English in Hong Kong Just Ain't That Hot

In HK, English is supposedly one of the official languages. It's the language of choice in the civil service and the highly educated members of business and government all speak impeccable English even with Queen's English accents.

However, after staying awhile, you'll find that quite a large majority of the population is illiterate in English. It's quite disappointing actually. Many of my mainland Chinese friends marvel at the 'international' atmosphere that's been created in HK and all the great opportunities for practising the language in an English environment but the truth is if a student doesn't attend a school that has English as its medium of instruction, students are behind the eight ball when it comes to understanding and conversing in English. Most Chinese I've met don't speak or understand much English at all and it's a real shame for this international city.

For example, recently my internet connection went down and I had to call the broadband company. Most big companies here have service in the 3 languages, Cantonese, English and putonghua. I pressed #2 for English as my Cantonese/Putonghua vocabulary on computer related stuff isn't that great. When I got to an agent, he answered the phone in Cantonese and after I asked if he spoke English he said in really broken English that he'd transfer me to someone else who spoke better English. But after putting me on hold, he said other agents were busy so he'd try to help me. I resorted to using Cantonese to help him do his job better. It was a pretty pathetic customer service call. I hope for his sake that the call wasn't recorded for further review!

In general though, HK English is hit or miss. Some HKers speak English very well and many go to western countries to vacation, work and study. Hong Kong definitely doesn't have the gross slaughter of the English language on the signage AKA Chinglish that plagues mainland China though.

In my opinion, schools which employ Cantonese or mother tongue education as they call it are really hurting the future of students. Whether they like it or not, HK is increasingly becoming dependent on business and trade with the mainland. And on the mainland the language of choice is putonghua (Mandarin). Cantonese is only useful in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta area. Mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan all employ putonghua as medium of instruction in their schools, regardless of the local dialects in the towns and cities theya re located. In effect, the kids learn and are required to speak in putonghua while outside of class and at home, they probably speak the local dialect. I believe this is the way it should be. Parents should be able to choose between having their kids study in English or putonghua schools. While they're at it, the schools should begin to teach simplified Chinese characters as well so they can read and write what their fellow mainland Chinese write.

I always admired Singaporeans who were fluent in both Mandarin Chinese and English. HK needs to follow Singapore's example, but I hope it doesn't take on the Singaporean English accent!