Students may enjoy reading this.  To add authenticity, it is very loosely based on the truth, but nonetheless remains fictional.

Friday, 9^th March 2012 

I got up at 5:45 when the alarm went off. Everybody was asleep.  It’s still very dark in the mornings.  I bumped into the door on my way to the shower.  I had a shave, brushed my teeth, had a shower and put on my clothes.  The water was cold as I had forgotten to put on the heater.  Still it meant my shower was quick and healthy!

By the time I had finished my wife was awake and making me my breakfast.  I had a nice cup of coffee and ate some cereal with fruit.  I went to wake my daughter up, but she was not feeling well and had a temperature so I decided she shouldn’t go to school.  I left the house at 6:45.  I must remember to ring the school bus and the school to tell them that my daughter does not need to be picked up this morning.

Outside, it was raining and the village was covered in clouds.  It looked like a scene from the moview 'The land that time had forgotten'. I wondered if dinosaurs might lean over at any moment and say ‘hello’ to me.   I carefully walked down the path as it was slippery and I didn’t want to fall.  I also kept my eyes open for snakes as I didn’t want to accidently stand on one.  I don’t often see snakes but when I do, it is early in the morning and they are slithering across the path!

As I walked down the path, I saw my friend Joe walking with his big red motorbike.  He has a Yamaha 650cc bike and it is very noisy.  He told me he was going to see his family in the Philippines this weekend.  I thought about how nice and hot it would be there!  I waited at the bus stop with a group of people.  Joe raced past on his bike and we waved to each other.  I caught a minibus to Choi Hung.  Today, everybody had their umbrellas up as it was raining.  Fortunately, it was not raining very hard. There was a group of school children waiting for their school buses with their domestics. I said hello to my friend from next door and we chatted about the weather.  He told me he had asked the landlord to cut the grass beside the path. 

After about 5 minutes the minibus arrived.  Sometimes the minibus doesn’t have an octopus reader, so I have to pay $5 cash.  The windscreen wipers were going and were making a strange sort of squeaky noise.  In the background the driver was playing Chinese Opera.  Everybody was asleep or playing with their smart phones.  I yawned and thought about my lessons. I hoped the students would enjoy them and learn something new.

Soon we arrived at the Choi Hung MTR.  We all got off and I had to decide if I would get the MTR or take a taxi.  I decided I had plenty of time, so I walked down to the MTR.  I bought a South China Morning Post.  I don’t know why I bother as I never have time to read a newspaper.  I jumped on the MTR train and managed to get a seat as this one started at Choi Hung.  Soon the train was full of people.  Loads of people got on at Kowloon Tong and I gave my seat up to an elderly lady.

Twenty minutes later, I was at Yaumati MTR.  I was almost the only person on the train as it’s the last stop. I decided not to catch the 34M minibus, but to walk instead.  The rain had stopped and I fancied some exercise.  Yaumati is famous for its fruit and vegetable market and I love the hustle and bustle of the early morning.

Old men sat in the cafes eating breakfast and drinking milk tea.  I crossed the road and headed towards the market. People were very busy lifting crates of fruit and vegetables into vans. I weaved in and out of the people trying to avoid the trolleys laden with boxes of fruit and vegetables.  I am always amazed at how strong the people are.  People have been doing this every day for seventy years.  After walking past Shanghai Street and Reclamation Street, I took the overpass up over the freeway.  I was a bit puffed out at the top and watched the cars and trucks on the freeway as I got my breath back.  After I crossed the freeway, I walked through the park. 

Groups of elderly people were practicing Tai Chi in the park and a couple of students ran past me.  An old lady with a dog walked past and some old people read newspapers on the park benches. I wondered if I would ever find time to learn Tai Chi and if it really was slowed down Kung Fu?   I crossed the road and walked along to the fruit shop opposite McDonalds.  I bought some bananas and apples to eat during the day.  Actually the apples and oranges usually last all week.  There were lots of students with their mums and dads or amahs.

Saturday, 10^th March 2012 

I love Saturdays.  No need to get up at 5:45.  Today the alarm went off at 8:00.  I got up and wandered to the kitchen.  Everyone else was still asleep.  My wife works all week, so she was tired.  Saturday and Sunday are spent cleaning and cooking so I like her to sleep in on Saturday morning.  I made myself a nice cup of coffee and had some toast with butter and marmalade.  Yum! 

After getting ready, I grabbed my music and headed off for the MTR.  Saturday is choir practice, so I needed to head into Central.  I was running a bit late, so I caught a taxi to Choi Hung.  I gave Mrs Wong a lift as she was also waiting at the bus stop.  Sometimes she looks after my daughter and teaches her Cantonese.  She went off to the market in Choi Hung and I got on the MTR and headed for Central.  On the way, I read my emails and listened to the songs I am singing in the choir.

At Central, I walked through Statute Square.  A group of men and women were practicing martial arts with swords.  They looked very graceful.  A few tourists were taking photos.  I walked up the hill to St John’s Cathedral and arrived in time for Choir practice.  I could hear the pianist practicing 'Moi Li Hua'.  It sounded very beautiful.  We sang for 2 hours.  At the end, Bill and I walked down to Central to go and see the Taylor, Mr. Kwok.  He was making us Chinese jackets with red dragons on them.  I’d put on weight, so he was making it a bit bigger.  After that, I decided to catch the ferry to TST and have Dim Sum in Kowloon.  I enjoy Dim Sum because I have fun choosing things to eat.  I have to do lots of pointing and sometimes I don’t get what I expect, but I don’t mind.

