Youth Unemployment (6A Kelvin Lau)

     In recent years, stemming from the increasing number of jobless youngsters, youth unemployment has been a hot issue under much discussion in society. This worsening situation brings a lot of harm to all Hong Kongers. Many people then put the blame on the new generation that they don’t strive to seize the working opportunities. However, it is already proved that there are numerous external factors determining the youth employment rate. In this article, I would like to have a deep insight at the whole issue, hoping to inspire you more about youth unemployment.

     To address a problem comprehensively, looking into the causes of it is an essential process. So, what are the crucial reasons behind why more and more youngsters are not getting any jobs? Needless to say, we can instantly come up with tons of ideas like lower youth competitiveness, poor working conditions, etc. However, I would like to divide them into two different aspects: internal factors and external factors.

     The first internal factor is the deterioration of youth competitiveness. Hong Kong is an international city where many cross-border enterprisers come to operate their businesses. That’s why English is so important. Nonetheless, the English proficiency of Hong Kong students is deteriorating due to less exposure to English. With average language skills, it is challenging for the youth to communicate and co-operate with people who are not Cantonese speakers and their career paths may not coincide. Meanwhile, we notice a new term wisely used in the news “Hong Kong kids”, describing children with low ability of self-care who meet daily life problems. What’s wrong with the new generation? Not only do they lack self-care, but they are also self-centered. They always complain about their working conditions, how badly they are treated by their boss and so on. The above emotions make them give up their career easily and become unemployed.

      On the other hand, there are so many external factors but the most influential is employers’ preferential impressions on youth. Influenced by the local media’s highlights of the negative aspects of the new generation, employers in Hong Kong are more likely to have a feeling that young people are not responsible or capable enough to take the jobs they offer. Thus, they prefer experienced workers instead of the new power.

      Though the problem of youth unemployment seems to involve the new generation and employers only, this is not the true picture. In fact, this is everybody’s business.

      Firstly, the sustainability of Hong Kong will finally go downhill. As the number of unemployed youths is roaring, the unemployment rate of Hong Kong rises simultaneously. What does this imply? Deterioration of labor power? A lack of new blood in the labor market? Not just these! The most serious one is that our city may not be able to keep developing; it may become less competitive than other regions like Singapore which is becoming stronger these days.

      Furthermore, facing the downward movement of competitiveness, Hong Kong citizens will lose their sense of pride. In the past, Hong Kong received glorious honors such as “Food Paradise”, “Shopping Paradise” and “the Pearl of the East”. These kinds of admirations have given Hong Kong citizens a sense of pride. However, once we lose all these positive feelings, our sense of belonging will definitely be weakened and the whole city may be surrounded by a gloomy atmosphere.

      After reading the above, are you more concerned about youth unemployment? If yes, don’t worry! There is always a way out. From my point of view, curing an existing problem from the root is the most effective measure. The government should step up the education reform to improve the education system. It is undeniable that not everyone in the world is born with a brilliant mindset and a hardworking manner. Hence, to encourage less-talented students, the government should offer more occupational courses for them so they can acquire specific working skills to have a higher possibility of being employed. Moreover, there should be further co-operation between schools and parents so as to nurture a correct and positive attitude among the youth. This must definitely help to raise the youth competitiveness.

      Youth unemployment is surely a huge problem in Hong Kong and has become a headache for the HKSAR government. Unless things change for the better, it will only create hurdles and obstacles in the path of Hong Kong development. Therefore, all citizens have to cooperate so as to create a better Hong Kong.

 

Write a short story in approximately 200 words about what happened next and how it ended to your school newspaper. (Matthew Lai Ka Chun 5D)

Your uncle came to Hong Kong from the Mainland last month. One day, you took him out to go sightseeing. On the MTR, he took out a can of coke and started to drink it. The lady sitting next to him told him politely to stop drinking.
 

Write a short story in approximately 200 words about what happened next and how it ended to your school newspaper.

