Teacher as Kindred Carrot
By Hailey Cheng and Pia Tuominen
Whimsical Mr. Ben Walker with a wafer cone
Mr Ben Walker is a secondary school teacher here at RCHK, you may have spotted his merry presence around the 3rd floor English hub. Although he proclaims to be an ordinary man, it is evident that he possesses a bubbling charm and energy, encouraging his students to delve into the world of language. In fact, he is so excellent that he has gained the prestigious title of “Head of English.” And it was his unique, theatrical teaching style and vigorous passion that made him an obvious choice for our next interview. We thought we would fire off a few questions to see what made this Exciteacher tick.
What is your favorite literary device?
Having a favorite literary device enriches your reading experience, provoking joyful feelings whenever you encounter that literary device, and can elevate writing from a simple chain of events to an emotional and compelling story.
Do you know what Mr Walker’s favorite literary device is? It’s a ‘portmanteau’, a linguistic blend of two or more words, their meanings combined to create a new word. An example he gave was: ”’Micro’ is from micro compartments, micro computers, and then ‘soft’ is from the word software. So you put those together, Microsoft.” The best part for him is how the blended word is formed. He says, “It's creative, it's fun, but it still doesn't disrupt the meaning of what those words are in any way.” This device allows him to see the clever artistry in everyday words.
Fatherly Mr. Ben Walker with his two children
What is your favorite article of clothing that you own?
Apart from free dress days, the teachers at school adhere to more uniform, ‘smart casual’ clothing, so teachers’ personal style can be a strange and fascinating topic. Mr. Walker is not particularly interested in fashion, but he expresses a personal connection with his Arsenal football shirt. He imagines being a player himself, reflecting his youthful spirit. He states that: “I still have that kind of childlike fantasy in my head that I play for Arsenal, so whenever I put the shirt on, I imagine that I am one of the players. Well, I should know better at my age. [My favorite article of clothing would] probably be my Arsenal shirt because I still feel like a kid running around [in the shirt].”
What were your jobs before becoming a teacher?
Before becoming a teacher, Mr. Walker had three jobs. First, he worked in a shoe shop called Shoe Express, in Brixton, a town in England. Mr. Walker describes it as a pound shop for shoes, saying, “... You could get a cheap pair of shoes for school, for the equivalent of 30-40 Hong Kong dollars. It was really cheap stuff, but it made a lot of money... And I got paid a terrible amount of money. Because I was 16… I was getting just under 30 HKD an hour. And at the time I thought that was good money because when you're 16, any money's good money, right? I loved it because I loved meeting people, but the stock room always smelled a bit funny.”
He also worked in a clothes shop for the brand River Island, but his favorite job was for a broadcasting company called Sky, known for sports channels. Mr Walker worked from 7:00 in the evening to about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning the next day, making teas, coffees and sandwiches, giving those to presenters. “That was fun,” the jolly man said, “and I used to meet so many famous sports stars. So one of the shows I used to work on quite a lot was cricket and I would meet some of my favourite heroes: David Gallup, Michael Hampton.” This particular job of Mr. Walker’s already sounded like an incredibly rewarding experience, but it gets even better. He confidently proclaims, “The best job I ever did there was working for one hour and I got the equivalent of 1000 HKD. It's still to this day the best paid job I've ever had, where all I needed to do was to watch the football on the screen… So when a team scored a goal, all I had to do was to press the button… But it was mind-numbingly boring because you're just watching the screen and waiting for something to happen.”
If you were a vegetable what would you be?
An important fact to know is that Mr. Walker is a proud pescatarian. To sustain this lifestyle, one likely enjoys a substantial amount of vegetables. But what vegetable does Mr. Walker resonate with the most? A hint: it has roots, is a significant source of vitamin A, and typically appears in the color between red and yellow in the spectrum…
Mr. Walker graciously says: “I would choose myself to be a carrot. I wouldn't want to be ginger, I wouldn't want to be orange - no offense for anyone who is orange or ginger. It just has lots of really good qualities. It's a vegetable, it's anti-inflammatory, it's got great vitamin B in three levels. The rumour being that it's good for your eyesight. That is actually not true… But it is good for fighting against cancer. Anti-inflammatory and really good vitamin levels. Yeah, I'm definitely good for carrots.”
If you were to eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Although Mr. Walker loves carrots, would he eat them exclusively for the rest of his life? He considered eating only chocolate biscuits or salmon, but nutritional and environmental factors caused him not to select those foods. He chose to consume some egg fried rice with his favorite piquant dressing: Chiuchow chilli oil.
Mr. Walker reverently speaks on his favorite foods: “I love Chiuchow sauce … I shouldn’t… it's not really good. It's very salty and stuff. My God, I love that salt… And I first had it like 2 weeks after being in Hong Kong, about 16 to 17 years ago. And when I had it for the first time - I grew up in a Jamaican family where spices were very normal to have in food, right? So we'd have jerk chicken, jerk this, that spicy seasoning. But when I had Chiuchow chilli oil, it was kind of like I fell in love with food for the first time. I started having it on everything. I started having it on rice, on pasta. Sometimes even on a salad…”
Do you have recommendations for non-fiction books?
