Having spent 30 years in Toronto, Canada, Lianne is a native English speaker with extensive teaching experience. She holds a bachelor’s degree and three master’s degrees in Psychology, Architecture, Cultural Studies and Fine Art from McGill University, University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University and the Royal College of Art respectively. 

Lianne has ample experience teaching students in Hong Kong, having taught a wide range of subjects, including English, Science, Math, Social Sciences, Art History and Art. These courses have taken place in primary schools, secondary schools and private tutorial centres at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Within the university milieu, she has assumed positions as graduate teaching assistant, guest lecturer, and guest critic for undergraduate students. Lianne has also lectured in a museum context.

On becoming a teacher:

Teaching for me is a calling. I recall being in my study at 30 years of age, completing my Master’s dissertation when I had an epiphany that I am a teacher. The realization brought me to tears. From a more rational perspective, I do believe that teaching calls on my various strengths, including an interest in connecting with others, a deep and wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and ability, and excellent communication skills. I enjoy giving students a new perspective on the world. I enjoy imparting a new lens with which they can understand the world.

Other interests that reflect on my personality as a teacher:

I am very creative, and this is reflected in my pursuits as an artist and architect. I understand the world with a unique lens, one inflected by my multidisciplinary formation in Science, Architecture, Cultural Studies and Art,  and I use this multifaceted perspective to enhance or guide my lessons.

A person I find inspirational and why:

Michelangelo is someone who truly garners my admiration. He was a Renaissance man, meaning he cultivated himself in many different disciplines. He was an artist, architect and poet. Not only was he skilled in many areas, but was able to execute a vast body of incredibly beautiful and immense works, notably amongst them, the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was not only brilliant intellectually but possessed an ability to apply this intellectual brilliance to actual works on a grand scale. This meant that he possessed the qualities of a leader, with gifts of persuasion and the ability to guide many towards a unified goal.

My uncle, a pioneering cardiologist and surgeon, was always a personal inspiration. He was ingenious, very well accomplished but also possessed a kind of humility and concern for others I found very compelling.

Top tip to younger self:

Follow your heart courageously. Be true to yourself and chase your passions wholeheartedly, and without knowing necessarily where they will lead because life is short. Trust yourself. When you look back, everything will connect.