying

Miss CHUM Man Hoi

D e c a d e s o n w a r d . . .

Issue 6-2014-

Issue 7-2015-

Issue 8-2016-

Issue 9-2017-

Issue 10-2018-

W

e L

ea

rn •

We

Pra

cti

se •

We

Ac

co

mp

lish

• W

e L

ea

rn •

We

Pra

ct i

se •

We

Accomp l ish • We Learn • We Pract ise • We Accom

p l ish

English Department Hon Wah College

3 Harmony Road,Siu Sai Wan, Hong Kong

www.honwah.edu.hk

Designed by SOB www.sob.com.hk