To enhance students’ exposure to a multilingual and cross-cultural environment, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) has engaged International Tutors to provide students with different language learning activities. This year, 11 tutors from Egypt, France, Japan, Morocco, Spain and the US are at EdUHK to promote students’ learning of English, French, and Japanese. These include Araceli Mesegue Molina (Eli), Lara Sabbani and Oliver Wijayapala, who have returned as Senior International Tutors.
 
“Teachers have a significant influence on students. The more role models students have, the better they will be prepared in life. I enjoy being a positive role model to them, it gives me great satisfaction,” said Oliver. Lara is also motivated by the positive impact she has on students, “Recently I met a student who attended my Arabic class last year, and she greeted me in Arabic. It’s nice to see that they have learnt something from me.”
 
When asked about how to cope with the challenges of teaching amidst the pandemic, the International Tutors explained that students in Hong Kong were generally shy about speaking in English, and that the online learning had further discouraged students’ participation.
 
“I always put a lot of effort into finding subjects they may find interesting,” said Eli. The International Tutors have invited students to join an online English café which is a social space for students to meet and exchange their views and experience on topics such as food and music, love and relationships, and travelling. Students can learn English together in an informal and sociable way. “When having to communicate with people without using your native language, you have to make yourself understandable, which is a good way to practise language.”
 
Lara also stresses the importance of practice. “There is no magic in learning a language. You have to practise the four core skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – as much as possible,” said Lara. She encourages students to watch TV shows in the target language with subtitles, so that students can listen and read at the same time. It helps students learn new vocabulary and expressions in certain contexts.
 
Despite not growing up in a Chinese-speaking environment, US-born Oliver has long been interested in Chinese, and studied Cantonese and Mandarin himself. “I read books in Chinese and talk to the native speakers in the Chinese supermarkets,” said Oliver. He believes the fastest way to improve language proficiency is to learn from mistakes and to overcome the fear of speaking in a foreign language.
 
A series of language enrichment activities has been organised throughout the year, in addition to academic courses such as the Linguaskill test preparation course to enhance students’ business English proficiency. These include a social media video contest in February, which helps students sharpen their English through story narration. During the same month, a French native speaker, who has worked in several high-end hotels and restaurants, was invited to discuss French food habits and table manners with the participants. Students will also have a chance to share their real-life experiences in front of a live audience at a storytelling conference, tentatively scheduled for April.
 
As a team of individuals having different interests and diverse backgrounds, the International Tutors are also planning cultural workshops to introduce the history, music and language of where they are from.