[3 Jan] It is the first happy news from the English Department in 2023 that my article on our "To Be Continued" journey last school year is accepted and published by a UK-based Magazine "Word Matters" under the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama. The article reports the school theme of school year 2021-2022 - "To Be Continued" and the related activities held by the English Department. Many QR codes are included to allow readers to experience students' creative work and our exciting video productions. You may read the full article here and re-experience our learning journey, as well as the journey of our three young heroes in Forgottenland! Happy reading and happy 2023! Dr Lee |
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[2 Dec] Just before the pandemic began, I was very fortunate to go on a holiday trip with my family to Kagoshima, Japan. As I do not go abroad often, I decided to make the most of my opportunity. I told myself, “I must try something new at Kagoshima. I should experience something that I would never be able to in Hong Kong – ideally, something that would put me out of my comfort zone, so I could expand my horizons and challenge my limits.” This mentality set the stage for one of the most memorable moments of the entire holiday: experiencing a Japanese-style hot sand bath! We arrived at the Ibusuki Natural Sand Bath Centre at the beautiful seaside of Ibusuki, a city within the Kagoshima Prefecture. We all changed to traditional Japanese robes (also known as ‘kimonos’). Next, we walked down to the beach, where many hot springs naturally formed. We then walked to our designated sand baths on our sandals – but even with the sandals on, my feet felt scorching hot already! I tried hard to keep my feet from touching the sand for too long, resulting in a chicken-like dance! My parents, who had thicker skin on their feet and didn’t feel the heat as much, couldn’t stop laughing at me! Next, I had to lie down completely on the hot sand bath with my robes on, whilst attendants used shovels to ‘bury’ me in the scorching hot sands! Only my head and neck were not buried. The moment the sand touched me through the robes, I felt a stinging sensation from front to back, like a thousand needles piercing my skin! My heart was pounding in my chest – I panicked and almost shouted out from the pain. I wanted to stop and leave the bath immediately. However, at this torturous moment, I reminded myself of my mission to challenge my limits – so I gritted my teeth and continued the agonizing treatment. Strangely enough, a few minutes later, my body did something amazing. It adapted to the heat! I could feel the pain gradually subside, and it was even replaced by a comfortable, soothing sensation. My body started to relax, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Time’s up!” said the attendant. I slowly opened my eyes – I didn’t even realize I had fallen asleep! The ten minutes in the sand had flown by. The hot sand bath ended up as a very relaxing experience, and looking back, it taught me a good lesson of perseverance. I was wowed by how relaxing the sand bath felt in the end. I was also quite proud of myself for not being a quitter – if I had jumped up and quit at the first moment of pain, I would never have understood nor experienced how soothing the sand bath could be. Boys, have you ever experienced a moment where you wanted to quit at the start, but you held on, and in the end, you were satisfyingly rewarded?
[11 Nov] "Ying Wa 204, Thanks to you ALL!"
What a happy day today for our school's 204th anniversary that our department's video production "Happy Ying Wa 204!" was announced as the WINNER in the Popular Vote! 753 students cast their votes for the six videos made by different departments and the English Department's production received 30.1% of the votes as the most popular video, with videos from the Chinese and General Studies Departments recognized as the second (21.2%) as the third (19.7%) respectively. Since the start of this birthday video traditional over a decade ago, this is our third time winning the Popular Vote with the first two times being for Ying Wa 201 and 202. We are grateful that our video productions have been gaining a lot of support and attention particularly in recent years. One very special thing about our Happy Ying Wa 204 project this year is that we also produced an "extended" video displaying more clips from teachers and students, plus bloopers! That clip was well enjoyed by the boys too! And I believe that both clips contributed tremendously to the festive and fun-filled atmosphere in the past week. I would love to thank once again all our English teachers and our boys who submitted their Ying Wa 204 clips for our consideration, regardless of whether they were finally selected for one of the clips. All their participation and inspiration have enhanced the quality of these videos for sure. I am already looking forward to Ying Wa 205! ^o^ Dr H C Lee P.S. Revisit these wonderful videos below: Happy Ying Wa 204! YW204 Extended
[5 Oct] Our "Project WaOW!" Sharing Series brings you another episode! This time, Mr Richard is sharing with you his WOW moments in life.
Again, here are two questions for your thoughts and comments (he elaborates on these questions too in the video). You are invited to respond to at least one of them in the comment box below: 1. There are 3 WOW moments in this sharing. Which of them do you think is the biggest one and why? 2. Please share with us your WOW moment in life where you needed to overcome some kind of fear/challenge. We look forward to reading your interesting and WOW thoughts on this! Dr H C Lee
[8 Sept] "Project WaOW!" as our Diverse Learning Experiences theme this year has kicked off! We will invite different teachers and students to share with us their WOW experiences which should be full of surprises and unexpected outcomes.
