The Extreme Sports Day: American Football 2 was held at the Fok Ying Tung Sports Center’s Soccer Pitch during a sunny afternoon on Saturday 19 March 2012. “Touchdown!”, “Hike!”, “Interception!”, “Heads up!”, “Blitz!”, “Cover!”, “Huddle!” were just some of the many action words explained and used.  The basic offensive positions of center, guard, tackle, tight end, wide receiver, running back, full back, and quarterback were also taught, as well as the defensive positions of cornerback, linebacker, nose tackle, end, safety, and strong safety.

Over 20 American Football lovers attended the event and they formed two teams respective to their team captains, Jonathan Chiu and Lukas Roth. Both “Team Jonathan” and “Team Lukas” had a great time playing American Football under the guidance of Coach Dr. Marshall Yin, a former American football player from Chicago, Illinois, USA.  During the event, participants were able to learn how to effectively communicate with one another in English, strategize during the “huddle”, “move the chains” (gain positive yardage), and make new friends!

During the Global Learning Expo (Spring 2012), the Language Center organized an “Intercultural Communication Workshop: Networking for Success” to raise students’ sensitivity towards the do’s and don’ts of social networking, as well as strategies to deal with pragmatic failure during intercultural communication. Students were taught useful language to build networks in cross-cultural settings, and were prompted to reflect on their already-built networking strategies.

Some comments from the participants:

“The speakers are very clear and entertaining.”

“Interaction was useful and fun.”

“The whole workshop was really good.  Great workshop.  Organize more that are similar.”

The World-Class Speech Crafting and Delivery Workshop took place on Thursday 16 February 2012.  Over 180 participants joined the event, including students, staff and alumni from HKUST as well as student representatives from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The University of Hong Kong, and Homantin Government Secondary School. During the workshop, Mr Philip KC Yeung and Mr Kwong-Yue Yang shared with us their secrets and experience regarding writing and delivering top-quality speeches.

Some comments from the participants:

“Very fruitful information and experience sharing.”

“Informative and interactive.”

 “Well-structured guide for preparing and delivering professional speeches.”

If you would like to view this workshop online, please simply click on  the following link:http://video.ust.hk/Watch.aspxVideo=84E41ABDEEEDAE19

Please note that the above link will be removed on Monday 2 April 2012 due to copyright restriction.  You could access our library’s online catalogue to access the video after the above date.

On the morning of 10 March 2012, thirty-three undergraduate and postgraduate students joined our Discover Hong Kong Series: The HKUST Amazing Race – Wan Chai District.  The participants worked closely with their group members in meeting challenges at different checkpoints in Wan Chai.  The groups planned their own routes carefully and then ran around the district to search for the hidden treasures.  All of the participants had a wonderful experience discovering the landmarks and special spots in one of the oldest and culturally richest areas in Hong Kong.

Here are some comments from our participants:

I liked going around Wan Chai to discover the history.

It’s (The event is) good as it provides an opportunity to explore HK a bit more.

This was cool! More of this.