Sunny-side up

It started off as a Bad Day. I woke up with my left eye all puffy and sore, making me feel even more tired than usual at 6am. It must be the weather, I tell myself, the intense humidity and heavy pollution these past couple of days.

The foggy weather slowed my ferry journey down quite a bit and as a result, i was two minutes late. It was two minutes too many and i got tattled on - by the office staff. There are school staff members posted at every single door who monitor who moves in and out. For some reason, i'm on their watchlist and have been since Day One. I've been trying to understand where this all stems from. I wonder if i'm not too far off by assuming that because i'm not "100% pure Hong Kong Chinese" people take offence to it. There are 2 NETs (Native English Teacher) here also but they keep to themselves and from what i can see nobody tries to include them - or vice versa. I speak to one on a regular occasion (he's also a fellow Canuck) and he's leaving after this year, unable to take the heavy top-down management and inflexible ways of the Hong Kong Government School System.

Although this is an EMI (English Medium of Instruction) school, outside the classroom walls, Cantonese is by far the dominant language. Fortunately i can hold a decent conversation in my mother tongue. Unfortunately i cannot read or write and it's pretty obvious from my accent i'm not exactly a local girl. Could it also be because nobody can actually pronounce my name (Thornington, not Wong i mean) properly and so in the spirit of saving face, avoid me altogether?

There has been a gradual wall building between a lot of the teachers in my staff room and myself, and i'm thankful i only have 5 days left here. I cannot deny that i could be partly to blame by isolating myself to a small group of people here with whom i converse with, even if only at a minimal level. I just don't have much to say to the stuffy ones who are so arrogant and cast evil glances and snicker behind their hands at the younger teachers for reasons i don't comprehend or even care to know.

My mentor, although sometimes mentions these unfortunate circumstance to me, advises me to just keep my head down, obey the rules and only then i can go unnoticed and coast along. Hmm, seems i am not so good at conforming to these rules. I am not the type to just 'give in' and let it wash over me, but i figure i do not want to end my Teaching Practice on a really bad foot. I'll pick my battles elsewhere to win the war.

Saying that, behind every cloud there is a silver lining. After being in a foul mood all morning, i went into my classroom hoping for a well-behaved class and totally out of the blue, was given a gift. Ken (see pic) presented me with a bookmark with a note written on the back. He thanked me for being a good teacher, expressed how grateful he was for my efforts in making each lesson interesting and related to other IH (Integrated Humanities, subject i'm teaching) themes and how appreciative he feels at the opportunity to learn "words which are commonly used in America or U.K". What a nice gesture! He has no idea how much i needed that pick-me-up.

That, and being able to vent publicly here, makes things more than alright. It's all worth it when they (my boys) try, when they show they care and when they are eager and anxiously anticipating your next lesson. Maybe it's a bit like having your own children who are appreciative and grateful for the effort, however little, that was put into their learning. I think us teachers could and should learn from that.