Ming the Minibus
The majority of books that Cantonese-speaking youngsters use to learn English have few landmarks or characters with which they can identify. SKer and NET teacher, Tom Beckett, came up with a novel way to encourage children to enjoy the English language by creating a character out of one of HK’s icons – a mode of transportation familiar to all of his students – the minibus.
Ming the Minibus will soon be a series of books written by Beckett with illustrations by a bright young artist he chanced to meet in Shenzhen, Lily Lei. Lily’s paintings bring to life not only a green-topped minibus with a huge smile and blue eyes but also a number of actual Sai Kung landscapes and people.
Although the first is not yet officially published, Ming has already started to educate Sai Kung kids through the generosity and foresight of the #1A minibus franchise. All #1A minibuses have a big round sticker on the back instructing kids to “Always Wear a Seatbelt”.
It’s a cinch that young children will buckle up faster when a cute smiling minibus tell them to do so than when their parents or the driver does!