今年矚目世界的盛事有二，一是世界博覽會，一是世界盃足球比賽。

世界博覽會展示世界各國文化特色，創新科技，以及經濟、政治成就。

二零零五年世界博覽會在日本愛知縣舉行。有一天，中國館外廣場將有一場戶外表演，在節目表演前，一羣日本人靜候節目開始。當天陽光燦爛，不少人打著傘，阻擋著後排觀眾的視線。當節目一開始，令人感動的是大部分的日本觀眾，都收起了傘，以免遮擋後排觀眾觀賞節目。在場中國展館的工作人員，為之感動，互相勉勵，我們中國人一定要向日本人學習，我們要學習他們自律守紀，為他人設想的國民素質。

今年，世界博覽會在中國上海舉行，是中國人的驕傲。但世博開幕不久，各國傳媒報導，進入各展館的等候時間非常冗長，而且秩序混亂，你推我撞；此外，展覽園區遍地垃圾，地上、椅上滿是棄置的飯盒。海內外中國人不禁汗顏，也感蒙羞，不禁追問，為什麼中國人民不會自律守紀，為人設想。中國近年經濟、政治不斷發展，成為世界強國，但品德教育，公民教育，以及人民的素質有待改進，國家形象有待提昇。

今年世界盃本月在南非展開序幕，全球十億人口通過各電子媒體觀看賽事，不少熱衷足球的球迷，不惜遠道前往南非，現場觀賽。但開賽不久，令世界各地人民矚目的卻是，南非球迷等候入場時，互相推撞，做成傷亡。在南非採訪的傳媒，在馬路上，在酒店內都遭遇搶劫，財物及貴重的攝錄器材被盜竊一空。全球人士對南非治安信心全失，不少已購票的人士，為保人身安全，把門票轉贈他人。

世界盃在二零零二年於南韓舉行，同一天空，截然不同的故事：南韓人的公德心，以及愛國精神，傳為佳話。當年球賽門票緊張，不少韓國人未能進場觀賽，大會安排在場外轉播，韓國人可以在一個廣場欣賞賽事。球賽結束後，韓國人觀賽的廣場上，沒有一塊垃圾，來自各地之觀賽人士以及各地傳媒，不禁對南韓人的自律守紀，為國家樹立良好形象的行為，敬佩不已，也深感這種情操，是全世界人民的好榜樣。

再看看我們身邊，本次考試期間，有一小撮同學作弊，一些同學穿著校服在考試後流連網吧，這些同學，罔顧老師的提點，忽略學校形象，我們感到非常失望，希望他們痛改前非，新學年有一個新開始。

中國文化崇尚自律，自尊自重，慎言慎獨。世界充滿誘惑，我們要懂得判別是非，把持自己，在任何時候也要做到表裡一致，於心無愧。

幾天後是香港回歸祖國十三年紀念日，我祝願祖國進一步繁榮昌盛。中國新一代同心協力，把祖國建設成為一個有民主、有民生、有民權、有科學、有文化、講文明的世界強國。

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
June , 2010

Mountains do not meet but people do. We, social animals come together when we are happy, in festivals and celebrations. We also come together when we are sad, especially in time of tragedies. People come together to share the sadness and loss, to connect, to comfort and to support each other. The tragic earthquake in Qinghai is no exception.

People of different ethnics and backgrounds come together, to express their sorrow, to convey their sympathy and to mourn for those who lost their lives, those who were injured and disabled. Our hearts are with parents who lost their children, orphans who lost their parents, families who lost their homes and livelihood.

We are touched by the selfless deeds of the heroes. Hong Kong volunteer Wong Fuk Wing, a truck driver who spent most of his life helping the needy on the mainland, was killed by the falling rubbles while he was rescuing orphans from an orphanage. A school principal timely evacuated 830 students. A teenage girl dug out nine members of her family with her bare hands. At level of 4000-metre altitude, in icy and chilly weather, civilians, volunteers, soldiers and the military lost no time in digging into the debris, searching for possible lives, offering relief work and distributing food and daily necessities. We take pride in all these glorious elements of human nature.