 

On the MTR to Ocean Park, it was so crowded that a tense atmosphere filled in the train. No one stirred around the compartment when my uncle was asked to stop drinking by that elegant lady.

‘You better give me the coke. I’ll help you hold it, uncle.’ I whispered cautiously.

‘Why should I listen to you?’ I can drink freely in Shenzhen!’ uncle roared abruptly.

Everyone in the train stood all amazed. Some were ready to take their phones out. Most of the passengers stared at my uncle.

‘Mainlanders are so outrageous. Do you actually know Hong Kong is a civilised city?’ the lady sighed with arrogance.

My uncle was quickly infuriated. He squeezed the can and splashed it onto the lady’s long dress. I had no idea what to do next. I just heard someone burst into laughter. It was such a horrifying experience with nerve-wracking sensations.

All of a sudden, the lady stood up calmly and showed her staff card.

‘I am an MTR staff member. I am just having my holiday which deserves to be joyful. But now, you will face prosecution!’ the lady warned firmly.

My uncle was completely shocked. His jaw dropped and he broke out in a cold sweat. Some passengers clapped their hands vigorously. Some were still videotaping the whole experience while some were peeking at the dirty long dress of the lady.

After a few minutes, I accompanied my uncle to the MTR customer care centre. My uncle had his head down with guilt because he knew he would be charged.

‘Are you okay, uncle?’ I asked with a gentle voice.

‘Hong Kong is such a humiliating place!’ uncle responded emotionally.

I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh.

The Tree

The time had come around again it was time to get our tree
In the car we piled us boys, my sister on mum's knee
Out into the country, dad drove for miles and miles
When at last he found the place, we could not contain our smiles

Dad headed to the tall pine trees, his sharpest axe in hand Dutiful behind him trailed his merry little band
At last he spied the one he sought, a sapling straight and tall
"This will please your mum" he said, indeed it pleased us all

With swift clean strokes he had in no time cut it down We placed the tree atop the car and headed back to town
The decorating of the tree this year would be supervised by Mum
The final piece, "The Angel" would be placed by the youngest one

This year my baby brother would be helped by sis and me But as we lifted baby up we tripped and fell into the tree
Tangled in the trimmings we rode the tree as down it came
Mid tears and cries right through the lounge room windowpane

I carried on tradition with my children every year But when it came to "Angel" time up came a nagging fear Of breaking glass and angels wings and the message that it sent
To place my tree in a great big pot in reinforced cement!

http://www.funnypoets.com/poetry/thetree.htm

English jokes

What is the longest word in the English language?
SMILES: there is a mile between the first and last letters!"
Submitted by: Kevin Penner

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Teacher: Maria please point to America on the map.
Maria: This is it.
Teacher: Well done. Now class, who found America?
Class: Maria did.
Submitted by: Kmankoolman

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If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day.
If you teach a man to fish, he can always eat.
If you give a man a fire, he's warm for a day.
If you light a man on fire, he is warm for the rest of his life.
Submitted by: Anonymous

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When I was young I didn't like going to weddings.
My grandmother would tell me, "You're next"
However, she stopped doing that after I started saying the same thing to her at funerals.

Submitted by: Chris Fisher

Enrolment List - Drama Appreciation "13" organised by Theatre Noir Foundation (26 September 2014)

The following students have been selected to join our school's off-campus English Activity (Drama Appreciation "13" organised by Noir FoundationTheatre (26 September 2014):

