Departure

In 12 hours, I’ll be flying back to America. Eekk! I’m excited. My bags are just about packed, minus the last minute things, my ticket is printed, and my alarm is set for 4am (don’t worry- I have 3 alarms set- I will not sleep through them!). I think I’m ready.

When I booked my flight back in June, Orbitz told me my trip was 127 days and 128 nights. When I thought of it in those terms, day and night, it didn’t seem like a long time; 4 months seemed longer. And now, I can’t decide whether or not it seems like I just got here, or if I’ve been here forever. Looking back, I’ve done a lot. Thankfully I kept this blog because otherwise I am sure I wouldn’t remember half of my experiences. I completed everything that was on my “Things to Do in Hong Kong” list; I traveled to Thailand, Vietnam and Macau; explored as much of Hong Kong as possible and took 5 classes! I am very happy with my semester abroad; I was challenged and pushed outside of my comfort zone; I’ve learned to appreciate America more than ever before, but I’ve also gained a respect and understanding not only of Hong Kong but of many other South Asian countries. I’ve tried so many different types of food and have learned how to cook various dishes in a microwave.

 My List

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I started making a list of things that I would be ‘Taking’ from Hong Kong and ‘Leaving’ in Hong Kong. To share a few (it’s been much easier to decide what I’m leaving rather than taking, but that’s not really important as I am sure ‘Taking’ list will grow once I’m back in America)…

I will be taking my chopstick skills, a greater appreciation for the American education system (the Hong Kong education system is a completely different story- basically only a certain amount of students can continue on after a certain point, and each year that number gets smaller and smaller)

I will be leaving the shower technique (you go to the shower fully dressed, leave the flip flops outside the shower, strip inside the shower stall, hang your clothes over this bar or in a bag, shower, put clothes back on. At the beginning of the semester I just about died from heat stroke doing this, so to avoid this, I timed my showers so my roommate wouldn’t be in the room); the discussion procedures (class discussions are more of a Q&A session rather than ‘discussion’ and the local students rarely talk, so there wasn’t a lot of communication within the classes), and the acceptability of spitting/burping/nose picking in public (it’s just nasty. I’m sorry. I’ve been on the MTR and see people picking their nose with their fingers, no tissues, or people hacking up mucus on the street. Not my cup of tea). I will also be leaving the bugs. Literally, the bugs here have attacked me. Anytime I’m outside, I get about 4 new bug bits. My calves are covered in bug bites.

The bathroom and showers

There are many things though that I wish I could take: the MTR system (literally, it can get you anywhere in Hong Kong; it’s so easy, accessible and cheap. I will surely miss it.), the money (sure, the exchange rate was great, but the smallest bill they use is $10, they have a $1, $2, and $5 coin, as well as $0.10, $0.20 and $0.50 coin. Things only cost $7.90 or $8.00, not $7.99 or $7.49, it’s so much easier to deal with money without having to worry about those little cents). I wish I could take some of the food back (dim sum, this green bean and minced meat meal, the fruit desert I wrote about earlier, all so delicious and can’t be found in the States). The final thing I wish I could take is the cleanliness of Hong Kong (I am pretty sure the cleaning people collect the trash on our floor at least 4 times a day; everyday, there is a lady sweeping the leaves off the path to our hostel; the elevator and escalator handrails are disinfected at least 4 times a day. It’s crazy, but it’s so clean).

Packing...

It’s been a great semester and I am thankful for every moment over the past 4 months.

Also, I'll leave you with a comparision of the weather here in HK, Hull and Geneva...

I am going to freeze.

Lost in Translation

{So I know you’re expecting another post about Thailand, and that’s coming- tomorrow though, sorry- this was just an aggravating experience today}

Last Spring, HWS required students going abroad to attend orientation meetings to prepare us for our time abroad. During our ‘Passport to Success’ meeting we were told we may encounter language problems in the classroom as English isn’t the students’ native language. One horror story stuck out in my mind: In one girl’s class, a Chinese student wasn’t understanding a specific concept that professor was explaining in English and asked for it to be explained in Cantonese; the professor asked if anybody minded and the girl didn’t raise her hand. As a result, the rest of the semester, the class was taught in Cantonese. ‘Okay, I could handle that,’ I thought to myself after hearing the story, just raise your hand.

If only life was that easy.

I mentioned a while ago that my Media Ethics professor is Chinese and frequently switched between Cantonese and English, and I figured she was doing this to explain the concept in Cantonese for the Chinese students. So along with another international student, Camilla, from Denmark, I sit through the class usually dazing in and out. But over the past month and a half, the classes have gotten worse- as in there’s more and more Cantonese and less and less English. Yesterday, as Camilla and I were leaving the class we just looked at each other and agreed that that class was aggravating, because we didn’t understand much.

Then today, we had tutorial at 8:30 this morning. {I don’t think I’ve explained tutorials—they’re supplemental to the lectures and are mainly for discussions and presentations. For Media Ethics, the tutorial meets every other week for 2 hours.} So I woke up at 7:30, head to the library to do the reading for the tutorial, only to find the library was closed, so I chilled in the 24-hour computer lab until 8:30 (thankfully, turns out I didn’t even need to do the reading because it wasn’t even mentioned in the tutorial).

Class started and two students present on the topic of censorship and press freedom. Their presentation was in English and I had no problem understanding them. It wasn’t until the last 4 or 5 slides when things started to go downhill. They were using a local example and only had a Chinese text of it. The teacher, Lisa, tried to translate it for Camilla and I but then other students were getting confused, so she tried to explain it for them in Cantonese. At this point it was like 9:45am and we decided to take a quick 5-minute break. During the break though we put our chairs in a circle so we could have a discussion.  Haha. Discussion.

For the rest of the class, the professor talked in Cantonese. She translated maybe 3-4 times but as I’ve learned in this class as well as my Non-Fiction Film class, so much gets lost in translation. And then the students would talk and it would be in Cantonese, and then the professor would respond again in Cantonese. At one point the professor turns to Camilla and I and asked what we thought. Um. I have no idea what you’re talking about. “Umm. I’m a little confused in the translation,” Camilla said and I kinda just repeated her question to see if I understood her. And then it was back to Cantonese.

Well, to say the least, Camilla and I were aggravated by 10:30. Since we had another class together at 11:30 we went to the Canteen for breakfast and talked about how we could fix this. We realized the problem was mainly the language and how Lisa wasn’t forcing the students to talk in English, especially since she wasn’t always talking in English- if she’s not, why should they? So we decided to go see her later in the day during her office hours and bring it to her attention and then I was also going to email OMIP (Lingnan’s study abroad office) as well as CGE (HWS’ Center for Global Ed) just to bring it to their attention.

Long story short, Camilla took a water break during our next class and ran into Lisa; apparently Lisa had sent us an email and wanted to get together with us for a chat- we decided to meet once our class was over.

Well during our meeting, we brought up our concern-about the lack of English. And, well, Lisa talked about censorship and press freedom for an hour. That’s right. An hour. Because she thought (or at least I think she thought) we didn’t understand the presentation/topic. So by the end of our meeting we still don’t think she knows how to solve the problem of how to make the kids speak English- her solution is having us come talk with her separately so we get a better understanding of the material (except that’s not the problem). We were still rather aggravated and annoyed by the end of our little chat.

So I’m still going to email OMIP and CGE just so they know; maybe they’ll even bring it to Lisa’s attention/remind her that classes need to be taught in English, because that’s what we were told when we signed up for this program.

So cross your fingers that I don’t have to sit through another class next week of mainly Cantonese!