By Ava Wong

Ever dreamt of a chance to teach your teachers? 

Teaching teachers is a RCHK student-founded club in which teachers can sign up to take free weekly lessons in Cantonese, Mahjong, or both. The teachers are taught by student volunteers with a high enough fluency or skill set in Cantonese or Mahjong. The Teaching Teachers initiative started in the academic year of 2020-2021, and is running this academic year as well.

The activity was founded by Serena Ng, a Year 12 student. The activity is supervised by Secondary Chinese teacher Crystal Chan. 

Ng stated that Teaching Teachers had the intention of strengthening and creating unique connections and bonds between RCHK staff and students, and in doing so, bringing the school community together. 

According to Ng, “Another objective I had in mind was to provide RCHK staff with valuable opportunities to learn Cantonese so they would be able to better communicate in the local community.” Learning Cantonese in Hong Kong will give the staff members a deeper understanding and view of Hong Kong culture. Languages also shape how we think, hence the saying: ‘having a second language is like having a second soul’.”

The meetings take place on zoom every week, or at school if the staff members request in-person lessons. Student volunteers prepare organised slides tailored to each staff members’ needs.

Though the administrative process in Teaching Teachers was a difficult one due to the process of assigning students to each staff member based on everyone’s needs and preferences, Ng said she is learning to form a better system for better assignments in the future. Currently, she uses Google Sheets to map out the availability of students and teachers, and assigns staff and students based on their availability. 

Despite these challenges, she found it extremely rewarding to see the staff members develop their Cantonese skills and learn to communicate more effectively. It is knowing that Teaching Teachers has the power to positively impact the RCHK community, both students and staff, that inspires Ng to continue this activity. 

Student volunteer Anastasia Yu from Year 10 stated: “The experience is truly rewarding as not only will we be able to share our knowledge about our culture to others in the RCHK community, but also get to know more about the language ourselves. For example I didn’t know Cantonese pinyin beforehand, however it is essential in teaching the ‘students’ correct pronunciation, therefore I learnt it in the process of preparing and teaching the content.”

Now in its second year, Ng hopes that the Teaching Teachers initiative will continue into future years, most likely as a legacy project.