As what we always did in the past, in all natural disasters and catastrophes on the mainland, Hong Kong people are quick in coming together, to express our condolence, to convey our emotional support and join hands in raising funds. Just within a week, billions of dollars have been collected and raised by our HK government, charitable organizations, corporations and companies. More will be generated in the forthcoming fund raising campaigns. We have played a good role as a major city of our motherland, demonstrating good qualities of a leading cosmopolitan in the world.

Members of Ngan Po Ling College are also pitching in to show our concern and support. At the same time, we again learn to treasure what we have, to cherish the good relationships with our family members, our friends and peers. We also learn again not to take things for granted, but blessings in our life.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
May , 2010

I am going to share with you a real-life story about how a Hong Kong young man dreamed to travel around the world and how he accomplished his dream in 470 days.

In 2008 summer, in the midst of the Financial Tsunami, Dennis graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. At that time, the job market was competitive with declining employment rate. He was inspired by a career vacation work plan offered by the Labour Department and got a working visa in Ireland, being allowed to travel and to work in Europe in a year.

He has been dreaming to travel to Europe, get to know the multi-European culture and improve his English. He firmly set 3 goals: 1) to travel and widen his personal horizon 2) to polish up English proficiency 3) to experience and write an autobiography for himself.

Life was not easy in Ireland. After sending out 200 letters of application, he could manage to work as a janitor in a Chinese Restaurant and washed dishes. He was always scolded by his boss for being inefficient in washing. Later, he joined a fast food chain store and started to learn making hamburgers and preparing French Fries. He called home on alternative days, talking to his parents in Hong Kong, getting some emotional support. He felt homesick and suffered from having low self esteem. Nonetheless, he reminded himself of the 3 objectives he had set by sticking beautiful pictures of Europe on all walls of his living place.

With his positive attitude, he lived enthusiastically and made friends with different types of European people. He worked hard and lived economically. He managed to save up money to travel around the world in different places. Eventually, he could watch the most beautiful starry sky in Sahara Desert, the Northern Lights in Iceland, the most beautiful sunset at a beach in Greece and chat with primary school students in Croatia. He toured around North Africa, Russia, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Holland, 32 countries altogether in 470 days. Recently he has returned to Hong Kong, being contacted by publishers for printing out his autobiography. He has achieved all three goals, wider life experience, better English and the publication of his book.

Boys and Girls, Dennis has set a good example for us. ‘Where there is a will, there is away.”

Dare to dream and stick to it persistently, your dreams will turn into reality. Lead yourself by your own passion and inspiration, get your job done, get your dreams fulfilled.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
April , 2010

I would like to share with you an article I read last week about the way young people have used their brain and how this process has changed their brain and their mind differently as compared to previous generations.

Nowadays youngsters are growing up in a technological age in which communication technology and entertainment devices are more affordable and accessible. With the explosion of digital tools, a lot of young people have got used to be multitasking. When they are writing or typing, at the same time, they are also surfing the Internet, communicating with their friends via facebook or MSN, making calls on mobile, listening to music or watching television. They do this even when doing homework and revision.

Researchers stated that multitasking might help boost working memory as different areas of the brain are used at the same time. However, multitasking is a habit causing dividing attention, which has been proved to disrupt memory encoding and reduce subsequent recall, i.e. the memorization ability. Young people memorize less compared to the time when they only focus on one task.

Besides, studies revealed that multitaskers have taken in irrelevant information in memory. This implies multitasking may somehow reduce ability to filter out disturbance and thus weaken the speed and quality of task performance. It is testified by another study that students with laptops during lessons are obviously distracted by having access to the Internet and obviously suffered reductions on memorizing lecture content.

Neurological physiologists also confirm that the brain is a kind of "one-thing-at-a-time" machine. Although some people may seem pretty good at switching very rapidly from one task to another, they in fact cannot comprehend two things at once. It is also pointed out that multitasking involves an increase in application of "brain power" in a situation, which burns energy and de-energizes a person more quickly than working on a single task does.

In all, to work successfully we need to focus our attention. We have to maintain focus to comprehend the task well, especially we want to bring out creative mind, to generate new solutions to problems and to make good judgment and decisions. Multitasking would disrupt your memorization, inactivate your creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills. Thus, boys and girls, when you are studying or doing important tasks, set up an environment where you are in charge of what you focus on. No other distractions to dampen the quality of work.

