Project background
Dear Sir/Madam,
I write to seek the participation of your school in a project to promote the extensive development in two areas: the English language and the martial art of Wing Chun.
Several months ago, I took part in the "LOVE IDEAS, LOVE HK" programme initiated by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Unfortunately my project was rejected in the initial screening for eligibility before the public voting, perhaps because the selection board viewed that it is a profit-making project (actually it is not) and that I have emigrated overseas (actually I have recently returned to Hong Kong). As a result I have failed to obtain any funding for my project.
The fact is I have retired, and very much wish to serve the community with all my heart for the rest of my life, to pay back for what I have benefited from it. In view of the above, I am willing to provide to your school totally free of charge the service laid out in the submission schedule below, given the project is properly supported with publicity and training venues provided by your school. In short, my project involves myself teaching Wing Chun in English to classes of students for 50 hours for free, on condition that each student promises to teach Wing Chun in English to three new students for 50 hours for free. Then the three new students will follow suit and pass down the teaching of Wing Chun like a family tree.
You may still suspect my motivation for making a lot of effort and spending money (on miscellaneous expenses) on this project, which needs some explanation.
As I may have suggested, I am retired with enough time and money for my own disposal and accordingly have no intention of making money. On the other hand, I have good knowledge and a lot of passion for teaching both English and Wing Chun, and a strong desire to promote extensive development in these two areas. Moreover, even at my age (63) I am still full of energy and feel young at heart, always committed to be of some use to the public.
With your kind participation in this project, the lingering problems of deteriorating health and unsatisfactory English standard of people in Hong Kong can potentially change for the better in the foreseeable future.
If you are interested in the following project, please email your contact details to me so that we may discuss plans of carrying out the project.
Best regards,
Roland Kong
Schedule
First of all, you may have a look at the videos below that illustrate my teaching of Wing Chun in English, to better understand my "Learn Wing Chun, Learn English" project (the students are supposed to watch the video for each one-hour lesson before and after the actual lesson, to consolidate what they have learnt and to enable themselves to teach their own students more easily):
The following are the details of the project (as originally submitted to the "LOVE IDEAS, LOVE HK" selection board):
Funding Category
$25000 or below – non-student individual applicant
Name of Project
Learn Wing Chun, Learn English
Target
To enable any Hong Kong citizen the chance to develop good health and self-defence, and to learn an international language
Details of the Project
Following the great interest in Wing Chun with the introduction of quite a number of "Ip Man" movies, Hong Kong people’s craving for learning Wing Chun has dramatically increased.
I have learnt Wing Chun for many years from Master Leung Sheung, the first student of Grandmaster Ip Man in Hong Kong, and have been the Chairman of Leung Sheung Wing Chun Association. Further, I have been teaching Wing Chun part-time continuously all these years.
On the other hand, I graduated respectively from Wah Yan College (Kowloon), Hong Kong University, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Macquarie University in Australia (where I had my Master Degree in Applied Linguistics), and over decades I have been a secondary English teacher in Hong Kong and have since lived in Australia for 17 years shortly before now. As a result I pride myself on my English proficiency. So began my idea for the project.
According to the project, I first teach Wing Chun in English to classes of students for 50 hours for free, over a span of about six months, on condition that each student would promise to teach Wing Chun in English to three new students for 50 hours for free. Then the three new students would follow suit and pass down the teaching of Wing Chun like a family tree. The number of students learning Wing Chun (and English) will grow rapidly within a short time.
Each student is required to undertake the duty of learning and teaching Wing Chun, in the form of a pledge. To publicise the project and to help students develop a sense of belonging, a website will be established, with a family-tree-like structure showing the students their appropriate positions in this big family of Wing Chun. Moreover, a communication network will be built up to facilitate interactive activities among students, thus enhancing the improvement of English and Wing Chun skills.
In addition, workshops will be regularly organised and videos for each Wing Chun lesson can be accessed from the Website after being uploaded onto YouTube, enabling the students ample opportunities for continuous education and enrichment.
Given the success of the project, the lingering problems of deteriorating health and unsatisfactory English standard of Hong Kong people will substantially change for the better in the foreseeable future.