People - Milestones - Phillip Ng

FULL OF MEMORIES — I joined HKIS as a Chinese Studies teacher in elementary school in August 1986. It was Mr. Handrich who interviewed and hired me. Before joining HKIS, I taught in the local secondary schools for five years.

It is always a wonderful experience to teach in HKIS. The school is ever-growing and teachers are expected to change and move forward. Professional development is ongoing and keeps refreshing us with the most updated teaching curriculum planning strategies. I believe it is the core value of the school that we are accountable to the development of the students, both academically and spiritually. School leadership is a crucial factor in sustaining educational excellence for more than half of a century.

I can see our Chinese Studies program continues to adopt the most updated learning theories and teaching methodologies to help students develop their language skills through effective means of communication toward proficiency. More and more students enjoy learning Chinese because they find satisfaction in their comprehensibility and overall competency in their language skills.

In addition to teaching in the classroom, I have other opportunities to work with the students, such as taking students to Hangzhou during summer, training students to join the Putonghua speech contest, organizing performance opportunities for students during Chinese festivals, particularly in celebrating Chinese New Year. The Make-o-Ween activity [where Upper Primary students and teachers make their own costumes at Halloween] is one of the highlights for teachers and students to share the fun.

I also enjoy the opportunities to work with my colleagues in the UP. They are willing to share their experience and knowledge enthusiastically and support us with lots of flexibility. I can see collaboration is the culture in the school community. I can hear laughter each day along the hallway. There is a funny story I would like to share here. Ten years ago, I used to provide survival Cantonese training to new teachers. One day, a new teacher came to me and said: “Chinese is a powerful language. As long as you can say a Chinese word, people will understand what you want. Last night, while I was taking the minibus home, I forgot how to say ‘yau lok’ (stop please). I only remembered ‘cha shiu bao’(roast pork bun) because this was my favorite dim sum. In a hurry, I yelled out ‘cha shiu bao’ To my surprise, the driver stopped and let me get off the bus.” People couldn’t stop laughing whenever I shared this story.

Time flies and this is my last year teaching in HKIS. I treat HKIS as my second home since I spend most of my time here. After my retirement, I will work as a volunteer in the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences. My new job is to help doctors translate their medical articles from English to Chinese so that more news from the medical world can reach the public.