Yesterday, Wayne Cheng of 6A shared with us that our science club had won a 2nd runner-up prize in a project “Run for the Green Campaign” in which science club members successfully invited commitment from Ngan Po Ling students, teachers and parents to live Green and work Green in order to protect our environment. In the same vein, recently, effort has been made by a large number of education institutes, schools and organizations which have pledged to step up measures to protect our environment. One of the major tasks that Hong Kong people have committed is to reduce food waste, leftovers after meals.

Every day, I am desperate to see, after lunch time, bags of food waste in lunch boxes are being tugged out from different classrooms. Ngan Po Ling students are wasting food. Hong Kong people are wasting food.

According to a report from a green group, more than 80% of Hong Kong people do not finish their meals, leaving us with the most leftovers among neighbouring regions, Taiwan and Singapore. While millions of people in the world are on the verge of starvation, we, Hong Kong people, should have some kind of sense of guilt when throwing away tons of leftovers every day.

According to government data, food waste makes up 35% of total garbage produced each day, while 78% of the 3,130 tonnes of food waste is produced in homes. Such a huge load of food waste causes not only a great burden on our landfills but also leads to unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. To help protect the environment, as well as to save money for yourselves, I would like to suggest some possible ways to reduce food wastage.

First of all, the main source of food wastage is lack of proper estimation. It mostly happens in parties, feasts and festivals, where people tend to order varieties of food and large dishes. Similar cases happen in our school picnic and Christmas parties. To avoid wasting food, try to develop a habit of taking or ordering the exact amount you can eat. For example, you may order small portions during lunch. Not only can it help reduce food waste but can also develop a healthy diet.

Secondly, make a shopping list and stick to it. Plan before you shop, buy what you need, so that you will not end up buying whole cart of unnecessary food. Besides, avoid buying over-portions of food or you may fail to consume them before the expiry date.

Thirdly, after cooking or when you have leftovers from a meal, refrigerate the remainders to eat at a later time. Besides, store food in a proper way so that it would not turn bad easily.

Wasting food is unkind as there are hundreds of million malnourished children in the world, thousands of people die every day because of starving. So boys and girls, take up moral responsibility and stop wasting food. With the implementation of the above measures, it is expected that food and associated waste can be reduced. Save your money, make you healthier, and help protect the environment.

Our school as well as Po Leung Kuk shall step up measures to be good green organizations. We shall help form good habits among our members and cherish the food, treasure our environment and keep the world a better place to live in.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
March , 2010

Gone is the Year of the Ox. We are now in the Year of the Tiger. In western culture, lion is the king, but in Eastern Asia, tigers symbolize the king of the earth. Tigers are often depicted as powerful, strong and fearless. They are courageous in the face of danger and challenges. On the other hand, tigers are also regarded as dependable and tender. They have strong sense of security and are protective of their families.

I hope every Nganpolingian can be as strong as tigers, confident and brave enough to explore the new and unusual; well equip yourselves and substantiate your bravery and confidence with good inner qualities.

We are now in the beginning of the new year, I hope you have set good goals for yourself. In the farewell morning assembly of our F7 students, they showed us that they all set goals to enter universities. They are very sure about what they want and what to do. I hope F5 students would also set goals to get good results in the school cert exam. Students at other levels are advised to set goals to get improvement in different aspects. These goals are not just empty words and should always be in front of you, giving you a sense of direction and a sense of purpose in life. With such healthy self assurance, you are willing to accept responsibility, not only to yourselves but also to your family, to our school and to our society.

These virtues are old and simple, yet they are always true and beautiful. I wish all Nganpolingians are confident, fearless and caring individuals, dependable family members and competitive citizens of the society.

I wish you all a joyful and adventurous new year.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
Februrary , 2010

This is the start of 2010, I wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Very recently, mass media and members in the society frequently have been categorizing people by means of the time they were born in. People who were born after 1980 are called ‘post eighties’, those who were born after 1990 are called ‘post nineties’ and quite recently I learn that ‘post nineties’ are also called ‘Hong Kong Kids’ (「港孩」). Most university students are ‘post eighties’ and most secondary students are ‘post nineties’, are ‘HK Kids’.

People in different age categories are analysed and are considered as having different attitudes, characters, ways of thinking and behaviour.

Many descriptions about the ‘post eighties’ and ‘post nineties’ are quite negative. I would like to share two aspects of such descriptions. I hope you will not feel bad and can take them as information for better self understanding, self awareness and hints for improvement.

