EMB seminar

Please excuse me for my stereotype—I really think English teachers, like invisible men, are a mutated breed of human beings. They were originated from Planet G4690382740 and emigrated to Planet Earth when Hong Kong was colonized under the British rule... (I was lost in my free association.)

Today afternoon, I took a half-day official leave and went to Ngau Chi Wan to attend a seminar about the new senior secondary curriculum for English Language. The auditorium was crammed with English teachers socializing with each other and discussing educational issues. They were so teacher-like, to be accurate, English-teacher-like.

I took my medicine on bus, so I felt a bit dizzy. When the presenter was reading out his PowerPoint slides word by word, I started to lose myself in the echoes of his beautifully accented, hypnotizing voice. In a struggle to keep myself awake, my head was rocking back and forth. I tried to keep my movement delicate and natural so that nobody would notice. After all, everybody was so attentive and they wouldn’t care to pay attention to a dozing small potato.

My muscle was losing strength. It seemed that I could no longer support my body. My breath was slowing down and my eyes could no longer focus. I thought I saw a lovely dog and cheesecake…

BBAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

Without warning, I banged my head against the book in front of me.

SHXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXT!

I quickly gathered myself to my original position and acted as normally as possible. Okok, don't panic, nothing really happened…

“I will upload this PowerPoint to our website. The website address is...”

Shall I send his remark to Dilbert.com? This may win the star quote of the week (if there is one).

So, that' s the first part of the seminar.

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After the break, a big potato from City University shared her teaching ideas with us. I was expecting some innovative ideas but it turned out to be another Dilbert story.

Did any of these admin people know the art of giving a presentation? With two PowerPoint slides consisting of a few words, the presenter could keep babbling for more than half an hour without getting to the main points.

Everybody was as attentive and interested as usual. It confirmed my assumption that they belong to the same spices.

“That's it for my part, thank you.”

That's it? I thought she had been making the introduction...

So that's it. That' s my afternoon here in Ngau Chi Wan.

Live report by Biscuit.

(P.S. Yes, I wrote this during the seminar. It kept my brain working and I looked more professional as I was *jotting down notes*.)