The Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HAAL), of which I am a past President, gave me a farewell dinner on June 3. This was supposed to be a surprise but word leaked out. I was delighted to see that old friends and many former students had turned-up, some all the way from Macau. I am touched. HAAL, in its 25 year history, had done no farewell on this scale, so I thank Icy Lee, Emily Lui and the HAAL Committee for arranging the dinner.
Seated along with me are John Milton (from HKUST), John Flowerdew (from City University), Andy Kirkpatrick (from HKIED), Kim Wilhelm (from the University of Macau) Joanna Radwanska-Williams (from Macau Polytechnic) and Lynne Flowerdew (from HKUST), with her back to the camera.
Later, former students and friends got up to say a few words about me. Now, I take this opportunity to say a few words about them!
This is Emily Lui. When she was a first year undergrad, I chose her to help me in transcribing some interviews for my research. She then became an MPhil student and my supervisee. At the same time, she was my research assistant and the teaching assistant of the three courses I taught. For her RA work, Emily compiled an e-mail list of all the English and applied linguistics staff and graduate students at Hong Kong universities and other institutions, and began to send out invitations for HAAL events. Magically, we saw attendance at HAAL events grow to fill every seat at these events. Membership soared.
Emily attended the 2007 TESOL Convention in Seattle with me, where she made her first presentation at an international conference. She did it with grace, poise, and confidence. She made an equally impressive presentation at the Second Language Writing Symposium in Nagoya, Japan, before a large audience.
I wanted Emily to go on for a PhD in the USA and at least teach at tertiary level. But, from the start, she was determined to teach in a secondary school and that's what she does today. She thinks I am disappointed with her career choice, but I am not. Hong Kong secondary schools, too, need good English teachers.
Allen Ho, like Emily, was my student as an undergrad who went onto do an MPhil under my supervision. He was also my research assistant and the teaching assistant for a number of courses I taught. Later, he worked as a teaching assistant in the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program which I supervised, and then joined the English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) of the Chinese University as an instructor. A popular and brilliant teacher, he soon won the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Exemplary Teaching, probably the youngest recipient of this honor.
I would have been happy to see Allen pursue a PhD in the USA, which has excellent programs at Purdue and Georgia State for writing research (and where I have friends on the faculty). But, Allen wishes to remain in Hong Kong and is now pursuing a doctorate at the Chinese University's Faculty of Education under Icy Lee's supervision. With Icy, Allen is in good hands.
In the MPhil class of 2002, (my favorite), Meedy Nugraha, being from Indonesia, was the only international student. She blended quite well and was a popular student. I co-supervised her thesis. She returned to teach in Surabaya, her home town, but visited us in Hong Kong a number of times. Then, she obtained a teaching position at a VTC in Hong Kong and after a few years of stressful teaching there, became an instructor at the ELTU of the Chinese University. I tell her that she is a winner; she not only completed an MPhil successfully but also returned to Hong Kong on her own terms and obtained the job she wanted.
Meedy referred to the "Grad school - Some people never learn" cartoon (by Matt Groening) which I would distribute to my thesis supervisees. (The cartoon can be found at another posting of this blog.)
Jane Lung was the class monitor, in 1996 I believe, of the only postgraduate diploma course I taught. Since then, she has kept in touch with me, seeking my advice as she went onto complete two Masters degrees and a PhD. She spent most of her time at City University but would visit me regularly at CUHK to discuss her studies and other issues. She always brought fresh flowers or a potted plant, so my office was a pleasant place to work in. Jane worked for a while in the WAC program while completeing a doctorate at the City University. I was the external examiner of her dissertation. Jane is now an associate professor at the Macau Polytechnic, another success story.
Gavin Bei is probably the most brilliant graduate students we've had in many years. Gavin was first admitted to to our MA program, and quickly transferred to the MPhil (for a research degree) and then to the PhD. A few weeks ago, he successfully defended his thesis at a session which I chaired. Gavin has also been my research assistant and a teaching assistant in one of my courses.
Gavin recalled an interesting anecdote which I'll describe here, because it represents my "don't take life too seriously" personality well. When Gavin, who is from the Mainland, was informed that he would be interviewed by telephone for admission to the MA program, he had visited the web site of the program, noted the rather lengthy list of "suggested readings" and, with much effort (findings these texts on the Mainland is never easy), read as many of them as possible in preparation for the interview. He was ready for a weighty applied linguistics question from me, because I was the Director of the program at that time. But all I asked was what was meant by the term "overseas returned Chinese" because Gavin had mentioned in his application that his father held this status. Typical of me, more curious about personal than academic matters!
Come to think of it, I haven't asked many "academic" questions at the hundreds of admission interviews I've conducted. Instead, the questions have been about the applicants' reading habits, their day-to-day interactions with English, and, in the case of teachers, how they manage to survive Hong Kong's crazy school system.
Here are the current committee members of HAAL. Lixun, Icy, and Jon were committee members during my time as President. Andy Gao, Emily, and Mable joined later. As volunteers, they do an outstanding job to promote applied linguistics in Hong Kong.
Former students at the farewell. Kate Lee did the editing, adding the flourishes! Joanna, who also taught many of these students and also worked with me in the WAC program, can be seen in the center.
Icy Lee read a poem she had composed, which I've included in a previous post. HAAL also presented me with a memento, which had these touching lines:
We think of the effective teachers
we have had over the years with a sense of recognition
but those who have touched our humanity
we remember with a deep sense of gratitude.
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