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A TASTE OF WORK
UMP
大學廣場
APR 2014
A try at
W
ork, regardless of the form, is said to be a vital component of university life. Such
experience is gaining more and more popularity not just driven by the pay, but also the
value it adds to a student's résumé, vision and personal growth. In this article, some non-
local students share their work experience and a local student tells how her work has brought
closer interaction with her non-local peers.
Time flies as I have been a teaching assistant (TA) in the Department of Chemistry for almost two
years. The duties of a TA are of many kinds, such as being a laboratory demonstrator, a final year
project leader and a tutor.
I have been a tutor and laboratory demonstrator in these two years. When I was a CUHK
undergraduate student, I thought the job of a TA was very easy, like marking assignments or
evaluating students' performance in the laboratory course. However, after taking up the role, I have
realised that being a good TA requires a lot of preparation work. For example, when I
am marking students' assignments, I always make detailed comments for each
assignment and prepare a report of the students' performance for the lecturers'
easy reference. Carrying out pre-class experiments before laboratory class is
also part of my duties. At the same time, I also need to answer questions
from students after lectures on the internet or face-to-face.
Although the workload for a TA seems heavy, I find a lot of heartwarming
moments with my students, especially when I got some "thank you"
messages from them after grade announcement. I felt so happy and
found the job worthwhile because my efforts were appreciated.
CHAN Tek Long from Macau
(MPhil-PhD in Chemistry)
To fulfil the curriculum requirement of my major study, I worked part-time in Café
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at CUHK as
a waiter twice last year in which one was serving in The Café and the other was in The Stage. As
operation was a very basic and necessary skill for hotel management students, we were required to
put on a uniform. The first job in The Café consisted of two parts - one in the back of house
and the other in the Café bar. We were equipped with the necessary knowledge and were
also asked to have some real practice, such as making coffee, taking orders etc. While in
The Stage, we needed to act as real waiters to serve guests.
It really helped me a lot with understanding of some food and beverage knowledge and
concepts like time management and inventory management. As a non-local student, I
felt it really hard to communicate with guests in Cantonese. However, smiles helped all
the time, especially in the hospitality industry.
Once during the training work, we received a dining reservation of more than
20
people.
I had to remember al l the guests' names in Dutch, their seating and also the food they
ordered. That was quite challenging especially when I was holding the name list and practising the
pronunciation of each name. However, it was an interesting and memorable experience.
WEI Ran from mainland China
(Hotel and Tourism Management / Year 3)