16/3/2011
Lessons in Life

(Kar) The book I read is “Lessons in Life”, written by Elsie Tu. She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and has lived in Hong Kong since 1951. Elsie Tu was a teacher and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
This book contains 40 varieties of essays on politics, moral, ways in preserving the Earth, saving our culture and Heritage, the changes of old and new Hong Kong and so on. She was not only to share with readers in her experience of life. She also taught young people to tolerate, care of others, treasure their family members and learning from hardship. Besides, she advised us to consider the effects of industrial progress on the environment, and how to save the world’s natural resources.
For study, Elsie Tu encouraged students to read outside the school syllabus to widen their minds and views. She advised pupils to work hard in English, write correct tenses and analyze the structure of their sentences carefully. At the same time, she pointed out English uses tones, how to emphasize with right syllables and how to speak with correct intonation. She suggested students every day by reading with their eyes as well as mouth.
The book is very good and useful indeed to read, I know many old Hong Kong’s history after reading. For examples, there were plenty tin or wooden huts on the hills surrounding us and some newcomers even lived in cardboard shelters on the pavements. We could see some rickshaw pullers and sedan chair carriers still plied their trade on the roads during 1950s to 1970s. In addition, there were mainly in street markets but no shopping malls for people to shop. Mothers and children usually worked at home, such as doing embroidery, making flowers, packing boxes of matches etc, in order to earn their rice. It is difficult for teens today to conceive what life was like in those days.
I fully agree with the writer’s views that we should tolerate each other’s customs, nationalities, religion and political opinions if we want peace to live with others. Actually, life is not of all fun, we should keep a sense of humour to manage hardship whenever we face problems. On the other hand, we should give a hand to help the people in need.