Anecdotal Teaching Life (30.8.2019)

30 August 2019       Getting ready

This is the last week of preparation: a week full of workshops and teaching planning.

I would say I'm ready for delivering the classes, but on the other hand feel under-prepared, because I don't have full control of what I teach. It feels like a double-edge sword to me: having someone prepared everything for me means more time to explore my own stuff -- writing papers and preparing for research/ monograph proposals. At the same time, it seems to me that it goes away from what I want to do -- even if it's just for a moment -- take control of my own subjects.

I cannot ask for more at this stage, and it couldn't be better now. Perhaps, let me grow in this place and let the events lead me to where I want to be.

(Nothing much going on with social life here, but I had the luck to have lunch with Wayne on Monday. The lunch in the picture was served in a cafe near the College. Both the carbonara and the Americano tasted good.)

Anecdotal Teaching Life (23.8.2019)

August 23, 2019 TIFU

I thought I was very familiar with everything at PolyU. Turned out I couldn't even make a gym booking right. Supposedly I wanted to hit the gym now, so that I could wait for Zoe in the meantime. But I mistakenly chose Saturday evening, when I should be at home cooking. All I can do now is having a coffee and some food while reading Mark Manson's Everything is Fucked.

Bumped into Joyce the veteran before I left the college campus. She told me she's already prepping for Week 4. How efficient... I'm still wondering how to deliver my first class. I'd have to be more efficient from now on.

OK, back to reading.

Anecdotal Teaching Life (22.08.2019)

22 August 2019 Team Building Day

Learnt a lot today. Including all the development pointing towards research and scholarly activities. A couple of colleagues mentioned to me about the college's support of academic research. I'll have to be patient enough to see whether such support is pervasive. But I dare not think about having to teach or research in GBA... given all the social unrest nowadays.

The floor curling game was fantastic. I was team leader and lost big time in the "mini league", but I learnt a few things: (i) always be appreciative; (ii) how my leadership would bring about is not guaranteed to be positive, but members' understanding is very important -- they'd been very supportive of what I did; (iii) be humble yet enthusiastic about what the team is doing. This is also helpful when I'm not leading -- support the leader.

So far I hope I can stay longer here, if this place really allows space for my growth.

Anecdotal Teaching Life (21.08.2019)

21 August 2019 Academic English Subject Meeting

I wasn't told my teaching subject had changed until I asked. True that it takes time to smoothen communication channels, but I did feel being left out as a newcomer. I don't mind teaching any subjects, though.

However, I would need to adjust my expectations on who I'm going to teach. The subject targets secondary school leavers who would be less proficient in English. We as teachers were told to be patient and encouraging, which is a must to me. But it gives me some sort of anxiety inside: what if they don't like my teaching at all?

There are also lots of details about teaching the subject. I feel that these details are just to ensure no mistakes would be made. Of course we are shouldering all these responsibilities; I hope there'd be someone backing us up if we make mistakes -- I mean I'd admit them if I do, but it'll make me feel better if the leaders are still supportive.

Anyway, I'm still looking forward to meeting my new students in 1.5 weeks' time.

Small Wins on Thursday (5. 9 . 2019)

The three small-wins I owned today:
1. Got up and had a nice breakfast with Zoe;
2. Met two ex-colleagues to give them invitation cards and catch up;
3. Finished the day with picking up the photos and having Hungry Korean with Zoe.

Let's focus on small gratitude and wins.

周三雜記 (2019. 4. 17)

四月又過了一半，新文章還未開始寫，送審回來的舊文章一篇又一篇的到來，又要修改了。雖然學期已經完結，而且本身也不是真的太忙，每天也還是有一些事情要處理。

就好像求職。星期一看見本系終於請人了。請的是語言學者 -- 我也好奇，為何原本的口風會轉呢？不過職位有點像是度身訂造，縱使它有點闊。我不是神經語言學或心理語言學者，本來不是優勢；幸好他們還有想請個人是能教/研一般語言學、語意語用學和教育語言學，這也是我的本科。我不清楚他們是否很在意那人一定要懂中文語言學，但當然試就是了。

我立刻找了老闆為我提名。我自己也準備好了research statement 和5-year plan。應該能夠我好好的講一下自己的強項和目標吧。

另外，今早我也保險地遞了信去HKU SPACE，希望最少也可以有個面試吧。

祝我好運。天也放晴了。

周三雜記 (2019. 4. 10)

有好幾件事接踵而來，我也暫時找不到時間準備見工或者找工作。而至今我也是沒有收到任何回音。連申請被拒的通知也沒有。

好像掉到消失點去似的。

怪不得現在的人，連去不去婚宴也不會坦白講一聲。

主要是工作和即將要來的婚禮。緊張的心情是沒有的，因為還是不太清楚到底是否真的需要緊張，還有我們準備當天的流程清單之類的東西是否早或遲 -- 一世人只結一次婚，所以沒有相關經驗很正常。

工作方面主要是論文。論文的審評陸續回來了，這個多月裡說不定一篇新的也寫不出來，而把所有時間也花在改文上。

不過最終擔心的，就只有是沒有事情可忙了。