Teacher Spotlight: Bas Oomen

Interview by Maki Flauta

Mr Bas Oomen is one of RCHK’s newest arrivals to the Individuals and Societies department. Originally from the Netherlands, Mr Oomen obtained a teaching degree after working in corporate business for a few years. He now teaches IBDP Economics and has three children, two of whom study at RCHK!

Students of Mr Oomen may already be familiar with his cheerful disposition and approachable nature, but is there more to him than meets the eye? We asked him some questions to find out…

Mr Oomen posing with the artwork on his classroom whiteboard, courtesy of his daughters. 

(Photo by Maki Flauta)

What is the best and worst thing about being a teacher?

I think it’s great to see the relationships between students and teachers grow, as well as getting to see students develop. If within a year, or a few years, you can really see a student growing and changing, then that, for me, is the best thing about being a teacher. 

The worst thing, I think, is sometimes as a teacher, you want to do more. Obviously, there’s limited time you have with students and there’s limited time you have on a particular topic, so I think that’s the biggest challenge, giving as much feedback to students as you can for them to progress. Also, sometimes, you’re teaching a very interesting or challenging topic that you want to spend more time on but you need to cover the whole syllabus or you have certain objectives in particular year groups that you need to fulfil within the time frame, so you have to move on.

What’s your most memorable memory at RCHK so far?

I’d say I have two. One was the International Evening. It was really nice to see the diversity and so many nationalities of people. The students performing were really fun to see. It gave me a different view of RCHK as well because I mostly just go to the secondary section, to my particular floor and I often see the same students and teachers. Whereas with the event I got to see students from the whole school.

The second would be all the house events. It’s just really nice to see everyone together and the competitiveness, to a degree, so I’ve really enjoyed those so far.

What would your ideal weekend be like?

Definitely somewhere outdoors. It would either be in a beach or a country park in Sai Kung, where my family and I live. We’d probably go to the country park or go on a hike, something with the family. I think somewhere in that there would have to be a coffee place, I really have a soft spot for coffee places, I think it’s just nice to hang out and spend some time there. So it would be a weird combination of the outdoors and also some time inside. It also wouldn’t be too fast-paced. An ideal weekend is slowed down and just spending time with family.

What’s your favourite place in Hong Kong?

Wow! Favourite place. I have two, and it’s quite strange in a way because they’re polar opposites. One would be this beach in Sai Kung country park but not a lot of people go there or know about it, so if I say it now, it’s going to be busier; I don’t want that to happen. It’s a beach called Pak Lap [Wan] and it’s relatively accessible. It’s just that sometimes when you’re there, it is as if you’re on a beach in Thailand. It has a really nice bay, with rocks and mountains around and it’s close to where we live. I’ve been there a lot of times and just go, “Okay this is just perfect. I could spend hours here.”

But on the other hand, we sometimes go back to Hong Kong Island or even TST. It’s just the busy-ness and the vibe that goes around that I, every now and then, really like. Living in Sai Kung now where it’s really quiet, sometimes it’s so nice in Hong Kong to be able to go into the busy-ness and be part of the vibrance of the city.

Which DP economics unit do you enjoy teaching the least?

Well, there’s no bad unit in economics, obviously. All the units are good. But for microeconomics, at one point you go into market failure and you go quite in-depth into average costs, marginal costs, total costs, fixed costs and all those things. For me, although this isn’t a negative thing, it goes very close to Business, which is good because there is a correlation, but you move a little bit away from Economics. I think that makes it more challenging for students to grasp the topic which makes it more difficult, I guess, to teach, because you want to get links back into economics.

What are your biggest pet peeves?

I had one of my daughters answer that and she said ‘screaming’. Or just, I think, a lack of understanding. I’m sensitive to that. I’m sensitive if people don’t try to listen or understand other people. 

Another pet peeve is appreciation, when people are complaining about things I don’t think they should be complaining about, although I understand why people do it. I do it sometimes as well. There are days where something goes wrong, some minor thing that you complain about, but I tend to quickly shift back to the bigger picture and ask myself, “Is it really that big of a deal?”

So when people make a big deal out of something that is, I think, not, especially if you have so many good things going for you that you can appreciate, then yeah, sometimes that might annoy me.

What are the top three things on your bucket list?

Oh! I don’t have a bucket list because I think it is difficult to think with the mindset of “Oh that will make me happy!” and if you get it you should be happy, and if you don’t it’s not fulfilling.

But what would I still want to do? Oh, I want to visit a Formula 1 race, anywhere in the world! I would love to be at a Formula 1 race, I’m quite passionate about it. If I stick to sports, I do want to go to a big derby in football, I want to go to either Barcelona or Real Madrid or maybe a big game in South America, where everyone’s really passionate and excited.

I also want to learn Spanish. I think it’s just a beautiful language. And obviously growing up in Europe, I knew Dutch, and obviously, English was mandatory in secondary school, and then I chose to learn French and German, so I think Spanish is just something that I haven’t gotten to yet. But it is limited in a way, because they’re all European languages, so I should actually say Chinese. But it’s just so difficult, plus I think I can already pick up Spanish words because of the knowledge I have from other European languages, so I might be making it easier on myself.  

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

I’ll definitely still be teaching. I definitely still see myself teaching in ten years but I want to see some progression. Either I’m doing something else as well inside the school, so I’d have a different responsibility other than just being a teacher. Maybe I’ll try to pursue further education, get a masters, or eventually teach in a university.

It’s either going to be an extension within a school setting or developing myself more in the subject to see what else I can do with that.

Ultimately, though, I just hope I’m healthy, and I hope I’m happy with what I’m doing.