Welcome to my blog! My name is Brian Tsui, and I’ll be documenting my year as an English Teaching Assistant with the U.S. Fulbright Student Program at 香港教育大學 (the Education University of Hong Kong). I thought it would be easiest if I organized details about myself and this blog through two overarching questions below.
What is the purpose of this blog?
The thought of being a blogger™ didn’t drift into my mind until pre-departure orientation, when I attended a presentation on blogging about our experiences. No bolt of inspiration possessed me after the presentation, but the idea slowly made its way from novelty to lets-take-action-on-this. Below are some of the reasons that put me over the edge.
1) Many of the Fulbright alumni I had the opportunity to talk to said one of their greatest regrets was not documenting their experiences more. “There can never be enough photos!” was a common refrain. The alumni treasured their Fulbright year. In maintaining this website, I hope to do my best in keeping the paint on my own Fulbright year fresh.
2) I’d also like to part some of the mysteries of a Fulbright grant for others. When I was compiling my application material for Fulbright, I did not know any ETAs, and did not know much about what a Fulbright experience was like at the ground level. I feel that as a grantee who has received so much, it would be wrong of me to lay low and be comfortably invisible to the country that has sent me here. I want to convey my experiences for Fulbrighters to come, and for anyone interested in learning more about the program.
3) I hope to maintain a temperature-check on what I’ve done during this unique experience. For all of you who have helped me grow, I’d like to hold myself accountable to the time and energy you have poured into me for this opportunity. At a personal level, I’d like to be on top of how my perspectives have shifted and the lessons I have learned.
What do I do?
I am an English Teaching Assistant at the Education University of Hong Kong. I’ll refer to the Education University of Hong Kong as EdUHK for short in the future. EdUHK is located in Tai Po (大埔), an area in Hong Kong. A map of EdUHK, Tai Po, and their relationship to Hong Kong’s geography is below!
The New Territories are shaded in yellow. The large majority of residents live in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula. Image source: https://iamaileen.com/diy-trip-itinerary-guide-5-days-hong-kong-macau/
Image Source: a screenshot that I took via Google Maps https://www.google.com/maps; parts of the outlying islands are left out in this screenshot
The role that a Fulbright ETA plays is particular to their host university and the grade level that they will teach. I will be teaching university students at EdUHK from now until June 2020. For more on what an English Teaching Assistant does, see: https://exchanges.state.gov/us/program/fulbright-english-teaching-assistant-program. I really like the Fulbright program’s blog site https://blog.fulbrightonline.org/ and their youtube channel. There are many other blogs written personally by other Fulbrighters to follow as well! Here are some great websites: https://members.fulbright.org/page/FulbrightBlogs.