I went to Tom Lee in TST to get some new strings for my guitar and look at the clarinets.  I was thinking of buying a clarinet for my daughter.  For me really, but maybe she would enjoy playing.  Anyway, I’m just looking.  I did some work when I got home and helped lizzy with her piano.  She had been to ballet today and showed me her new routine.  Some new furniture arrived in the afternoon.  Where will we put it?

Tonight we are going to the theatre.  We are going to see a ballet called the ‘Nutcraker’.  My daughter is very excited.  The ballet is about some toys that come to life.  We decide to get a taxi into TST as my wife is all dressed up and doesn’t like walking far in her high heels.  I don’t blame her as it must be painful.  After the ballet we went out for a meal.  My daughter likes to listen to the band and dance with mum.

Sunday, 11^th March 2012 

Today we have to sort out stuff.  After going to church in Sai Kung, my daughter had a happy meal at McDonalds and we caught the minibus home.  We have some new furniture that arrived yesterday, so I need to get rid of the old furniture and throw out some things we no longer need.  I have an old desk and a couple of old bookcases that a friend gave me, so I’ll take them down to the village dump.  The old man in the village saw me and liked them.  He took them away.  Maybe he will use them in his house or fix them up and sell them? Either way, I’m glad they have not gone to waste!

After lunch, my daughter and I went bike riding.  She likes to ride her bike at the weekend.  I like to get a bit of exercise.  Unfortunately it has been raining a lot, but for the moment it had stopped.  Soon it will be too hot, so we took advantage of the nice weather.  My daughter and I saw a couple of interesting bugs.  She used to be a bit scared of them, but now she is used to them and finds them interesting.  We walked along the Wilson Trail and I helped my daughter carry her bike up and down any steps we found.  She likes to look at the fish in the pond.  Some of them are very big.

We saw the men who hunt the wild pigs.  They were carrying guns and wearing camouflage jackets.  I thought they were very brave as the wild pigs or boars as they are called are very big.  My neighbour tells me that they taste very nice, but I have never eaten them.  I have seen them a few times.  One time I even saw one in the graveyard next to the house.  I don’t know who was more shocked, the boar or me.  Usually I only see cats and village dogs.  I always carry a walking stick with me in case the dogs are unfriendly.  Usually they are fine and just run past me waging their tails. 

Tonight I took the rubbish down to the bins.  On the way back I saw a huge snake in the drain.  It was very beautiful, but I knew it was also very dangerous.  I looked it up on the internet, and it was a ‘Greater Banded Krait’.  During the daytime they sleep, but at night they are very active hunting frogs and rats.   They are one of the snakes in Hong Kong that can kill you quite quickly if you don’t get medical help and they are quite aggressive.  The King Cobra is the most dangerous snake in Hong Kong, but I have never seen one of them!  I looked at it from the path and walked on home.  Spring and Autumn when it is raining are the most likely times to see snakes as they are either coming out or going in to hibernation and the rain means there is lots of food for them.

Don Holdaway’s 500 High Frequency Words

The link below is a list put together by Don Holdaway (The most famous proponent of 'shared reading'.) of the top 400 most frequently used words in English.  These are referred to in reading as High Frequency Words (HFW).  Knowledge of these words, alongside phonic decoding skills, provides the foundations for reading.  A good knowledge of these words generally indicates a developing fluency in reading, although a child is unlikely to be able to read anything except really simple texts without decoding ability.   Many, but unfortunately not all, of these words are actually decodable.  Your child may well be decoding them although they often appear to have been memorised as 'sight' words. 

If you click on the headings of each group of ten words, you will hear an audio recording of the words.  See if your child can read them and, if not, play the recordings to your child and see if they can repeat them to you correctly.  You may like to put them into suitable sentences to contextualise them.  For example, "It is a cat.", "I like oranges.", "He put the apple in the bowl."  Take your time as there are a lot of words!

http://www.ycps.edu.hk/subject/eng/hfw.htm

Classroom Language

Shortly, I will be posting examples of the typical language used by native English teachers in their classrooms.  Some useful student responses and question forms have also been provided.  You may find it helpful to listen to these phrases with your child, to translate them into Cantonese or Putonghua, and help them to understand their meaning.  This will increase their confidence when responding in English in a classroom setting.

 Part 1

https://web504.opentransfer.com/webshell4/actions.php?m=dir&f=%2Fycps%2Fphrases

First, www.starfall.com provides a wonderful opportunity to encourage your child to read simple stories and play games designed to improve their phonics skills.    Phonics skills are an extemely important part of reading and develop your child's ability to decipher the "code" that is reading in a phonetic language such as English.

Second, http://www.bbc.co.uk/children/ provides a pathway into the wonderful resources available for children on the BBC.  Spend some time with your child navigating around the BBC and help you child to pick up English as quickly as mine is picking up Cantonese in a P1 class in Hong Kong.  It's all about exposure to language within a child's reach, what the educationalist and linguist Krashen calls 'comprehensible input'!

Third, http://pbskids.org/ provides a pathway into the wonderful resources available for children on the US public broadcasting networks.  Again spend some time with your child navigating around PBS for children and most of all, make sure you both enjoy the experience.  Children learn so much faster and better when they are having fun! Also it's so much easier for us parents!