Sunday, July 28, 2013

So Why So Few Posts? Blogging in Hong Kong Vs. Spain

Now that summer has started and presumably I'm on holiday, the biggest question I think is "Why so few posts?" There are two major reasons for this.

1. Summer is the busiest time of year for an English tutor.

So, my official job is an English Tutor. Which means, I don't teach for an official school, but rather a center which sends me out to different places to teach. On the bright side, I get to see a lot of Hong Kong, but the downside means, when regular teachers are taking their holidays, I'm working non-stop! Many of my students are preparing for school entrance interviews and for the next school year. So I have a lot of summer students who want to improve their English. I've already said goodbye to one student who is moving to Beijing to attend the Beijing International School and another is leaving next week for Canada, where he'll attend high school. My schedule currently really is quite nuts, some days I teach 9 classes, and with travel can put me at over 12 hours of work. So, it doesn't leave a whole lot of time to do the things I need to do like grocery shopping, planning lessons, practicing voice, going to the gym and of course, blogging.

In Spain, the easiest time was summer. So I had a lot of time to blog and write about my experiences. But then again, life in Spain is just more relaxed than life in Hong Kong.


2. Separation of local vs. expat.

 When I lived in Spain, I lived with a local family and learned a lot about local customs and culture. I spoke the language, so I could go to local places and survive. Here in Hong Kong, I live in a flatshare with pretty much exclusively non-locals(one of my flatmates is from here but lived in Canada for many years so acts typically Western). I don't interact with locals outside of work(my students!). The most local places I go are places that still have menus in English, and all the bars I go to are fashioned after a Western pub. I don't speak any Cantonese, and any that I have tried to speak goes pretty much misunderstood. In short, I don't get a whole lot of exposure to local culture, so don't have as much insight as I did in Spain.

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