Although five weeks have already flown through since the first day we landed on the UK, the overwhelming moment of being “in” a real and natural English-speaking environment is still vivid in my head. It was the very first time that I truly feel the language which I have spent eighteen years learning is really living in such a vibrant way. All you heard and all you saw were real but not from the television or any books. It was as magical as being on a movie set. I never realised that I has such a distant feeling towards English though I use it every day.
“London is a city full of famous museums and local people are always reading in the Tube”, this can basically sum up my impression of the city before my visit. The statement about museums is an undeniably fact but I always doubt the description of the reading scene before my own witness during the trip, maybe because it is just rare for Hong Kong people reading anything other than newspaper and gossip magazines. It was also very surprising to see the dominant advertisement of newly published books all around the Tube station. Reading habits do reveal some qualities of a society. If people are willing to spend time in reading a book having more than a hundred pages, basically they have a longer span of concentration. Reading is also a slow process, even when you are chasing the plots of an exciting action story, you are always held back by words because your brain has to interpret them before the scenes are really grasped. This process of interpretation builds the habit of thinking and analysing in readers in the long run. Thus, a reading habit would be a strong force in the fighting against the dominant “instant culture” of the Internet Age. Probably, one of the crucial factors of the democratic development in a society is the habit of reading. This is definitely something Hong Kong lacks and therefore maybe a reason for her slow democratic progress. Only when citizens actively think and are willing to spend time in considering any issues can they be prepared to participate in a democratic system.
At this final concluding moment of the whole rewarding journey of the UK Study Tour, I take out the application form again and try to review if the doubts and curiosity that prompt me to join the tour are answered and well taken care of. One of my interests is to compare the political structure and democratic system between Hong Kong and the UK. Surely they were addressed in the course and observation was possible during the 2 weeks in the UK, but I eventually find myself still in the middle of the even thicker mist. The end of this tour is just a beginning. A lot more reading and thinking is needed to go with my observation and thus next time when I have the chance to go back and have a closer look, I will be equipped to carry on with the task.
“London is a city full of famous museums and local people are always reading in the Tube”, this can basically sum up my impression of the city before my visit. The statement about museums is an undeniably fact but I always doubt the description of the reading scene before my own witness during the trip, maybe because it is just rare for Hong Kong people reading anything other than newspaper and gossip magazines. It was also very surprising to see the dominant advertisement of newly published books all around the Tube station. Reading habits do reveal some qualities of a society. If people are willing to spend time in reading a book having more than a hundred pages, basically they have a longer span of concentration. Reading is also a slow process, even when you are chasing the plots of an exciting action story, you are always held back by words because your brain has to interpret them before the scenes are really grasped. This process of interpretation builds the habit of thinking and analysing in readers in the long run. Thus, a reading habit would be a strong force in the fighting against the dominant “instant culture” of the Internet Age. Probably, one of the crucial factors of the democratic development in a society is the habit of reading. This is definitely something Hong Kong lacks and therefore maybe a reason for her slow democratic progress. Only when citizens actively think and are willing to spend time in considering any issues can they be prepared to participate in a democratic system.
At this final concluding moment of the whole rewarding journey of the UK Study Tour, I take out the application form again and try to review if the doubts and curiosity that prompt me to join the tour are answered and well taken care of. One of my interests is to compare the political structure and democratic system between Hong Kong and the UK. Surely they were addressed in the course and observation was possible during the 2 weeks in the UK, but I eventually find myself still in the middle of the even thicker mist. The end of this tour is just a beginning. A lot more reading and thinking is needed to go with my observation and thus next time when I have the chance to go back and have a closer look, I will be equipped to carry on with the task.
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