Pres. Chris started the first regular luncheon session by greeting all members and guests a Happy New Year! This was followed by Rt. Clark's introduction of the visiting Rotarians (one being from Michigan) and guests. Then, PP. John was asked to lead the birthday song of our three birthday "boys," namely, PDG. YK, PE. Henry and Rt. Heron. PDG. YK remarked that PP. John had a "new" hairstyle!
Subsequently, Rt. Laurence who acted as the Sergeant-at-Arms announced a handsome collection of HK$2,400. He also broke the good news about his new job with a service outsourcing company in Hong Kong, which happened to be his consulting client beforehand. PP. Tajwar then reminded members about an upcoming golf tournament event at the Shek-O Golf & Country club on the 21st February, details would be announced later.
Then, PP. John took the rostrum and introduced Mr. Peter Forsythe, who was the featured speaker of the day. Peter, an Australian, was born in Tokyo and brought up in Europe and USA. He had spent over 35 years out of Australia and now considered Hong Kong as his home. After learning Putonghua in Beijing, he worked as a diplomat in the Australian Embassy (Beijing), as well as in the Australian Consulate-General in Shanghai. For eight years, he was a partner in Australia's premier Asia business consulting organization, involving in over 50 projects in China and the region, including Australia's first manufacturing joint venture in China. After a second stint as a senior official in the Australian Trade Commissions based in Hong Kong, Peter was appointed the Asia President for the international retail goods company, Duty Free Shoppers (DFS). At the same time, he also assumed the chairmanship of the Hong Kong Federation of Private Educators. In the year of 2000, Peter purchased the rights to operate Wall Street Institute (WSI) in Hong Kong, establishing the first Asian WSI in Wanchai. WSI had since grown to four centers in Hong Kong and nearly 20 in the region. WSI had been the world's largest international English teaching organization, with 450 centers in 24 countries.
Peter thanked PP. John for his introduction and also appreciated the birthday song from members, since the next day was going to be his birthday. Peter began his speech entitling "Is English worth paying for?" Peter first noted he did not learn English as his first language. In fact, he first learned Japanese and Italian, and the English language happened to be the third one. He further cited some excerpts from the book entitling "The Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson, describing the idiosyncrasies of the English expressions, usages and writings in America, thus, reflecting the failure of the huge investment that had been placed in the US Education system for the English language. As a consequence, Peter noted, millions of dollars had been expended for remedial classes for the English language. Peter mentioned that there were also counter-arguments to the importance of properly teaching the English language. Some opinions had even gone to the extent of proposing to leave proper English language usage to the academia. On the other hand, others had emphasized on the significance and urgency of improving the existing standards of the English language practice. As an urgency of the need to improve the English language standards in Hong Kong, some people even cited the phenomenal improvement that people in major cities of China had made in English communication over the recent years.
Peter then stated some of the findings by The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) recently. SCOLAR was formed in October 1996 to advise the HKSAR Government on language education in general, such as, policies, standards, measurements, promotional activities and funding support. The SCOLAR consultation paper stressed upon the ever-increasing importance of enhancing the English and Chinese proficiency of the Hong Kong community as China was marching towards the era of globalization and market liberalization. In addition, the paper pin-pointed that being bi-literate and trilingual had been Hong Kong's competitive advantage in enabling itself to function as an effective communication bridge for China and the outside world. The paper also addressed two major issues for the Hong Kong community: specifying the language competencies expected of students and working adults, as well as increasing students' motivation for language learning. Peter further estimated that there were about 15,000 teachers teaching the English language in Hong Kong, and an approximately HK$10 billion was being spent annually. Yet, Peter noted that the low-quality results on the English speaking, listening and comprehension skills in Hong Kong were clearly a marked indication that the money was not spent right!
Peter advocated and cited the SCOLAR paper's recommendation on engaging all relevant parties to enhance the language environment in Hong Kong, such as, parents and mass media, other than the professional educators. He also noted the important role that continuing education could play in remedying what the formal curriculum had failed in shaping the English language standards of the Hong Kong community. In his opinion, there were many issues in the formal education today making it not conducive to language learning, such as the over-sized class of schools in Hong Kong.
Peter ended his talk by introducing some of the teaching methods (with emphasis on the use of multimedia equipments) that his organization had been using. Peter also mentioned that there were approximately 3,700 students now in his learning organization. Rt. Heron led members in thanking Peter for his informative talk in the usual Rotarian manners. Pres. Chris then ended the session by proposing a toast to the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East.
More than 20,000 U.S. Rotarians and their spouses have applied for the Rotary International credit card since the programme was launched in September 2000. The card proudly displays the RI emblem, building public awareness of Rotary. Moreover, each time the card is issued, a share of the purchase goes to The Rotary Foundation of RI.
To-date, the Permanent Fund of The Rotary Foundation of RI has received more than U.S. $1 million from this program. At its June 2002 meeting, the RI Board decided to allocate the next US$ 1 million in affinity card proceeds to benefit the fulfilling our Promise: Eradicate Polio programme. The growth of this programme has been instrumental in creating an annuity for The Rotary Foundation that will continue to increase as more Rotarians become cardholders. The programme has proved especially popular with new members, given their enthusiasm for all things Rotary.
The following questions and answers provide more details about the Rotary Credit Card programme.
Q. What are the benefits to Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation of RI when the card is used ?
A. Every time Rotarians use the card, one half of one percent of each purchase benefits the Rotary Foundation. This royalty percentage will increase with the number of credit accounts.
Q. Who issues the RI Credit Card ?
A. The Rotary International MasterCard credit card is issued by MBNA America Bank, MBNA Canada Bank and MBNA Europe Bank, the world largest independent credit card lender. In addition to enabling Rotarians to display their Rotary pride and help support the Foundation, the no-annual-fee card was selected because it provides a credit line up to US$100,000; a low introductory annual percentage rate for cash advance checks and balance transfers; and an optional travel rewards programme.
Q. Where and when is the card available ?
A. The card is currently available in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. It is anticipated to be available in Brazil, Japan, Spain and Taiwan before the end of 2002. The programme's strategy for expansion will focus on countries with the largest number of Rotarians and those that comprise the world's largest credit markets.
Q. Where can applications be obtained ?
A. MBNA has sent application forms to district governors, who will facilitate distribution at the club level. Rotarian can also fill out a secure online application via this link to the MBNA site.
Q. Is the card restricted to Rotarians ?
A. No. A person does not need to be a member of a Rotary club to apply for the card. Spouses and family members of Rotarians can apply, as well as members of Rotaract clubs, Rotary Foundation Alumni or Group Study Exchange team members.
Q. What is the annual fee for the card ?
A There is no annual fee for the Rotary International MasterCard, unless the optional travel rewards programme is selected.
Conversation
Two strangers are sitting in adjacent seats in an airplane. One guy says to the other, "Let's talk. I hear that the flight will go faster if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger."The other guy, who had just opened a good book, closes it slowly, takes off his glasses, looks right into his eyes and asks, "What would you like to discuss?"
The first guy says, "Oh, I don't know; how about Nuclear Power? Lots of talk on this lately."
The other guy says, "OK, that could make for some pretty interesting conversation. But let me ask you a question first: A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff, but the deer excretes pellets; the cow, big patties; and the horse, clumps of dried grass. Why is that?"
The first guy says, "I don't know."The other guy says, "Oh Yeah? Well then, do you really think you're qualified to discuss Nuclear Power when you don't know shit!?"
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