As our first sharing, I have made a video about my very unusual experience in training a group for the Speech Festival some time ago. Watch the video below and afterwards, try responding to one or both of these questions: 1. There are 4 WOWs in this sharing. Which of them do you think is the biggest one and why? 2. Beside "be prepared", what other things can we learn from this experience? Put your thoughts in the comment box below! We look forward to seeing your interesting thoughts on this! Dr H C Lee
[17 Aug] Thank you for all of your great support, YWPS boys! The saga "To Be Continued..." (TBC) has concluded with a beautiful production of a professionally illustrated book, with the final section dedicated to the winning entries of "Chapter X" written by our P.4-6 boys as inspired by TBC. We hope you, YWPS boys, will value the book as part of your creative reading journey you have had in this very special school year.
Missing the movie version? Please click the links below to revisit the different animated episodes plus readers' responses to the interactive questions: Prologue + Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Part I Chapter 8 Part II As a bonus, we have invited our Reading Championship winners this year to share with us their valuable reading tips in the following video. They also talk about their critical views on the "To Be Continued..." series. Please enjoy it!
[4 Aug] More good news from our boys! We sent out a dozen videos to enter the Hong Kong Primary Schools “Multicultural KOL 2-minute video Competition” (Organized by Caritas Wu Cheng-chung Secondary School) with the theme of "Embracing Cultural Diversity" and we are glad to have earned these brilliant results:
First runner-up – Lincoln Powell 4E Second runner-up – Max Sze 6B The Best Cultural Inheritance Award – Aldon So 4A We attended their ceremony on 3 Aug and were glad to receive the certificates and the generous book coupons. Please enjoy their lovely presentations below and embrace different cultures! [22 Jul] Great news from our two wonderful Debate Teams in the Hong Kong Secondary Schools Debating Competition! We are awarded as follows:
Competition: Hong Kong Secondary Schools Debating Competition Primary Section: Grand Finals Winners 🏆, 29 Jun 2022, (against Fukien Affiliated Primary School) Anthony Pan 6D Randolph Cheng 6E Ethan Wu 6E Austin Poon 6D Best Speaker👑: Randolph Cheng 6E Primary Section: Grand Finals Winners 🏆, 22 Jul 2022, (against HKTA Wun Tsuen School) Roderick Yuen 5A Leung Kwan Yat 6B Chow Nok Hei 6C Sky Lau 6C Best Speaker👑: Leung Kwan Yat 6B Congratulations to our boys and their debate coach Mr Thomas Ching! [20 Jul] Finally, the second part of the eighth chapter of "To Be Continued..." is released! The Old Wise Man explains everything to Bong here and the battle is over. The myth is clarified in general. Nobody could guess that Bong is given a new role in the end. The master's plan is perfectly complete...or is it? There are certainly still unanswered questions after watching this chapter. But, not all questions should be explicitly answered in a story. There are many things that readers should explore and come up with their own theories and ideas, because this series is written for the sake of being intriguing, and being "never-ending". After all, this story is titled "To Be Continued..." for a reason. Watch this episode again below: Now boys, the final question time. Here are two thoughtful questions for you. Feel free to answer one or both of them:
1. Give us ONE unanswered question after watching this final episode and your own answer of it. 2. Do you think the Old Wise Man has made the wisest choice to live a normal life and pass his position to Bong? [19 Jul] Hong Kong Budding Poets (English) Award (HKBPA) 2021/22, the most prestigious poetry prize for students of Hong Kong, released their lists of awardees earlier and to our delight, four of our talented poets made it into the shortlist with the following awards: Primary Section Gold Prize – Ambrose Wong 6D Silver Prize – Roderick Yuen 5A Honourable Mention – Horace Chan 6A Honourable Mention – Edgar Tsang 6B Poet of the School – Ambrose Wong 6D The awarded poems above will be published in the anthology of HKBPA. This honour is particularly precious as it is already 4 years ago (2018) that we last had an awardee in this contest and 10 year ago (2012) that we had multi-awardees there! You may read the awarded pieces here, along with the pieces previously awarded. An online award ceremony was held this evening to honour all the prize-winners. Ambrose Wong, being the Gold Award recipient, was invited to perform his poem, "An Amazing Party", too.
Let's congratulate our budding poets and we hope more and more outstanding writers will be discovered in the near future. Dr H C Lee |
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