Expected Salary

It's a "dream" about a group of youngsters aged around 16, finished their F.3 or F.5 study with no job offer, not qualify to continue their study, no working experience.

I was appointed to give a class for the Growth Development course on workplace English. 12 pairs of innocent eyes looking at me, wondering who's the guy standing in front of them, teaching them all kind of business letters, making jokes occasionally, sharing my working experience with them. A stranger just intruded into their class, without a proper self introduction, I started teaching.

Everything went well, from their eyes, I saw the desire of studying, I saw 12 innocent souls sitting in front of me, eagering for an office job. I felt sorry to them, deep inside my heart and my mind, I knew they wouldn't have a smooth and direct path on their career and their life. So hard. When they asked me how's the office life, and when I listened to their expectation, I felt and knew they were not ready to get into the real world yet, I just can't imagineto ask a kid to go to war, to fight, to kill, to stab, a sour feeling came up. I just wanna say, "Kids, go back and study hard, the world will never be the one you expected". Even though I knew their chance of gettinga good job was so low, I did try my best to help them to equip themselves, of course, I taught them to lie whenever "applicable".

It came to the part of teaching them to write the resume, I was suprised / shocked, besides the personal details, most of them had nothing to write down on the resume, some of them even forgot the name of their school, how come? It's their Alma Mater, you will never the place where you spent your best time in life. Came to the qualification, most of them scored ZERO in their HKCEE, or never taken the public exam, I can now see in their eyes, there were hopeless and helpness. Of course I did try my best to help them to make up something, of course not on the qualification, at least help them to make up something in their "extracurricular activities" and "social services", it made me feel better.

When came to the EXPECTED salary, I have never never expected they wrote down HKD 4,000 per month (or HKD 48,000 p.a.) as the expected salary, I didn't believe my eyes, I asked again, "it's 4000, right?". I felt ashamed, when I looked at the shoes, the jeans, the jacket I was wearing that day, how many months do they need to work in order to buy all the stuff on my body. My heart sinked, I was speechless for a while, I held my tears, looking at their resume again, how cruel? They shouldn't be here, they should be at school studying, playing, laughing, gossiping, doing all kind of things that teenagers do. 4000, what can they do with that money? Are they going to work for that 4000 in their whole life? Are they destined to be like that? I didn't know what to say, I tried my best to help them to get prepared, to be ready.

At last, they said they were happy I came to teach and share the experience with them, they said the business letters I taught were useful. No matter what happen next, I can see dreams, goals in their eyes, in their voice, I felt 12 thankful innocent hearts. People live with dreams, if someone doesn't dream anymore, his soul is shrinking, drowning. Dreams give us power, energy to fight for what we want, I truly wish the 12 innocent souls can get what they want, to have happy lives, keep dreaming and fight for their future.