Most ‘post nineties’ are considered as living in comfort and leading materialistic life. They were born in time of economic prosperity, and have been living in well off society. They have larger amount of pocket money, beautiful stationery, personal computer and trendy sports wear. All these materialistic things are enjoyed without the need of making effort and thus young people easily take things for granted.

Besides, analysis also regards a lot of ‘post nineties’ as lacking social interaction skills as most of them live in high rise buildings and concrete jungles. They rarely have the chance to run wildly in countryside like the previous generations. Their leisure activities are not fishing, flying kites, playing with pebbles or playing simple social games. Most of the time, they sit in front of the computer to play games, browsing websites and communicating with friends via MSN or facebook.

They need not vocalize their feelings by words, or express themselves by facial expression in front of their peers. What they communicate with are virtual people in computer but not friends and counterparts with physical existence.

Living with rich supply of materials has given us convenience and comfort. But it may dampen our ability to face adversity, self management skills and survival skills. If we get used to living in comfort, in face of challenges and difficult tasks, working hard and being perseverant to accomplish will become a big hurdle.

Computers widen our perspectives in life, empower us with the control of information and enhance instant communication with large number of people living far away just with one click. However, over reliance on computer, MSN and face book will weaken our verbal communication skill which is a must for successful careers in the 21 century.

I hope Ngan Po Ling teenagers can be more aware of the inadequacies imposed by the culture of your generation. Please train up yourself to have stronger will to face challenges and adversities. Please also train up yourself to be more verbally communicative by getting socialized with friends, by acknowledging people around by a warm greeting aloud and by practicing conversing naturally with people with good English and Chinese. With such, I feel what you are doing will generate life long good and happiness for yourself.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
January , 2010

Last week our third cultural collage ended happily and fruitfully with compliments and praises given by celebrities, Consuls from Singapore, New Zealand and China, principals and friends in education circle.

We were also delighted to see our students, teachers and parents demonstrate very good team work and play the role of good hosts gracefully and impressively. Our hospitality was well received, teachers and principals of our sister schools appreciated what we have done to make their stay in Hong Kong very memorable.

To our students, the experience was indeed eye opening and educational. What impressed me a lot was not only the performance of Nganpolingians, but also the noticeable changes among overseas buddies. We have had three cultural collage since our commencement in 2004. This time, we saw considerable changes among these three batches of oversea students.

Singapore students have been groomed to be very eloquent in language. They can speak very fluently in both English and Putonghua. They are overwhelmed with confidence. They are extrovert and sociable. Previously, people consider Singapore people as conservative but the Singapore Government have educated their younger citizens to be very competitive and aggressive.

Chinese students from Shanghai have also changed for the better. We feel they have improved their spoken English with better accent and articulation. Shanghai junior students could decently present an English drama on the stage and senior students did not have any problems in understanding our lessons in English. They are sending their articles to us very soon for publication and we shall soon get to know many of them are good writers as well.

New Zealand students are polite, patient and inquisitive. They asked a lot of questions during their stay especially during the science laboratory visits in Universities.

All these have given us insights in holistic perspective and personal education for individuals in Hong Kong. Teenagers in big cities and cosmopolitans in the world have been educated to become very communicative in language, more open-minded, more knowledgeable about the world, more conscious about things happened around.

I hope all NPL students will be growing to adults with better language ability, good knowledge, wider global perspectives, be more socially competent and more adaptive to the fast changing world. In this way, you will become more competitive among your counterparts in the global village.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
December , 2009

In recent years, after we have successfully got the hosting right of the East Asian Games 2009, many Hong Kong people have pledged to create legend. Last week, Hong Kong people were overwhelmed with pride and joy as Hong Kong has really produced sporting legends in the East Asian Games. Our Hong Kong Men’s Soccer Team has beaten its Japanese opponents to take the gold medal. Other Hong Kong athletics teams have also reaped the best-ever results with 110 medals including 26 gold, 31 silver and 53 bronze. The total number of medals we won this time exceeds the total medals we received in all four previous East Asian Games.

There were great moments over the 12 days of competition. We held a legendary opening ceremony with the backdrop of our beautiful Victoria Harbour. We hosted the game decently and successfully in the whole process. In different events, we won beautifully in new sports such as squash, windsurfing, cycling and traditional sports such as table tennis, cue sports and badminton.