	Name	Class	Class No.
1	Chiu Ching Ting	1C	4
2	Chiu Cheuk Ting	4B	5
3	Wong Ching Ho	1C	30
4	Wong Wing Hei	1C	17
5	Ng Sin Yee	3C	14
6	Tsang Hiu Fung	1B	30
7	Sze Wai Man	2C	16
8	Chiang Ching Laam	2C	5
9	Yeung Hoi Ting	5B	17
10	Lai Ka Yin	5E	10
11	Leung Chi Hon	1D	30
12	Po Wing Yiu	5B	15
13	Lee Ho Yi	5C	11
14	Pang Yuk Yu	5B	14
15	Chan Tsz Man	5B	2
16	Huang Hing Wai	1B	6
17	Au Hoi Ching	1B	1
18	Ng Yee Sum	4B	17
19	Tsui Ming Wai	4B	23
20	So Wai Shan	4B	19
21	Tsang Lok Him	2C	30
22	Li Muk Wang	2C	27
23	Fan Tsz Ching	1D	5
24	Cheung Sum In	2C	3
25	Ho Wing Yan	1B	5
26	Wu Yi Ting	4B	27
27	Chow Cho Tung	5B	3
28	Leang Chun Lai	1B	25
29	Lo Cheuk Lam	2B	12
30	Kong Tung Ching	4D	6
31	Lau Wing Lam	1B	10

Enrolment List - The English Public Speaking Programme Of the Association of English Medium Secondary Schools (12 July 2014)

The following students have been selected to join our school's off-campus English Activity (The English Public Speaking Programme Of the Association of English Medium Secondary Schools) (12 July 2014):

1C	18	Tsang Ho Yan
1C	28	Li Muk Wang
1D	9	Lo Yee Tung Vanessa
1D	13	Tai Man Yee

A short story (4C Kenneth Tong & 4E Lai Ka Yin Coco)

Kenneth Tong 4C

Last night, I attended a fashion show held by Hong Kong College at the Lucky Eight Restaurant to support my friend Mike, who was the model of the show. It was supposed to be a scintillating show. However, a fire alarmingly broke out.

The lights were suddenly turned off and the blackout made the crowd panic. I was totally dismay and I tried to escape promptly to get safe. Despite that, it was so chaotic and everyone tried to rush out of the door! The fire was approaching and I felt really hot.

“Help! Help!”, somebody screamed from the corner. I scampered to the corner and Mike was lying on the floor and he sweated a lot. After that, I carried him on my back and we tried to escape as the fire was flaming tremendously. To our dismay, the fire blocked the doors and we couldn’t find a way to escape! We had cold feet and we didn’t know what to do. I tried to comfort Mike because he was very ill and I hope a fireman could help us at that moment.

Abruptly, I heard the sirens of the ambulance and fire trucks from outside.

“Anyone there?” a man came into the restaurant.

“Help! Help!” I yelled, as loud as I could and the fireman came to rescue us. I heard a sigh of relief when we finally escaped from the restaurant. Mike was sent to the hospital immediately and fortunately he was all right.

I think Mike and I were so lucky that we were rescued but not perished in the fire.

 

 

4E Lai Ka Yin Coco

Dear Lisa,

How’s your life in America? I received your letter yesterday. And I start worried about you. Please listen to what I say.

I know you want to be a model for a very long time. But do you remember why did you go to America? It was because you wanted to be a doctor. Then you went to America in order to have better education. I know you will feel annoyed if I say this. But I really want you to know that mom and dad worked very hard to earn money to pay for your school fee. They also have lots of expectations on you. You can’t give up studying at this moment! You’ll break their heart!

On the other hand, modelling is not a stable job to do.  A lot of people want to be a model too. However, not many of them succeed. You need to work very hard and walk a very long road. It’s a dark road with lots of complicated relationships going on. Your boss may not like you. People may be rude to you and don’t give you chances to work. When you become famous, you’ll have lots of funs but also lots of haters. Just think about how would you feel if there are rumours that are not true around the world? You must not like that! What’s more, you may be a successful model only for a short period of time. What could you do when you get old? No one will care about you anymore.

You may think that I don’t understand you. But I convince you not to be a model because I care about you. Please remind yourself why you wanted to be a doctor. Being a doctor is a much better job. And I think you are very talented with it. You have lots of interest in biology and chemistry since you were young. You are on your way to become a doctor. Only a few steps left until you can do it. So don’t give up! Mom and dad will be so proud of you because being a doctor can help lots of people. Just remember that I will always support you. If you have any problem, you can always talk to me.

