CHINA DAILY HK EDITION
I get numerous Cantonese robocalls that I usually answer, not only because the callers show up as “Unknown” on my phone, but because of my ongoing quest to gauge how unknown basic English is by local callers as well.
“Speak English ….”
Before I can even get to the “Please?” the disconnect click and ensuing buzz tone let me know in no uncertain words the caller did not speak or understand English.
Even more annoying is ordering any item at an American fast food outlet in Hong Kong and having the order taker walk away to get someone who understands “number 8, please”. When it comes to taxi drivers, forget about it! Let’s not go there.
I am conducting my own unofficial poll on the decline of the use of the English language in Hong Kong. This is because there is no official research data I can find which compares locals’ knowledge of English before the 1997 handover with that of the present.
The only significant report around is the EF English Proficiency Index, which produces an annual report it describes as the world’s largest ranking of English skills. It ranks Hong Kong 31st among 63 countries or regions, below South Korea and Taiwan. “The city’s proficiency scores have declined steadily since 2007,” its latest report states, “calling into question the city’s reputation as an English-speaking hub for business.”
The government’s policy of mother-tongue teaching has been widely blamed for the decline in the number of local English speakers. Historically, most schools in Hong Kong taught in English, albeit with a smattering of Chinese in many of them. In September 1998, most secondary schools in Hong Kong were ordered to switch to Chinese teaching. Some 114 schools were granted exemptions to teach in English. But about a third of them have failed the complicated requirements to do so.
If Hong Kong wants to get back on track as a global center of business of the future — as it has been in the past in trading, shipping, finance and tourism — it has to get off its current Sino-centric focus on everything, including Putonghua, and get back to business basics. The English language must take its rightful place in all academic curriculums, starting in kindergarten.
English, after all, is one of Hong Kong’s official languages under the Basic Law. This is something I am reminded of whenever riding the MTR, when I listen to the upcoming train stop announcements in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Yet some government officials are encouraging the decline of spoken and written English by communicating only in Chinese, a clear breach of the equality principle laid down by the Official Languages Ordinance that requires the administration to use both Chinese and English in its official communications.
Under the law, both Chinese and English are the city’s official languages. They enjoy “equal status” and “equality of use” for the purposes of communication within the government or between any public officer and the public.
Reading a local English-language newspaper recently, I became aware that I had missed a four-night run of shows by Anders Nelsson, a fluent Cantonese-speaking Swedish singer and producer — whom I have worked with and who like me calls Hong Kong home. The reason I had missed his concerts was because: “Except the phone number, the website and the English songs I’ll be performing … the entire publicity material is in Chinese, including my name.” This really annoyed me as a local expat. Thankfully, I am not alone.
Victor Fung Kwok-king, former University of Hong Kong Council chairman said it best in 2005 in his Digby Memorial lecture at the university. “A crucial factor in our future success is the ability to communicate effectively with the rest of the world. This means that we must ensure that our graduates are fluent in English.”
Now that the political debate about how Hong Kong’s Chief Executive is to be elected is back where it belongs — on the back burner — it is time for Hong Kong people to get back to one of the key business basics that made Hong Kong a global center of all businesses of the past few decades — and made the place what it is today: English!
“Speak English, Please?”
The author has worked over four decades as an attorney, banker, entertainment industry executive, co-founder of the Pets Central network of veterinary hospitals and author of the Custom Maid series of books.
