Where words fail, music speaks.Hans Christian Andersen

Did you know that in ancient Egypttrumpets were considered sacred andwere only used in worship ceremonies?Did you know that a musicalinstrument resembling the modern-day trumpet was found in China asearly as 2000 B.C.? Did you know thatthe trumpet was mentioned in theBible as well as Greek and Romanmythology? Did you know that thetrumpet had a central communicationrole in medieval armies?

I didn't. I learned a lot about thetrumpet thanks to the interview withJackie Leung, a first-year student ofBiomedical Sciences and an ardenttrumpet player. Jackie's initial interestin the trumpet was driven by practicalrather than aesthetic purposes. To getinto a good secondary school, heneeded to excel in non-academicactivities such as playing a musicalinstrument. Since playing the pianoor the violin was "too common", Jackiedecided to learn something moreunique - the trumpet, and he hasnever regretted his choice.

Jackie's musical experiences are tightlyconnected with the church he and hisfamily attend. This is where he startedperforming with others (first with theJunior Brass Choir, later graduatinginto the Adult Brass Choir). This iswhere he practises for 3-4 hours everySaturday. One of the pieces that Jackieenjoys most, "The Messiah", alsocarries religious connotations.

In addition to playing with the churchchoir, Jackie also plays with NeoWinds,

a newly established wind orchestra(neo = new, winds = wind instrumentssuch as trumpets, saxophones, oboesand others). Jackie does not likeplaying in full orchestras becausetrumpets often get secondary rolesand Jackie would not settle foranything secondary. In NeoWinds,Jackie gets to play a variety of musicand in a variety of roles.

When I asked him what kind of advicehe would give those students whowant to learn to play a musicalinstrument, Jackie raised four mainpoints:

1. "Practice makes perfect". If windbrass players don't practise for threeweeks, he said, they will step back bythree months. This is probably truefor all kinds of musical instruments.If you are starting your own musicalcareer, make sure you practise a lot.Also make sure that you choose agood place for your practice sessionswhere nobody would be bothered byyour loud attempts and nobody wouldcall the police.

2. "Music is to reveal your owncharacter". Jackie stressed thatstudents should not be afraid to showtheir emotions when playing aninstrument. Developing an emotionalside to playing is the hardest part formost musicians, while learningtechniques is comparatively easy. InHong Kong, Jackie said, some schoolsemphasize the latter and oftenunderestimate the former. He,however, does not agree with this and

thinks that the two aspects should bedeveloped simultaneously. Jackiecompared playing music to drinkingcoffee. If you are a true connoisseurof coffee, then you would be able totaste the sweetness in a cup of bittercoffee. Similarly, the more you playmusic, the more you can feel throughit, the more emotional depth you canfind in it.

3. "You should dream of music". Jackiesaid that learning music is the sameas learning foreign languages.Dreaming in a foreign language isconsidered to be a sign of havingmastered the language. The samegoes for music.

4. "Parents should support theirchildren". Apparently, most learnersof musical instruments go throughthree stages: excitement --> boredom--> joy. Some students may not beable to overcome the second stageand that's where their parents' supportis most crucial. Hong Kong parentsshould not see music only as a wayof getting their students intoprestigious secondary schools. Theyshould learn that music is worth theirchildren's time and effort just becauseit makes life beautiful and enricheshuman beings.

Jackie's dream is to go to the US forhis postgraduate studies where healso wants to study jazz. I really hopehe will get to go to the US and thathe will never give up his trumpet nomatter how busy his life may becomein the future.

Horace Ng Ho Ching,currently doing a Logisticscourse in the PolyU, is nowa piano teacher, the pianistof a Christian Church and awe l l - known ama teu rmagician. In fact, he has thenickname "Magic".

Horace started developinghis music talent much earlierthan his magic performingtalent. He had his first pianolesson when he was nine,with financial support fromhis parents.

"Although I was very muchintrigued by magic when Iwas young and wanted verymuch to train to be amagic ian, I was notfinancially sound enough to

make my dream come trueuntil I was 19, when Istarted teaching piano," hesaid.