Please continue your studies and write back to me.

Love,

Chris

A fire (4D Lai Ka Chun Matthew)

On 3^rd April 2013, there was a dreadful scene at the Lucky Eight Restaurant during an overcrowded fashion show held by S4 and S5 students from Hong Kong College. A large crowd of people rushed out messily while some were screaming. I took the priority to enter the area covered with black and thick smoke. The sight was not quite clear but I could see that all decorating chairs, desks and many accessories were severing burnt, leaving their little pieces of trace on the ground. Going inner to the kitchen, which was profoundly devastated due to the short circuit triggered by a micro-oven. The rear part of the restaurant collapsed so I went outside to do my reporting.

Police cars and ambulance outside were busy loading some victims who were slightly injured. I went to ask a student about the circumstance. ‘The fire was fierce and astonishing. I was just following others to get out swiftly.’ He answered in a trembling voice. However, his knee was bruised and the rescue team member was bandaging for him with her first-aid-kit. On the other hand, the firemen were pouring floods of water on the top of the restaurant. Huge amount of smoke swiveled high in the sky. After two hours, to their effort, the fire was extinguished. Finally, the victims were hospitalized and the area was being tidied up.

When I got back to my office, I lent the recordings to the journalists in the journalism department. They thanked and appreciated my work for this tough task.

When I woke up the next morning, I heard of the radio recounting the hazard last night. To my surprise, no one was killed in the accident. I was satisfied with my reporting work this time.

A Memorable Character (4A Lai Cheuk Nam)

Johnson Moore is a truly unforgettable short story character

Johnson Moore, the main character of the short story ‘The lower’, is probably one of the most memorable short story characters. He was born as an orphan who was abandoned by his mother due to the difficulty to live. He faced a lot of difficulties when he grew up. He lived with his stepmother, Mrs Shear, but he earned a living himself. Finally, he could achieve his dream of being a singer.

Firstly, Johnson is a memorable character because of his unswerving determination to sing although he lacked encouragement from others. When Johnson lived with Mrs. Shear, she did not treat him well, even did not support him to do anything. Until one day, he heard some melody of songs from his neighbour and inspired him a lot. Then, he wanted to become a singer in the future and started to practise everyday without anybody’s help. His courage is a good model to us because we need practice to make our dream successful.

He was alone in the time of growing up. He gained strength and ability of doing things independently. It is important when we attend to work on one thing. Doing things independently is difficult because we may be affected by our friends and a lot of temptations. John did not gain my support, including financial assistance and mental encouragement. He could still fight against those difficulties and pursued his dream. ‘Dream can change our life,’ said Johnson when he was pracitising inside his extremely little bedroom. Eventually, he got a chance to perform in the famous TV station and became famous.

While I was reading ‘The lower’, I really enjoyed getting to know more about Johnson because his background is special so that it makes me interested to know what is going on. In fact, by the end of the story, I liked him so much that he made his career successfully and become a famous singer, of course my favourite fictional character also. I also aspire to be like Johnson in everything that I do because his story will change his life and finally achieve my dream.

A Helpless and Hopeful Day (4B Tang Cheuk Ting Raymond)

      When it came to the second term of Primary 6, I had to attend an interview at the secondary school I would like to enroll. I’d been preparing for the interview for more than a month. It was a big day. I was anxious but excited when I thought of studying at the school.

       After packing the things for the interview, I headed for the school. As usual, I walked along the street and waited for the bus. All of a sudden, a middle-aged man in front of me fell from his wheelchair. At that moment, I doubted whether I should help him. If I gave him a hand, I must miss the bus. I hence couldn’t attend the interview. However, the man seemed to be injured and I decided to help him eventually. I pulled him up from the ground to sit on his wheelchair and sent him to the hospital nearby. On the way to the hospital, I regretted helping him.
       
      “Hey, little boy, Thank you for your kindness!” the man said.

        “Not at all, sir,” I replied.

        “What’s your name, boy? Where were you going to?”

