East met west for a day when 37 local Form Three students from Munsang College (Hong Kong Island) joined English School Foundation-run West Island School's Year Eight and Nine classes for lessons ranging from English and Chinese to drama, art and IT.
West Island principal Brian Driver said he was impressed by the politeness, discipline, work ethic and IT skills of the local class.
But the local pupils said they were disorientated by the relaxed atmosphere they found in the ESF secondary school.
Jay Kong Yu-kei and Raymond Cheung Sing-wa said they were surprised at how relaxed an English lesson was in which they were asked to read a novel and later write a press release or advertisement. They said they were not used to seeing students talking and moving around the classroom so freely.
'I was also disoriented because there were no textbooks. I didn't know what to follow,' Jay said. 'But it was quite a liberating experience because I have never been in a class where you don't get checked and rated all the time.' The school visit was initiated by Munsang English teacher Ada Ho Cheuk-lam. 'Local students are too shy in their learning, particularly in English, because they care too much about their performance,' she said.
'The idea of the visit was to let them view language and learning in general as being fun instead of just examination-oriented.'
