The
school had arranged a talk for all the students during the assembly in the 3rd
week of September, and invited Professor Woo to come.
Professor Woo is
the daughter of the famous author in Hong Kong – Bin Sin. She got a very famous
award (I forgot the exact name of the award, but it carry the same recognition
as the Nobel Prize) last year. She came from USA, and she spent nearly 2
lessons on sharing her life and working experience as well as what her mother taught
her. She divided her speech into two parts: one was taking about the problems
that she had met when she was working in the north and west part of Mainland
China, another was her childhood as well as her life experience. Besides, she
gave us a precious chance on using two different non-mother-tongue languages at
the same time. Professor Woo’s speech gave me a deep impression. She used her
own presentation style with sufficient gestures to make the speech became more
interactive. She also slowed down the speed of speaking in order that we could
understand easily.
Her mother told her that girls always faced difficulties. As she
was working worldwide for the rural women, she knew that this phenomenon was
due to the local culture. I thought we could know this trend from the human
civilization, or some undeveloped region. It was because women are treated as
the property of men, and men have their rights to use that property at any
time. As a result, women easily get raped or hurt, and so they had to learn how
to protect themselves and how to be independent by learning some basic working
skills. ‘Knowledge is power’, she said, ‘And then (knowledge) power generate
(financial) power’.
Professor Woo
stated that many people live in Mainland China did not know the actual meaning
of the word “food”, they have no concept of poverty, and therefore they always
had to face food problems. She had heard some people were so poor that they did
not know when and what was their second meal after they just had the first one,
and so she taught her next generations not to waste any food. ‘If you are given
food, you can only use once’, she said to those poor people who ask for her
help, ‘If you are given seeds, you can use it in your whole life’.
Last but not least, she reminded all of us to think of something for improvement frequently so that we can know where we are now going on the way to achieve our target. ‘You should try to do things yourself. If you don’t know how to do, learn it and then you can do it’
Fok Tsz Hin, Geoff (S.7E)