Winning medals at important sporting events requires years of hard work and lots of sacrifice. It also needs determination and unfailing competitive spirit on the part of sportsmen.

The results show sports in Hong Kong have made great improvements over the past four years. The happy returns have demonstrated Hong Kong’s athletics’ strengths and perseverance and started a new chapter in Hong Kong’s sports history. Our performance in Asian Games has also brought pride and glory to Hong Kong and raised our international status

In Ngan Po Ling College, many of our school teams also perform impressively in different external competitions. Our Choir, Marching Band, Handchimes Team, Swimming Team, Table Tennis, Badminton Team, our Debating Team and our English Drama Team have been Champions in different categories. Before the excitement and exhilaration of success and victory, behind the pride and glory, there must be good coaches and teachers, hard work, perseverance, sacrifice of playtime, leisure time and postponement of fun and satisfaction.

This is also very true in academic achievements, success is generated from hard work and perseverance. The first term examination is coming. Please plan your time and study properly, set good target to improve and excel, try to accomplish your goal and you will feel no regret for what you have done. Postpone your play time and you can play hard and have fun during the Lunar New Year holiday. For F.5 and F.7 students, please sustain your perseverance a bit longer and play hard in June and your very long summer vacation.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
18, December , 2009

In our last junior morning assembly, Ms Iu shared with us the impressive story of Nick Vujicic, a limbless Australian who has no arms and no legs but only two small feet and two little toes. With his optimistic attitude and perseverance, he has overcome his physical disability. Not only does he take care of himself, learn to swim and play tennis, but also manage to write by computer with his two toes, get double degree in Accounting and Finance Planning. And now, he is an inspirational and motivational speaker, giving speeches worldwide, encouraging young people to live a full and meaningful life.

Similar to Nick, in recent days, Hong Kong people are also impressed by our HK “Stephen Hawking” – Lau Hiu Fung, who suffered from muscular dystrophy at the age of eight. Lau can barely move his limbs and studied in a special school for disabled children in primary and secondary school. With his strong will and perseverance and the encouragement of his parents, he got 26 marks in HKCEE and entered The HK Polytechnic University to study engineering.

Over the years, Lau’s mother has accompanied him to class, to help him get on board of public transport to University from his home in Ma On Shan every day, and to help him turn over every page when he studied. Despite his deteriorating health which has been the biggest obstacle in his daily life and in his studies, he worked hard, sometimes staying on campus to talk to the professor until 11:00 pm. He can barely move his limbs and could not write with his hands, but he managed to type by using a chopstick to tap the keys on a computer keyboard, and completed a 70-pages thesis for graduation. Eventually he was granted with first-class honours in The Polytechnic University and has been on the dean’s honours list for outstanding academic performance. Now, he is employed by the University’s faculty of engineering.

Both Lau Hiu Fung and Nick Vujicic are physically, severely disabled, but both aim to live without regret every day, work hard, study hard and try their best to contribute to the community.

We people of physical fitness, have to treasure what we have and have to work hard to lead our life to be fulfilling and to be of no regret.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
November , 2009

今年十月一日是中華人民共和國建國六十周年的大日子，在這個具有重大意義的日子裏，我們身為中國人，特別感到驕傲。

在過去六十年來，中華大地滄桑巨變。在改革開放三十多年以來，中國人以嶄新的面貌屹立於世界。面對金融風暴的今天，中國的經濟仍然高速發展，國內生產總值保持年均百分之八的增幅；科技發展，舉世矚目，神州五號、六號、七號載人航天飛船的升空，中國已經晉身世界航天領域的強國；教育以及體育事業也是突飛猛進，綜合國力日益增強‧‧‧，這些都在向全世界展示：中國是騰飛的蛟龍！

香港與中國的發展關係密切。百多年以來，香港從一個小小的漁村，發展成為一個國際金融中心。今天，香港背靠祖國，與中國內地建立緊密經貿關係，使香港經濟以及各行業進一步發展，鞏固香港作為國際金融、貿易和航運中心的地位。

展望將來，未來三十年，香港與中國的關係在『一國兩制』之基礎上，在經濟上與祖國實現一體化，同時在文化政治上也共同發展。

同學們，昨天是一頁翻過的歷史；今天是一個嶄新的起點；明天是一幅宏偉的藍圖。二十一世紀，中國這條蛟龍將更進一步翻騰世界。作為中國的新一代，你們必須加深對祖國的認識，把握這個百年難得一遇的機會，好好裝備自己，為社會和國家的發展作出貢獻。

Last week, one of our F7 schoolmates shared with us on the topic of compensated sex. He condemned the confusing value among some teenagers on trading one’s body with money. He appealed for more value and moral education in school, more sex education in family and more open dialogues about sex between parents and children.

