What happens when you put a group of youngsters with limited English into a room of children whose English is excellent? The Cantonese disappears and the English improves.
That is exactly what happens at Summerbridge Schools' summer holiday camps, which 16-year-old Edwin Lee King-yan liked so much he has returned to teach science during his holidays.
What's on your mind? I'm thinking about how I learned to speak English. I moved to Vancouver when I was two and stayed there for four years. Cantonese is my mother tongue, but when I was in Canada there were no Chinese schools, so I was put into an English school and learned the language very quickly. When I came back to Hong Kong in 1987, my mum wanted to put me into a Chinese school, but my Chinese wasn't good enough, so I went to an international school.
Do you think school is harder in Hong Kong? It's hard to say. International schools aren't your typical Hong Kong education. It's more hands-on, there's less pressure and they're more activity-based. My brother is in a real Chinese school and faces a lot more pressure and work.
Does that make you different to your brother? Sometimes I feel he looks at things in a narrower way. He relies on what the textbook says so he can reproduce it in tests. There's less creativity. He's not exactly shy, but I can't see him doing the job I have at Summerbridge, where there's a lot of shouting and activity.
How important is it to be bilingual here? I think in Hong Kong it's invaluable as it's such an international place. English is useful for me because I want to study at a university in the United States, and go to Canada to work. I was given home tuition to learn how to write Chinese.