With earnings from givingpiano tuitions, Horace hadfour years of training, afterwhich he started his amateurmagician career. His firstperformances were close-upmagic - the category ofmagic characterized byspectators staying close tothe performer and the propsemployed being normal insize, such as ordinary cardsand coins.

More recently, he hasswitched to parlour magicand stage magic. Parlourmagic is suitable for larger

crowds than close-up; propsused are usually larger suchas jumbo cards and largecoins. This category of magicis good for family dinners,company functions andnightclubs usually with anaudience of not more than50 people. Stage magic isperformed on stage for verylarge audiences. Horace hasa lot of experience andparticipated in an Asianmagic contest in 2004.

Horace derives satisfactionfrom playing piano for thechurch choir, teaching piano,and from entertaining themagic audience by triggeringa sense of awe in them:some children, for example,thought that he really had

super power when he wasbending a silver spoon bymagic.

H o r a c e v a l u e s h i sachievement in both areasand wishes to furtherdevelop them. It will befantastic if he attempts somenovel performances withmusic and magic integrated.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.Pat Conroy

The history of a people is found in its songs.George Jellinek

"Magic" doing magic

Debate ChatroomThe initial aim of the Debate Chatroomwas to organize online debate contestsfor PolyU students. Three contests wereorganized last semester. The photo showsthree of the six winners of these contests.

Recently, the Debate Chatroom has setup a discussion forum to provide PolyUstudents with an opportunity to expresstheir views on controversial topics in order to improve their writing andanalytical skills. One online writing competition was organized this semester.The winners are Poon Cho Wing and Carina Ng Tze Yin. Poon Cho Wing'sarticle is below. You can read other articles on our website:http://dev.elc.polyu.edu.hk/dchat/forum/index.asp.

ELC Reading Group updateHave you read any good books recently? Members of the ELCReading Group have been reading different kinds of books, bothfiction and non-fiction. They are not only reading but also meetingregularly with other members and ELC teachers. Over the pastfew semesters, ELC Reading Group has increased in popularityas members meet to share their thoughts, turning the solitarypleasure of reading into a stimulating discussion. Many membersfind their reading becomes more rewarding, and that an exchangeof ideas with others provides a good opportunity to practisetheir English skills. To find out more about the Reading Group,please visit our web site at http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/readgroup

Discussion Forum - The first online writing competitionThe following article was voted the best entry on the topic:

Hong Kong should model itself on Singapore in promoting large families.

Poon Cho Wing Facing the fact or siding the symptoms?

Discussion Forum - The first online writing competitionThe following article was voted the best entry on the topic:

Hong Kong should model itself on Singapore in promoting large families.

Poon Cho Wing Facing the fact or siding the symptoms?

Musical Instrument QuizDo you know the names of these musical instruments?Match the pictures with the names.

You can find the answers on the ecNews website:http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/ecNews (e) (f) (g) (h)

(a) (b) (c) (d)

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself. J.S. Bach

If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing.Proverb from Zimbabwe

The practice of conducting studies and reviewing foreign examples about what can (and should) be done in certain policy areashas almost become a fashion and ritual of the HKSAR government in dealing with different social and political issues. There islittle doubt that such endeavor can bring about new insights about what policy options are available and their respective strengthsand pitfalls. Yet, it would be far too arbitrary if we evaluate the potential merits and demerits of such alternatives without takingimperative factors such as the differences and variations in culture, ideology and socio- economic background into consideration.

Declining fertility is not only a "problem" facing Hong Kong but the rest of the world. What matters is not the symptom itself butthe implications for such occurrence. We cannot tell whether Hong Kong should model itself on Singapore before we come todifferentiate the reasons account for the low birth rates in thetwo places.

Population control policies reflect the dominant, but daunting ideology commonly shared in Singapore. The first one is elitism aswhen only individuals with a sound education and socio-economic background are encouraged to have babies. The second, Iwould say, is a kind of extended capitalism as when people come to acquire the faith that only things with "profitable returns"are of worth to be done. Being pathetic but true, such "philosophy" overwhelms even the family policy in Singapore with herpeople being permissive under the authoritarian control of the government.