Non-fiction books are an excellent way to learn about topics in great detail, only reading fiction can limit the amount of knowledge one gains. As an avid expert on English, Mr. Walker could certainly provide eye-opening and appropriate books for those looking for non-fiction to enhance their field of knowledge.
The first book is called ‘The Wager’ by David Graham. He comments, “...it was about a ship and the controversies as to the crew, what was going on within that ship.”
The second is ‘Hiroshima’ by John Hersey. Mr. Walker retells, ”It frightened me… It was a battered old copy and I knew what happened with Hiroshima and the nuclear bomb and things like that. But this story was great because what it did was give you little like vignettes of what people have gone through. So these are kind of anecdotal examples and stories of people who survived the nuclear bomb… It's not a happy read, but it really did give me so much more information about nuclear war.”
He also recommends ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer’ by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. “That was fascinating and just gave so much information in terms of what they were doing to build the bomb and that sense of Oppenheimer realising that he was on the cusp of something quite amazing scientifically. About how it would change the world forever. So it's interesting information for Hiroshima as a result of the bomb being created, but Oppenheimer and his thoughts behind creating something that dangerous.”
Finally, he recommends any text by James Baldwin or Maya Angelou.
Why did you pursue the path of becoming an English teacher?
Like the majority of teachers, Mr. Walker never wanted to become a teacher. However, he didn’t like his job at Sky, the broadcasting company because he didn’t want to spend his Saturday nights “going into work and missing out with [his] friends.”
Therefore, Mr. Walker left the job to become a teacher, thinking, “you know, teaching's always going to be a bonus. It'll be something that I could probably travel with.” But he mainly decided to become an educator because he loves working with children.
If you have ever wondered where Mr. Walker gained his best qualities in the classroom, it is from his time volunteering at summer camps. He says: “I loved it so much that I volunteered to go back every year… I would work with children who were struggling financially, their parents didn't really have anywhere for them to go. And I would just do activities with them and keep them company. In some cases, I was working with people who were older than I was. So there were people in their late 20s, and I was 20, and I'd be like, ‘I'm still at uni and this is someone who has drug issues…’. It was awkward at first because when you're 20 and 27, that gap seems huge, right? But at the time, I just felt like ‘this is somebody who just wants company, wants help, right?’”
He continues, “And it was only when I decided to do the [teaching] course, I thought ‘I could do this.’ I love my job. I think I've mentioned that in lessons many times before. I think it's one of the best jobs in the world… a noble duty. It's an honour to work with students. And I thrive with the responsibility that comes with it. I think it's one of the best jobs you can have.”
When is your birthday? Do you believe your date of birth influences who you are?
According to astrologists, the alignment of celestial bodies at the exact moment you jumped into the world can have a profound impact on the trajectory of your life. Mr. Walker is not a believer of this pseudoscientific practice, but his sister definitely is. Mr. Walker is a Pisces - “born on the 3rd of March - I won't tell you the year, but I'm older than [30], younger than 60 (haha)… My sister believes in this, quite strongly, and she feels that my perfect partner was going to be someone who was a Scorpio, somebody who was going to be energetic and all this sort of stuff.” He cheekily admitted that he coincidentally dated a few Scorpios, but didn’t find them as fun as they were made out to be. “And anyway,” he finally declares, “that whole bind into the stars and then aligning things like that is not my thing. So no, I don't believe that your date of birth influences who you are.”
Where are we most likely to find you outside of school?
It can be hard to imagine teachers outside of the classroom, but if you were to ever encounter a wild Mr. Walker in his natural habitat, be not afraid if you encounter him in the following places.
“I like to run a lot.” the man declared, “You'd probably find me running around Sai Kung. I like to take my girls to restaurants down in TKO… So don't really hang out much in Sai Kung.”
As a teacher of English media, Mr. Walker is also passionate about forms of art, such as film. He often goes to cinemas to watch movies by himself. Unfortunately, he thinks, “...that's probably going to die soon. The art of going to the cinema, because it's getting more and more expensive. Because more people have streaming access at home, movies seem to be going from the cinema to TV in a very quick amount of time. I'm worried about the death of cinema.”
Furthermore, he loves to watch plays. “If there's something going on in Hong Kong, I like to go and watch some shows, whether it's a student production or whether it's something from overseas for a tour.”
What is your favourite scent?
Scent is one of the 5 major senses of the human body, so it can be a powerful tool to conjure deep memories and emotions. This is because the part of the brain that manages olfactory responses has direct connections to the hippocampus and amygdala, responsible for memory and emotions, respectively. Therefore, the scents that resonate with a person can tell us a lot about them. One scent Mr. Walker likes is the scent of burning wood and petrol, associating that with Twix chocolate bars, a common find at gas stations.
“It just always reminds me of being in the car with my granddad and used to take me to the petrol station… My granddad would put… the nozzle into the tank and I'd get that smell of gasoline and I'm like, ‘that’s so good’. And then I would go to the shop - There's always like an adjoining shop where… I would get myself Twix religiously, every single time - the Twix. So I associate the smell of gas at a station like that with a chocolate bar.”
However, his favorite smell is sandalwood. “It just makes me feel relaxed,” he says.
He recoils in disgust at the mention of lavender, as his mum used lavender scented air-freshener in his toilets at home.