Similar concerns have been aroused in American and European countries about teen pornography on web. Some teenagers have got into a habit of viewing pornographic materials on the internet. Some may even send or share naked photos through their social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Adults may attribute all these to the speedy advancement of technology, the easy accessibility and the overflow of improper information via computer devises.

To partly resolve the problem, some parents and teachers try to monitor youngsters’ cell phone and computer use by means of websafety and internetsafety software.

Family and school education of course play very important roles to rectify wrong perception and attitude about sex and to counter balance the overdosage of skewed sex value conveyed in the mass media and on web.

However, all these can never take the place of good self control and wise judgement among teenagers.

We have to form good habits to meet good standards honestly even when we are under nobody’s supervision. We have to be scrupulously honest to ourselves, even when we are alone at home, even when we are alone in front of the computer. We know what is right, what is wrong; what is proper, what is improper. What is needed is strong will to put theory into practice.

We should not let our impulse get the better of ourselves. Resisting temptation, having the intelligence to say ‘No’, and protecting our good self and well being can be practiced and trained up.

This is a valuable life skill and priceless competency which do us good life long.

As a start of a new school year, I would like to share with you the insights of a very popular bestseller – Outliers, which has fascinated millions of readers worldwide just within one year since it was published a year ago in 2008. I feel it is a good book that book lovers shouldn’t miss. The book tells stories of high achievers, stories of success. I like the chapter ‘Ten Thousand Hour Rule’ a lot.

Some people believe that high achievers are innate talents. The answer is partly YES. Achievers are talents, but what make them excel is perpetual practice and preparation. The role of innate talent plays smaller role while the role of effort and preparation play bigger.

Researchers followed through talented world class musicians, violinists, top rock band Beatles and computer giant Bill Gates. They found all these outliers were given the opportunity to practice on task purposefully and single-mindedly to get better well over 30 to 40 hours a week. When they excel and achieve, the total practice time must exceed ten thousand hours.

Beatles is a famous rock band who started playing together in 1957 and became renowned worldwide 7 years later. Within these 7 years, they had been invited to play in clubs, seven nights a week every night till twelve thirty. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed twelve hundred times. Together with the time of practice, Beatles had practiced 10,000 hours more.

Bill Gates is one of the world’s Computer Giants, the founder of Microsoft, and one of the richest men in the world. Bill Gates dropped out from Harvard and worked in a computer centre. He had dedicated his time to computer programming incessantly every day and during weekends, sometimes 20 or 30 hours nonstop.

Bill Gates had been practicing programming constantly for seven consecutive years. When he established Microsoft, and became a world class computer tycoon and eventually one of the wealthiest people in the world, he had accumulated that ten thousand hours benchmark.

Ten thousand hours sounds like a magic number of greatness. The picture emerged from all these studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery for a world class expert. Even talents’ brains need this long to assimilate all necessary qualities to achieve superb mastery.

Researchers also pointed out the importance of parents and teachers. Experts do not know how to be an expert. They excel with good guidance. Throughout their practice journey, besides their own perseverance, they need to have parents and good coaches who encourage and support them, help them to get some kind of extraordinary opportunities to practice, guide them on the right path, adjust their errors and lead them to excellence, to be expert.

The studies of Gladwell, the author, could not find any ‘natural’ professionals who could float effortlessly to the top. Researches suggest what distinguish a top class achiever from others is how hard he or she works.

Boys and girls, it has been proved that there are no natural high achievers. Don’t expect that you can fly high without making effort. No high achievers excel just because of their innate talents. Please set your target, grasp the opportunities provided, follow good way guided by teachers and parents, work and practice incessantly. A few years later, I hope many of you can tell and share your success stories.

Dr. Hong Lo Chi Chun
Principal
September , 2009