        “I’m Raymond. I was on my way to a secondary school. I’m attending the enrolment interview in half an hour.”

         “Sorry, Raymond! I’ve held you up. Hope you won’t miss the interview,” the man said with a smile.

          I ran to the school from the hospital immediately and kept feeling regretful. When I reached the interview room at the school, the teachers were tidying up their documents. My heart broke. I’d wasted my efforts on the preparation! “What I’ve been doing is just for today!” I groaned to myself. I knew I had no chance to attend the interview at that school. I dropped my head and walked towards the school gate slowly with tears. I’d never felt as hopeless as this moment. When I was about to step out of the campus, I saw a man sitting on a wheelchair. He was the man I’d helped in the morning!

         “Why don’t you come with me? Don’t you come for the interview?” the man suggested.

         I was shocked and piped up, “What? Interview? I’ve missed it!”

         “Come quickly! I’ve got so many things to do!” he urged me.
 
         Suddenly, I felt hopeful again. I didn’t realize he was the Principal of that school. And now he was going to interview me. It was my pleasure!

         After the interview, I’ve learnt from this encounter. Although I seem to miss an important thing when I do something meaningful, I won’t lose in the end.

 

 

Letter to the Editor about the overuse of online social networking site (Choi On Kiu Liana 5B)

Dear Editor,

 

I am writing to express my point of view of the overuse of online social networking site.

 

Nowadays, having Internet access at home is a very common thing. Many people can own a computer at home. Also, because of the improvement in technology, it brings a lot of convenience and efficiency to users. For example, we can find a lot of different information around the world by searching the Internet. We can find news that happened in different countries. Also, we can talk and share new things to our family member who live in another country by using Skype.

 Because of this, people spend more time on using computer. Some of us will also spend a whole day on using computer without taking a rest. It leads to a problem of the overuse in society. And the number of overuse in network sites is increasing.

In addition, overusing the networking site will waste our time because we spend most of the time on it. On the other hand, we will only have less time on our parents to figure out our problem on study or social life. It will cause direct arguments.

I think parents should have more outdoor activities with their children, to sidetrack their mind.

Finally, school will be a better place to teach students to stop overusing computer, because student learn things there, so I think teachers should ogranise some activities or talks on telling the disadvantages of the overuse of doing other things like homework or projects, etc. So I think we should have a time management to balance the time on using computer and daily work. Having a timetable, we can manage your time on using computer in a more specific way, so that we will not spend too much time on using the network in an uncontrolled way.

In addition, overusing the Internet will destroy your relationship with friends and family members. It is because we spend most of the time using the net, we will have no time on building relationship with them.

In short, we should stop students on overusing networking site, because it will lead a big problem in our society. It is education that we need to foster this belief within our society.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Wong

A letter to editor (5D Choy Hiu Tung Pinky)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my opinion about the overuse of online social networking site.

With the aid of the online social networking site, we get a lot of benefits. For example, we can release our pressure, share pictures and work on projects easily. Also, we can communicate with friends and families in a convenient way.  Although there are many advantages about using social networking, it still has disadvantages, such as wasting time, affecting health and having less communication with family or even decreasing the chance for face-to-face communication. Let me explain it in detail.

Firstly, social networking sites have many functions. Most people use it for watching videos, checking status of Facebook friends and chat. Also nowadays, there are so many online social networking, such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Each webpage, each of them has different functions. If we need to visit all of them, we need to use more than 2 hours. So it wastes our precious time. And if we overuse of online social networking site, we will become addicted to it. Then we don’t have enough time to study or do homework which will affect our school results.

Secondly, the overuse of online social networking site would affect our vision. We know that sometimes we need to search information in these social webpages. Although we felt tired of our eyes, we wouldn’t take rest and keep on searching. So we will get short sighted easily and we need to wear glasses because we have astigmatism and myopia if overuse the computer, especially the social networking sites.