If our government is determined to follow such kind of restrictive plicy that increasingly blurs the boundary between the public andthe private spheres with the former dominates, will it merely serve as a confession of the poor fact that Hong Kong shares thesame philosophy as Singapore's without really tackling the origins of our sickness?

Three winners

PIFSDuring this semester, the PolyU International Film Society (PIFS) inkeeping to its objectives, has brought five great films from differentcountries, all of which have shown different cultures and ethnic valuesto its members. Having had an audience of over ninety for our lastscreening, Bad Education, the film society has won its fame andrecognition from not only Hong Kong students, but also from exchangestudents. These students regularly visit our fortnightly film shows, andhelp to make our discussion sessions after each screenings morevibrant. In order to benefit more students, PIFS will arrange moreactivities such as O'Nights and joint society activities, and continue toprovide a free buffet to participants. The film society also has alibrary of an extensive collection of superb films at your disposal.Members can now get access to our new library which is located inCILL.

For more information about PIFS and our events, visit:http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/filmsociety

CILLYou can still come to CILL !!

During the summer break CILL will be open as normal.

You will be able to sign up for IELTS preparation courses, andGrammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation mini-courses.

As usual, you will also be able to attend our Summer Workshops.These will be on a whole variety of interesting topics, chosen byour ELC teachers.

There will also be some Writing Assistance Programme (WAP) andSpeaking Assistance Programme (SAP) sessions available.

Look out for the notices in CILL, A305 !

English Award SchemeWe received a total of 26 portfolios. We enjoyed looking at themand it was obvious that the candidates had put a big effort intoimproving their English in a variety of ways outside the formal classroomsetting. They illustrated their portfolios with colourful 'evidence' suchas brochures, movie tickets, photos and newspaper articles. The 15finalists were the ones who put the most work into their self-study,showed the work they had done and were able to reflect on theirprogress.

We will be inviting the finalists for interviews soon. 10 lucky winnerswill be chosen !

Good Luck !

The EAS Committee

English ClubIn its continued efforts to offer Polyu students an opportunity to improvein their use of English, the club organised various activities in semestertwo. High on the agenda was the English Speaking Workshop for primarythree students at Fish Primary school, which was a great success.

As usual, the Big Mouth Conner, held every Thursday at 6:30pm onEF podium, continued to offer students achance to chat in English and exchangecultural values with young people from allfive continents. The club finished thesemester-two activities with Hockey SportsDay and ushering in the new ExecutiveCommittee for the year 2005-2006.

This summer, the club will be in Mainland China on the VoluntaryLanguage Speaking Program (VLSP). These programs offer Polyustudents a chance to go and share their English-speaking with primaryschool students and teachers in mainland China. For further detailsvisit http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/englishclub

BRICKERS' singing contestBrickers, the ELC band, organised a singing contest for the secondyear running.

The final of the contest was held on 24 March on the podium. Thisyear there were eight contestants in the final and three were chosento sing a second song to decide the winner. Finally, the judges choseIan Leung Wai Lin as the winner. His two winning songs were She'sThe One by Robbie Williams and The Long Goodbye by Ronan Keating.Ian likes these singers because they both have unique and expressivevoices. He also likes Diane Reeve becauseof her 'sexy voice', he said.

Ian also likes acting. He's in a Cantonesedrama at the Sheung Wan Civic Centreon 24 and 25 April.

EDC makes the night wildOn 1 April 2005, the English Drama Club performed yet another hotshotdrama entitled "The Choices". This student-produced love comedydraws on influences such as the work of Oscar Wilde. Two younglads in a bar one night hit on a plan to lure the girls by pretendingto be a famous love story writer, but in the end the girls discovertheir deceptions.

The play evidently appealed strongly to its audience. The eveningoutdoor performance attracted a large number of campus-crossers totop the already filled seats, and questionnaire responses to the eventwere very positive. The evening was memorable and enjoyable as theaction created amusement, laughter and a relaxed mood.

The English Drama Club has developedappreciably since its beginnings in 2002,with a number of successes such as"Death Angel" (November 2004) and"Reality" (March 2004). The Club isalso a creative means of reinforcing andextending students' English language skills.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.Elvis Presley

Ian Leung sings his winning song

EDC perform 'The Choices'

VLSP in China