Thirdly, nowadays we can chat with anyone by social networking, so that we do not need face-to-face communication with anyone, especially our parents. It is because it is too convenient to chat with people by computer or mobile phone through the online social network. People will overuse this method to chat, so we will not always chat with anyone face-to-face. It will affect our communication skills, interpersonal skills. And these skills would affect social development of our future. It erodes our care about our family, weaken our instincts in interacting with others on social occasions.

All in all, online social networking site have its own advantages and disadvantages. If you don’t want to have these disadvantages, try to manage your time and have self-control when using online social networking site.

Yours faithfully,

Pinky Choy

Public speech Overpopulation is becoming a world problem (5A Rebecca Hung)

Good morning, principal, teachers and students.
I am Rebecca Hung. It is my honor to be here today to talk about the problem of overpopulation.

Do you know queuing up is an unavoidable part of our lives? You can see many long queues everywhere in Hong Kong. Last weekend, I went out for lunch with my friend. When we got to the restaurant, there were so many people waiting for tables that we had to wait for an hour before we could finally sit down and enjoy our meal. Sounds familiar to you, right? I am sure some of you have had similar experience. You may wonder: Are there not enough restaurants in Hong Kong? Or are there too many people in Hong Kong? Yes, there are simply too many people in Hong Kong. We are facing the problem of overpopulation, but do you know that overpopulation has also become a world problem?

According to the United Nations, the estimated world population has already exceeded 7 billion and the figure is still growing day by day.

You may ask what the figure means to our world. Can’t the world accommodate 7 billion people, or even another 7 billion people? Let me tell you, 7 billion people are already too much for our world to bear.

First of all, let me ask you a question. Can you live without electricity? I guess most of you will answer no, because all of us use electricity. Electricity is a basic necessity in today’s world. Because of the growing population, the demand for electricity keeps growing. Let’s take a look at China. To generate more electricity to meet the increasing demand, China is building nuclear plants all over the country and is planning to build even more. These nuclear plants may pose unimaginable hazards not only to China, but also to the world. Just take a look at the nuclear plant in Fukushima and you will agree with me. All human lives will finally be in jeopardy if we keep building more nuclear plants. But it seems that some countries, especially China, are still resorting to nuclear energy for its growing population.

Another serious problem caused by overpopulation is food shortage. Thousands, mostly children, die of hunger every day in different parts of the world. According to the United Nations, by 2012 the number of malnourished people in the world had already reached 1020 million. In Africa, already 6 million people died of famine and malnourishment. Although, today, we have advanced agricultural technology, the supply simply cannot meet the demand. Why? Because when the world population becomes bigger, there will be more people desiring more food. At the same time, more agricultural lands have to be used for urban development. That means fewer lands can be used for agricultural production. Then, the supply of food drops.

And, the problem of food shortage is further aggravated by the uneven distribution of the world’s total food. China, with her huge population and wealthier people, is demanding more and more food, and this results in even less food for the already underprivileged and underdeveloped areas.

Let’s go back to agricultural technology. You may ask: if we develop even more advanced technology, will we be able to feed the entire world? Yes, we may be able to feed the entire world if we have very advanced technology. But the food we produce may be harmful to human body. Then, we, humans, will eventually suffer.

Besides food shortage, global warming is another problem worsened by overpopulation. With an increasing population, there are more human activities, and more greenhouse gases are released to the atmosphere, and this worsens the greenhouse effect. Yes, the whole world is trying to cut carbon dioxide emission and we are trying to be less polluting. But we can’t deny the fact that overpopulation aggravates global warming. And global warming causes a whole bunch of environmental problems. Look at the super typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban. At the United Nations climate summit in Warsaw, the lead negotiator of the Philippines, Naderev Sano, said Haiyan was like nothing they had ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country had ever experienced before.

So, to deal with environmental problems, we can’t just look at the environmental factors, we also have to look at the problem of overpopulation.

All in all, the overpopulation problem is affecting the whole world; we cannot turn a blind eye to it.

I sincerely hope that all of you can learn more about overpopulation from my sharing.

Thank you.